PUNJAB, province, British India, named from the "five rivers" by which it is watered : the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, all tributaries of the Indus. It is primarily the triangu lar country of which the Indus and the Sutlej to their confluence form the two sides, the base being the lower Himalaya hills be tween those two rivers; but the British province now includes a large tract outside those boundaries. On the other hand certain areas once included in the administrative province are now ex cluded, the Frontier Province having been cut off in 1902 and the Delhi Enclave in 1912.
The Punjab includes two classes of territory, that belonging to the British Crown, and that in possession of 34 feudatory chiefs. Of the latter the 13 more important have direct relations with the Government of India, the rest being under the Punjab Govern ment. The total area of the province is 136,261 sq.m., of which 99,200 sq.m. are British territory and the remainder belongs to the native states. The British territory is divided into 29 districts, grouped under the five divisions of Amballa, Lahore, Jullundur, Rawalpindi and Multan ; while the states vary in size from Baha walpur, with an area of 15,003 sq.m., to the tiny state of Darkoti, with an area of 8 sq.m. and a total population of 531 souls.
The "five rivers" of the Punjab are each of large volume; but, on account of the great width of sandy channel in their passage through the plains, their changing courses, and shifting shoals, they are of no value for steam navigation, though they all support a considerable boat-traffic. Of recent years they have been utilized
for purposes of irrigation, and have turned the sandy desert of the Punjab into a great wheat-growing area.
South of the Himalayas stretch the great alluvial plains. From the Jumna on the east to the Sulimans in the west, one vast level, unbroken save by the wide eroded channels within which the great rivers ever shift their beds, by the insignificant spurs of the Aravalli range in the south-eastern corner, and the low hills of Chiniot and Kirana in Jhang.
Geology.—By far the greater part of the Punjab is covered by alluvial and wind-blown deposits of the plain of the Indus. The Salt range hills form a plateau with a steeply scarped face to the south, along which there is an axis of abrupt folding, accompanied by faulting. The rocks found in the Salt range belong to the Cambrian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic and Jurassic systems, while Tertiary beds cover the plateau behind. The extensive and valuable deposits of salt, from which the range takes its name, occur near the base of the Cambrian beds. Gypsum, kieserite and other salts are also found. Between the Cambrian and the Carbon iferous beds there is an unconformity, which, however, is not very strongly marked, in spite of the lapse of time which it indicates. At the bottom of the Carboniferous series there is usually a boul der bed, the boulders in which have been brought from a distance and are scratched and striated as if by ice. It is generally admitted that this deposit, together with contemporaneous boulder beds in the peninsula of India, in Australia and in South Africa, indicate a southern glacial period in late Carboniferous times. Above the sandstone series at the base of which the boulder bed lies, come the Productus and Ceratite limestones. The former is believed to belong to the Upper Carboniferous and Permian, the latter to the Trias. Jurassic beds are found only in the western portion of the range.