Yamuna River, also called Jumnamajor river of northern India, river primarily in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh state, northern India, rising in the Himalayas near Jamnotristates. One of the country’s most sacred rivers, it rises on the slopes of the Banderpunch massif in the Great Himalayas near Yamnotri (Jamnotri), Uttarakhand. It flows in a southerly direction through the Himalayan foothills and, exiting Uttarakhand, onto the northern Indian plainIndo-Gangetic Plain, along the Uttar Pradesh–Haryāna Pradesh–Haryana state border. The Eastern and Western Yamuna canals are fed from the river at that point.

The Yamuna then passes Delhi, where it feeds the Āgra Agra Canal. Near Mathura South of Delhi, and now wholly within Uttar Pradesh, it turns southeastward near Mathura and passes ĀgraAgra, FīrozābādFirozabad, and EtāwahEtawah. Below Etāwah Etawah it receives a number of southern tributaries, the largest of which are the Chambal, the Sindh, the Betwa, and the Ken. Near AllahābādAllahabad, after a course of about 855 miles (1,376 km), the Yamuna joins the Ganges (Ganga) River; their confluence is a an especially sacred place to Hindus.

Traffic on the Yamuna is light. Above Āgra Agra it shrinks to a small stream in summer, partly because of the amount of water removed by the canals.