Sacred river · Ladakh (India) · Gilgit-Baltistan · Khyber Pakhtunkhwa · Punjab (Pak) · Sindh
Sindhu (सिन्धु / Indus)
सिन्धु
Presiding goddess: Sindhu Devi (Sindhu Mata)
Origin
Senge Khabab springs near Mount Kailash, Tibet (5,500 m)
Mouth
Arabian Sea (Sindh Delta, Pakistan)
Length
3,180 km
Best pilgrim season
Sindhu Darshan Festival, full moon of Jyeshtha (June)
Sacred ghats
Legend & origin story
The river that gave Bharat its outside name — Hindu, Hindustan, India all trace back to Sindhu through Persian "Hindu" and Greek "Indos". Praised in Rig Veda 10.75 (Nadi Sukta) as the most powerful of the seven sisters, racing like a battle chariot from the mountain. The Vedic civilisation flowered along her banks at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa.
Spiritual significance
First of the Sapta Sindhu and the geographic root of Sanatana Dharma. Sindhu Darshan festival every June at Leh — instituted in 1997 — gathers pilgrims to perform abhishek and remember the river of our origin. Though most of her course flows outside modern India, her Ladakhi headwaters remain accessible and the annual darshan is treated as equivalent to a Char Dham yatra by Sindhi Hindus.