Question

In which period Punjab was called ‘Sapta Sindhu’?

Answer 1

Hint:This is the time when the Vedas were written in the northern Indian subcontinent in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age of the history of India.
Sapta means seven in Vedic Sanskrit/Sanskrit from which we derived the Punjabi word Satt (seven). In Sanskrit, Sindhu means sea.

Complete answer:
Rig-Veda, the oldest religious scripture in the world, which calls this land Sapta Sindhu, the land of seven rivers, was written some time after the arrival of the Aryans in Punjab by the Rishis (saints/seers) of the invading tribes.
The mighty Indus River was so vast that it seemed like a sea to the Aryans. So the oldest name we come across in Punjab is Sapta Sindhu, which may have encompassed a greater land mass than Punjab today, and was recognized in the Vedic period as such.
Indus, Vitasta (Vehit/Jhelum), Asikni (Chenab), Prusni/Eravati (Ravi), Vipasha (Beas), Sutudri (Sutlej) and Saraswati (Sutlej) are the seven rivers mentioned in the Rig-Veda (which dried up).
At many locations in the Rig-Veda, the name of Sapta Sindhu comes up. It is written in Chapter (Mandal) 8, "Who shall save us from our mortal enemies in the Sapta Sindhu?" The dispute between invaders and conquered citizens was not yet over. So, looking at the references to the name "Sapta Sindhu" in similar religious texts, we know that in the Vedic era, Punjab was known by this name.

Hence, it can be said that Punjab was called Sapta Sindhu around the Rigvedic period which was 1200-1800 CE.

Note:In the great epic Mahabharata (1500 B.C to 1700 B.C) we find at several places the description of Punjab in terms of its geographical position and socio-religious structures. Punjab was called Aratta and its people Balhika.
The holy book, The Zoroastrians' Zend Avesta, also gives us a geographical overview of this land. It says, 'I, Ahur Mazda, have founded the fifteenth country. It is Hafta Hindva, distributed through seven rivers.