Pothohar Plateau
place in Punjab Province, Pakistan
The Pothohar Plateau (Punjabi: پوٹھوہار پَٹھوار, romanized: Pо̄ṭhoā̀r Paṭhwār; Urdu: سطح مرتفع پوٹھوہار, romanized: Satāh Murtafā Pо̄ṭhohār), also known as the Northern Punjab Plateau, is a plateau within the Sagar Doab of north-western Punjab in Pakistan. It is bounded by the Indus and Jhelum rivers.
Etymology
A late medieval manuscript, Kaigoharnameh, written by Raezadeh Diwan Duni Chand in 1725 CE on the order of Gakhar chiefs presents a detailed history of Gakhars in northern Punjab. The term in the manuscript has been written variously as Pathwar, Pot har and Pothohar; and appears to be related to the Punjabi term for a plateau (Paṭhār). According to Ahmad Hasan Dani, the term is derived from Prshtawar in Sanskrit, Prshta meaning "back" of the Indus River and War meaning "area". According to the archaeologist Abdur Rahman, the name derives from the words poṭho, from Indo-Aryan piṭhā (lit. Back) and hāra (lit. Land), the "land on the back (of mountains)" or figuratively highlands.
Geography
Pothohar Plateau is bounded on the east by the Jhelum River, on the west by the Indus River, on the north by the Kala Chitta Range and the Margalla Hills, and on the south by the Salt Range. The southern end of the plateau is bounded by the Thal desert.
The public source identifies “Pothohar Plateau” as place in Punjab Province, Pakistan. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Pothohar, Plateau and place.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Pothohar Plateau”, the useful work is to connect “place in Punjab Province, Pakistan” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1790133. VIAF identifies the subject as 40148570475724310469. Authority coordinates are 33.500, 73.000. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1725.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “Pothohar Plateau” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.