109-498: Punjab ( / p ʌ n ˈ dʒ ɑː b / ; Punjabi , Urdu : پنجاب , pronounced [pənˈd͡ʒɑːb] ) is a province of Pakistan . With a population of over 127 million, it is the most populous province in Pakistan and second most populous subnational polity in the world. Located in the central-eastern region of the country, it has the largest economy , contributing the most to national GDP , in Pakistan. Lahore
218-698: A Hindu festival held in the 19th century on Kartik Purnima in Amritsar attracted a large number of Sikhs. The Sikh community leader Giani Sant Singh did not like this, thus starting a festival at the Sikh shrine of the Golden Temple on the same day, presenting it as the birth anniversary celebration of Guru Nanak. Macauliffe also notes that Vaisakh (March–April) already saw a number of important festivals—such as Holi , Rama Navami , and Vaisakhi —therefore people would be busy in agricultural activities after
327-447: A brief period in 1431 but was driven out by Mubarak Shah. Mughal Era The Mughals came to power in the early sixteenth century and gradually expanded to control all of Punjab. During Mughal period Punjab region was divided into two provinces; Province of Multan and Province of Lahore . The Mughal Empire ruled the region until it was severely weakened in the eighteenth century. As Mughal power weakened, Afghan rulers took control of
436-417: A clear divide is present between the northern and southern regions of the province; with northern Punjab being more developed than south Punjab. Punjab is also one of the most urbanized regions of South Asia , with approximately 40 percent of its population being concentrated in urban areas. Punjabi Muslims , predominantly adhering to Sunni Islam , are natives of the province, comprising nearly 98 percent of
545-526: A competition. Another source of dispute has been the Baghdad stone, bearing an inscription in a Turkish script. Some interpret the inscription as saying Baba Nanak Fakir was there in 1511–1512; others read it as saying 1521–1522 (and that he lived in the Middle East for 11 years away from his family). Others, particularly Western scholars, argue that the stone inscription is from the 19th century and
654-624: A formative time for him, as the puratan janamsakhi suggests, and in his numerous allusions to governmental structure in his hymns, most likely gained at this time. Around the age of 55, Nanak settled in Kartarpur , living there until his death in September 1539. During this period, he went on short journeys to the Nath yogi centre of Achal, and the Sufi centres of Pakpattan and Multan . By
763-589: A liberal approach. Through Persian, Punjabi also absorbed many Arabic-derived words like dukān , ġazal and more, as well as Turkic words like qēncī , sōġāt , etc. After the fall of the Sikh empire , Urdu was made the official language of Punjab under the British (in Pakistani Punjab , it is still the primary official language) and influenced the language as well. In the second millennium , Punjabi
872-490: A resolution to work for a Muslim Pakistan, making the Punjab region a center of growing conflict between Indian and Pakistani nationalists. At the end of the war, the British granted separate independence to India and Pakistan, setting off massive communal violence as Muslims fled to Pakistan and Hindu and Sikh Punjabis fled east to India. The British Raj had major political, cultural, philosophical, and literary consequences in
981-463: A subject of dispute, with modern scholarship questioning the details and authenticity of many claims. For example, Callewaert and Snell (1994) state that early Sikh texts do not contain such stories. From when the travel stories first appear in hagiographic accounts of Guru Nanak, centuries after his death, they continue to become more sophisticated as time goes on, with the late phase Puratan version describing four missionary journeys, which differ from
1090-551: A superstition prevailing in contemporary northern India , a child born in the Kattak month was believed to be weak and unlucky, hence why the work states that Nanak was born in that month. Bhai Gurdas , having written on a full-moon-day of the Kattak month several decades after Nanak's death, mentions that Nanak had "obtained omniscience" on the same day, and it was now the author's turn to "get divine light." According to eyewitness Sikh chronicles, known as Bhatt Vahis , Guru Nanak
1199-706: A word will be pronounced, and vice versa. Tone is often reduced or rarely deleted when words are said with emphasis or on their own as a form of more exact identification. Sequences with the consonant h have some additional gimmicks: The consonant h on its own is now silent or very weakly pronounced except word-initially. However, certain dialects which exert stronger tone, particularly more northern Punjabi varieties and Dogri , pronounce h as very faint (thus tonal) in all cases. E.g. hatth > àtth . The Jhangvi and Shahpuri dialects of Punjabi (as they transition into Saraiki ) show comparatively less realisation of tone than other Punjabi varieties, and do not induce
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#17327979936301308-503: A young age. For instance, at the age of five, Nanak is said to have voiced interest in divine subjects. At age seven, his father enrolled him at the village school, as per custom. Notable lore recounts that, as a child, Nanak astonished his teacher by describing the implicit symbolism of the first letter of the alphabet , resembling the mathematical version of one, as denoting the unity or oneness of God. Other stories of his childhood refer to strange and miraculous events about Nanak, such as
1417-482: Is a tendency with speakers to insert /ɪ̯/ between adjacent "a"-vowels as a separator. This usually changes to /ʊ̯/ if either vowel is nasalised. Note: for the tonal stops, refer to the next section about Tone. The three retroflex consonants /ɳ, ɽ, ɭ/ do not occur initially, and the nasals [ŋ, ɲ] most commonly occur as allophones of /n/ in clusters with velars and palatals (there are few exceptions). The well-established phoneme /ʃ/ may be realised allophonically as
1526-436: Is always written as نگ . Like Hindustani , the diphthongs /əɪ/ and /əʊ/ have mostly disappeared, but are still retained in some dialects. Phonotactically , long vowels /aː, iː, uː/ are treated as doubles of their short vowel counterparts /ə, ɪ, ʊ/ rather than separate phonemes. Hence, diphthongs like ai and au get monophthongised into /eː/ and /oː/, and āi and āu into /ɛː/ and /ɔː/ respectively. The phoneme /j/
1635-764: Is defined physiographically by the Indus River and these five tributaries . One of the five, the Beas River , is a tributary of another, the Sutlej . Punjabi developed from Prakrit languages and later Apabhraṃśa ( Sanskrit : अपभ्रंश , 'deviated' or 'non-grammatical speech') From 600 BC, Sanskrit developed as the standard literary and administrative language and Prakrit languages evolved into many regional languages in different parts of India. All these languages are called Prakrit languages (Sanskrit: प्राकृत , prākṛta ) collectively. Paishachi Prakrit
1744-621: Is historically significant because it resulted in the syncretism of ancient Greek political and cultural influences to the Indian subcontinent, yielding works such as Greco-Buddhist art, which continued to have an impact for the ensuing centuries. Multan was the noted centre of excellence of the region which was attacked by the Greek army led by Alexander the Great . The Malli tribe together with nearby tribes gathered an army of 90,000 personnel to face
1853-570: Is identical to the Urdu alphabet , however various attempts have been made to create certain, distinct characters from a modification of the Persian Nastaʿlīq characters to represent Punjabi phonology , not already found in the Urdu alphabet . In Pakistan, Punjabi loans technical words from Persian and Arabic , just like Urdu does. Punjabi is the most widely spoken language in Pakistan ,
1962-657: Is supported by the Guru Granth Sahib. Bhai Gurdas says: ਗੁਰ ਪਰਮੇਸਰੁ ਇਕੁ ਹੈ ਸਚਾ ਸਾਹੁ ਜਗਤੁ ਵਣਜਾਰਾ। The Guru and God are one; He is the true master and the whole world craves for Him. Additionally, in the Guru Granth Sahib, it is stated: ਨਾਨਕ ਸੇਵਾ ਕਰਹੁ ਹਰਿ ਗੁਰ ਸਫਲ ਦਰਸਨ ਕੀ ਫਿਰਿ ਲੇਖਾ ਮੰਗੈ ਨ ਕੋਈ ॥੨॥ O Nanak, serve the Guru, the Lord Incarnate; the Blessed Vision of His Darshan is profitable, and in
2071-402: Is termed 'Old Punjabi', whilst the stage between the 16th and 19th centuries is termed as 'Medieval Punjabi'. The Arabic and Modern Persian influence in the historical Punjab region began with the late first millennium Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent . Since then, many Persian words have been incorporated into Punjabi (such as zamīn , śahir etc.) and are used with
2180-552: Is the capital and largest city. Other major cities include Faisalabad , Rawalpindi , Gujranwala and Multan . It is bordered by the Pakistani provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the north-west, Balochistan to the south-west and Sindh to the south, as well as Islamabad Capital Territory to the north-west and Azad Kashmir to the north. It shares an international border with the Indian states of Rajasthan and Punjab to
2289-423: Is the janamsakhi attributed to Bhai Mani Singh , a disciple of Guru Gobind Singh who was approached by some Sikhs with a request that he should prepare an authentic account of Nanak's life. As such, it is said that Bhai Mani Singh wrote his story with the express intention of correcting heretical accounts of Nanak. One popular janamsakhi was allegedly written by Bhai Bala , a close companion of Nanak. However,
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#17327979936302398-507: Is very fluid in Punjabi. /j/ is only truly pronounced word-initially (even then it often becomes /d͡ʒ/), where it is otherwise /ɪ/ or /i/. Unusually for an Indo-Aryan language, Punjabi distinguishes lexical tones . Three tones are distinguished in Punjabi (some sources have described these as tone contours, given in parentheses): low (high-falling), high (low-rising), and level (neutral or middle). The transcriptions and tone annotations in
2507-681: Is widely used in the TV and entertainment industry of Pakistan, which is mainly produced in Lahore . The Standard Punjabi used in India and Pakistan have slight differences. In India, it discludes many of the dialect-specific features of Majhi. In Pakistan, the standard is closer to the Majhi spoken in the urban parts of Lahore. "Eastern Punjabi" refers to the varieties of Punjabi spoken in Pakistani Punjab (specifically Northern Punjabi), most of Indian Punjab ,
2616-572: Is written using the Gurmukhi alphabet , based on the Indic scripts . Punjabi is unusual among the Indo-Aryan languages and the broader Indo-European language family in its usage of lexical tone . The word Punjabi (sometimes spelled Panjabi ) has been derived from the word Panj-āb , Persian for 'Five Waters', referring to the five major eastern tributaries of the Indus River . The name of
2725-754: The 2023 Pakistani census , and the 11th most widely-spoken in India, with 31.1 million native speakers, according to the 2011 census . It is spoken among a significant overseas diaspora , particularly in Canada , the United Kingdom , the United States , Australia , and the Gulf states . In Pakistan, Punjabi is written using the Shahmukhi alphabet , based on the Perso-Arabic script ; in India, it
2834-465: The Hazara region , most of Azad Kashmir and small parts of Indian Punjab such as Fazilka . These include groups of dialects like Saraiki , Pahari-Pothwari , Hindko and the extinct Inku ; common dialects like Jhangvi , Shahpuri , Dhanni and Thali which are usually grouped under the term Jatki Punjabi; and the mixed variety of Punjabi and Sindhi called Khetrani . Depending on context,
2943-637: The Indian independence movement . Nationalists declared the independence of India from Lahore in 1930 but were quickly suppressed. When the Second World War broke out, nationalism in British India had already divided into religious movements. Many Sikhs and other minorities supported the Hindus, who promised a secular multicultural and multireligious society, and Muslim leaders in Lahore passed
3052-719: The Indo-Aryan migrations that overran the region in waves between 1500 and 500 B.C. The migrating Indo-Aryan tribes gave rise to the Iron Age Vedic civilization , which lasted till 500 BC. During this era, the Rigveda was composed in Punjab , laying the foundation of Hinduism . Frequent intertribal wars in the post-Vedic period stimulated the growth of larger groupings ruled by chieftains and kings, who ruled local kingdoms known as Mahajanapadas . Achaemenid emperor Darius
3161-538: The Jhelum , Chenab , Ravi , and Sutlej rivers which traverse Punjab north to south – the fifth of the "five waters" of Punjab, the Beas River , lies exclusively in the Indian state of Punjab. The landscape is amongst the most heavily irrigated on earth and canals can be found throughout the province. Punjab also includes several mountainous regions, including the Sulaiman Mountains in the southwest part of
3270-722: The Lahore Fort , the archaeological excavations at Taxila , and the Rohtas Fort , among others. The name Punjab is of Persian origin, with its two combined words meaning ( پنج , panj , 'five' and آب , āb , 'water') and it was introduced and started to be widely used during the Mughal Empire rule over the region. It is considered to be the cognate of the Sanskrit words पञ्च , pañca , 'five' and अप् , áp , 'water', of
3379-848: The Langah Sultanate in Multan . The Sultanate included regions of southern and central Punjab and some areas of present day Khyber. A large number of Baloch settlers arrived and the towns of Dera Ghazi Khan and Dera Ismail Khan were founded. During the most of 15th century, the Khokhars and Gakhars tribes were in general revolt in the Pothohar region. Jasrath Khokhar was one of their major chiefs who helped Sultan Zain Ul Abideen of Kashmir to gain his throne and ruled over vast tracts of Jammu and North Punjab . He also conquered Delhi for
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3488-705: The Majha region of the Punjab. In India , Punjabi is written in the Gurmukhī script in offices, schools, and media. Gurmukhi is the official standard script for Punjabi, though it is often unofficially written in the Latin scripts due to influence from English , one of India's two primary official languages at the Union -level. In Pakistan, Punjabi is generally written using the Shahmukhī script, which in literary standards,
3597-814: The Maurya Empire and the Greco-Bactrian kingdom in 302 B.C.E. Menander I Soter conquered Punjab and made Sagala (present-day Sialkot ) the capital of the Indo-Greek Kingdom . Menander is noted for becoming a patron and converting to Greco-Buddhism and he is widely regarded as the greatest of the Indo-Greek kings. Islamic conquest Islam emerged as the major power in Punjab after the Umayyad caliphate led by Muhammad bin Qasim conquered
3706-527: The Miharban version. Some of the stories about Guru Nanak's extensive travels first appear in the 19th-century Puratan janamsakhi, though even this version does not mention Nanak's travel to Baghdad. Such embellishments and insertion of new stories, according to Callewaert and Snell (1993), closely parallel claims of miracles by Islamic pirs found in Sufi tadhkirahs of the same era, giving reason to believe that these legends may have been written in
3815-462: The Nath Yogi -era from 9th to 14th century. The language of these compositions is morphologically closer to Shauraseni Apbhramsa , though vocabulary and rhythm is surcharged with extreme colloquialism and folklore. Writing in 1317–1318, Amir Khusrau referred to the language spoken by locals around the area of Lahore as Lahauri . The precursor stage of Punjabi between the 10th and 16th centuries
3924-735: The Soan Valley of the Pothohar , between the Indus and the Jhelum rivers , where Soanian culture developed between 774,000 BC and 11,700 BC. This period goes back to the first interglacial period in the second Ice Age , from which remnants of stone and flint tools have been found. The Punjab region was the site of one of the earliest cradle of civilizations , the Bronze Age Harrapan civilization that flourished from about 3000 B.C. and declined rapidly 1,000 years later, following
4033-512: The Vilayat Vali janamsakhi . Gurbilas Patashahi 6, written 1718, also attributed to Bhai Mani Singh contradicts Mani Singh’s Janamsakhi as it instead says Guru Nanak was born on the full moon of Katak. The Sikh records state that Nanak died on the 10th day of the Asauj month of Samvat 1596 (22 September 1539 CE), at the age of 70 years, 5 months, and 7 days. This further suggests that he
4142-413: The h consonant itself and any voiced consonants appended with [h] (Gurmukhi: ੍ਹ "perī̃ hāhā" , Shahmukhi: ھ "dō-caśmī hē" ); usually ṛh , mh , nh , rh and lh . The five tonal plosives also become voiceless word-initially. E.g. ghar > kàr "house", ḍhōl > ṭṑl "drum" etc. Tonogenesis in Punjabi forfeits the sound of [h] for tone. Thus, the more [h] is realised, the less "tonal"
4251-601: The harvest festival of Baisakhi. Therefore, holding Nanak's birth anniversary celebrations immediately after Vaisakhi would have resulted in thin attendance, and therefore, smaller donations for the Sikh shrines. On the other hand, by the Kattak full moon day, the major Hindu festival of Diwali was already over, and the peasants—who had surplus cash from crop sales—were able to donate generously. Nanak's parents, father Kalyan Chand Das Bedi (commonly shortened to Mehta Kalu ) and mother Mata Tripta , were both Hindu Khatris and employed as merchants. His father, in particular,
4360-503: The voiceless retroflex fricative [ʂ] in learned clusters with retroflexes. Due to its foreign origin, it is often also realised as [s] , in e.g. shalwār /salᵊ.ʋaːɾᵊ/ . The phonemic status of the consonants /f, z, x, ɣ, q/ varies with familiarity with Hindustani norms, more so with the Gurmukhi script, with the pairs /f, pʰ/ , /z, d͡ʒ/ , /x, kʰ/ , /ɣ, g/ , and /q, k/ systematically distinguished in educated speech, /q/ being
4469-627: The 10th century, the tribe of the Gakhars / Khokhars , formed a large part of the Hindu Shahi army according to the Persian historian Firishta . Ghaznavid The Turkic Ghaznavids in the tenth century attacked the regions of Punjab. Multan and Uch were conquered after 3 attacks and Multan's ruler Abul Fateh Daud was defeated, famous Sun Temple was destroyed. This attack ended the 3 centuries of Islamic rule over Punjab. Ghaznavids overthrew
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4578-490: The 15th century. The second theory states that Nanak was a Guru , not a prophet. According to Singha (2009): Sikhism does not subscribe to the theory of incarnation or the concept of prophet hood. But it has a pivotal concept of Guru. He is not an incarnation of God, not even a prophet. He is an illumined soul. The third theory is that Guru Nanak is the incarnation of God. This has been supported by many Sikhs including Bhai Gurdas , Bhai Vir Singh , Santhok Singh and
4687-726: The 1981 and 2017 censuses respectively, speakers of the Western Punjabi 's Saraiki and Hindko varieties were no longer included in the total numbers for Punjabi, which explains the apparent decrease. Pothwari speakers however are included in the total numbers for Punjabi. Punjabi is the official language of the Indian state of Punjab , and has the status of an additional official language in Haryana and Delhi. Some of its major urban centres in northern India are Amritsar , Ludhiana , Chandigarh , Jalandhar , Ambala , Patiala , Bathinda , Hoshiarpur , Firozpur and Delhi . In
4796-683: The 19th and 20th century, and exist in many versions. In 1508, Nanak visited the Sylhet region in Bengal . The janamsakhis suggest that Nanak visited the Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya in 1510–11 CE. The Baghdad inscription remains the basis of writing by Indian scholars that Guru Nanak journeyed in the Middle East, with some claiming he visited Jerusalem , Mecca , Vatican , Azerbaijan and Sudan . The hagiographic details are
4905-475: The 19th century from the Medieval Punjabi stage. Modern Punjabi has two main varieties, Western Punjabi and Eastern Punjabi , which have many dialects and forms, altogether spoken by over 150 million people. The Majhi dialect , which is transitional between the two main varieties, has been adopted as standard Punjabi in India and Pakistan for education and mass media. The Majhi dialect originated in
5014-684: The 2011 census of India, 31.14 million reported their language as Punjabi. The census publications group this with speakers of related "mother tongues" like Bagri and Bhateali to arrive at the figure of 33.12 million. Punjabi is also spoken as a minority language in several other countries where Punjabi people have emigrated in large numbers, such as the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada. There were 670,000 native Punjabi speakers in Canada in 2021, 300,000 in
5123-830: The Great , in 518 BCE crossed the Indus and annex the regions up to the Jhelum River . Taxila is considered to be site of one of the oldest education centre of south asia and was part of the Achaemenid province of Hindush. One of the early kings in Punjab was Porus , who fought the famous Battle of the Hydaspes against Alexander the Great . The battle is thought to have resulted in a decisive Greek victory; however, A. B. Bosworth warns against an uncritical reading of Greek sources who were obviously exaggerative. Porus refused to surrender and wandered about atop an elephant, until he
5232-412: The Greek army. This was perhaps the largest army faced by the Greeks in the entire Indian subcontinent. During the siege of the city's citadel, Alexander leaped into the inner area of the citadel, where he faced the Mallians' leader. Alexander was wounded by an arrow that had penetrated his lung, leaving him severely injured. The city was conquered after a fierce battle. The region was then divided between
5341-486: The Hindu Shahis and consequently ruled for 157 years, gradually declining as a power until the Ghurid conquests of key Punjab cities of Uch, Multan and Lahore by Muhammad of Ghor in 1186, deposing the last Ghaznavid ruler Khusrau Malik. Following the death of Muhammad of Ghor in 1206, the Ghurid state fragmented and was replaced in northern India by the Delhi Sultanate and for some time independent sultanates ruled by various Sultans. The Delhi Sultanate ruled Punjab for
5450-409: The Kattak birth tradition. It is the only Janamsakhi that does. Bhai Bala is said to have obtained Nanak's horoscope from Nanak's uncle Lalu, according to which, Nanak was born on a date corresponding to 20 October 1469 CE. However, this janamsakhi was written by Handalis—a sect of Sikhs who followed a Sikh-convert known as Handal—attempting to depict the founder as superior to Nanak. According to
5559-437: The Kattak month in November. The earliest record of such a celebration in Nankana Sahib is from 1868 CE. There may be several reasons for the adoption of the Kattak birthdate by the Sikh community. For one, it may have been the date of Nanak's enlightenment or "spiritual birth" in 1496, as suggested by the Dabestan-e Mazaheb . Some of the sources that support the Katak birthday incident: The Bala Janamasakhi supports
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#17327979936305668-468: The Punjab is Punjabi , representing the largest language spoken in the country. The Punjabi language is spoken in the form of many dialects across the province including Majhi , Multani , Pothwari , Thali , Jhangvi , Dhanni , Shahpuri , Derawali , Riasti and others. Many of these dialects are grouped together in the form of varieties such as Saraiki in the south consisting of southern dialects including Multani, Derawali and Riasti; and Hindko in
5777-407: The Punjab, including the establishment of a new system of education. During the independence movement , many Punjabis played a significant role, including Madan Lal Dhingra , Sukhdev Thapar , Ajit Singh Sandhu , Bhagat Singh , Udham Singh , Kartar Singh Sarabha , Bhai Parmanand , Choudhry Rahmat Ali , and Lala Lajpat Rai . After Independence At the time of partition in 1947, the province
5886-442: The Punjabi homeland formed a province of British India, though a number of small princely states retained local rulers who recognized British authority. The Punjab with its rich farmlands became one of the most important colonial assets. Lahore was a noted center of learning and culture, and Rawalpindi became an important military installation. Most Punjabis supported the British during World War I , providing men and resources to
5995-412: The United Kingdom in 2011, 280,000 in the United States and smaller numbers in other countries. Standard Punjabi (sometimes referred to as Majhi) is the standard form of Punjabi used commonly in education and news broadcasting , and is based on the Majhi dialect . Such as the variety used on Google Translate , Standard Punjabi is also often used in official online services that employ Punjabi. It
6104-514: The United States found no evidence of a separate falling tone following a medial consonant. It is considered that these tones arose when voiced aspirated consonants ( gh, jh, ḍh, dh, bh ) lost their aspiration. In Punjabi, tone is induced by the loss of [h] in tonal consonants. Tonal consonants are any voiced aspirates /ʱ/ and the voiced glottal fricative /ɦ/ . These include the five voiced aspirated plosives bh , dh , ḍh , jh and gh (which are represented by their own letters in Gurmukhi),
6213-534: The age of 70. According to Sikh hagiography , his body was never found. When the quarreling Hindus and Muslims tugged at the sheet covering his body, they found instead a heap of flowers—and so Nanak’s simple faith would, in course of time, flower into a religion, beset by its own contradictions and customary practices. During first quarter of the 16th century, Nanak went on long udasiya ('journeys') for spiritual pursuits. A verse authored by him states that he visited several places in " nau-khand " ('the nine regions of
6322-425: The area or has caused it to rain so hard that floods have resulted. June and July are oppressively hot. Although official estimates rarely place the temperature above 46 °C, newspaper sources claim that it reaches 51 °C and regularly carry reports about people who have succumbed to the heat. Heat records were broken in Multan in June 1993, when the mercury was reported to have risen to 54 °C. In August
6431-463: The capital, Lahore. The province is represented in the federal parliament through 173, out of 336, seats in National Assembly , the lower house; and 23, out of 96, seats in Senate , the upper house. Punjab is Pakistan's most industrialized province, with the industrial sector comprising 24 percent of the province's gross domestic product. It is known for its relative prosperity, and has the lowest rate of poverty among all Pakistani provinces. However,
6540-767: The devoicing of the main five tonal consonants ( bh , dh , ḍh , jh , gh ). The Gurmukhi script which was developed in the 16th century has separate letters for voiced aspirated sounds, so it is thought that the change in pronunciation of the consonants and development of tones may have taken place since that time. Some other languages in Pakistan have also been found to have tonal distinctions, including Burushaski , Gujari , Hindko , Kalami , Shina , and Torwali , though these (besides Hindko) seem to be independent of Punjabi. Guru Nanak Gurū Nānak (15 April 1469 – 22 September 1539; Gurmukhi : ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ; pronunciation: [gʊɾuː naːnəkᵊ] , pronunciation ), also known as Bābā Nānak ('Father Nānak'),
6649-479: The earth'), presumably the major Hindu and Muslim pilgrimage centres. Some modern accounts state that he visited Tibet , most of South Asia , and Arabia , starting in 1496 at age 27, when he left his family for a thirty-year period. These claims include Nanak's visit to Mount Sumeru of Indian mythology , as well as Mecca , Baghdad , Achal Batala , and Multan , where he would debate religious ideas with opposing groups. These stories became widely popular in
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#17327979936306758-418: The east and Indian-administered Kashmir to the north-east. Punjab is the most fertile province of the country as the Indus River and its four major tributaries Ravi , Jhelum , Chenab and Sutlej flow through it. The province forms the bulk of the transnational Punjab region , divided in 1947 among Pakistan and India. The government , legislature , and other institutions of the province are based in
6867-415: The eleventh-most widely spoken in India , and also present in the Punjabi diaspora in various countries. Approximate distribution of native Punjabi speakers (inc. Lahndic dialects ) (assuming a rounded total of 157 million) worldwide. Punjabi is the most widely spoken language in Pakistan , being the native language of 88.9 million people, or approximately 37% of the country's population. Beginning with
6976-401: The emperor. Mongol invasion The 15th century saw the rise of many prominent Muslims from Punjab. Khizr Khan established the Sayyid dynasty , the fourth dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate after the fall of the Tughlaqs. In 1398, Timur attacked the Punjab region. After his invasion, Khizr Khan established the fourth dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate. According to Richard M. Eaton , Khizr Khan
7085-420: The examples below are based on those provided in Punjabi University, Patiala 's Punjabi-English Dictionary . Level tone is found in about 75% of words and is described by some as absence of tone. There are also some words which are said to have rising tone in the first syllable and falling in the second. (Some writers describe this as a fourth tone.) However, a recent acoustic study of six Punjabi speakers in
7194-418: The far-north of Rajasthan and on the northwestern border of Haryana . It includes the dialects of Majhi , Malwai , Doabi , Puadhi and the extinct Lubanki . Sometimes, Dogri and Kangri are grouped into this category. "Western Punjabi" or "Lahnda" ( لہندا , lit. ' western ' ) is the name given to the diverse group of Punjabi varieties spoken in the majority of Pakistani Punjab ,
7303-492: The form of 974 poetic hymns , or shabda , in the holy religious scripture of Sikhism, the Guru Granth Sahib , with some of the major prayers being the Japji Sahib ( jap , 'to recite'; ji and sahib are suffixes signifying respect); the Asa di Var ('Ballad of Hope'); and the Sidh Gosht ('Discussion with the Siddhas '). It is part of Sikh religious belief that the spirit of Nanak's sanctity , divinity, and religious authority had descended upon each of
7412-401: The full moon of Katak. Nanak Chandrodaya Sanskrit Janamsakhi from 1797 and Janam Sakhi Baba Nanak by Sant Das Chibber from the 18th century both mention Guru Nanak being born on the full moon of katak. Gurpur Parkash Granth written by Sant Ren Singh based on a granth written by Binod Singh states Guru Nanak was born on the full moon of Katak. According to Max Arthur Macauliffe (1909),
7521-459: The hill station of Fort Munro in Dera Ghazi Khan. Most areas in Punjab experience extreme weather with foggy winters, often accompanied by rain. By mid-February the temperature begins to rise; springtime weather continues until mid-April, when the summer heat sets in. The onset of the southwest monsoon is anticipated to reach Punjab by May, but since the early 1970s, the weather pattern has been irregular. The spring monsoon has either skipped over
7630-488: The hot and barren south to the cool hills of the north. The foothills of the Himalayas are found in the extreme north as well, and feature a much cooler and wetter climate, with snowfall common at higher altitudes. The province is home to over half the population of Pakistan , and is the world's second-most populous subnational entity , and the most populous outside of India and China . Languages of Punjab, Pakistan (2023 Census) The major native language spoken in
7739-465: The janamsakhis. Nanak's teachings can be found in the Sikh scripture Guru Granth Sahib , as a collection of verses recorded in Gurmukhi . There are three competing theories on Nanak's teachings. The first, according to Cole and Sambhi (1995, 1997), based on the hagiographical Janamsakhis , states that Nanak's teachings and Sikhism were revelations from God, and not a social protest movement, nor an attempt to reconcile Hinduism and Islam in
7848-574: The latter three arise natively. Later, the letters ਜ਼ / ز , ਸ਼ / ش and ਫ਼ / ف began being used in English borrowings, with ਸ਼ / ش also used in Sanskrit borrowings . Punjabi has also had minor influence from and on neighbouring languages such as Sindhi , Haryanvi , Pashto and Hindustani . Note: In more formal contexts, hypercorrect Sanskritized versions of these words (ਪ੍ਰਧਾਨ pradhān for ਪਰਧਾਨ pardhān and ਪਰਿਵਾਰ parivār for ਪਰਵਾਰ parvār ) may be used. Modern Punjabi emerged in
7957-664: The likes of Meher Ali Shah , Baba Farid , Bari Imam and Sultan Bahu , spread across the province. Guru Nanak , the founder of Sikhism , was born in the town of Nankana Sahib , near Lahore. Punjab is also the site of the Katas Raj Temples , which feature prominently in Hindu mythology . Several of the World Heritage Sites listed by UNESCO are located in Punjab, including the Shalimar Gardens ,
8066-433: The miracle stories in Sufi literature about their pirs . Other direct and indirect borrowings in the Sikh janamsakhis relating to legends around his journeys are from Hindu epics and puranas , and Buddhist Jataka stories . The earliest biographical sources on Nanak's life recognised today are the janamsakhis ('birth stories'), which recount the circumstances of his birth in extended detail. Gyan-ratanavali
8175-602: The most rarely pronounced. The retroflex lateral is most commonly analysed as an approximant as opposed to a flap . Some speakers soften the voiceless aspirates /t͡ʃʰ, pʰ, kʰ/ into fricatives /ɕ, f, x/ respectively. In rare cases, the /ɲ/ and /ŋ/ phonemes in Shahmukhi may be represented with letters from Sindhi . The /ɲ/ phoneme, which is more common than /ŋ/, is written as نی or نج depending on its phonetic preservation, e.g. نیاݨا /ɲaːɳaː/ (preserved ñ ) as opposed to کنج /kiɲd͡ʒ/ (assimilated into nj ). /ŋ/
8284-660: The next three hundred years, led by five unrelated dynasties, the Mamluks , Khalajis , Tughlaqs , Sayyids and Lodis . Tughlaqs Ghiyath al-Din Tughlaq, the former governor of Multan and Dipalpur founded the Tughlaq dynasty in Delhi and ruled the subcontinent region. Earlier, he served as the governor of Multan and fought 28 battles against Mongols from there and saved Punjab and Sindh regions from advances of Mongols and survived. After his death, his son Muhammad Tughlaq became
8393-618: The nine subsequent Gurus when the Guruship was devolved on to them. His birthday is celebrated as Guru Nanak Gurpurab , annually across India. Nanak was born on 15 April 1469 at Rāi Bhoi Dī Talvaṇḍī village (present-day Nankana Sahib , Punjab , Pakistan) in the Lahore province of the Delhi Sultanate , although according to one tradition, he was born in the Indian month of Kārtik or November, known as Kattak in Punjabi . He
8502-520: The northwest consisting of a group of northwestern dialects. Saraiki and Hindko varieties of the language have been separately enumerated from Punjabi (general) in Pakistani censuses from 1981 and 2017, respectively. Pashto is also spoken in some parts of Punjab, especially in Attock , Mianwali and Rawalpindi districts. Religion in Punjab, Pakistan (2023 Census) According to the 2023 census,
8611-425: The one witnessed by Rai Bular , in which the sleeping child's head was shaded from the harsh sunlight by, in one account, by the stationary shadow of a tree or, in another, by a venomous cobra. Nanaki , Nanak's only sister, was five years older than him. In 1475, she married and moved to Sultanpur . Jai Ram, Nanaki's husband, was employed at a modikhana (a storehouse for revenues collected in non-cash form), in
8720-540: The oppressive heat is punctuated by the rainy season, referred to as barsat , which brings relief in its wake. The hardest part of the summer is then over, but cooler weather does not come until late October. In early 2007, the province experienced one of the coldest winters in the last 70 years. Punjab's region temperature ranges from −2° to 45 °C, but can reach 50 °C (122 °F) in summer and can touch down to −10 °C in winter. Climatically, Punjab has three major seasons: Weather extremes are notable from
8829-450: The population of Punjab, Pakistan was 127,688,922. With 124,462,897 adherents, Muslims comprise the largest religious group, with a Sunni Hanafi majority and a Shia Ithna 'ashariyah minority, forming approximately 97.75 percent of the population. The largest non-Muslim minority is Christians with 2,458,924 adherents, forming roughly 1.93 percent of the population. Hindus form 249,716 people, comprising approximately 0.20 percent of
8938-488: The population. The other minorities include Sikhs and Parsis. Punjabi language Europe North America Oceania Punjabi , sometimes spelled Panjabi , is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Punjab region of Pakistan and India . It is one of the most widely spoken native languages in the world with approximately 150 million native speakers. Punjabi is the most widely-spoken first language in Pakistan, with 88.9 million native speakers according to
9047-790: The province, the Margalla Hills in the north near Islamabad , and the Salt Range which divides the most northerly portion of Punjab, the Pothohar Plateau , from the rest of the province. Sparse deserts can be found in southern Punjab near the border with Rajasthan and the Sulaiman Range. Punjab also contains part of the Thal and Cholistan deserts. In the South, Punjab's elevation reaches 2,327 metres (7,635 ft) near
9156-469: The province. This rapid demographic shift was primarily due to wide-scale migration but also caused by large-scale religious cleansing riots which were witnessed across the region at the time. According to historical demographer Tim Dyson , in the eastern regions of Punjab that ultimately became Indian Punjab following independence, districts that were 66% Hindu in 1941 became 80% Hindu in 1951; those that were 20% Sikh became 50% Sikh in 1951. Conversely, in
9265-641: The region in 711 AD . The city of Multan became a center of the Ismaili sect of Islam. After the Umayyads conquered the key cities of Uch and Multan, they ruled the far areas of Punjab and included Kashmir. Islam spread rapidly. In the ninth century, the Hindu Shahi dynasty originating from the region of Oddiyana replaced the Taank kingdom in the Punjab, ruling much of Punjab along with eastern Afghanistan. In
9374-641: The region was introduced by the Turko-Persian conquerors of South Asia and was a translation of the Sanskrit name, Panchanada , which means 'Land of the Five Rivers'. Panj is cognate with Sanskrit pañca ( पञ्च ), Greek pénte ( πέντε ), and Lithuanian Penki , all of which meaning 'five'; āb is cognate with Sanskrit áp ( अप् ) and with the Av- of Avon . The historical Punjab region , now divided between India and Pakistan,
9483-640: The region. Contested by Marathas and Afghans, the region was the center of the growing influence of the Sikhs, who expanded and established the Sikh empire as the Mughals and Afghans weakened, ultimately ruling the Punjab and territories north into the Himalayas. The Sikh Empire ruled Punjab from 1799 until the British annexed it in 1849 following the First and Second Anglo-Sikh Wars . British Rule Most of
9592-618: The same meaning. The word pañjāb is thus calque of Indo-Aryan pañca-áp and means "The Land of Five Waters", referring to the rivers Jhelum , Chenab , Ravi , Sutlej , and Beas . All are tributaries of the Indus River , the Sutlej being the largest. References to a land of five rivers may be found in the Mahabharata , in which one of the regions is named as Panchanada ( Sanskrit : पञ्चनद , romanized : pañca-nada , lit. 'five rivers'). Earlier, Punjab
9701-562: The service of the Delhi Sultanate 's Lahore governor Daulat Khan , at which Ram would help Nanak get a job. Nanak moved to Sultanpur, and started working at the modikhana around the age of 16. As a young man, Nanak married Sulakhani , daughter of Mūl Chand (aka Mula) and Chando Raṇi. They were married on 24 September 1487, in the town of Batala , and would go on to have two sons, Sri Chand and Lakhmi Chand (or Lakhmi Das). Nanak lived in Sultanpur until c. 1500, which would be
9810-652: The southwest, the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west, and the Islamabad Capital Territory and Azad Kashmir in the north. Punjab borders Jammu and Kashmir in the north, and the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east. The capital and largest city is Lahore which was the capital of the wider Punjab region since 17th century. Other important cities include Faisalabad , Rawalpindi , Gujranwala , Sargodha , Multan , Sialkot , Bahawalpur , Gujrat , Sheikhupura , Jhelum , Rahim Yar Khan and Sahiwal . The undivided Punjab region
9919-512: The stone is not a reliable evidence that Nanak visited Baghdad in early 16th century. Moreover, beyond the stone, no evidence or mention of his journey in the Middle East has been found in any other Middle Eastern textual or epigraphical records. Claims have been asserted of additional inscriptions, but no one has been able to locate and verify them. Novel claims about his travels, as well as claims such as his body vanishing after his death, are also found in later versions and these are similar to
10028-539: The terms Eastern and Western Punjabi can simply refer to all the Punjabi varieties spoken in India and Pakistan respectively, whether or not they are linguistically Eastern/Western. While a vowel length distinction between short and long vowels exists, reflected in modern Gurmukhi orthographical conventions, it is secondary to the vowel quality contrast between centralised vowels /ɪ ə ʊ/ and peripheral vowels /iː eː ɛː aː ɔː oː uː/ in terms of phonetic significance. The peripheral vowels have nasal analogues . There
10137-514: The time of his death, Nanak had acquired several followers in the Punjab region , although it is hard to estimate their number based on the extant historical evidence. The followers of Nanak were called Kartārīs (meaning 'the people who belonged to the village of Kartarpur') by others. Nanak appointed Bhai Lehna as the successor Guru , renaming him as Guru Angad , meaning "one's very own" or "part of you". Shortly after proclaiming his successor, Nanak died on 22 September 1539 in Kartarpur , at
10246-654: The total population. Punjabis are the third-largest predominantly Islam-adhering Muslim ethnicity in the world, globally, after Arabs and Bengalis . Muhammad Iqbal , the National poet of Pakistan and one of the leading Islamic thought leaders and Islamic revivalists of the 20th century, who is also widely regarded as having animated the pulse for the Pakistan Movement , was born and raised in Punjab. Punjabi culture has been strongly influenced by Islamic culture and Sufism , with numerous Sufi shrines of
10355-475: The war effort even though the Punjab remained a source of anti-colonial activities. Disturbances in the region increased as the war continued. At the end of the war, high casualty rates, heavy taxation, inflation, and a widespread influenza epidemic disrupted Punjabi society. In 1919 a British officer ordered his troops to fire on a crowd of demonstrators, mostly Sikhs in Amritsar. The Jallianwala massacre fueled
10464-411: The western regions of Punjab that ultimately became Pakistani Punjab, all districts became almost exclusively Muslim by 1951. Punjab is Pakistan 's second largest province by area after Balochistan with an area of 205,344 square kilometres (79,284 square miles). It occupies 25.8% of the total landmass of Pakistan . Punjab province is bordered by Sindh to the south, the province of Balochistan to
10573-563: The writing style and language employed have left scholars, such as Max Arthur Macauliffe , certain that they were composed after his death. According to such scholars, there are good reasons to doubt the claim that the author was a close companion of Guru Nanak and accompanied him on many of his travels. Bhai Gurdas , a scribe of the Guru Granth Sahib , also wrote about Nanak's life in his vars ('odes'), which were compiled some time after Nanak's life, though are less detailed than
10682-514: Was lexically influenced by Portuguese (words like almārī ), Greek (words like dām ), Japanese (words like rikśā ), Chinese (words like cāh , līcī , lukāṭh ) and English (words like jajj , apīl , māsṭar ), though these influences have been minor in comparison to Persian and Arabic. In fact, the sounds / z / (ਜ਼ / ز ژ ذ ض ظ ), / ɣ / (ਗ਼ / غ ), / q / (ਕ਼ / ق ), / ʃ / (ਸ਼ / ش ), / x / (ਖ਼ / خ ) and / f / (ਫ਼ / ف ) are all borrowed from Persian, but in some instances
10791-526: Was an Indian spritual teacher, mystic and poet, who is regarded as the founder of Sikhism and is the first of the ten Sikh Gurus . Nanak is said to have travelled far and wide across Asia teaching people the message of Ik Onkar ( ੴ , 'One God'), who dwells in every one of his creations and constitutes the eternal Truth. With this concept, he would set up a unique spiritual , social, and political platform based on equality, fraternal love, goodness, and virtue. Nanak's words are registered in
10900-520: Was born in the month of Vaisakh (April), not Kattak (November). In as late as 1815, during the reign of Ranjit Singh , the festival commemorating Nanak's birthday was held in April at the place of his birth, known by then as Nankana Sahib . However, the anniversary of Nanak's birth—the Gurpurab ( gur + purab , 'celebration')—subsequently came to be celebrated on the full moon day of
11009-659: Was born into the Khatri Punjabi clan like all of the Sikh gurus . Specifically, Guru Nanak was a Bedi Khatri . Most janamsakhis ( ਜਨਮਸਾਖੀ , 'birth stories'), or traditional biographies of Nanak, mention that he was born on the third day of the bright lunar fortnight , in the Baisakh month (April) of Samvat 1526. These include the Puratan ('traditional' or 'ancient') janamsakhi , Miharban janamsakhi , Gyan-ratanavali by Bhai Mani Singh , and
11118-543: Was born on the full moon of Katak. Gurbilas Patashahi 6 written 1718 attributed to Bhai Mani Singh says Guru Nanak was born on the full moon of Katak. Meham Parkash written in 1776 also says Guru Nanak was born on the full moon of Katak. Kesar Singh Chibber’s Bansavalinama Dasan Patashahia Ka meaning genealogy of the ten emperors, written in 1769, says Guru Nanak was born on the full moon of Katak as well. Gurpurnali written in 1727 and Guru Tegh Bahadur Malwe da Safar written in 1716 both mention Guru Nanank being born on
11227-451: Was home to six rivers, of which five flow through Pakistan's Punjab province. From west to east, the rivers are: the Indus , Jhelum , Chenab , Ravi and Sutlej . It is the nation's only province that touches every other province; it also surrounds the federal enclave of the national capital city at Islamabad . Punjab's landscape mostly consists of fertile alluvial plains of the Indus River and its four major tributaries in Pakistan,
11336-484: Was known as Sapta Sindhu in the Rigveda or Hapta Hendu in Avesta , translating into "The Land of Seven Rivers", with the other two being Indus and Kabul which are included in the greater Punjab region. The ancient Greeks referred to the region as Pentapotamía ( Greek : Πενταποταμία ), which has the same meaning as that of Punjab. It is believed that the earliest evidence of human habitation in Punjab traces to
11445-402: Was one of these Prakrit languages, which was spoken in north and north-western India and Punjabi developed from this Prakrit. Later in northern India Paishachi Prakrit gave rise to Paishachi Apabhraṃśa , a descendant of Prakrit. Punjabi emerged as an Apabhramsha, a degenerated form of Prakrit, in the 7th century AD and became stable by the 10th century. The earliest writings in Punjabi belong to
11554-441: Was split into East and West Punjab. East Punjab (48%) became part of India, while West Punjab (52%) became part of Pakistan. The Punjab bore the brunt of the civil unrest following partition , with casualties estimated to be in the millions. Another major consequence of partition was the sudden shift towards religious homogeneity that occurred in all districts across Punjab owing to the new international border that cut through
11663-432: Was the local patwari (accountant) for crop revenue in the village of Talwandi . Nanak's paternal grandfather was named Shiv Ram Bedi and his great-grandfather was Ram Narayan Bedi. According to Sikh traditions, the birth and early years of Nanak's life were marked with many events that demonstrated that Nanak had been blessed with divine grace. Commentaries on his life give details of his blossoming awareness from
11772-516: Was the son of a Punjabi chieftain. He was a Khokhar chieftain who travelled to Samarkand and profited from the contacts he made with the Timurid society Later on, Delhi Sultanate, weakened by the invasion of Emir Timur , could not control all regions of the Empire and different local kingdoms appeared. Langah Sultanate In 1445, Sultan Qutbudin, chief of Langah , a Jat Zamindar tribe established
11881-426: Was wounded and his force routed. When asked by Alexander how he wished to be treated, Porus replied "Treat me as a king would treat another king". Despite the apparently one-sided results, Alexander was impressed by Porus and chose to not depose him. Not only was his territory reinstated but also expanded with Alexander's forces annexing the territories of Glausaes, who ruled to the northeast of Porus' kingdom. The battle
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