Etymology of India: Encyclopedia - Etymology of India

Etymology of India

India is a nation with three main names in official and popular use, and with historical and cultural importance. All three names were originally accorded to a single entity comprising all the moderns nations of the Indian subcontinent.

Etymology of India - India

The first Article of the Constitution of India, which deals with the official name, states that "India, that is Bharat, shall be a union of states." Thus, not only in usage but officially India and Bharat are both accorded primary status. The name India is derived from the river Indus.

The original name of the river came from the fact that in the north-west of the subcontinent, there are seven main tributaries of the one river. The local inhabitants therefore called it Sapta-Sindhu, meaning the land of seven rivers. As the seven tributaries are part of the one river, the entire river system came to be known in time as Sindhu. In general, Sindhu also means any river or water body in Sanskrit.

Persian explorers visited the area even in ancient times, and the Iranian 'h' is cognate with Sanskrit 's'. Thus Sindhu became Hindu. Similarly, Sanskrit Asura (a spirit, later an evil spirit) is cognate with Ahura, the Supreme God of the Early Iranian people.

The Greeks, dropping the 'H', derived Indos. The Latin form of Indos is Indus, the name by which the river system is still known in the West. Its name was given to the entire subcontinent by the Romans, who adapted it to the current India.

The word India is the form used by Europeans over the ages.

Sindhu is also sanskrit term for Ocean and for any large water body. It would specifically mean the modern river Indus, if ancient Indic originated there. It could just mean "water dwellers" as well.

Interestingly the Vedas did not assign any particular name for India, although some scholars assert that references to Indu in the Rig Veda relate to India's present name. Many traditional literary/cultural works from around the globe lack definite terminology for their home culture as a political unit; China, Greece, and many other civilizations lacked fixed names for themelves in traditional literature during many early periods.

Listed by among others Colonel James Todd in his Annals of Rajputana, he describes the ancient India under control of tribes claiming descent from Moon or "Indu" and their influence in Trans-Indian regions where they referred to the land as Industhan. This explanation would serve better to explain the term Hindu. Having said that, ancient Greeks do mention the Indic tribes or related tribes (could be of Iranian origin or joint Indo-Iranian origin) inhabiting what is now Ukraine as Sindoi or Sindkoi.

Note that the term India for India has been used in English only from 17th century onwards, due to influence of Latin. Earlier in Old and Medival English, India was exclusively called Inde.

Etymology of India - Bhārat

Bhāratavarsha (Bhārat or Bharatvarsha) is the name in Sanskrit, Hindi and the languages of India for the World, but properly the Indian subcontinent. It is also an official name of the Republic of India, and possibly the earliest name given to the nation. Article 1 of the Constitution of India also recognises the name 'Bharat'. ('India that is Bharat shall be a Union of States.'). In Sanskrit, it is pronounced as /b^hα: rətə/ while in Hindi as /b^hα: rət/.

Etymology of India - Mythological Origins

The name "Bhārat" is derived from either of two ancient Hindu kings named Bharata, though it is more commonly accepted that the name derives from that of the son of Dushyanta, whom the Mahabharata credits with bringing the whole of Bharatavarsha under his rule and securing the title of an emperor.

"Bha" in Sanskrit means knowledge or light, and "rat" is a verb for 'doing'. Bhārat is therefore 'the one in search of knowledge.' Bharatavarsha also means The Land of Bharata, and The Cherished Land. The name Bharata means The Cherished One in Sanskrit. The name derives from the times of Vedic civilization after King Bharata, who first conquered all of the known world, which was duly named after him in his honor. Hence his descendent Aryan tribe was called as the Bhāratas. In all the classical and religous works of Hinduism, such as the Mahabharata and Ramayana, the Puranas and Upanishads, Bhārat is the name used for what is today known as India. Note that in Vedic Sanskrit, the most important meaning of the word Bhārata was the epithet of Agni (the demigod of fire) as the bearer of sacrificial oblations to the other demigods—from the root bhŗ, meaning, to bear, carry. (Merrill-Webster Sanskrit dictionary).

Etymology of India - In History

Historical Bharat extended to what are today Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh and even by some accounts, portions of eastern Afghanistan (called Gandhāra). The Mauryan Empire under Emperors Chandragupta Maurya and Ashoka are the other times the similar extent of land and peoples have been united under a single political entity, but the social, cultural and economic links are complex and originated five thousand years ago. This expanse has variously been reduced and increased, and was at its largest under Emperors like Samundragupta, Chandragupta Vikramaditya, Alauddin Khilji, Akbar, Aurangazeb and lastly under the Britishers.

Etymology of India - Hindustan

To the Western world, Bhārat has always been known under the name of Hindu or its variants. In Vedic Sanskrit, the word Sindhu meant the river Indus in particular and any river or water body in general. The Aryans called their expanse as Sapta Sindhu, meaning the land of seven rivers (including the Indus)—attested several times in the Rig Veda. The /s/ of the Indic branch (as represented by Sanskrit) is linguistically cognate with the /h/ sound of Iranian (as represented by Avestan and Old Persian). Hence the term Sapta Sindhu became the term Hapta Hindu in Avesta, the supreme scripture of the Early Iranians (Vendidad: Fargard 1.18). In Persian, stān (Sanskrit: sthāna) means a land. Hence India, the land to the East of the Indus, soon came to be known as Hindustan by the Persians and the Arabs. Its short form was Hind, which became Hindia in Ancient Greek and India in Later Greek and Latin. The Islamic invasions started in India from 11th century onwards; the Muslim rulers in the Sultanate period and Mughal period called their Indian dominion as Hindustan, centered around Delhi—whether their kingdom swallowed almost the whole of the Indian subcontinent (as during the time of Alauddin Khilji and Aurangazeb) or shrank upto only Delhi and the adjoining areas (as during the rule of Bahadur Shar Zafar). Some people interpret Hindustan to be the region of India between Indus and Brahmaputra and between Himalayas and the Vindhyas. Others call the whole of the Indian subcontinent as Hindustan. In modern India, Hindustan is almost exclusively used, not only by the Indian Muslims, but also by the Hindus and the media (when referring to India informally)—for the Republic of India. India is now called as Al-Hind in Arabic language and Hind in Persian.

The word Hindu (हिन्दु), possibly due to Iranian influence—in the sense of people of India—is used in some early-medieval Sanskrit texts like Bhavişhya Purāņa, Kālikā Purāņa, Merutantra, Rāmakosha, Hemantakavikosha and Adbhutarūpakosha.

Etymology of India - Aryavarta

Aryavarta is yet another name which refers to India. This is probably the oldest one but not much in common use these days. In ancient texts, there is sufficient usage of the word "Aryavart". Aryavart refers to the Land of Aryas (the Aryans).

Aryavarta, or alternatively Brahmarshi desa covered the river plains of northeastern India, in the modern state of Uttar Pradesh, so it is also debatable if this name could apply to all of India. Aryavarta was also a collection of city-states and Vedic tribes, not a political entity by itself.

See also

• Iran naming dispute
• History of India
• Origin of the names of Indian states

Categories: Indian culture | History of India | Country name etymology

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Etymology of India", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki