DOAI3. HIND., PERS. From Do, two, and Ab, water, a country lying between two rivers, a mcsopotamia. In British India, people spe,ak .of the Doabs of the Ganges and Jumna, of the God avery and Kistna, of the Tumbudra and Kistna, the Itaichoro Doab, etc. The five Doabs of the Panjab are fertile as far as the river influence extends, but have in the centre a high arid tract called Bar. The names of the Doabs of the Paujab are in all instances, excepting the first or Jalandhar Doab, tho result of a rough attempt to join the names of the rivers on each side into one word. Thus the Panjab is traversed by six rivers, which, running in a south-westerly course to their places of junction, partition the country into five Doabs. The Jalandhar Doab Ls between the Sutlej and the Beas. Tho other four Doabs are still popu larly known by those names which were given them in the days of 3loghul ascendency. The Bari lies between tho Beas and the Ravi, the Rechna between the Ravi and the Chenab, the Chuj between the Chenab and the Jhelum ; the fourth, enclosed by the Jhelum and the Indus, takes its title from the latter, and is styled the Sind Saugur, or Ocean of the Indus. Of these the Bari Doab carries off the palm, as containing the centriil Manja, or home of tho Sikh nation, and the three greatest cities, I Above, Amritsar, and Multau. It is by far the most populous, as well as the most important, whether in a political, commercial, or au agricultural point of view. It has also the sanatorium of Dalhonsie near the Kalatop forest, and the district of Montgomery to the south of Lahore. This Doab has two features, viz. a flat alluvial tract, allied Dhaya, several milt* broad, running along either river, and producing tamarisk and jhand. ALso an elevated doraal platean in tho Manja or middle part, and called Ganj-i-bar, or bald country. Its soil is intensely arid, often saline, and produces only some salsola ceous plants and a few bushes of jhand. Tho Bari Doab (sometimes called 3fanja, whence the Sikhs resident here are called Manja Singh), between the Ravi and Bens, ia the narrowest of the Doabs.
The district lying between the Indus and the Jhelum, called the Sind Saugur Doab, is 147 miles broad in the widest part, and whilst it ia the largest, is the most sterile and least inhabited, abounding with undulating bare eminences and rugged declivities.
The &clam Doab, between the Chenab and the Ravi, is seventy-six miles in its widest part, and consists of an arid plain.
The Jalanclhar Doab, the smallest, is in a better condition than the other intra-fluvian tracts'.
The Gangetic Doab, the Anterved of the ancient Hindi's, is tho Doab or 3fesopotarnia of the Juinna and Ganges. From the narrow point in which it terminates, the valley broadens as it stretches away towards the west, embracing a greater and greater area between the Ganges and Jumna. The whole of its immense superficies forms a vast, populous, and busy hive, enriched by human industry, and embellished by human taste. On the map no country is so thickly dotted with great townships and cities, and under the sun no country makes up such a highly interesting prospect of green fields, orchards, and gardens, in a continuous succession. In this fair savannah man 1=3 had his abode from a remote antiquity, to reap rich harvests, and live amidst plenty. Here were the cities of the pre-Vedic Dasya races. Here rose the first cities of the Arya race. In the plains of the Deal), the rajas of Ilastinapur, of Indra prasthra, and of Kanouj exhibited the highest power and splendour of Hindu sovereignty. The rich districts watered by tho Ganges and Jumna have always tempted the avarice of the foreign conqueror. Here was the residence of the most famous Hindu sages. From this birthplace of arts and civilisation wisdom travelled to the West. This Doab is the battle-ground of tho Pandu against the Kurn, of the Ghirativide and Gliorian against the Hindu, of the 3foghul against the Patan, the Mahrittta against the 3loghttl, and of the British against the Mahratta, where many a spot is hallowed by tradition, and many a ruin is you secrated by history. In this Doab almost every
inch of land is under the plough. Here the rural population is. more intelligent and spirited than the same clas.s in Bengal. The htinibltst Doabi lives upon better food, and covers his body with more abundant clothing, ths.n the humblest Bengali. The cattle here are various. Camels, buffaloes, horses, donkeys, and oxen are all made to assist man in his labours. The fondness of the Doabi women for coloured millinery evinces a more refuied female taste, aud to them inay re motely be traced the impetus which is given to the various dye-mautifactures of the country. The agricultural woinen of the Doab use ornaments of biass and bell-metal. The same class in Bengal is in the habit of wearing shell ornaments, and a pair of Dacca shell-bracelets may sotnetimes cost the sum of two hundred and fifty rupees. One particular ornament in general use amongst the Doabi women of both the upper and the lower classes, is the tika, which is in the shape of a tiny crescent made of gold, silver, or tinsel, according a,s the wearer is circumstanced. It is fixed with an adhesive substance on the forehead, just between the eyebrows. These tika are not a little prized and coveted by the Hindustani young men. They train the baya to execute little commissions of gallantry. On a given signal, the bird goes, seizes and carries off the tika from the forehead of a woman, as precious booty, to her pining lover. This Doab, like Bengal, is flat and alluvial. The vast plain is uninterrupted by a single eminence ; but the soil and climate differ. The tall and robust figure, the firm step, the stern eye, and the erect bearing of the manly Hindu stani are everywhere to be seen. In Bengal the oxen alone form beasts of burden. A Hindustani coolie takes the load over the waist, and not upon the head. The Calcutta Baboos do not know what it is to ride. In Hin.dustan, rural women perform journeys on horseback, aud princesses discuss the merits of horsemanship. The people of the Doab have for the most part well-formed features.
In India, the country between the Ganges and Jumna (Jarnuna) is especially known as the Doab. It includes the whole wedge of land enclosed between the confluent streams of the Ganges and the Jumna, comprising the districts of Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar Meerut, Agra, Mainpuri, Etah, Farrakhabad, 'Etawa, Cawnpur, Futtehpur and part of Allahabad. The irregular horn-sitaped tongue of country thus enclosed runs in a sweeping south - eastward curve, following the general direction of the Ganges watershed from the Siwaliks to Allahabad. On either side the great rivers flow through low-lying valleys, fertilized by their overflow or percolation, while a high bank leads up to the central upland, which con sists of the older deposits. This central plateau, though naturally dry and unproductive, except when irriaated by wells, has been transformed into an armost, unbroken sheet of cultivation by three great systems of irrigation works,—the Ganges, the Lower Ganges, and the Eastern Jumna canals. The East Indian the Sind, Panjab and Dehli, and the Oudh and Robilkhand Railways also pass through the Doab in several directions, and afford an outlet for its surplus agricultural produce. This Doab was overrun by Shahab-ud-Din Ghori in A.D. 1194, and it continued in the power of the Dehli emperors until overrun by the Mahrattas in 1736, and occupied by the British in 1754-5, after the battle of Buxar and Kora and in 1801 the whole lower Doab was ceded to 'the British by the Nawab Wazir.
Doaba, a moist rich tract of land between the Swat and Kabul rivers.—Tod's Rajasthan ; History of the Panjab ; Tr. of Hind.