Jhelum River

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Jhelum
Hydaspes, [1] Bidaspes, [2] Vitastā, [3] Bihat, Vehat, Bihatab, Biyatta, Jailam, [4] Vyath [5]
Jhelum River-Pakistan.jpg
Jhelum River photographed in Pakistan, c. 2006
Jhelum River
Location
Countries India, Pakistan
Physical characteristics
Source 
 • location Verinag Spring
 • coordinates 33°32′05″N75°14′59″E / 33.53472°N 75.24972°E / 33.53472; 75.24972
Mouth  
 • location
 Chenab River at Trimmu, Jhang District
 • coordinates
 31°10′N72°09′E / 31.17°N 72.15°E / 31.17; 72.15
Length725 km (450 mi)
Discharge 
 • average1,026.6 m3/s (36,250 cu ft/s) (near Mangla Dam)
 • minimum234.19 m3/s (8,270 cu ft/s) (near Mangla Dam)
 • maximum26,419.13 m3/s (932,983 cu ft/s) (near Mangla Dam)
Discharge 
 • average313.19 m3/s (11,060 cu ft/s) (near Domel)
Discharge 
 • average229.20 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, Kishanganga River/Neelum River, Sind River, Kunhar River, Pohru River, Erin River

The Jhelum River [a] is a major river in South Asia, flowing through India and Pakistan, and is the westernmost of the five major rivers of the Punjab region. It originates at Verinag and flows through the Indian-administered territory of Jammu and Kashmir, into Pakistan-administered Kashmir, then the Pakistani province of Punjab. It is a tributary of the Chenab River and has a total length of about 725 kilometres (450 mi). [6]

Contents

Etymology

Verinag Spring is a major source of Jhelum River Vitasta at Verinag.jpg
Verinag Spring is a major source of Jhelum River

A Pakistani author, Anjum Sultan Shahbaz, recorded some stories of the name Jhelum in his book Tareekh-e-Jhelum:

'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. [7]

The Sanskrit name for the river is Vitástā, derived from an apocryphal [8] legend regarding the origin of the river in the Nilamata Purana. The name survives in the Kashmiri name for this river, Vyath and in Punjabi (and more commonly in Saraiki [9] ) as Vehat. [10] It was called the Hydaspes by the armies of Alexander the Great. [11]

History

A passenger traversing the river precariously seated in a small suspended cradle Circa 1900 Picjhelum.jpg
A passenger traversing the river precariously seated in a small suspended cradle Circa 1900

The river Jhelum was originally recognized by the name Vitasta. The river was called Hydaspes (Greek : Ὑδάσπης) by the ancient Greeks.

According to Greek sources, Alexander III of Macedon and his army crossed the Jhelum River in 326 BCE and defeated the Indian King Porus at the Battle of the Hydaspes. [12] After the battle, Alexander founded two cities: Nikaia, on the site where the battle was fought, and Bucephala, located at the site where he first crossed the River Hydaspes and subsequently named in honor of his recently deceased horse, Bucephalas. [13]

The modern-day town of Jalalpur Sharif, outside Jhelum, is said to be where Bucephalus is buried. [14] Residents of the nearby Mandi Bahauddin district believe that their tehsil, the town of Phalia, is named after Alexander's horse, saying that the name Phalia was a distortion of Bucephala.[ citation needed ]

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. [15]

Legends

The creation of the Jhelum river according to Hindu theology Art captioned "Hindoo (Hindu) picture emblematic of the creation of the river Jhelum or Vetasta", ca.1882.webp
The creation of the Jhelum river according to Hindu theology

According to Hindu puranas, the goddess Parvati was requested by the sage Kashyapa to come to Kashmir to purify the land from the evil practices and impurities of the pishachas living there. Parvati assumed the form of a river in the netherworld. Her consort Shiva struck with his spear near the abode of Nila, (Verinag spring). With this stroke of the spear, Parvati emerged from the netherworld. He excavated a ditch measuring one vitasti using the spear, [16] through which the river, originating from the netherworld, came out, and so he gave her the name Vitástā. [17]

The ancient Greeks also regarded the river as a god, as they did most mountains and streams. The poet Nonnus in the Dionysiaca [18] calls the Hydaspes a titan-descended god, the son of the sea-god Thaumas and the cloud-goddess Elektra, the brother of Iris, goddess of the rainbow, and half-brother to the harpies, the snatching winds. Since the river is in a foreign country, it is not clear whether they named the river after the god, or whether the god Hydaspes was named after the river.

Course

Present course

The river Jhelum rises from Verinag spring at the foot of the Pir Panjal in the southeastern Kashmir Valley administered by India. It is joined by its tributaries

It flows through Srinagar and Wular Lake before entering Pakistan-administered Kashmir through a deep narrow gorge. The Kishanganga River/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 of Kashmir valley are situated on the banks of Jhelum. [19]

Historical course

The Jhelum may have once flowed in a southeastern direction into the Chenab valley, which is the opposite of its present course. [20] Some evidence of this is that some of the present tributaries of the Jhelum join it in a direction opposite to the present course of the river and the greater topographical maturity of the Chenab valley compared to the Jhelum valley. [20]

Lakes

Infrastructure

Bridges

Dams

Listed in the order of upstream to downstream.

India

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:

  • On tributaries of Jhelum
    • Owari Nag Nallah
      • Karnah Hydroelectric Power Project, 12 MW, at village Haridal (Pingla Haridal) in the Kupwara district. 53% complete in October 2023. [26]
      • Lower Sind Hydroelectric Power project at Ganderbal in Ganderbal district, 15 MW (produced only 2MW due to reduced flow), completed in 1955. [31] [32]

Pakistan

  • Mangla Dam, 1070 MW, 7278 MCM, completed in 1967, is one of the largest earth-fill dams in the world.
  • Rasul Barrage, 22 MW, constructed in 1967, has a maximum flow of 850,000 ft³/s (24,000 m³/s).
  • Trimmu Barrage, 1263 MW, constructed in 1939 20 km from Jhang city at the confluence with the Chenab, has maximum discharge capacity of 645,000 ft³/s (18,000 m³/s).

Canals

See also

Notes

    1. ↑ Kashmiri pronunciation: [ʋʲatʰdərʲjaːʋ] ; Punjabi pronunciation: [d͡ʒéˈlɐm/véːt̪ᵊnəˈd̪iː] ; Saraiki pronunciation: [veˈɦət̪dəɾˌjɑː] ; Urdu pronunciation: [dəɾˌjɑː.ed͡ʒeɦˈləm]

    References

    1. ↑ The Quarterly Review. Murray. 1816. p. 170. Archived from the original on 16 July 2023. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
    2. ↑ Bakshi, S. R. (1997). Kashmir Through Ages. Sarup & Sons. p. 110. ISBN   9788185431710. Archived from the original on 16 July 2023. Retrieved 17 March 2017. Five volumes.
    3. ↑ Rapson, E. J. (9 June 2011). Ancient India: From the Earliest Times to the First Century AD. Cambridge University Press. p. 171. ISBN   9780521229371. Archived from the original on 16 July 2023. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
    4. ↑ Naqvi, Saiyid Ali (November 2012). Indus Waters and Social Change: The Evolution and Transition of Agrarian Society in Pakistan. Oxford University Press Pakistan. p. 10. ISBN   9780199063963. Archived from the original on 16 July 2023. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
    5. ↑ Know Your State: Jammu and Kashmir. Arihant Publications (India) Ltd. November 2012. p. 35. ISBN   9789313169161. Archived from the original on 7 April 2022. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
    6. ↑ "Jhelum River". Encyclopædia Britannica . Archived 1 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine . Retrieved on 4 October 2013.
    7. ↑ Shahbaz, Anjum Sultan (2003). Tārīkh-i Jihlam (in Urdu). Main Bazar, Jhelum: Buk Kārnar [Book Corner]. OCLC   60589679.
    8. ↑ Vedakumārī (1991). Studies in phonetics and phonology: with special reference to Dogri (1. publ ed.). New Delhi: Ariana Publ. House. pp. 45–47. ISBN   978-81-85347-20-2.
    9. ↑ "Punjab Portal" . Retrieved 12 June 2024. or Vehat, the latter name being more common towards the south of the district.
    10. ↑ Soofi, Mushtaq (20 November 2015). "Punjab Notes: Vehat: where great warriors clashed". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
    11. ↑ Locke, Ralph P. (2016). "Alexander the Great and the Indian Rajah Puru. Exoticism in a Metastasio Libretto As Set by Hasse and by Handel". Revue de Musicologie. 102 (2): 275–317. ISSN   0035-1601. JSTOR   44739484. The elephants of Puru's army were overwhelmed by the Greeks' horses in 326 BC on the left bank of the Hydaspes, a river - also known as the Jhelum or Jhelam - that is located in what is today Pakistan
    12. ↑ Arrian (1884). The Anabasis of Alexander; or, The history of the wars and conquests of Alexander the Great. Literally translated, with a commentary, from the Greek of Arrian, the Nicomedian. Cornell University Library. London, Hodder and Stoughton. pp. 280–295.
    13. ↑ "The Project Gutenberg eBook of Anabasis of Alexander, by Arrian". www.gutenberg.org. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
    14. ↑ Michael Wood, "In the footsteps of Alexander the Great".
    15. ↑ "India fast-tracks work on Jhelum river hydroelectric power project". Archived from the original on 3 June 2010. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
    16. ↑ (a particular measure of length defined either as a long span between the extended thumb and little finger, or as the distance between the wrist and the tip of the fingers, and said to be about 9 inches
    17. ↑ Nilamata Purana English Translation by Dr. Ved Kumari Ghai, verses 247–261.
    18. ↑ section 26, line 350
    19. ↑ "District Survey Report On Kashmir" (PDF). District Survey Report. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 February 2022. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
    20. 1 2 Krishnan, M. S. (1956). "The Indus System". Geology of India and Burma (3rd ed.). Higginbothams. pp. 22–25.
    21. ↑ "NHPC Limited : Projects : Power Stations : Kishanganga". www.nhpcindia.com. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
    22. ↑ सिंधु जल संधि का क्‍या हश्र करने जा रही है मोदी सरकार? किसानों से संवाद में इरादे का खुलासा, MSN.com, 20 May 2025.
    23. ↑ "NHPC Limited : Projects : Power Stations : Uri – I". www.nhpcindia.com. Archived from the original on 5 April 2022. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
    24. ↑ "NHPC Limited : Projects : Power Stations : Uri-II". www.nhpcindia.com. Archived from the original on 30 October 2019. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
    25. ↑ पानी को लेकर गिड़गिड़ा रहा पाक, इधर भारत ने बना लिया खास प्लान; नए प्रोजेक्ट्स में स्टोरेज पर फोकस, MSN, 11 June 2025.
    26. ↑ Energy deficit in J&K down from 17.8% during 2018-19 to 1.5% up to November 2023 during 2023-24: Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy, PIB, 9 Dec 2023.
    27. ↑ Excelsior, Daily (24 February 2022). "Hanging fate of Lower Kalnai power project". Daily Excelsior . Retrieved 10 July 2023.
    28. ↑ Indus Waters Treaty Suspended: Modi Government Fast-Tracks Five Major Hydropower Projects in Jammu & Kashmir - Details Here, timesnownews.com, 28 Apr 2025.
    29. ↑ "Upper Sindh partially resumes generation". greaterkashmir.com. Retrieved 27 April 2010.
    30. ↑ "Upper Sindh Project still not working". greaterkashmir.com. Retrieved 15 September 2009.
    31. ↑ Genderbal district, ganderbal.nic.in, accessed 18 May 2025.
    32. ↑ Ganderbal’s 15 MW hydel plant now producing just 2 MW, greaterkashmir.com, 27 Dec 2024.
    33. ↑ "CPEC's Karot Hydropower Plant put into 'full commercial operation'". The Express Tribune. 1 July 2022. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
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