(Redirected from Etymology of the names of India)
The name 'India' may refer to either the region of
Greater India (the
Indian subcontinent), or to the contemporary
Republic of India contained therein. The term is derived from the name of the Sindhu (
Indus River) and has been in use in Greek since
Plutarchus[1] (
1st century AD). The term appears in
Old English in the
9th century, and again in
Modern English since the
17th century.
The Republic of India has three principal short names, in both official and popular English usage, each of which is historically significant. All three originally designated a single entity comprising all the modern nations of the
Indian subcontinent. These names are '''India''', '''Bharat''' (named after
King Bharata) and '''Hindustan''' (The Land of Hindus). The first Article of the
Constitution of India states that "India, that is Bharat, shall be a union of states." Thus, ''India'' and ''Bharat'' are equally official short names for the Republic of India, while Hindustan is used by the masses of India and by Pakistanis and other Muslim nationals and is mostly used in historical contexts (especially
British India).
India
The English term is from Greek Ἰνδία, via Latin ''India''. Ἰνδία in
Byzantine (
Koine Greek) ethnography denotes the region beyond the ''
Ἰνδός'' river, since
Herodotus (
5th century BC) "Indian land", "an Indian", from
Avestan ''Hinduš'' (referring to
Sindh, and listed as a conquered territory by
Darius I in the
Persepolis terrace inscription). The name is derived ultimately from ''Sindhu'', the
Sanskrit name of the river, but also meaning "river" generically. Latin ''India'' is used by
Lucian (2nd century).
The name 'India' was known in
Anglo-Saxon, 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 use of the name ''India'' dates from the 17th century onwards, and may be due to the influence of Latin, or Spanish or Portuguese.
[2]
Sanskrit '' "drop (of
Soma)", also a term for the
Moon, is unrelated, but has sometimes been erroneously connected.
Listed by, among others, Colonel James Todd in his ''Annals of Rajputana'', he describes the ancient India under control of tribes claiming descent from the Moon, or "Indu", (referring to
Chandravanshi Rajputs), and their influence in Trans-Indian regions where they referred to the land as Industhan.
Bharat
The name Bhārat
[3] is used for the Republic of India, derived from ''Bhārata'' in the official Sanskrit name of the country, ''. The form ''Bharata'' is used in several other Indian languages.
The Sanskrit word ''bhārata'' is a
vrddhi 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''.
The
Bhāratas were an
Indians mentioned in the
Rigveda, notably participating in the
Battle of the Ten Kings.
The term ''Bhārata'' as a name for India as a whole is derived from the name of
Bharata son of
Dushyanta, a legendary ruler mentioned in the ''
Mahabhārata'' (the core portion of which is itself known as ''Bhārata''). The realm of Bharata is known as '' in the ''Mahabhārata'' and later texts. The term ''varṣa'' means a division of the earth, or a continent.
[1]
The
Vishnu Purana (2.3.1) has:
:''
: "The country (''varam'') 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 territory of the contemporary
Republic of India,
Pakistan,
Nepal and
Bangladesh, as well as portions of eastern
Afghanistan. This corresponds to the approximate extent of the historical
Maurya Empire under emperors
Chandragupta Maurya and
Ashoka the Great (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).
''
Akhanda Bharata'' ("undivided Bharat") is an
irredentist term of
Hindu nationalism calling for a re-unification of the region under the predominance of
Dharmic culture.
Hindustan and Hind
The name ''Hind'' is derived from a
Avestan pronunciation of
Sind. The
Avestan ''-stān'' means country or land (cognate to Sanskrit ''sthāna'' "place, land").
India was called ''Hindustan'' 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 ''
Tarik Al-Hind'' "history of India"). It also occurs intermittently in usage within India, such as in the phrase ''Jai Hind''.
The terms Hind and Hindustan 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.
-stan is a Persian suffix meaning "home of/place of".
The word '' (हिन्दु) was loaned from
Avestan into
Sanskrit in early medieval times and is attested — in the sense of dwellers of the Indian subcontinent, in some texts, such as
Bhavishya Purāna, Kālikā Purāna, Merutantra, Rāmakosha, Hemantakavikosha and Adbhutarūpakosha.
''Hindustan'' was in use synonymously with ''India'' during the
British Raj. The term is from the
Avestan
''Hindustān'', as is the term
Hindu itself. It entered the English language in the 17th century. In the 19th century, the term as used in English referred to the northern region of India between the
Indus and
Brahmaputra rivers and between the
Himalayas and the
Vindhyas in particular, hence the term
Hindustani for the Hindi-Urdu language.
It must be noted that the term Hindustan used to refer to an area now constituting
India,
Pakistan and
Bangladesh.
Some historical definitions
Some historical definitions prior to 1500 are presented below
[4]
| Year | Name | Source | Definition |
|---|
| c. 486 BCE. | Hidush | Naksh-i-Rustam | "Says Darius the King: By the grace of Ormazd these (are) the countries which I have acquired besides Persia. I have established my power over them. They have brought tribute to me. That which has been said to them by me they have done. They have obeyed my law. Medea . . . Arachotia (Harauvatish), Sattagydia (Thatagush), Gandaria (Gadára), India (Hidush). . . ." |
| c. 440 BCE | India | Herodotus | "Eastward of India lies a tract which is entirely sand. Indeed, of all the inhabitants of Asia, concerning whom anything is known, the Indians dwell nearest to the east, and the rising of the Sun." |
| c. 300 BCE | India/Indikē | Megasthenes | "India then being four-sided in plan, the side which looks to the Orient and that to the South, the Great Sea compasseth; that towards the Arctic is divided by the mountain chain of Hēmōdus from Scythia, inhabited by that tribe of Scythians who are called Sakai; and on the fourth side, turned towards the West, the Indus marks the boundary, the biggest or nearly so of all rivers after the Nile." |
| c. 140. | Indoi, Indou | Arrian | "The boundary of the land of India towards the north is Mount Taurus. It is not still called Taurus in this land; but Taurus begins from the sea over against Pamphylia and Lycia and Cilicia; and reaches as far as the Eastern Ocean, running right across Asia. But the mountain has different names in different places; in one, Parapamisus, in another Hemodus; elsewhere it is called Imaon, and perhaps has all sorts of other names; but the Macedonians who fought with Alexander called it Caucasus; another Caucasus, that is, not the Scythian; so that the story ran that Alexander came even to the far side of the Caucasus. The western part of India is bounded by the river Indus right down to the ocean, where the river runs out by two mouths, not joined together as are the five mouths of the Ister; but like those of the Nile, by which the Egyptian delta is formed; thus also the Indian delta is formed by the river Indus, not less than the Egyptian; and this in the Indian tongue is called Pattala. Towards the south this ocean bounds the land of India, and eastward the sea itself is the boundary. The southern part near Pattala and the mouths of the Indus were surveyed by Alexander and Macedonians, and many Greeks; as for the eastern part, Alexander did not traverse this beyond the river Hyphasis. A few historians have described the parts which are this side of the Ganges and where are the mouths of the Ganges and the city of Palimbothra, the greatest Indian city on the Ganges. (...) The Indian rivers are greater than any others in Asia; greatest are the Ganges and the Indus, whence the land gets its name; each of these is greater than the Nile of Egypt and the Scythian Ister, even were these put together; my own idea is that even the Acesines is greater than the Ister and the Nile, where the Acesines having taken in the Hydaspes, Hydraotes, and Hyphasis, runs into the Indus, so that its breadth there becomes thirty stades. Possibly also other greater rivers run through the land of India." |
| c. 590. | Hind | Istakhri | "As for the land of the Hind it is bounded on the East by the Persian Sea (i.e. the Indian Ocean), on the W. and S. by the countries of Islām, and on the N. by the Chinese Empire. . . . The length of the land of the Hind from the government of Mokrān, the country of Mansūra and Bodha and the rest of Sind, till thou comest to Kannūj and thence passest on to Tibet, is about 4 months, and its breadth from the Indian Ocean to the country of Kannūj about three months." |
| c. 650 | Five Indies | Xuanzang | "The circumference of the Five Indies is about 90,000 li; on three sides it is bounded by a great sea; on the north it is backed by snowy mountains. It is wide at the north and narrow at the south; its figure is that of a half-moon." |
| c. 944. | Hind, Sind | Masudi | "For the nonce let us confine ourselves to summary notices concerning the kings of Sind and Hind. The language of Sind is different from that of Hind. . . ." |
| c. 1020 | Hind | Al-Birūnī | "Hind is surrounded on the East by Chín and Máchín, on the West by Sind and Kábul, and on the South by the Sea."- |
| 1205 | Hind | Hasan Nizāmī | "The whole country of Hind, from Peshawar in the north, to the Indian Ocean in the south; from Sehwan (on the west bank of the Indus) to the mountains on the east dividing from China." |
| 1298 | India the Greater
India the Minor
Middle India | Marco Polo | "India the Greater is that which extends from Maabar to Kesmacoran (i.e. from Coromandel to Mekran), and it contains 13 great kingdoms. . . . India the Lesser extends from the Province of Champa to Mutfili (i.e. from Cochin-China to the Kistna Delta), and contains 8 great Kingdoms. . . . Abash (Abyssinia) is a very great province, and you must know that it constitutes the Middle India." |
| c. 1328. | India | Friar Jordanus | "What shall I say? The great- ness of this India is beyond description. But let this much suffice concerning India the Greater and the Less. Of India Tertia I will say this, that I have not indeed seen its many marvels, not having been there. . . ." |
| 1404 | India Minor | Clavijo | "And this same Thursday that the said Ambassadors arrived at this great River (the Oxus) they crossed to the other side. And the same day . . . came in the evening to a great city which is called Tenmit (Termez), and this used to belong to India Minor, but now belongs to the empire of Samarkand, having been conquered by Tamurbec." |
Republic of India
Official names
The official names as set down in article 1 of the
Indian constitution are:
:
English: ''India; Bharat''
:
Hindi: भारत; इंडिया (''Bhārat; Inḍiyā'')
Names in the Eighth Schedule languages
The following is a list the name in twenty-three (as of 2007)
official languages of India as recognized by the Eighth Schedule to the
Indian Constitution[5]. Hindi and English (listed in boldface) are the "official languages of the union";
[6] Tamil and Sanskrit are officially the "
classical languages of India."
| Language | Long form | Short form |
|---|
| Assamese' | ভাৰত গণৰাজ্য | ভাৰত |
| Bengali' | ভারত গণরাজ্য Bʰārôt Gôṇôrājÿô | ভারত ''Bharot'' |
| Bodo' | |
| Dogri' | |
| 'English'[7] | Republic of India | India |
| Gujarati' | ભારતીય પ્રજાસત્તાક | ભારત |
| 'Hindi' | भारत गणराज्य ''Bhārata Gaṇarājya'' | भारत ''Bhārat'' |
| Kannada' | ಭಾರತ ಗಣರಾಜ್ಯ ''Bʰārata Gaṇarājya'' | ಭಾರತ ''Bʰārata'' |
| Kashmiri' | | |
| Konkani' | भारोत गोणराज | भारोत |
| Maithili' | |
| Malayalam' | റിപബ്ലിക്ക് ഓഫ് ഇന്ത്യ | ഇന്ത്യ |
| Marathi' | भारतीय प्रजासत्ताक | भारत |
| Manipuri (also Meitei or Meithei) | ভারত গণরাজ্য | ভারত |
| Nepali' | भारत गणराज्य ''Bʰārat Gaṇarādzya'' | भारत ''Bʰārat'' |
| Oriya' | |
| Punjabi' | ਭਾਰਤ ਗਣਰਾਜ ''
ਭਾਰਤ ਗਣਤੰਤਰ '' | ਭਾਰਤ '' |
| Sanskrit' | भारत गणराज्य '' | भारत '' |
| Santhali' | |
| Sindhi' | |
| Tamil' | இந்திய குடியரசு Indhiye Kudiyarasu | இந்தியா Indhiya |
| Telugu' | భారత గణ రాజ్యము ''Bʰārata Gaṇa Rājyamu'' | ఇ౦డియా ''India'' |
| Urdu' | جمہوریہ بھارت ''Jumhūrīyat-e Bhārat'' | بھارت ''Bhārat'' |
See also
★
Iran naming dispute
★
History of India
★
Origin of the names of Indian states
★
Āryavarta
References
1. ''De Alexandri magni fortuna aut virtute'', Stephanus page 328, F, 6
2. India ''Oxford English Dictionary'', 2nd edition: 1989.
3. Article 1 of the English version of the Constitution of India: "India that is Bharat shall be a Union of States."
4. http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.1:1:191.hobson
5. Eighth Schedule
6. The Union: Official Language
7. CIA Factbook: India
External links
★
The Unity of India Dileep Karanth's article about the terms "Hindu" and "India"
★
Meaning of the word Hindu
★
Looking for a Hindu Identity
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