Yamuna

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Yamuna
Yamuna before the confluence with the Ganges in Prayagraj

Yamuna before the confluence with the Ganges in Prayagraj

Data
location Uttarakhand , Himachal Pradesh , Haryana , Uttar Pradesh , Delhi Union Territory ( India )
River system Ganges
Drain over Ganges  → Padma  → Lower Meghna  → Indian Ocean
source at the Yamunotri Shrine in the Himalayas
31 ° 0 ′ 17 ″  N , 78 ° 27 ′ 42 ″  E
Source height 6320  m
Estuary ( Triveni Sangam ) at Prayagraj in the Ganges coordinates: 25 ° 25 ′ 25 ″  N , 81 ° 52 ′ 57 ″  E 25 ° 25 ′ 25 ″  N , 81 ° 52 ′ 57 ″  E
Mouth height 74  m
Height difference 6246 m
Bottom slope 4.5 ‰
length 1376 km
Catchment area 366,223 km²
Drain MQ
2930 m³ / s
Left tributaries Aglar
Right tributaries Tons , Giri , Utangan , Chambal , Sindh , Betwa , Ken
Reservoirs flowed through Dakpathar barrage
Big cities Delhi , Mathura , Agra , Prayagraj
Small towns Paonta Sahib
From the mouth of the Chambal, the main branch of the Ganges system
Course of the Yamuna

Course of the Yamuna

Upper Yamuna with remaining little water flow, terrace of the Taj Mahal

Upper Yamuna with remaining little water flow, terrace of the Taj Mahal

Temple of the goddess Yamuna at Yamunotri near the source

Temple of the goddess Yamuna at Yamunotri near the source

The Taj Mahal on the Yamuna

The Taj Mahal on the Yamuna

The Yamuna ( Hindi and Sanskrit : यमुना Yamunā [ ˈjʌmʊnaː ]), also Jamuna ( जमुना Jamunā [ ˈdʒʌmʊnaː ]) or Jumna , is the most important tributary of the Ganges in India . It has a total length of 1376 km and flows along its entire length southwest parallel to the upper Ganges.

course

The Yamuna rises at the Yamunotri shrine in the Himalayas in Uttarakhand and flows on through the Indian states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and the Union territory of Delhi . The cities of Delhi , Mathura and Agra, among others, are located along the river. In Prayagraj it flows into the Ganges after 1376 km. There the Yamuna is not only longer than the Ganges with Bhagirathi (920 km + 205 km), but also the significantly larger river with a flow of 2930 m³ / s compared to 1890 m³ / s of the Ganges.

The main tributaries of the Yamuna are the Tons on the upper reaches and, about halfway up the river, the Chambal , which each carry around twice as much water as the Yamuna at the mouth. The Chambal is thus the main hydrological branch of the Ganges. Sindh , Betwa and Ken follow further east .

As with the parallel Ganges, the natural water flow of the Yamuna is greatly reduced by large outgoing irrigation channels. In the dry season, several drainage structures can allow the river to fall completely dry in parts. The Yamuna Canal draws 218 m³ / s a ​​little below the exit from the Himalayas and later the Agra Canal 63 m³ / s. The area between Yamuna and Ganges is considered to be one of the most intensively irrigated and agricultural areas in India. It is also referred to as Doab ("Two Streams"; Hindi: दोआब doāb <Pers. دو ﺁب do-āb, two waters').

pollution

The uncontrolled discharge of industrial and private sewage has led to the Yamuna in Delhi being viewed as a “dead river”. Gradually, however, the population of the capital is becoming aware of the problem. Several initiatives work for the purification and protection of the Yamuna. The Supreme Court of the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand ordered in March 2017 that the Ganges and its main tributary, Yamuna, be given legal entity status. The rivers are said to acquire "all corresponding rights, duties and obligations of a living person". This choice means that pollution or damage to rivers is equivalent to harm to a person. The court cited the example of New Zealand's Whanganui River , which also has full legal rights.

In some cases, the pollution leads to extreme foam formation on the water surface. Especially the traditional Hindu festivals, which also take place in the water of the Yamuna, are hindered by the foam.

etymology

Yamuna goes back to Sanskrit "twin", which refers to the course parallel to the Ganges. The name appears in many places in the Rig Veda from the Vedic period (approx. 1700–1100 BCE). In Indian mythology, the river, like the Ganges, is represented by a goddess.

The Yamuna was also known to the Greeks and Romans through an exploration trip from Seleucus during the campaigns of Alexander (who did not reach the river itself). Pliny knows them under the name Jomanes or Iomanes , Ptolemy as Diamuna . Later synonyms were Djemna , Dschemna , Zemna , Jamuna . In German geographical works, the river named Yamuna appears in the 18th and 19th centuries. Century on.

Yamuna is used in German with both masculine gender ( the Yamuna ) and feminine gender ( the Yamuna ). Occasionally both genera can be found in the same work, even in earlier editions of Brockhaus both genera appear. Since the 1990s, however, the Brockhaus has recorded exclusively feminine gender for the river.

Yamuna is also a common name for women in India.

Religious meaning

The religious veneration towards the Yamuna is hardly inferior to that of the Ganges. The river goddess Yami is sister of Yama, the god of death and daughter of the sun god Surya.

In Hinduism , the confluence of the Yamuna with the Ganges and the mythological Sarasvati river is called the Triveni Sangam (composed of त्रिवेणी trivēṇī , meeting of three rivers and ' saṅgam, ' meeting point '). During the Sangam, the Magh Mela takes place every year between mid-January and mid-February , in which believers cleanse themselves of their sins with ritual ablutions. Every twelve years, this festival becomes the Puma Kumbh Mela with over a million pilgrims in changing cities along the Ganges. The Maha Kumbh Mela find all twelve Puma Kumbh Mela , i.e. H. held every 144 years in Prayagraj.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Yamuna  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Yamuna  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. a b Central Pollution Control Board (Ministry of Environment & Forests): Water Quality Status of Yamuna River ( Memento from June 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 2.4 MB), Delhi 2006
  2. S. Krishnaswami, SK Singh: Page no longer available , search in web archives: Chemical weathering in the river basins of the Himalaya, India@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.docstoc.com . Current Science Vol. 89, No. 5 2005
  3. Sharad K. Jain, Pushpendra K. Agarwal, Vijay P. Singh: Hydrology and water resources of India. New York 2007
  4. Note: to compare the water flow of the Main: 215 m³ / s
  5. Indo Asia, Volume 32. German-Indian Society. 1990. Website of the DIG
  6. a b Der Spiegel (online). Dive at Yamuna near Delhi, June 5, 2010 . India's rivers are choked in garbage, July 16, 2007
  7. ^ "Save our River" series of articles, The Times of India, March 2010
  8. Jürgen Webermann: Environmental protection on the poisoned Yamuna in India: attempted rescue for a holy river. tagesschau.de, August 12, 2011, archived from the original on February 23, 2012 ; Retrieved August 12, 2011 .
  9. Michael Safi, agencies: Ganges and Yamuna rivers granted same legal rights as human beings . In: The Guardian . March 21, 2017, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed March 26, 2019]).
  10. New Delhi: Hindus thank their sun god in the dirty river Yamuna, Spiegel Online, October 2014. spiegel.de, October 31, 2014, accessed on October 31, 2014 .
  11. ^ The natural history of Cajus Plinius Secundus: translated into German and annotated. [1]
  12. ^ Ptolemy, Geography , 7th book
  13. Ancient geography: illuminated by history, customs, legends of the peoples. By Ludwig Georg, 1838. [2]
  14. Michael Mann: History of India from the 18th to the 21st century. Page 16, footnote 3: ... and the Jamna comes from Yamuna, but is now also spoken (and written) as Jamuna. [3]
  15. a b c Geography Asia, Asia Minor, Arabia. Carl Ritter , 1833 [4] .
  16. India - the north. Hans-Joachim Aubert, 2008. [5] (also in many other travel guides)
  17. The world of religions: history, beliefs, present. Monika Tworuschka, Udo Tworuschka, 2006 [6]
  18. ^ The Mughal Empire: History and Culture of Muslim India, Stephan Conermann, 2006. [7]
  19. Indian Studies: Contributions for the customer of Indian antiquity, Volume 17. Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft . Published by Ferdinand Dümmler. 1885. [8]
  20. Leopold von Schroeder . India's literature and culture in historical development: a cycle of fifty lectures as a handbook of Indian literary history. Publisher: Haessel , 1887. [9]
  21. Hermann Jakobi . The Râmâyana: history and content, together with concordance of the printed reviews. Publisher: F. Cohen. 1893. [10]
  22. ^ Hermann Brunnhofer . Prehistory of the Aryans in the Middle East and Central Asia: Historical-geographical studies on the oldest scene of the Rigveda and Avesta, Volume 1. Publisher: W. Friedrich, 1893. [11]
  23. Adolf Holtzmann : The Mahābhārata and its parts . Verlag CF Haesler, Oldenburg 1895. [12]
  24. Description of the earth. Wilhelm Hoffmann, 1833. [13] referring to knights
  25. Daniel Völter . General description of the earth: Physical description of the earth, Volume 1. Publisher: Dannheimer, 1848. [14]
  26. General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts, First Section AG. Brockhaus, 1851. (Unter Ganges) [15]
  27. General history of philosophy: Vol. 1. 1908. [16]
  28. The New Brockhaus. Lexicon and dictionary in 5 vol., Volume 1, Agra. 1971. [17] and Volume 5, Yamuna. 1979. [18]
  29. Brockhaus Encyclopedia: in twenty-four volumes, Volume 24, Yamuna. 1996. [19]
  30. The Brockhaus in One Volume, 2011.