Tribes of the Bar Region of the Punjab
The tribes of the Bar Region of the Punjab in Pakistan reside on agricultural land that, before being cleared in British India in the nineteenth century for the then 'new' canal irrigation system that the British were developing at that time in Punjab, were areas which covered parts of central Punjab. The soil of the Bar Region is fertile.[1] The plains have been made by the stream deposits driven by the rivers flowing from the Himalayas.
The area stretching from the river Sutlej to river Chenab and down to the junction of two rivers Jehlum and Chenab had the given generic name Bar. 'Bar' word in Punjabi language means a threshold, an outer space, an area away from the human settlement, a barrier between populated area and wild forest, a natural jungle. This Punjabi word, 'bar', has Indo-Aryan origins and has similar meanings to the English word 'bar'. So the area between two rivers that formed a natural barrier between two different settlements was called bar in Punjabi language. All the 'Bar Regions' had and still have almost the same or similar culture and language or dialect with slight variations.[1]
The 'Bar' is further divided into four regions: the Sandal Bar (the area between the Ravi and Chenab rivers), Kirana Bar (the area between the Chenab and Jehlum rivers), Neeli Bar (the area between the Ravi and Sutlej rivers) and Ganji Bar (the area between the Sutlej and dry river bed of the Hakra).[1]
Most of the old Sandal Bar now forms part of the modern Faisalabad, Jhang, Tob Tek Singh, Okara, Vehari, Khanewal, Pakpattan, Sargodha, Chiniot and Sahiwal districts of the Punjab province in Pakistan.
See also
- Geo-political history of Punjab[2]
References
- 1 2 3 PunjabNotes:Bar:forgotten glory of Punjab, Dawn newspaper, Karachi, Published 13 June 2014, Retrieved 3 May 2016
- ↑ http://nation.com.pk/columns/29-Sep-2015/geopolitical-importance-a-different-perspective, Geo-political history of Punjab region, The Nation newspaper, Published 29 Sep 2015, Retrieved 3 May 2016