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HISTORY The river Jhelum was called ''Vitasta'' by the ancient Indians in Vedic period and ''Hydaspes'' by the Ancient Greeks . The Vitastā (, ''fem.'', also, Vitastastā) is mentioned as one of the major river by the holy scriptures of the Indo-Aryans—the Rigveda . It has been speculated that the Vitasta must have been one of the seven rivers (sapta-sindhu) mentioned so many times in the Rigveda. The name survives the a Kashmiri name for this river as ''Vyath''. The river was regarded as a god by the Ancient Greeks , as were most mountains and streams; the poet Nonnus in the Dionysiaca (section 26, line 350) makes the ''Hydaspes'' a Titan -descended god, the son of the sea-god Thaumas and the cloud-goddess Elektra . He was the brother of Iris the goddess of the Rainbow , and half-brother to the Harpies , the ''snatching'' winds. Since the river is in a country foreign to the Ancient Greeks , it is not clear whether they named the river after the god, or whether the god ''Hydaspes'' was named after the river. Alexander The Great crossed the Jhelum in 326 BC to defeat Porus at the Battle Of The Hydaspes . According to Arrian (''Anabasis,'' 29), he built a city "on the spot whence he started to cross the river Hydaspes", which he named Bukephala (or Bucephala ) to honour his famous horse Bukephalis which was buried there. It is thought that ancient Bukephala was near the site of modern Jhelum City . The waters of the Jhelum are allocated to Pakistan under the terms of the Indus Waters Treaty . COURSE The river Jhelum rises from north-eastern Jammu And Kashmir and is fed by Glacier s, and then passes through the Srinagar district. At the city of Srinagar, the serpentine Jhelum, along with the lake Dal which lies in its course, presents a very picturesque site. The Neelum River , the largest tributary of the Jhelum, joins it near Muzaffarabad , as does the next largest, the Kunhar River of the Kaghan Valley . It is then joined by the Poonch river, and flows into the Mangla Dam reservoir in the district of Mirpur . The Jhelum enters the Punjab in the Jhelum District . From there, it flows through the plains of the Punjab, forming the boundary between the Chaj and Sindh Sagar Doab s. It ends in a confluence with the Chenab at Trimmu in District Jhang . The Chenab merges with the Sutlej to form the Panjnad River which joins the Indus River at Mithankot . DAMS AND BARRAGES
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