Ask Punjab
Ask about Punjab's history, culture, ecology, governance, diaspora, and more. Every answer cites the verified archive — or says clearly when the archive cannot yet answer.
Passages below are pulled directly from ingested sources under tier and rights filters. No AI synthesis has been applied — you read the source text.
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PUNJAB, or PANJAB (Pers. panj, five, ab, water), a province of British India, the meaning of the name being derived from the five rivers of the Indus system which traverse the country: the Jhelum, the Chenab, the Ravi, the Beas and the Sutlej.
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LAHORE, an Indian city, capital of the Punjab and headquarters of the Lahore division and district. It is situated on the south bank of the river Ravi, 1209 m. by rail N.W. of Calcutta and 38 m. above its junction with the Chenab.
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AMRITSAR, a city of British India, in the Punjab, the headquarters of a district of the same name. It is situated on the East Indian railway, 32 m. east of Lahore, and contains the famous Golden Temple of the Sikhs.
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RANJIT SINGH (1780-1839), the founder of the Sikh kingdom of the Punjab, was born at Gujranwala on the 2nd of November 1780.
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Their leader, Nanak, was born in 1469 at Talwandi, near Lahore, in the Punjab.
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The Punjab, the land of the five rivers — Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej — has been, from the earliest times, the gateway by which successive waves of conquest have entered India.
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Ranjit Sing was the founder of the Sikh kingdom of the Punjab, and one of the most remarkable Asiatic rulers of the nineteenth century. The story of his life is the story of the rise of his people from a confederation of warring chieftains into a single state.
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The Census of the Punjab Province of British India, taken on the night of the 17th of February 1881, recorded a total population of 18,850,437 persons, of whom 10,142,229 were Hindus, 7,572,063 were Mussalmans, 1,121,549 were Sikhs, and 14,596 were Christians.