INDUS (Sanskrit, Sindhu), the chief stream of the northwest of India, and one of the great rivers of the world. It has a length of about 1,900 miles, and drains an area of more than 360,000 square miles. It arises in Tibet on the north of the Himalaya Mountains, nearly 100 miles northwest from the sources of the upper Brahmaputra (q.v.), on the north side of the mountain mass of Kailas, 18,000 feet above sea-level. In the upper part of its course it takes a northwesterly direction along the northern foot of the main Himalayan range, enters the Kashmir territories, passes through Ladak, below the capital of which, Leh, it receives the Zanskar, farther on the Dras, after which it enters Baltistan. Here it receives, on the right, the Gilgit, from a glacier of the Karakoram, the largest tributary that joins it in the Himalayan regions, and takes the name of Indus or Sind. About 100 miles below this it takes a sudden bend toward the southwest, and after a course of about 180 miles more in this direction it leaves the loftier regions. At the British fortress of Attock in the Punjab—where it is crossed by a great railway bridge carrying the line to Peshawar—. it is joined by the Kabul from Afghanistan, and here, 950 feet above the level of the sea, it is nearly 800 feet wide and from 30 to 60 feet deep according to the season. For the rest of its course (about 900 miles) it continues its southwesterly direction till it enters the Indian Ocean. At Kalabagh, 110 miles below Attock,
it has a breadth of over 1,400 feet. Arriving in the low-lying country, its waters become charged with mud, and in the rainy season, and by the melting of the snow in the moun tains, it overflows its banks. Near Mithankot it receives on the east the Panjnad, or united stream of the Five Rivers of the Punjab. Below the confluence it has a width of over 1,900 yards when the water is low. In Sind it gives off several extensive arms or canals, which are of great value for irrigation; and below Hyderabad it divides into a number of shifting mouths or estuaries, the most nav igable of which is at present the Yatho mouth. The delta, formed by the enormous amount of alluvium brought down by the river, has a coast-line of about 130 and the point or head of it at Tatta is 70 miles from the sea. The tide rises to this distance. The Indus loses much water from passing through dry and desert regions, and much is also drawn off for irrigation; accordingly it brings down much less water to the sea than the Ganges. Vessels drawing more than seven feet of water cannot generally enter any of its mouths; but steamers of light draft ascend from Hyderabad to Mul tan. A railway ascends the valley of the Indus from the important port of Karachi to Peshawar.