India
Names of India
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The name India may refer to either the region of Greater India (the Indian subcontinent) or to the contemporary Republic of India located therein. The name is derived from the name of the Sindhu (Indus River) and has been in use in Greek since Herodotus (4th century BC).[1] The term appeared in Old English as early the 9th century and reemerged in Modern English in the 17th century.
The Republic of India has two principal short names in both official
and popular English usage, each of which is historically significant, India and Bharat. The first article of the Constitution of India states that "India, that is Bharat, shall be a union of states," implicitly codifying India and Bharat as equally official short names for the Republic of India. A third name, Hindustan, is a historical term for the north and northwestern subcontinent (especially during the British India
period) that is now widely used as an alternative name for the region
comprising most of the modern nations of the subcontinent when Indians
speak among themselves. The usage of Bharat, Hindustan or India is dependent on the context and language of conversation.
According to the Manusmṛti (2.21–22) North India (i.e., India north of the Vindhyas) is also known as Āryāvarta (Sanskrit: आर्यावर्त, "abode of the Aryans).[2]
India
The English term is from Greek Ἰνδία (Indía), via Latin India. Indía in Koine Greek denoted the region beyond the Indus (Ἰνδός) river in the Indian Subcontinent, since Herodotus (5th century BC) ἡ Ἰνδική χώρη, hē Indikē chōrē; "the Indian land", Ἰνδός, Indos, "an Indian", from Old Persian Hinduš and listed as a conquered territory by Darius I in the Persepolis terrace inscription).[3] The name is derived ultimately from Sindhu, the Sanskrit name of the river, but also meaning "river" generically.[4] Latin India is used by Lucian (2nd century).
The name India was known in Old English, and was used in King Alfred's translation of Orosius. In Middle English, the name was, under French influence, replaced by Ynde or Inde, which entered Early Modern English as Indie. The name India
then came back to English usage from the 17th century onwards, and may
be due to the influence of Latin, or Spanish or Portuguese.
Sanskrit indu "drop (of Soma)", also a term for the Moon, is unrelated, but has sometimes been erroneously connected, listed by, among others, Colonel James Tod in his Annals of Rajputana. Todd describes ancient India as under control of tribes claiming descent from the Moon, or "Indu" (referring to Chandravanshi Rajputs).
Āryāvarta
Āryāvarta (Sanskrit: आर्यावर्त, abode of Aryans)
is a name for North India, where the culture of the Indo-Aryans was
based, in classical Sanskrit literature. The Manu Smriti (2.22) gives
the name to "the tract between the Himalaya and the Vindhya ranges, from
the Eastern (Bay of Bengal) to the Western Sea (Arabian Sea)".[5][6]
Drāvida
Drāvida (Sanskrit: द्राविड) i.e. South India, is the area encompassing Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep and Puducherry. This name is also used in the national anthem of India.
Bhārata
The name Bhārata (भारत) came from emperor Bharata and it has been used as a self-ascribed name by people of the Indian subcontinent and the Republic of India.[7] The designation Bhārata appears in the official Sanskrit name of the country, Bhārata Gaṇarājya. The name is derived from the ancient Hindu Puranas, which refer to the land that comprises India as Bhāratavarṣa (Sanskrit: भारतवर्ष, lit. country of Bharata) and uses this term to distinguish it from other varṣas or continents.[8] For example, the Vayu Puranas say "he who conquers the whole of Bhāratavarṣa is celebrated as a samrāt (Vayu Purana 45, 86)."[8]
According to the most popular theory, the name Bhārata is the vrddhi of Bharata, a king mentioned in Rigveda.[citation needed]
The Sanskrit word bhārata is a vṛddhi derivation of Bharata, which was originally an epithet of Agni. The term is a verbal noun of the Sanskrit root bhr-, "to bear / to carry", with a literal meaning of "to be maintained" (of fire). The root bhr is cognate with the English verb to bear and Latin ferō.
According to the Puranas, this country is known as Bharatavarsha after the King Bharata.
This has been mentioned in Vishnu Purana (2,1,31), Vayu Purana,(33,52),
Linga Purana(1,47,23), Brahmanda Purana (14,5,62), Agni Purana (
107,11–12), Skanda Purana, Khanda (37,57) and Markandaya Purana (50,41),
all using the designation Bharata Varsha.
- ऋषभो मरुदेव्याश्च ऋषभात भरतो भवेत्
- भरताद भारतं वर्षं, भरतात सुमतिस्त्वभूत्
- Rishabha was born to Marudevi, Bharata was born to Rishabha,
- Bharatavarsha (India) arose from Bharata, and Sumati arose from Bharata.
- ततश्च भारतं वर्षमेतल्लोकेषुगीयते
- भरताय यत: पित्रा दत्तं प्रतिष्ठिता वनम (विष्णु पुराण, २,१,३२)
- This country is known as Bharatavarsha since the times the father entrusted the kingdom to the son Bharata and he himself went to the forest for ascetic practices[9]
The Bhāratas were an vedic tribe mentioned in the Rigveda, notably participating in the Battle of the Ten Kings.
The realm of Bharata is known as Bharātavarṣa in the Mahabhārata (the core portion of which is itself known as Bhārata) and later texts. The term varsa means a division of the earth, or a continent. [3]
- उत्तरं यत्समुद्रस्य हिमाद्रेश्चैव दक्षिणम् ।
- वर्षं तद् भारतं नाम भारती यत्र संततिः ।।
- "The country (varṣam) that lies north of the ocean and south of the snowy mountains is called Bhāratam; there dwell the descendants of Bharata."
The term in Classical Sanskrit literature is taken to comprise the present day territories of Indian subcontinent. This corresponds to the approximate extent of the historical Mauryan Empire under Emperors Chandragupta Maurya and Emperor Ashoka (4th to 3rd centuries BC). Later, political entities unifying approximately the same region are the Mughal Empire (17th century), the Maratha Empire (18th century) and the British Raj (19th to 20th centuries).
Hind / Hindustan
The name Hind (Persian: هند) is derived from the Iranian equivalent of Indo-Aryan Sindh. The Persian -stān means "country" or "land" (cognate to Sanskrit sthāna "place, land").
Northwestern South Asia was called Hindustān (Persian: هندوستان) in Persian, although the term Hind is in current use. al-Hind الهند is the term in the Arabic language (e.g. in the 11th century Tarikh Al-Hind "history of India"). It also occurs intermittently in usage within India, such as in the phrase Jai Hind (Sanskrit: जय हिन्द).
The terms Hind and Hindustān were current in Persian and Arabic from the 11th century Islamic conquests: the rulers in the Sultanate and Mughal periods called their Indian dominion, centred around Delhi, Hindustan.
Hindustān, as the term Hindu
itself, entered the English language in the 17th century. In the 19th
century, the term as used in English referred to the northern region of
the subcontinent between the Indus and Brahmaputra rivers and between the Himalayas and the Vindhyas in particular, hence the term Hindustani for the Hindi-Urdu language. Hindustan was in use synonymously with India during the British Raj.
Hind (Hindi: हिन्द) remains in use in Hindi. In contemporary Persian and Urdu language, the term Hindustan has recently come to mean the Republic of India. The same is the case with Arabic, where al-Hind is the name of the Republic of India.
Today, Hindustān is no longer in use as the official name for India, although in Modern Standard Arabic as well as dialects it is the only name for India, (al-Hind الهند).