Kabul River
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Kabul River (or Kabal River; Persian: دریای کابل)(Pashto: کابل سیند), classically called the Cophes (pronounced /ˈkoʊfiːz/), is a river that rises in the Sanglakh Range in Afghanistan, separated from the watershed of the Helmand by the Unai Pass. It is the main river in the eastern part of Afghanistan. It flows 700 km before joining the Indus River near Attock. It passes through the cities of Kabul, Chaharbagh, Jalalabad, and (flowing into Pakistan some 30 km north of the Khyber Pass) Nowshera. The major tributaries of the Kabul River are the Logar, Panjshir, Kunar and Alingar and Bara rivers.
The Kabul river itself is little more than a trickle for most of the year, but swells in summer due to melting snows. Its largest tributary is the Kunar river, which starts out as the Mastuj River, flowing from the Chiantar glacier in Chitral, Pakistan and once it flows south into Afghanistan it is met by the Bashgal river flowing from Nurestan. The Kunar meets the Kabul near Jalalabad. In spite of the Kunar carrying more water than the Kabul, the river continues as the Kabul River after this confluence, mainly for the political and historical significance of the name.
[edit] Kabul River in History
This river is attested in the Rig Veda, the earliest scripture of Hinduism, under the name Kubhā (many of the rivers of Afghanistan are mentioned in the Rig Veda). The Sanskrit word later changed to Kābul.
| “ | The Kubha is the modern Kabul river which flows into the Indus a little above Attock and receives at Prang the joint flow of its tributaries the Swat (Swastu) and Gauri [1] | ” |
Biruni also called it "the River of Ghorwand".[2]
The Kabul River later gave its name to the region and eventually to the settlement of Kabul.[2]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ The History and Culture of the Indian People : The Vedic age. By Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, Achut Dattatrya Pusalker, A. K. Majumdar, Dilip Kumar Ghose, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Vishvanath Govind Dighe Published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1962 Page 247
- ^ a b Bosworth, C.E. (1999). "Kabul". Encyclopaedia of Islam (CD-ROM Edition v. 1.0 ed.). Leiden, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV.
