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.
History of the Punjabi language
Middle Indo-Aryan Languages are still synthetic like Old Indo-Aryan Languages but diphthongs and harsh combination of consonants were dropped, so much so that in the literary development these Prakrits became absolutely fluid. One poet said that the difference between Sanskrit poems and Prakrit poems is as great as between man and woman. Sankrit poems are harsh but Prakrit poems are very smooth.In 1837, British East India Company replaced Persian with Urdu in Punjab.