Jhelam River

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

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For city & district see Jhelum

Indus and its tributaries

Jhelum River (झेलम नदी) is a river in northern India and eastern Pakistan. It is the westernmost of the five rivers of the Punjab region, and passes through the Kashmir Valley. It is a tributary of the Indus River.

Variants

• Behat River
• Jhelam River (झेलम नदी) (p.378)
• Vitasta/Vitastā (वितस्ता) Rigveda (X.75.5.), Mahabharata
• Hydaspes (हायडेसपीज़) (Greek)
• Punjabi: Bihat (बिहत) या (बीहट)
• Kashmiri: Vyath (व्यथ) or Vyeth (व्येथ)

Course

The river Jhelum rises from Verinag Spring situated at the foot of the Pir Panjal in the south-eastern part of the valley of Kashmir. It's joined by its tributaries Lidder River at Mirgund Khannabal and Sind River at Shadipora in Kashmir Valley. It flows through Srinagar and the Wular lake before entering Pakistan through a deep narrow gorge. The Neelum River, the largest tributary of the Jhelum , joins it, at Domel Muzaffarabad, as does the next largest, the Kunhar River of the Kaghan valley. It also connects with rest of Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir on Kohala Bridge east of Circle Bakote. It is then joined by the Poonch river, and flows into the Mangla Dam reservoir in the district of Mirpur. The Jhelum enters the Punjab in the Jhelum District. From there, it flows through the plains of Pakistan's Punjab, forming the boundary between the Chaj and Sindh Sagar Doabs. It ends in a confluence with the Chenab at Trimmu in District Jhang. The Chenab merges with the Sutlej to form the Panjnad River which joins the Indus River at Mithankot.

History

The Sanskrit name of this river is Vitasta. The river's name is derived from an apocryphal legend regarding the origin of the river as explained in Nilamata Purana. Goddess Parvati was requested by sage Kasyapa to come to Kashmir for purification of the land from evil practices and impurities of Pisachas living there. Goddess Parvati then assumed the form of a river in the Nether World. Then Lord Shiva made a stroke with his spear near the abode of Nila (Verinag Spring). By that stroke of the spear, Goddess Parvati came out of the Nether World. Shiva himself named her as Vitasta. He had excavated with the spear a ditch measuring one Vitasti (a particular measure of length defined either as a long span between the extended thumb and little finger, or as the distance between the wrist and the tip of the fingers, and said to be about 9 inches), through which the river - gone to the Nether World - had come out, so she was given the name Vitasta by him.

The river Jhelum is called Vitastā in the Rigveda and Hydaspes (Greek: Υδάσπης) by the ancient Greeks. The Vitastā (Sanskrit: वितस्ता, fem., also, Vetastā) is mentioned as one of the major rivers by the holy scriptures — the Rigveda. It has been speculated that the Vitastā must have been one of the seven rivers (sapta-sindhu) mentioned so many times in the Rigveda. The name survives in the Kashmiri name for this river as Vyeth. According to the major religious work Srimad Bhagavatam, the Vitastā is one of the many transcendental rivers flowing through land of Bharata, or ancient India.

Alexander the Great and his army crossed the Jhelum in BC 326 at the Battle of the Hydaspes River where he defeated the Indian king, Porus. According to Arrian (Anabasis, 29), he built a city "on the spot whence he started to cross the river Hydaspes", which he named Bukephala (or Bucephala) to honour his famous horse Bukephalus or Bucephalus which was buried in Jalalpur Sharif. It is thought that ancient Bukephala was near the site of modern Jhelum City. According to a historian of Gujrat district, Mansoor Behzad Butt, Bukephalus was buried in Jalalpur Sharif, but the people of Mandi Bahauddin, a district close to Jehlum, believed that their tehsil Phalia was named after Alexander's dead horse, saying that the name Phalia was a distortion of Bucephala.

झेलम नदी

विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर ने लेख किया है ...झेलम नदी (AS, p.378) उत्तरी भारत में बहने वाली एक नदी है। इस नदी का वैदिक कालीन नाम 'वितस्ता' था। इस नाम के कालान्तर में कई रूपान्तर हुए, जैसे- पंजाबी में 'बिहत' या 'बीहट', कश्मीरी में 'व्यथ', ग्रीक भाषा में 'हायडेसपीज़' (Hydaspes) आदि। संभवत: सर्वप्रथम मुसलमान इतिहास लेखकों ने इस नदी को 'झेलम' कहा, क्योंकि यह पश्चिमी पाकिस्तान के प्रसिद्ध नगर झेलम के निकट बहती थी और नगर के पास ही नदी को पार करने के लिए शाही घाट या शाह गुज़र बना हुआ था। झेलम नगर के नाम पर नदी का वर्तमान नाम प्रसिद्ध हो गया। झेलम नदी का जो प्रवाह मार्ग प्राचीन काल में था, प्राय: अब भी वही है; केवल चिनाव-झेलम संगम का निकटवर्ती मार्ग काफ़ी बदल गया है। (दे. रेवर्टी दि मिहरान ऑव सिंध एंड इट्स ट्रिब्यूटरीज-पृ.329-32; जर्नल एसियाटिक सोसायटी ऑफ बंगाल, भाग 1,1892, पृ. 318)

झेलम नदी परिचय

यह नदी हिमालय के शेषनाग झरने से प्रस्फुटित होकर कश्मीर में बहती हुई पाकिस्तान में पहुंचती है और झांग मघियाना नगर के पास चिनाब में समाहित हो जाती है। झेलम 2,130 किलोमीटर तक प्रवाहित होती है। नैसर्गिक सौंदर्य की अनुपम कश्मीर घाटी का निर्माण झेलम नदी द्वारा ही हुआ है। कश्मीर जाने वाले पर्यटकों को झेलम नदी के किनारे पर लगे हुए हाउस बोटों की पंक्ति, जिनमें बड़ी-बड़ी वुडकट एवं पेपर मैशी की दुकानें भी शामिल हैं, आकर्षित करती हैं। इसके साथ ही उसके वक्ष स्थल पर मस्ताचाल में तैरते हुए हंसों की कतार के समान शिकारों की पंक्तियाँ भी सम्मोहित कर लेती हैं।

किशनगंगा झेलम की सहायक नदी है। यह नदी जम्मू व कश्मीर के सोनमर्ग शहर के पास स्थित किशनसर झील से शुरू होती है और उत्तर को चलती है, जहाँ बदोआब गाँव के पास द्रास से आने वाली एक उपनदी इसमें मिल जाती है। फिर यह कुछ दूर तक नियंत्रण रेखा के साथ-साथ चलकर गुरेज़ के पास पाक-अधिकृत कश्मीर के गिलगित-बल्तिस्तान क्षेत्र में दाख़िल हो जाती है। वहाँ से पश्चिम की तरफ़ बहकर यह मुज़्ज़फ़राबाद के उत्तर में झेलम नदी में जा मिलती है। इसके कुल 245 कि.मी. के मार्ग में से 50 कि.मी. भारतीय नियंत्रण वाले इलाक़े में आता है और शेष 195 कि.मी. पाक-अधिकृत कश्मीर में।

संदर्भ: भारतकोश-झेलम नदी

In Mahabharata

Vitasta (वितस्ता) (River) in Mahabharata (II.9.19), (II.9), (III.80), (VI.10.15), (VIII.30.35),

Sabha Parva, Mahabharata/Book II Chapter 9 mentions the Kings who attended Sabha of Varuna. Vitasta (वितस्ता) (River) is mentioned in Mahabharata (II.9.19). ....the Vipasa, the Satadru, the Chandrabhaga, the Saraswati; the Iravati, the Vitasta, the Sindhu, the Devanadi; ....

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Bhisma Parva, Mahabharata/Book VI Chapter 10 describes geography and provinces of Bharatavarsha. Vitasta (वितस्ता) (River) is mentioned in Mahabharata (VI.10.15). ....who drink the waters of the following rivers, viz., ....of the river Vetravati, and that other one called Krishna-vena; of Iravati, and Vitasta, and Payosyini, and Devika;

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Karna Parva/Mahabharata Book VIII Chapter 30 mentions the tribes who are not followers of Brahmanism. Vitasta (वितस्ता) (River) is mentioned in Mahabharata (VIII.30.35) ....'There where forests of Pilus stand, and those five rivers flow, viz., the Satadru, the Vipasa, the Iravati, the Chandrabhaga, and the Vitasa and which have the Sindhu for their sixth, there in those regions removed from the Himavat, are the countries called by the name of the Arattas.

See also

• Behat River