Doab () is a term used in South Asia Quote: "Originally and chiefly in South Asia: (the name of) a strip or narrow tract of land between two rivers; spec. (with) the area between the rivers Ganges and Jumna in northern India." for the tract Quote: "confluence, land between two rivers, used in India of the tongue of land between the Ganges and Jumna, and of similar tracts in the Punjab, etc., lit. ‘two waters’ " of land lying between two confluent rivers. It is similar to an interfluve. Quote: " a tract of land between two rivers : interfluve" In the Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, R. S. McGregor refers to its Persian origin in defining it as do-āb (, literally "two [bodies of] water") "a region lying between and reaching to the confluence of two rivers." As per J. S. Grewal, a doab is "the inter-fluvial area between any two rivers".
Khadir, bangar, barani, nali and bagar
Since North India and Pakistan are coursed by a multiplicity of Himalayan rivers that divide the plains into doabs (i.e. regions between two rivers), the Indo-Gangetic plains consist of alternating regions of river, khadir and bangar. The regions of the doabs near the rivers consist of low-lying, floodplains, but usually, very fertile khadir and the higher-lying land away from the rivers consist of bangar, less prone to flooding but also less fertile on average.Damage to Yamuna Khadar, Ravi Shankar's Art of Living Responsible: NGT, Khas Khabar. 7 Dec 2017.
Khadir may also be called nali or naili in northern Haryana, where it refers to the fertile prairie tract between the Ghaggar river and the southern limits of the Saraswati channel depression, which gets flooded during the rainy season."The imperial gazeteers of India, 1908", British Raj, page 288.
Within bangar area, the barani is any low rain area where the rain-fed dry farming is practiced, which nowadays are dependent on the tubewells for irrigation. Bagar tract, an example of barani land, is the dry sandy tract of land on the border of Rajasthan state adjoining the states of Haryana and Punjab.E. Walter Coward, 1980, "Irrigation and Agricultural Development in Asia: Perspectives from the social sciences", Cornell University press, . Nahri is any canal-irrigated land, for example, the Rangoi tract which is an area irrigated by the Rangoi channel/canal made for the purpose of carrying flood waters of Ghagghar river to dry areas.1987, "gazetteer of India: Hisar District" , page 7.1987, "Gazeteers of Hisar district, 1987" , Government of Haryana, page 162.]
Historically, villages in the doabs have been officially classified as khadir, khadir-bangar (i.e. mixed) or bangar for many centuries, and different agricultural tax rates applied based on a tiered land-productivity scale.
Ganga-Yamuna Doab
The Ganga-Yamuna Doab,"Ganges-Yamuna Doab". Encyclopedia Britannica, 3 Nov. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/place/Ganges-Yamuna-Doab. Accessed 31 March 2026. also known simply as The Doab, is the flat alluvial tract between the Ganges and Yamuna rivers extending from the Sivalik Hills to the two rivers' confluence at Prayagraj. It is also called as Ganges-Yamuna Doab or Ganga Doab. The region has an area of about 23,360 square miles (60,500 square km); it is approximately in length and in width.Ganges-Yamuna Doab, Encyclopædia Britannica. In ancient times, it was known as Antarvedi. It is the most populated and largest of the doabs of India and can be divided into three sections: Upper (Haridwar to Aligarh), Middle, and Lower.
The British Raj divided the Doab into three administrative districts, viz., Upper Doab (Meerut), Middle Doab (Agra) and Lower Doab (Allahabad).
Currently the following states and districts form part of The Doab:
Upper Doab Main article : Upper Doab Uttarakhand: Dehradun and Haridwar
Uttar Pradesh: Saharanpur, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Gautam Buddh Nagar and Bulandshahr
Delhi
Central or Middle Doab Etah, Kasganj, Aligarh, Agra, Hathras, Firozabad, Mainpuri and Mathura is in the trans-Yamuna region of Braj.
Lower Doab Farrukhabad, Kannauj, Etawah, Auraiya, Kanpur (Urban & Rural), Fatehpur, Kaushambi and Allahabad.
Punjab Doabs
Each of the tracts of land lying between the confluent rivers of the Punjab region of Pakistan and India has a distinct name, said to have been coined by Raja Todar Mal, a minister of the Mughal emperor Akbar. The names (except for "Sindh Sagar") are a combination of the first letters, in the Persian alphabet, of the names of the rivers that bound the Doab. For example, "Chaj" () = Chanāb (, "Chenab") + Jehlam (, "Jhelum"). The names are from east to west. The practice of dividing regions of Punjab into doabs dates to the reign of Akbar. The doabs of Punjab are not to be confused with its bārs, which according to Grewal (1999) refers to the upland section between two river valleys in the Punjab plains. The introduction of artificial irrigation by well (Saqiyah) in the 11th century in Punjab after the Turkic conquest of the area allowed for an increased population in the northern sections of the region's doabs.
Another way of dividing up the regions of Punjab (which is not well demarcated and often confusing) is based upon bet (area prone to flooding and comes into the flow of rivers), dhaha (old-bed of a river which are high and sandy but still at risk of flooding), and dakar (far-away from river-banks and usually safe from flooding).
Sind Sagar Doab
The Sind Sagar Doab lies between the Indus and Jhelum rivers.
Chaj Doab
The Chaj Doab lies between the Jhelum and the Chenab rivers.
Rachna Doab
The Rachna Doab lies between the Chenab and the Ravi rivers. A considerable portion of the Rechna Doab is in the Majha region.Kakshi, S.R.; Pathak, Rashmi; Pathak, S.R.Bakshi R. (2007-01-01). Punjab Through the Ages. Sarup & Sons. . Retrieved 12 June 2010.
Bari Doab
The Bari Doab lies between the Ravi and Beas rivers. A considerable portion of the Bari Doab is in the Majha region.
Bist Doab
The Bist Doab (or Doaba) - between the Beas and the Sutlej rivers. Also known as the Bist Jalandhar Doab.
Other doabs
Raichur Doab
The Raichur Doab is the triangular region of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka states which lies between the Krishna River and its tributary the Tungabhadra River, named for the town of Raichur.
See also Ap (water) Interamnia, an ancient Latin placename, meaning "between rivers" Mesopotamia, in '[land] between rivers'.
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