Panjab

Panjab, also spelled Panjāb, is a geographic and cultural region in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. The name derives from Persian panj ("five") and ab ("waters"), referring to the five rivers of the upper Indus system: Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Chenab, and Jhelum. The region spans parts of the present-day Indian state of Punjab and the Pakistani province of Punjab, and historically encompassed a wider area.

Historically, Panjab has been a crossroads of civilizations, with roots in the Indus Valley Civilization and later empires that shaped culture, religion, and governance in the area. In the 18th and 19th centuries it became the center of the Sikh Empire before being partitioned in 1947, when the region was divided between India and Pakistan.

Today, Panjab commonly refers to these two political units: India's Punjab state and Pakistan's Punjab province. The region is a major agricultural belt, producing crops such as wheat, rice, sugarcane, and cotton, aided by irrigation networks of the Indus river basin.

Punjabi is the most widely spoken language. In India it is written in the Gurmukhi script; in Pakistan it is written in Shahmukhi. The culture includes distinct music, dance, literature, and cuisine, and the area is home to important religious sites, notably the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) in Amritsar.

Major urban centers include Amritsar, Ludhiana and Jalandhar in India, and Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Multan in Pakistan.