The Jhelum River^{[needs IPA]} is a river in the northern Indian subcontinent, mainly in the Northern Punjab region of Pakistan. It originates at Verinag and flows through the Indian administered territory of Jammu and Kashmir, to the Pakistani-administered territory of Kashmir, and then into the Pakistani province of Punjab. It is the westernmost of the five rivers of the Punjab region, and flows through the Kashmir Valley. It is a tributary of the Chenab River and has a total length of about 725 kilometres (450 mi).[6]

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Jhelum Hydaspes,[1] Bidaspes,[2] Vitastā,[3] Bihat, Wihat, Bihatab, Biyatta, Jailam,[4] Vyath[5]
Jhelum River photographed in Pakistan, c. 2006
Map showing the Jhelum's watercourse .
Location
Countries	India, Pakistan
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	Verinag Spring
Mouth
• location	Chenab River
Length	725 km (450 mi)
Discharge
• average	1,026.6 m3/s (36,250 cu ft/s) (near Mangla Dam)
• minimum	234.19 m3/s (8,270 cu ft/s) (near Mangla Dam)
• maximum	26,419.13 m3/s (932,983 cu ft/s) (near Mangla Dam)
Discharge
• average	313.19 m3/s (11,060 cu ft/s) (near Domel)
Discharge
• average	229.20 m3/s (8,094 cu ft/s) (near Baramulla)
Basin features
River system	Indus River
Tributaries
• left	Poonch River Sukhnag River
• right	Arpath River, Lidder River, Neelum River, Sind River, Kunhar River

Etymology

Anjum Sultan Shahbaz, a Pakistani author, recorded some stories of the name Jhelum in his book Tareekh-e-Jhelum as:[7]

Many writers have different opinions about the name of Jhelum. One suggestion is that in ancient days Jhelumabad was known as Jalham. The word Jhelum is reportedly derived from the words Jal (pure water) and Ham (snow). The name thus refers to the waters of a river (flowing beside the city) which have their origins in the snow-capped Himalayas.

However, some writers^[who?] believe that when Mughal prince Dara-e-Azam reached a certain place on the river bank after winning many battles, he fixed his flag at that place and called it Ja-e-Alam (Persian: جا علم, lit. 'Place of the Flag'). As time passed, the name Ja-e-Alam became Jhelum in its modern form.^{[citation needed]}

The Sanskrit name of this river is Vitástā. The name survives in the Kashmiri name for this river, Vyath.

History

The river Jhelum is called Hydaspes (Greek: Υδάσπης) by the ancient Greeks.

Alexander the Great and his army crossed the Jhelum in BC 326 at the Battle of the Hydaspes River, where he defeated an Indian king, Porus. According to Arrian (Anabasis, 29), he built a city "on the spot whence he started to cross the river Hydaspes", which he named Bukephala (or Bucephala) to honour his famous horse Bukephalus or Bucephalus which was buried in Jalalpur Sharif. It is thought that ancient Bukephala was near the site of modern Jhelum City. According to a historian of Gujrat district, Mansoor Behzad Butt, Bukephalus was buried in Jalalpur Sharif, but the people of Mandi Bahauddin, a district close to Jehlum, believed that their tehsil Phalia was named after Alexander's dead horse, saying that the name Phalia was a distortion of Bucephala. The waters of the Jhelum are allocated to Pakistan under the terms of the Indus Waters Treaty. India is working on a hydropower project on a tributary of Jhelum river to establish first-use rights on the river water over Pakistan as per the Indus Waters Treaty.[8]

Mythology

The river was regarded as a god by the ancient Greeks, as were most mountains and streams; the poet Nonnus in the Dionysiaca (section 26, line 350) makes the Hydaspes a titan-descended god, the son of the sea-god Thaumas and the cloud-goddess Elektra. He was the brother of Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, and half-brother to the Harpies, the snatching winds. Since the river is in a country foreign to the ancient Greeks, it is not clear whether they named the river after the god, or whether the god Hydaspes was named after the river.

Course

The river Jhelum rises from Verinag Spring situated at the foot of the Pir Panjal in the southeastern part of the Kashmir Valley administered by India. It is joined by its tributaries Lidder River near village Mirgund at Khanabal, Veshaw River at Sangam in Anantnag, Sind River at Shadipora and Pohru River at Doabgah in Sopore in Jammu and Kashmir. It flows through Srinagar and Wular Lake before entering Pakistan-administered Kashmir through a deep narrow gorge. The Neelum River, the largest tributary of the Jhelum, joins it at Domel Muzaffarabad, as does the next largest, the Kunhar River of Kaghan Valley. It is then joined by the Poonch River, and flows into the Mangla Dam reservoir in the Mirpur District. The Jhelum enters Pakistani Punjab in the Jhelum District. From there, it flows through the plains of Pakistan's Punjab, forming the boundary between the Jech and Sindh Sagar Doabs. It ends in a confluence with the Chenab River at Trimmu in the Jhang District. The Chenab merges with the Sutlej to form the Panjnad River, which joins the Indus River at Mithankot.

Most of the villages and important cities in Kashmir valley are situated on the banks of Jhelum.[9]

Lakes

Dams and barrages

The river has rich power generation potential in India. Water control structures are being built as a result of the Indus Basin Project, including the following:

• Mangla Dam, completed in 1967, is one of the largest earth-fill dams in the world, with a storage capacity of 5,900,000 acre-feet (7.3 km³)
• Karot Hydropower Project, is an under-construction concrete-core rockfill gravity large dam in Pakistan, with a planned installed capacity of 720 MW.
• Rasul Barrage, constructed in 1967, has a maximum flow of 850,000 ft³/s (24,000 m³/s).
• Trimmu Barrage, constructed in 1939 some 20 km from Jhang Sadar at the confluence with the Chenab, has maximum discharge capacity of 645,000 ft³/s (18,000 m³/s).
• Haranpur (Victoria Bridge) Constructed in 1933 Approximate 5 km from Malakwal near Chak Nizam Village. Its length is 1 km mainly used by Pakistan Railways but there is a passage for light vehicles, motorcycles, cycles and pedestrians at one side.
• Uri Dam with 480 MW Hydroelectric station is located in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir.[10]
• Uri Dam II with 240 MW HYdro electric station is also located in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir.[11]
• Kishanganga Hydroelectric Plant with 330 MW Hydroelectric station is located in Bandipora district of Jammu and Kashmir.[12]

Canals

• The Canals in and around the city of Srinagar.
• The Upper Jhelum Canal runs from Mangla Dam to the Chenab.
• The Rasul-Qadirabad Link Canal (Pakistan)|Chashma]]-Jhelum Link Canal runs from the Chashma Barrage on the Indus River to the Jhelum river downstream of Rasul Barrage. This is 40 kilometres (25 mi) from Mari Shah Sakhira town.

Gallery

• 
  Jhelum river, Baramullah, Kashmir, 1880s
• 
  Jhelum River c. 1900; photo taken by Eugene Whitehead Esq.
• 
  Jhelum River at Uri in Kashmir, 1903
• 
  Rope Bridge at Karli, 1908
• 
  Bridge over the river, Srinagar, 1969
• 
  Jhelum river near Muzaffarabad (2014)
• 
  File:River Jehlum, Muzaffarabad
• 
  Near Muzaffarabad, 2014
• 
  The Jhelum at Verinag, 2014
• 
  Jhelum River at Jhelum City, 2005

See also

Notes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jhelum River.

• Livius.org pictures of the Hydaspes

На других языках

[de] Jhelam (Fluss)

[es] Río Jhelum

[it] Jhelum

[ru] Джелам (река)