Punjabi culture
The culture of the Punjab encompasses the spoken language, written literature, cuisine, science, technology, military warfare, architecture, traditions, values and history of the Punjabi people native to the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. The term 'Punjabi' can mean both a person who lives in Punjab and also a speaker of the Punjabi language. This name originates from the Persian language 'panj', (five), and 'ab', (water). Combined together the word becomes Panjab or Punjab: land of the five rivers. Indus River (the largest river in this five river system), and the five other rivers to the south eventually join Indus or merge into it later in the downstream of the Punjab valley. All the rivers start and flow out of the Himalayas. These other five rivers are Jhelum River, Chenab River, Ravi River, Beas River and Sutlej River.
Bazigar language
The Bazigar language is the Dravidian language of the Bazigar, a group of traveling acrobats of the Punjab region. Speakers are scattered across the country, but the principal block of speakers are south of Chandigarh in adjoining areas of the states of Panjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh. Speakers are shifting to more dominant languages. Although Ethnologue classifies it as Dravidian, Bazigar has significant lexical similarity with Punjabi, as well as influence from western Rajasthani dialects. Bazigar has an almost identical phonology to Punjabi except for the presence of the voiceless palatal fricative and the absence of the voiceless glottal fricative.