A
Doab (
Persian,
Urdu:
dō, "two" +
āb, "water" or "river") is a term used in
India and
Pakistan for a "tongue" or tract of land lying between two confluent rivers.
[ Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd Edition. 1989. ]thumb|right|200px|A map of the Doab, shows the sub-regions, "Upper Doab," "Central or Middle Doab," and "Lower Doab."left|200px|thumb|Regions of Uttar PradeshThe Doab, unqualified by the names of any rivers, designates the flat alluvial tract between the
Ganges and
Yamuna rivers in western and southwestern
Uttar Pradesh state in
India, extending from the
Shiwalik range to the two rivers' confluence at
Allahabad.
The
Doab has an area of about 23,360 square miles (60,500 square km); it is approximately in length and in width.
The
Doab figures prominently in history and myths of
Vedic period; the epic
Mahabharata, for example, is set in the
Doab, around the city of
Hastinapur.
The following districts form part of the Doab:
Upper
Doab:
Dehradun,
Haridwar,
Rishikesh,
Saharanpur,
Muzaffarnagar,
Meerut,
Delhi,
Ghaziabad,
Gautam Buddha Nagar,
BulandshaharCentral or Middle
Doab:
Aligarh,
Etah,
Hathras ,
Mathura,
Agra,(Mathura & Agra are in trans-Yamuna region of
Braj)Lower
Doab:
Mainpuri,
Etawah,
Farrukhabad,
Kanpur,
Fatehpur,
Kaushambi and
Allahabad(between the rivers).
thumb|left|200px|A map of the Punjab region ca. 1947 showing the different
doabs.
Each of the tracts of land lying between the confluent rivers of the
Punjab region of Pakistan and India (the Indus basin) has a distinct name, said to have been coined by
Raja Todar Mal, a minister of the
Mughal emperor
Akbar. The names (except for 'Sindh Sagar') are a combination of the first letters, in the Persian alphabet, of the names of the rivers that bound the Doab. For example, Jech = 'Je'(Jhelum) + 'Ch'(Chenab). The names are (from west to east):
In addition, the tract of land lying between the Sutlej and the
Yamuna river is sometimes called the
Delhi doab, although, strictly speaking, it is not a doab, since its two bounding rivers, the Yamuna and Sutlej, are not confluent.
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.
Sometimes the Indian state of
Punjab (India) itself reffered to as
Doaba or
Doab, because of the rivers of Sutlej and the Beas.
See also
