The Punpun River is a tributary of the

Ganges The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...

. It originates in

Palamu district Palamu district is one of the twenty-four districts of Jharkhand state, India. It was formed in 1892. The administrative headquarter of the district is Medininagar (formerly DaltonGanj), situated on the Koel River. History The Palamu district ha ...

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . It ...

and flows through

Chatra Chatra is the headquarters of Chatra district in the Indian state of Jharkhand. History Chatra was the “headquarters” of Ramgarh district in the 18th-19th century. The renowned reformer, Raja Rammohan Roy, was ''sheristadar'' in Ramgarh di ...

Aurangabad Aurangabad ( is a city in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarters of Aurangabad district and is the largest city in the Marathwada region. Located on a hilly upland terrain in the Deccan Traps, Aurangabad is th ...

, Gaya and

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

districts of the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n states of

and

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

Punpun Punpun is a satellite town in the Patna Metropolitan Region, Patna district, in the Indian state of Bihar. Geography It is located 10 km south of Patna. The name Punpun comes from the nearby Punpun River, a tributary of the Ganges Riv ...

is a place named after the Punpun river in Patna which is situated on the bank of Punpun river. On the bank of Punpun people celebrate Chhath Puja.

Course

The Punpun originates on the

Chota Nagpur Plateau The Chota Nagpur Plateau is a plateau in eastern India, which covers much of Jharkhand state as well as adjacent parts of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal and Bihar. The Indo-Gangetic plain lies to the north and east of the plateau, and the bas ...

, at an elevation of , The river mostly flows in a north-east direction and joins the

Fatuha Fatuha also spelled Fatwah or Fatwa, is a Satellite town in proposed Patna Metropolitan Region, in the Patna district in the India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countri ...

, downstream of

. Many towns such as Sigori are located on the banks of the river.

Tributaries

The main tributaries of the Punpun are – the Butane, the Madar and the Mohar.

Other features

The long river is mostly rainfed and carries little water in the dry season. However, during rains, the Punpun often causes heavy flood damages east of Patna city. The catchment area of the Punpun is . Agricultural area in the Punpun basin is about . The average annual rainfall for the basin is .

Religious significance

This river is mentioned in the

Vayu Vayu (, sa, वायु, ), also known as Vata and Pavana, is the Hindu god of the winds as well as the divine massenger of the gods. In the ''Vedic scriptures'', Vayu is an important deity and is closely associated with Indra, the king of ...

and the

Padma The Padma ( bn, পদ্মা ''Pôdma'') is a major river in Bangladesh. It is the main distributary of the Ganges, flowing generally southeast for to its confluence with the Meghna River near the Bay of Bengal. The city of Rajshahi is sit ...

Puranas Purana (; sa, , '; literally meaning "ancient, old"Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature (1995 Edition), Article on Puranas, , page 915) is a vast genre of Indian literature about a wide range of topics, particularly about legends an ...

in connection with Gaya Mahatmya as the ''punah-punah'' (again and again) of which Pun-Pun is the colloquial form. The river might have been called by this name because it was frequently in spate. The Puranas interpret the word ''punah-punah'' in a spiritual sense that sins are removed again and again by offering oblations to forefathers in the river.

References

{{Rivers in Bihar Rivers of Jharkhand Rivers of Bihar Tributaries of the Ganges Rivers of India