Doab () is a term used in South Asia[ Quote: "Originally and chiefly in South Asia: (the name of) a strip or narrow tract of land between two rivers; spec. (with) the area between the rivers Ganges and Jumna in northern India."] for the tract[ Quote: "confluence, land between two rivers, used in India of the tongue of land between the Ganges and Jumna, and of similar tracts in the Punjab, etc., lit. ‘two waters’ "][ of land lying between two confluence rivers. It is similar to an interfluve.][ Quote: " a tract of land between two rivers : interfluve"] In the Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, R. S. McGregor refers to its Persian origin in defining it as do-āb (, literally "two bodies water") "a region lying between and reaching to the confluence of two rivers."
Khadir, bangar, barani, nali and bagar
Since North India and Pakistan are coursed by a multiplicity of Himalayan rivers that divide the plains into doabs (i.e. regions between two rivers), the Indo-Gangetic plains consist of alternating regions of river, khadir and bangar. The regions of the doabs near the rivers consist of low-lying, floodplains, but usually, very fertile khadir and the higher-lying land away from the rivers consist of bangar, less prone to flooding but also less fertile on average.[ Damage to Yamuna Khadar, Ravi Shankar's Art of Living Responsible: NGT, Khas Khabar. 7 Dec 2017.]
Khadir is also called nali or naili, specially in northern Haryana the fertile prairie tract between the Ghaggar river and the southern limits of the Saraswati channel depression in that gets flooded during the rains.[ "The imperial gazeteers of India, 1908", British Raj, page 288.]
Within bangar area, the barani is any low rain area where the rain-fed dry farming is practiced, which nowadays are dependent on the tubewells for irrigation.[ Bagar tract, an example of barani land, is the dry sandy tract of land on the border of Rajasthan state adjoining the states of Haryana and Punjab.][E. Walter Coward, 1980, "Irrigation and Agricultural Development in Asia: Perspectives from the social sciences", Cornell University press, .] Nahri is any canal-irrigated land,[ for example, the Rangoi tract which is an area irrigated by the Rangoi channel/canal made for the purpose of carrying flood waters of Ghagghar river to dry areas.][1987, "gazetteer of India: Hisar District" , page 7.][1987, "Gazeteers of Hisar district, 1987" , Government of Haryana, page 162.]]
Historically, villages in the doabs have been officially classified as khadir, khadir-bangar (i.e. mixed) or bangar for many centuries, and different agricultural tax rates applied based on a tiered land-productivity scale.
The Doab
The Doab designates the flat alluvial tract between the Ganges and Yamuna rivers extending from the Sivalik Hills to the two rivers' confluence at Prayagraj. It is also called as Ganges-Yamuna Doab or Ganga Doab. The region has an area of about 23,360 square miles (60,500 square km); it is approximately in length and in width.[ Ganges-Yamuna Doab, Encyclopædia Britannica.]
The British raj divided the Doab into three administrative districts, viz., Upper Doab (Meerut), Middle Doab (Agra) and Lower Doab (Allahabad).[
]
Currently the following states and districts form part of The Doab:[
]
Upper Doab
Main article : Upper Doab
Dehradun and Haridwar
Saharanpur, Shamli district, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat district, Meerut District, Ghaziabad, Hapur district, Gautam Buddh Nagar and Bulandshahr
Central or Middle Doab
Etah district, Kasganj district, Aligarh district, Agra district, Hathras district, Firozabad, Mainpuri and Mathura district is in the trans-Yamuna region of Braj.
Lower Doab
Farrukhabad, Kannauj district, Etawah district, Auraiya district, Kanpur (Urban & Rural), Fatehpur, Kaushambi and Allahabad.
The Punjab Doabs
Each of the tracts of land lying between the confluent rivers of the Punjab region of Pakistan and India has a distinct name, said to have been coined by Raja Todar Mal, a minister of the Mughal Empire emperor Akbar. The names (except for "Indus Sagar") are a combination of the first letters, in the Persian alphabet, of the names of the rivers that bound the Doab. For example, "Chaj" (چج) = Chanāb (چناب, "Chenab") + Jehlam (جہلم, "Jhelum"). The names are from east to west.
Sind Sagar Doab
The Sind Sagar Doab lies between the Indus River and Jhelum River rivers.
Chaj Doabs
The Chaj Doab lies between the Jhelum River and the Chenab River rivers.
Rachna Doabs
The Rachna Doab (considerable portion of the Rechna Doab is Majha[) lies between the Chenab River and the Ravi River rivers.
]
Bari Doabs
The Bari Doab (considerable portion of the Bari Doab is Majha[Kakshi, S.R.; Pathak, Rashmi; Pathak, S.R.Bakshi R. (2007-01-01). Punjab Through the Ages. Sarup & Sons. . Retrieved 12 June 2010.]) lies between the Ravi River, Beas River and Sutlej rivers.
Bist Doab
The Bist Doab (or Doaba) - between the Beas River and the Sutlej rivers.
Other doabs
Raichur Doab
The Raichur Doab is the triangular region of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka states which lies between the Krishna River and its tributary the Tungabhadra River, named for the town of Raichur.
See also
-
Ap (water)
-
Interamnia, an ancient Latin placename, meaning "between rivers"
-
Mesopotamia, in 'land between rivers'.
Notes
