Asiknī (Asikni) is one of the sacred rivers in ancient India. According to scholars, The river called Asiknī, in Vedic times , later came to be known as Candrabhāgā (Chandrabhaga) in Sanskrita (Sanskrit).Yāska (Yaska), the author of Nirukta has said , asiknyāśuklāsitā, sitāmiti varṇa nāma. tat prativedho’sitam.
That is — the river has a blcakish flow,it is non-white. The ‘Acesines’ of the emperor Alexander, the modern river Chenub and Asiknī are one and the same. Hesichius of Alexandria, who composed the Greek lexion in about the 5th century AD, opines that it was Alexander who changed the name of Candrabhāgā.In Greek, the river was called ‘Sandrephagas’– which means ‘dedicated to Alexander’. Hesychius, however, has given more importance to the name Asiknī, becase the term ‘Acesines’ derived from ‘Asiknī’ — and in Greek, it means ‘one that relieves’. From the biography of Alexander written by Arrian, it is known that Alexander, while entering into India from the North-western side, crossed the rivers Sindhu , Hydaspes, and then ‘Acesines’.
IOt may further be noted that the modern Chenub or the river Asiknī of ancient times, emerging from the high parts of Himālaya (Himalya), has entered the districts of Lahul and Speety in Himachal Pradesh, and then flowed across Jammu-Kashmir and entered into the Punjub region belonging to Pakistan.