The

Republic of India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

has two principal short names, each of which is historically significant, "India" and "Bharata". A third name, "Hindustān", is sometimes an alternative name for the region comprising most of the modern

Indian states India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-indepen ...

of the subcontinent when Indians speak among themselves. The usage of "Bhārat", "Hindustān", or "India" depends on the context and language of conversation. "Bhārat", the name for India in several Indian languages, is variously said to be derived from the name of either, King Dhashrath's son Bharat, Dushyanta's son Bharata or Rishabha's son Bharata. At first the name Bhārat referred only to the western part of the

Ganges The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...

North India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...

, but was later more broadly applied to the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Ind ...

and the region of

Greater India Greater India, or the Indian cultural sphere, is an area composed of many countries and regions in South and Southeast Asia that were historically influenced by Indian culture, which itself formed from the various distinct indigenous cultures ...

, as was the name "India". Today it refers to the contemporary

located therein. The name "India" is originally derived from the name of the river Sindhu (

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir ...

) and has been in use in Greek since

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria (Italy). He is known for ...

(5th century BCE). The term appeared in

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

as early the 9th century and reemerged in Modern English in the 17th century.

India

The English term is from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Ἰνδική / Indikē (cf. Megasthenes' work Indica) or (), via Latin transliteration . The name derives ultimately from Sanskrit (), which was the name of the

as well as the lower Indus basin (modern

Sindh Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of ...

, in Pakistan).: "''Sindhu'' means a stream, a river, and in particular the Indus river, but likewise it denotes the territory of the lower Indus valley, or modern Sind. Therefore, the appellation ''Saindhavah'', means "inhabitants of the lower Indus valley".... In this respect Sindhu is no tribal name at all. It denotes a geographical unit to which different tribes may belong." The

Old Persian Old Persian is one of the two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan language, Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native ...

equivalent of was .

Darius I Darius I ( peo, 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 ; grc-gre, Δαρεῖος ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was a Persian ruler who served as the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his d ...

conquered Sindh in about 516 BCE, upon which the Persian equivalent was used for the province at the lower Indus basin.

Scylax of Caryanda Scylax of Caryanda ( el, Σκύλαξ ὁ Καρυανδεύς) was a Greek explorer and writer of the late 6th and early 5th centuries BCE. His own writings are lost, though occasionally cited or quoted by later Greek and Roman authors. The peri ...

who explored the Indus river for the Persian emperor probably took over the Persian name and passed it into Greek. The terms () for the Indus river as well as "an Indian" are found in

's Geography. The loss of the aspirate /h/ was probably due to the dialects of Greek spoken in

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

. Herodotus also generalised the term "Indian" from the people of lower Indus basin, to all the people living to the east of Persia, even though he had no knowledge of the geography of the land. By the time of

Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

, in

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

denoted the region beyond the Indus. Alexander's companions were aware of at least North India up to the Ganges delta (

Gangaridai Gangaridai ( gr, Γανγαρίδαι; Latin: ''Gangaridae'') is a term used by the ancient Greco-Roman writers (1st century BCE-2nd century AD) to describe a people or a geographical region of the ancient Indian subcontinent. Some of these writ ...

). Later,

Megasthenes Megasthenes ( ; grc, Μεγασθένης, c. 350 BCE– c. 290 BCE) was an ancient Greek historian, diplomat and Indian ethnographer and explorer in the Hellenistic period. He described India in his book '' Indica'', which is now lost, but h ...

included in India the southern peninsula as well. Latin is used by

Lucian Lucian of Samosata, '; la, Lucianus Samosatensis ( 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridiculed superstiti ...

(2nd century AD). was known in

Old English language Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th cen ...

and was used in

King Alfred Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who ...

's translation of

Paulus Orosius Paulus Orosius (; born 375/385 – 420 AD), less often Paul Orosius in English, was a Roman priest, historian and theologian, and a student of Augustine of Hippo. It is possible that he was born in '' Bracara Augusta'' (now Braga, Portugal), ...

. In

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English ...

, the name was, under French influence, replaced by or , which entered

Early Modern English Early Modern English or Early New English (sometimes abbreviated EModE, EMnE, or ENE) is the stage of the English language from the beginning of the Tudor period to the English Interregnum and Restoration, or from the transition from Middle ...

as "". The name "India" then came back to English usage from the 17th century onward, and may be due to the influence of Latin, or Spanish or Portuguese. Sanskrit ''indu'' "drop (of

Soma Soma may refer to: Businesses and brands * SOMA (architects), a New York–based firm of architects * Soma (company), a company that designs eco-friendly water filtration systems * SOMA Fabrications, a builder of bicycle frames and other bicyc ...

)", also a term for the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width ...

, is unrelated, but has sometimes been erroneously connected.

Hind / Hindustān

The words ( fa, هندو) and ( fa, هند) came from Indo-Aryan/

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the la ...

(the

or its

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

). The Achaemenid emperor

conquered the Indus valley in about 516 BCE, upon which the Achaemenid equivalent of , viz., "''Hindush''" (, ) was used for the lower Indus basin.: 'The Persians coined the name of Hindush after the current Sanskrit geographical name of Sindhu. Neither the Old Persian inscriptions, nor the Avesta make use of the word hindu in the sense of "river".': "The new satrapy, which received the name of Hindush, extended from the centre to the lower part of the Indus Valley, in present-day Pakistan." The name was also known as far as the Achaemenid province of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medite ...

where it was written () on the Statue of Darius I, circa 500 BCE. In

middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle P ...

, probably from the first century CE, the suffix ( fa, ستان) was added, indicative of a country or region, forming the name . Thus, Sindh was referred to as ''Hindūstān'' in the Naqsh-e-Rustam inscription of

Sassanid The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Name ...

emperor

Shapur I Shapur I (also spelled Shabuhr I; pal, 𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩, Šābuhr ) was the second Sasanian King of Kings of Iran. The dating of his reign is disputed, but it is generally agreed that he ruled from 240 to 270, with his father Ardas ...

in 262 CE. Emperor Babur said, "On the East, the South, and the West it is bounded by the Great Ocean." ''Hind'' was notably adapted in the

Arabic language Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

as the definitive form () for India, e.g. in the 11th century ''Tarikh Al-Hind'' ('History of India'). It occurs intermittently in usage within India, such as in the phrase ( hi, जय हिन्द) or in (), the Standard Hindi name for the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...

, but otherwise is deemed archaic. Both the names were current in Persian and Arabic from the 11th century

Islamic conquests The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests ( ar, الْفُتُوحَاتُ الإسْلَامِيَّة, ), also referred to as the Arab conquests, were initiated in the 7th century by Muhammad, the main Islamic prophet. He esta ...

: the rulers in the

Delhi Sultanate The Delhi Sultanate was an Islamic empire based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for 320 years (1206–1526).

and Mughal periods called their Indian dominion, centered around

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

, "Hindustan" (; ). In contemporary Persian and

Urdu language Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Republic of India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. "Hindustan", as the term

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

itself, entered the English language in the 17th century. In the 19th century, the term as used in English referred to the Subcontinent. "Hindustan" was in use simultaneously with "India" during the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

Bhārata

Bhārata was selected as an alternative name of India in 1950. The name Bhārata or Bhārata-varṣa (Bharata-varsha) is said to be derived from the name of either Dushyanta's son Bharata or Rishabha's son Bharata. Several

Puranas Purana (; sa, , '; literally meaning "ancient, old"Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature (1995 Edition), Article on Puranas, , page 915) is a vast genre of Indian literature about a wide range of topics, particularly about legends an ...

state that it is derived from the name of Bharata, the son of Rishabha. However, some Puranic passages state that it is derived from Bharata, which was another name for Rishabha's ancestor Manu. Some other Puranic passages refer to the Bharata people, who are described as the descendants of Dushyanta's son Bharata in the ''

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the '' Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuru ...

''. The earliest recorded use of Bhāratavarṣa in a geographical sense is in the

Hathigumpha inscription The Hathigumpha Inscription is a seventeen line inscription in Prakrit language incised in Brahmi script in a cavern called Hathigumpha in Udayagiri hills, near Bhubaneswar in Odisha, India. Dated between 2nd-century BCE and 1st-century CE, it ...

of King

Kharavela Kharavela (also transliterated Khārabēḷa) was a monarch of Kalinga in present-day Odisha, India, who ruled during the second or first century BCE. The primary source for Kharavela is his rock-cut Hathigumpha inscription. The inscription i ...

(first century BCE), where it applies only to a restrained area of northern India, namely the part of the

west of

Magadha Magadha was a region and one of the sixteen sa, script=Latn, Mahajanapadas, label=none, lit=Great Kingdoms of the Second Urbanization (600–200 BCE) in what is now south Bihar (before expansion) at the eastern Ganges Plain. Magadha was ruled ...

. In the Sanskrit epic, the ''

'' (200 BCE to 300 CE), a larger region of North India is encompassed by the term, but much of the

Deccan The large Deccan Plateau in southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bounded by the ...

and

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union t ...

are still excluded. Bhārata has been used as a self-ascribed name by some people of the Indian subcontinent and the Republic of India. The designation ''Bhārata'' appears in the official Sanskrit name of the country, ''Bhārata Gaṇarājya''. The name is derived from the ancient Hindu

, which refer to the land that comprises India as ''Bhāratavarṣa'' () and uses this term to distinguish it from other ''varṣa''s or continents. For example, the

Vayu Purana The ''Vayu Purana'' ( sa, वायुपुराण, ) is a Sanskrit text and one of the eighteen major Puranas of Hinduism. ''Vayu Purana'' is mentioned in the manuscripts of the Mahabharata and other Hindu texts, which has led scholars to p ...

says "''he who conquers the whole of Bhāratavarṣa is celebrated as a samrāt'' (Vayu Purana 45, 86)." The Sanskrit word ''bhārata'' is a

vṛddhi Vṛddhi (also rendered vr̥ddhi) is a technical term in morphophonology given to the strongest grade in the vowel gradation system of Sanskrit. The term is derived from Sanskrit ''vṛddhi'', , 'growth', from . Origins Vṛddhi itself has its ...

derivation of ''Bharata'', which was originally an epithet of

Agni Agni (English: , sa, अग्नि, translit=Agni) is a Sanskrit word meaning fire and connotes the Vedic fire deity of Hinduism. He is also the guardian deity of the southeast direction and is typically found in southeast corners of Hindu ...

. 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 Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition ...

). The

root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the sur ...

''bhr'' is cognate with the English verb ''to bear'' and Latin ''ferō''. This term also means "one who is engaged in search for knowledge". ''Barato'', the

Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international commun ...

name for India, is also a derivation of ''Bhārata''. According to the Puranas, this country is known as Bharatavarsha after Bharata, the son of

Rishabha Rishabhanatha, also ( sa, ऋषभदेव), Rishabhadeva, or Ikshvaku is the first (Supreme preacher) of Jainism and establisher of Ikshvaku dynasty. He was the first of twenty-four teachers in the present half-cycle of time in Jain co ...

.He was a Kshatriya born in Ikshvaku Dynasty(Solar Dynasty).(Reference -Champat Rai Jain 1929, p. 92). 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''. Vishnu Purāna mentions: : : :

was born to Marudevi, Bharata was born to Rishabha, :Bharatavarsha (India) arose from Bharata and Sumati arose from Bharata. ::—Vishnu Purana (2,1,31) : : :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. ::—Vishnu Purana (2,1,32) :' : : : "The country (''varṣam'') that lies north of the

ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wo ...

and south of the snowy mountains is called ''Bhāratam''; there dwell the descendants of Bharata." ::—Vishnu Purana The Srimad Bhagavat Purana mentions(Canto 5, Chapter 4) - "He (

) begot a hundred sons that were exactly like him... He ( Bharata) had the best qualities and it was because of him that this land by the people is called Bhârata-varsha" The

Bhāratas The Bharatas were an early Vedic tribe that existed in the latter half of the second millennium B.C.E. The earliest mentioned location of the Bharatas was on the first Sarasvati River in southern Afghanistan. Under the tribal king Divodāsa, ...

were also a

Vedic upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the ...

tribe mentioned in the

Rigveda The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (''śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one ...

, notably participating in the

Battle of the Ten Kings The Battle of the Ten Kings ( sa, दाशराज्ञ युद्ध, translit=Dāśarājñá yuddhá) is a battle, first alluded to in the 7th Mandala of the Rigveda (RV), between a Bharata king and a confederation of tribes. It resulte ...

. The realm of Bharata is known as ''Bharātavarṣa'' in the ''

'' (the core portion of which is itself known as ''Bhārata'') and later texts. According to the text, the term ''Bharata'' is from the king Bharata, who was the son of

Dushyanta Dushyanta ( sa, दुष्यन्त, translit=Duṣyanta) is a king of the Chandravamsha (Lunar) dynasty featured in Hindu literature. He is the husband of Shakuntala and the father of Bharata. He appears in the Mahabharata and in Kali ...

and

Shakuntala Shakuntala (Sanskrit: ''Śakuntalā'') is the wife of Dushyanta and the mother of Emperor Bharata. Her story is told in the ''Adi Parva'' of the ancient Indian epic ''Mahabharata'' and dramatized by many writers, the most famous adaption being ...

and the term ''varsa'' means a division of the earth or a continent.

Bharata Khanda Bharata Khanda (IAST : ''Bhāratakhaṇḍa'') is a term used in Hindu texts, including the Vedas, ''Mahabharata'', ''Ramayana'' and the Puranic, to describe the Indian subcontinent. The historical context of the Sanskrit epics are the Ved ...

(or Bharata Ksetra) is a term used in

Hindu texts Hindu texts are manuscripts and voluminous historical literature which are related to any of the diverse traditions within Hinduism. A few of these texts are shared across these traditions and they are broadly considered Hindu scriptures. These ...

, including the

Vedas upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the ...

, ''

'', ''

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages ...

'' and the

Puranic Purana (; sa, , '; literally meaning "ancient, old"Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature (1995 Edition), Article on Puranas, , page 915) is a vast genre of Indian literature about a wide range of topics, particularly about legends an ...

, to describe the geographic region that encompassed the modern countries of

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is border ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-la ...

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

and

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

—that is, ''South Asia'' at the term's furthest extent.

Jambudvīpa

Jambudvīpa Jambudvīpa ( sa, जम्बुद्वीप; Pali: Jambudīpa) is a name often used to describe the territory of Greater India in Ancient Indian sources. The term is based on the concept of '' dvīpa'', meaning "island" or "continent" i ...

() was used in ancient scriptures as a name of India before Bhārata became the official name. The derivative ''Jambu Dwipa'' was the historical term for India in many

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

n countries before the introduction of the English word "India". This alternate name is still used occasionally in Thailand, Malaysia, Java and Bali to describe the Indian Subcontinent. However, it also can refer to the whole continent of Asia.

Gyagar and Phagyul

Both, Gyagar and Phagyul, are Tibetan names for India. Ancient

Tibetan Buddhist Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

authors and pilgrims used the ethnogeographic referents ''Gyagar'' or ''Gyagar to the south'' and ''Madhyadesa'' (''central land'' or holy centre) for India. Since at least 13th century, several influential indigenous Tibetan

lama Lama (; "chief") is a title for a teacher of the Dharma in Tibetan Buddhism. The name is similar to the Sanskrit term '' guru'', meaning "heavy one", endowed with qualities the student will eventually embody. The Tibetan word "lama" means "hi ...

s & authors also started to refer to India as the ''Phagyul'', short for ''Phags yul'', meaning ''the land of

arya Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ...

s'' i.e. land of noble, holy, enlightened & superior people who are the source of spiritual enlightenment.Toni Huber, 2008
The Holy Land Reborn: Pilgrimage and the Tibetan Reinvention

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the ...

Press, p.74-80. Tibetan scholar Gendun Chopel explains that tibetan word ''gyagar'' comes from the Indian

sanskrit language Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the lat ...

word '' vihāra'' (buddhist monastery), and the ancient tibetans applied the term ''Geysar'' mainly to the northern and central India region from Kuru (modern

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land a ...

) to

(modern

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of Wes ...

). Gendun Chopel (translated by Thupten Jinpa and Donald S. Lopez Jr.), 2014
Grains of Gold: Tales of a Cosmopolitan Traveler

Press, p.73-74. The

Epic of King Gesar The Epic of King Gesar ( Tibetan, Bhutanese: གླིང་གེ་སར །), also spelled Geser (especially in Mongolian contexts) or Kesar (), is a work of epic literature of Tibet and greater Central Asia. The epic originally devel ...

, which originally developed around 200 BCE or 300 BCE and about 600 CE, describes India as the "''Gyagar: The Kingdom of Buddhist Doctrine''", "''Gyagar: The Kingdom of Aru Medicine''" (

ayurveda Ayurveda () is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. The theory and practice of Ayurveda is pseudoscientific. Ayurveda is heavily practiced in India and Nepal, where around 80% of the population repo ...

), "''Gyagar: The Kingdom of Pearls''" and "''Gyagar: The Kingdom of Golden Vases''".Jianbian Joacuo (translated by Liang Yanjun, Wu Chunxiao and Song Xin), 2019
降边嘉措著, ‎梁艳君, ‎吴春晓 A study of Tibetan epic Gesar
Liaoning Normal University,

Dalian Dalian () is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China. Located on th ...

, China. The

Central Tibetan Administration The Central Tibetan Administration (, , ), often referred to as the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, is a non-profit political organization based in Dharamshala, India. Its organization is modeled after an elective parliamentary government, comp ...

, often referred to as the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, asserts ''"Tibet is inextricably linked to India through geography, history, culture, and spiritually, Tibetans refer to India as ‘Gyagar Phagpay Yul’ or ‘India the land of Aryas.’"''

Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current Da ...

reveres India as the

guru Guru ( sa, गुरु, IAST: ''guru;'' Pali'': garu'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan- Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: traditionally, the guru is a reverential ...

with Tibet as its

chela Chela may refer to: * ''Chela'' (fish), a genus of small minnow-type fish in the Cyprinid family * Chela (organ), a pincer-like organ terminating certain limbs of some arthropods such as crabs * Chela (meteorite), a meteorite fall of 1988 in Tan ...

(shishya or disciple) and ''"refers to himself the ‘Son of India’ and a true follower of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

. He continues to advocate the revival of India’s ancient wisdom based on the

Nalanda Nalanda (, ) was a renowned ''mahavihara'' (Buddhist monastic university) in ancient Magadha (modern-day Bihar), India.Thank you India

, published: Jan 2018, accessed: 19 Dec 2022.

Tianzhu

or (; originally pronounced ) is used since ancient times, the Japanese and some other Asian peoples, especially devout Buddhists, traditionally used "Tenjiku" and its related terms to designate India as their "heavenly centre", referring to the sacred origins of

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

in the

. Some historical East Asian name for India that comes from the Chinese transliteration of the Persian ''Hindu'', which itself is derived from the Sanskrit ''Sindhu'', the native name of the

. is one of several Chinese transliterations of Sindhu. () appears in

Sima Qian Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years b ...

Shiji ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese hist ...

and () is used in the

Hou Hanshu The ''Book of the Later Han'', also known as the ''History of the Later Han'' and by its Chinese name ''Hou Hanshu'' (), is one of the Twenty-Four Histories and covers the history of the Han dynasty from 6 to 189 CE, a period known as the Later ...

(Book of the Later Han). () comes from the Kuchean ''Indaka'', another transliteration of ''Hindu''. A detailed account of Tianzhu is given in the "Xiyu Zhuan" (Record of the Western Regions) in the ''Hou Hanshu'' compiled by Fan Ye (398–445): Tianzhu was also referred to as (, literally "Five Indias"), because there were five geographical regions in India known to the Chinese: Central, Eastern, Western, Northern, and Southern India. The monk Xuanzang also referred to India as or "Five Inds". The term is also used in Japan, where it is pronounced as Tenjiku (). The foreign loanwords () and () are also used in some cases. The current Japanese name for modern India is the foreign loanword (). The current

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of v ...

word for India is (), first used by the seventh-century monk and traveller Xuanzang. Similar to Hindu and Sindhu, the term 印 was used in classical Chinese much like the English ''Ind''.

Hodu

Hodu ( ''Hoddû'') is the

Biblical Hebrew Biblical Hebrew (, or , ), also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanite branch of Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Israel, roughly west of ...

name for India mentioned in the ''

Book of Esther The Book of Esther ( he, מְגִלַּת אֶסְתֵּר, Megillat Esther), also known in Hebrew as "the Scroll" ("the Megillah"), is a book in the third section (, "Writings") of the Jewish ''Tanakh'' (the Hebrew Bible). It is one of the f ...

'' part of the Jewish

Tanakh The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. T ...

. In Esther, 1:1 and 8.9, and Ahasuerus had been described as King ruling 127 provinces from ''Hodu'' (India) to ''

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the Er ...

''. The term seemingly derives from

''Sindhu'', "great river", i.e., the

, via

''Hiñd°u''. It is thus cognate with the term India.

Historical definitions of India

Some historical definitions prior to 1500 are presented below.

Historical definitions of a Greater India

Writers throughout history, both Indian and of other nationalities have written about a 'Greater India', which Indians have called either Akhand Bharat or Mahabharata.P. 45 ''Calcutta Review'' By University of Calcutta, 1950

Republic of India

The official names as set down in article 1 of the

Indian constitution The Constitution of India (IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental r ...

are: :

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

: (') :

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

India

Hind / Hindustān

Bhārata

Jambudvīpa

Gyagar and Phagyul

Tianzhu

Hodu

Historical definitions of India

Historical definitions of a Greater India

Republic of India

See also

Notes

References

Bibliography

Further reading