Is it that Punjab comes from Sanskrit or some local dialect form:

Pa~nca + jaava, to become pa~cajaava (the 5 waters), and by haplology and
labialization becomes
pancab and then pa~njab (British spelling become Punjab).

Piya Tan


2009/3/22 ������� ������� <ardavarz@...>

> Yes, these are Iranian names. I could not tell when and how they have
> come in Indian lands, but Punjab is in Persian Panj-aab - "Five Waters",
> i.e. five rivers - Indus and its tributaries (Punjab probably is an Urdu
> pronunciation, I don't know). Together with Doab (the land between Ganges
> and Jamuna) or "Two Waters" or rivers we have seven rivers which could be a
> correspondence of ancient Iranian geographic term Hapta-Hindu or "Seven
> Rivers" (yet some scholars think that these were seven rivers in Middle
> Asia). And this brings us back to the question about Indus/Sindhu/Hindu. In
> Sankrit "sindhu" (= Iranian "hindu") means river, water or sea. I think this
> name of the Indus has meant simply "the River" i.e. the river par excellence
> (just like the ancient Egyptians have called the Nile). I can't remember
> exactly, but I think one of the ancient names of Indus (or one of the
> tributaries?) was Niila - "the Blue (River)" which could give rise to the
> confusion
> amongst some antique and medieval geographers who believed that Nile comes
> from India (it was thought that the Indian ocean is a big lake and Asia and
> Africa are linked). It's interesting that the word "sindhu" is found also in
> Europe - in fifth century BCE Herodotus mentioned a land called Sindike
> (between the Sea of Azov and the Caucasus) and the tribe Sindoi whom some
> scholars consider as Indo-Aryan speaking relatives of the Iranian
> Scythians..
>
> With metta,
> Ardavarz
>
> --- On Sat, 3/21/09, P G Dave <pgd2507@... <pgd2507%40gmail.com>>
> wrote:
> From: P G Dave <pgd2507@... <pgd2507%40gmail.com>>
> Subject: Re: [Pali] Re: Indus, Sindhu, Hindu (was: Meditation Stage)
> To: Pali@yahoogroups.com <Pali%40yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Saturday, March 21, 2009, 2:40 PM
>
> quickly, too ... :-)
>
> 1. pre-partition punjab was divided during partition so both india and
>
> pakistan have a portion punjab today -- west punjab went to pakistan and
>
> east punjab to india, just as bengal was divided during partition -- west
>
> bengal going to india and east bengal forming erstwhile east pakistan (now
>
> bangladesh).
>
> 2. unlikely that p in paskistan stands for punjab. infact, "paak" in urdu
>
> means pure. thus paakistaan (the a's doubled to indicate pronunciation)
>
> would mean the pure land.
>
> with metta,
>
> ____________ ________
>
> On Sat, Mar 21, 2009 at 5:32 PM, Ong Yong Peng <palismith@... com>
> wrote:
>
> > Dear James and friends,
>
> >
>
> > my sincere apologies. To me, it is history, and while we looked back,
> let's
>
> > only learn the good and not the bad from the past. Quickly, the P in
>
> > "Pakistan" did stand for Punjab; separatist ideas along the lines of
> ethnic
>
> > or religious division are usually big mistakes.
>
> >
>
> > metta,
>
> > Yong Peng.
>
> >
>
> >
>
> > --- In Pali@... com <Pali%40yahoogroups .com>, James Whelan
> wrote:
>
> >
>
> > It is sad to see this wonderful Pali group facility used for ill-informed
>
> > political criticism. Pakistan was created at the insistence of a powerful
>
> > Muslim faction under Jinna, very much against the wishes of the vast
>
> > majority of the Indians, and of the departing British. As for the comical
>
> > comment about the Punjab being a province of Pakistan, please look at an
>
> > atlas. Let's stick to Pali and Buddhism!
>
> >
>
> > > Can we not say the same of Punjab, where the Sikh religion and people
>
> > originated but now also a province of Pakistan? Pakistan was but the
>
> > invention of the colonial British government.
>
> >
>
> >
>
> >
>
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>
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> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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