Beas River

The Beas rises at Rohtang Pass in Himachal Pradesh at 4,361 metres, runs about 470 km and joins the Sutlej at Harike in Tarn Taran district. It is the smallest of the five rivers of the Punjab. The Greeks called it the Hyphasis, and Alexander's army refused to go beyond it in 326 BC. In Sikh history it is also a line on the map: the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism puts Majha, “the birthplace and early home of Sikhism”, in the upper Bari Doab between the Beas and the Ravi, and the Treaty of Lahore of 1846 describes the Jalandhar Doab as the land between the Beas and the Sutlej.

Key moments

• 1552 and 1559: Goindval grows where an old highway crossed the Beas by ferry. Guru Amar Das moves there after becoming Guru in 1552 and begins the baoli in 1559. The Encyclopaedia calls it the first place of Sikh pilgrimage named as such by its founder.
• 1621 onward: Guru Hargobind founds Sri Hargobindpur on land given to him and, the Encyclopaedia says, builds a mosque for the Muslims there. The mosque, Guru ki Maseet, stands on a hill over a bend of the Beas.
• 20 March 1691: at Nadaun on the Beas, in present Himachal Pradesh, Guru Gobind Singh's cavalry help Raja Bhim Chand of Kahlur against the Mughal commander Alif Khan. The Guru stays eight days and returns to Anandpur on 28 March.
• 9 March 1846: the Treaty of Lahore gives the East India Company the Jalandhar Doab, and the hill country between the Beas and the Indus, including Kashmir and Hazara, in place of one crore of the indemnity.
• 26 December 1846: Lord Hardinge ratifies the Treaty of Bhyrowal at Bhyrowal Ghat on the left bank of the Beas, which put a British Resident over the Lahore Darbar.
• 1960 to 1974: the Beas is allotted to India under the Indus Waters Treaty and Pong Dam is completed on it.
• August and September 2025: Pong rises to 1,394.51 feet and its releases of about 99,769 cusecs flood low-lying land in Kangra and send water down the Beas.

What it means today. The Beas runs through the Panth's early ground, the Gurus' towns and Majha's edge, and its upstream dams are in another state.