Punjab, a region covering Eastern Pakistan and Northern India, and bordered by 5 rivers, has a long history and strong cultural heritage. This region played an important part in the history of South Asia and acted as a center of many movements of culture, commerce, and people in Asia. Punjab is an Indo-Iranian word meaning "the land of five rivers". Punjab lies at the cross-roads of the great civilizations of the world. Historically, the area west of Punjab was under the sphere of influence of the Persians; to the east was the heartland of the Indian civilization. The south was under the influence of the Arabs and the north was under the Turko-Mongolian influence. Many great religious movements which found world-wide appeal grew in the fertile plains of Punjab. They include Buddhism, Sikhism, and many schools of Sufi thought in Islam. This ethnic and religious diversity is reflected in the cultural mosaic of today’s Punjab.
The historical area of Punjab was defined to the east from the basin of the river Bias (including Delhi) to the basin of River Indus in the west. To the north it was bounded by the Himalayas of Kashmir and to the south it stretched as far as the plains of Cholistan and Rajasthan. Over different periods of history Punjab has seen its boundaries expand and shrink. The high time for Punjab was during the reign of Mughal emperor Babur, when Punjab along with Babur's empire stretched from Delhi in the east to Kabul and Ghazni to the West. But never in the history, did the boundaries of Punjab shrink so much as they did after the division of Punjab in 1947. Today, on the world map Punjab can be seen as divided into the Indian State of Punjab and the Pakistani province of Punjab.
Due to vast area of land where Punjabi is spoken, different local variations or dialects have developed.
Majhi: Spoken in the heart of Punjab i.e., Lahore , Sialkot, Gujaranwala, Gurdaspur, Amritsar. Most of the population of Punjab lives in this area and linguists also say that Majhi dialect is the "Tixali boli" i.e., it has been influenced by all other dialects.
Malwi: Spoken in the east Punjab area of Ludhiana, Ambala, Bathinda, Ganganagar, Maleerkotla Fazilka, Ferozepur. This area (Malwa) is the southern and central part of present day Indian Punjab. Also includes the Punjabi speaking areas of Haryana, viz. Ambala, Hissar, Sirsa, Kurukhetra etc. (northern parts of Haryana mainly).
Doabi: Land between the rivers of Beas and Satluj is called Doaba. Do Aaba lierally means "the land between two waters" in Persian. It includes Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, and large number of Punjabis from this area have gone out to U.K., USA, Canada or elsewhere.
Pothohari: The area where Pothohari is spoken extends in the north from Kashmir to as far south as Jehlum and Gujar Khan and includes the capital of Pakistan, Islamabad. The whole area (i.e. the north-west of Punjab) is beautiful scenic area. It's here that the beautiful hilly resorts of Murree, Ayubia, Nathia-Gali lies. This dialect is similar to some extent to the Hindko dialect of Punjabi which is spoken in Peshawar, Nowshehra, Mansehra all these areas lie in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan where majority language is Pashto, but Hindko speakers area also found in sizable numbers.
Jhangvi: The region where Jhangvi is spoken stretches from Khanewal to Jhang and includes the cities of Faisalabad, Chiniot. Jhangvi dialect is also called the "Jangli" dialect of Punjabi. This is the land of Heer/Ranjha. Their tomb is located in Jhang city. Sultan Bahu is an important saint of this area.
Multani: The dialect spoken in Multan, Bahawalpur, Khairpur, Daira Ghazi Khan, Muzafar Garh i.e., southern deserts of Punjab is called Multani (also Lehndi by some) and perhaps differs from Punjabi more than any other dialect. This is the land of Muslim Sufis, perhaps "Shah Shams Sabazwari" who came to Multan in 1165 AD was the first in a long series of Sufis to base themselves in Multan.
Clothing: Women's clothing normally consists of a piece of colorful cloth that women wear around their necks. Salwar kameez's and duppattas come in a variety of colors and designs. Many stores specialize and sell only these articles of clothing. Men and boys generally wear loose pants or slacks with a collared shirt or t-shirt. Some males also wear the kurta pajama, a shirt and pant outfit, especially the Punjabi farmer. On their head, many Sikhs also wear bhuggs, or turbins. In winter, both women and men generally wear a woolen shawl, a small blanket, around their necks. Many men wear jackets and woolen caps as well.
Music: There are many different varieties of Punjabi music. Traditional Punjabi music includes instruments such as the dhol drum, flute, dholak, and tumbi. Singers such as Pathanay Khan mainly based his music on the dholak and tumbi. Many other artists use dhol drum as their primary instrument. People generally refer to Punjabi music based on the dhol drum as Bhangra. These days, besides using the traditional instruments, some artists use computers and Western instruments to accompany their Bhangra music. Many races of people and religions made up the cultural heritage of the Punjab. Punjab is the land where spiritual aspirations arose. This heroic land bore numerous invasions, and after all its suffering, did not entirely lose its glory and its strength.
Lancashire, Ian, Culture Gram, 1997. “Introduction to Punjab.”
http://roscoe.bu.edu/~rajwi/punjab/
Written by: Faisal Rafique