India (term)

The Republic of India is principally known by two official short names: India and Bharat. An unofficial third name is Hindustan, which is widely used throughout North India. Although these names now refer to the modern country in most contexts, they historically denoted the broader Indian subcontinent.

"India" () is a name derived from the Indus River and remains the country's common name in the Western world, having been used by the ancient Greeks to refer to the lands east of Persia and south of the Himalayas. This name had appeared in Old English by the 9th century and re-emerged in Modern English in the 17th century.

"Bharat" () is the shortened form of the name "Bhāratavarṣa" in the Sanskrit language and grew in popularity during the 19th century. It originates from the Vedic period and is rooted in the Dharmic religions, particularly Hinduism. The long-form Sanskrit name is derived from the Bharata tribe, who are mentioned in the Rigveda as one of the principal peoples of Aryavarta, which roughly corresponds with the Indo-Gangetic Plain. The initial application of the name referred only to the western part of the Gangetic Valley. Dwijendra Narayan Jha
''Rethinking Hindu Identity''
(Routledge: 2014), p.11 Upinder Singh
''Political Violence in Ancient India''
p.253 In 1949, the Constituent Assembly of India adopted "Bharat" (alongside "India") as one of the country's two official short names.

"Hindustan" () is also a name derived from the Indus River, combining "Hindu" as an exonym with the suffix "-stan" in the Persian language. It has been the most common Persian name for India since at least the 3rd century, with the earlier form " Hindush" (an adaptation of the Sanskrit name "Sindhu") being attested in Old Persian as early as the 6th century BCE, when it was used to refer to the lands east of the Persian frontier in the Indus Valley. However, the name did not become particularly widespread in other languages until the 11th century, when it was popularised during the Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent. While it is no longer used in an official capacity, "Hindustan" is still a common name for India in the Hindustani language.

India

The English term is from Greek ''Indikē'' (cf. Megasthenes' work Indica) or (), via Latin transliteration .

The name derives from Sanskrit , which was the name of the Indus River as well as the lower Indus basin (modern Sindh, 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."

Southworth suggests that the name ''Sindhu'' is in turn derived from ''Cintu'', a Dravidian word for date palm, a tree commonly found in Sindh.

The Old Persian equivalent of was . Darius I conquered Sindh in about 516 BCE, upon which the Persian equivalent was used for the province at the lower Indus basin. Scylax of Caryanda 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 Herodotus's Geography. The loss of the aspirate /h/ was probably due to the dialects of Greek spoken in Asia Minor. 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, in Koine Greek denoted the region beyond the Indus. Alexander's companions were aware of at least India up to the Ganges delta (Gangaridai). Later, Megasthenes included in India the southern peninsula as well.

Latin is used by Lucian (2nd century CE). was known in Old English language and was used in King Alfred's translation of Paulus Orosius. In Middle English, the name was, under French influence, replaced by or , which entered Early Modern English 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)", also a term for the Moon, is unrelated, but has sometimes been erroneously connected.

Indies

The term "Indies" refers to the land east of river Indus. It is fully interchangeable with the word India. Portuguese initially described the entire region they discovered as the Indies. Caribbean islands were initially described as "Indies" as they were thought to be India. When they became known to be in western hemisphere, they were renamed as West Indies. Thus West Indies means India in the western hemisphere. Indonesia's former name is Dutch East Indies which means India in southeast Asia (this should not to be confused with Dutch India, which referred to the trading posts of VOC within the Indian subcontinent).

Bharat

Bharat is another name of India, as set down in Article 1 of the Constitution, adopted in 1950, which states in English: "India, that is Bharat,..." Bharat, which was predominantly used in Sanskrit, was adopted as a self-ascribed alternative name by some people of the Indian subcontinent and the Republic of India.

Bharat is derived from the name of the Vedic community Bharatas, who are mentioned in the Rigveda as one of the original community of the Āryāvarta.

The designation ''Bharat'' appears in the official Sanskrit name of the country, ''Bhāratagaṇarājya''. The name is derived from the ancient Hindu Puranas, 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 says "''he who conquers the whole of Bhāratavarṣa is celebrated as a samrāṭa'' (Vayu Puran 45, 86)."

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''. This term also means "one who is engaged in search for knowledge". ''Barato'', the Esperanto name for India, is also a derivation of ''Bhārata''.

This realm of Bharat, which has been referred to as Bhāratavarṣa in puranas - after Bharata, the son of Rishabha. He is described to be a Kshatriya born in the Solar dynasty. This has been mentioned in Vishnu Purana (2,1,31), Vayu Puran (33,52), Linga Purana (1,47,23), Brahmanda Purana (14,5,62), Agni Purana (107,11–12), Skand Purana (37,57) and Markanday Purana (50,41), all using the designation ''Bhāratavarṣa''.

The Vishnu Purana mentions:
:
:
: The country that lies north of the ocean and south of the snowy mountains is called Bhāratam there dwell the descendants of Bharata.
::—Vishnu Purana (2,3,1)
The Bhagavat Puran mentions (Canto 5, Chapter 4) - "He (Rishabha) 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 Bhāratavarṣa"

Bharat Khand (or Bhārat Kṣētra) is a term used in some of the Hindu texts.

In the Sanskrit epic, the '' Mahabharat'' (200 BCE to 300 CE), a larger region of Indosphere is encompassed by the term Bharat. Some other Puranic passages refer to the same Bhārata people, who are described as the descendants of Dushyanta's son Bharata in the ''Mahabharata''.

The use of Bharat often has political overtones, appealing to a certain cultural conception of India. In 2023, President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the Bharat name in connection with a G20 gathering, which caused speculation on a name-change for the country. Such a change would need a constitutional amendment, meaning two-thirds of the vote in each of the two houses of parliament, and an official notice to the UN, advising how to write the name in the UN's six official languages.

Epigraphical references

The earliest recorded use of Bhārata-varṣa () in a geographical sense is in the Hathigumpha inscription of King Kharavela (first century BCE), where it applies only to a restrained area of northern India, namely the part of the Ganges west of Magadha. The inscription clearly mentions Bharat was named after Bharata, the son of first Jain tirthankar Rishabhanatha.

Hind / Hindustan

The words () and () came from Indo-Aryan/Sanskrit (the Indus River or its region). The Achaemenid emperor Darius I 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 where it was written O4-N35-D46-V4-M17-M17 () on the Statue of Darius I, circa 500 BCE.National Museum of Iran notice

In middle Persian, probably from the first century CE, the suffix () was added, indicative of a country or region, forming the name . Thus, Sindh was referred to as ''Hindustān'' in the Naqsh-e-Rustam inscription of Sassanid emperor Shapur I in 262 CE.

Emperor Babur of the Mughal Empire said, "On the East, the South, and the West it is bounded by the Great Ocean." ''Hind'' was notably adapted in the Arabic language as the definitive form () for India, for example, in the 11th-century ''Tarikh Al-Hind'' ('History of India'). It occurs intermittently in usage within India, such as in the phrase () or in (), the Standard Hindi name for the Indian Ocean.

Both the names were current in Persian and Arabic, and from that into northern Indian languages, from the 11th century Islamic conquests: the rulers in the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal periods called their Indian dominion, centered around Delhi, "Hindustan". In contemporary Persian and Hindi-Urdu, the term Hindustan has recently come to mean the Republic of India. The same is the case with Arabic, where is the name for the Republic of India.

"Hindustan", 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 Subcontinent. "Hindustan" was in use simultaneously with "India" during the British era.

Jambudvīpa

Jambudvīpa () was used in ancient scriptures as a name of India before the term ''Bhārat'' became widespread. It might be an indirect reference to the Insular India. The derivative ''Jambu Dwipa'' was the historical term for India in many Southeast Asian 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. It was used by Maurya Emperor Ashoka in his inscriptions to denote his realm.

Gyagar and Phagyul

Both Gyagar ("White expanse", analogous to the names Gyanak for China and Gyaser for Russia) and Phagyul are Tibetan names for India. Ancient Tibetan Buddhist 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 lamas & authors also started to refer to India as the ''Phagyul'', short for ''Phags yul'', meaning ''the land of aryas'' 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 Press, p.74-80. Tibetan scholar Gendun Chopel explains that Tibetan word ''gyagar'' comes from the Indian sanskrit language word ''vihāra'' (buddhist monastery), and the ancient Tibetans applied the term ''Geysar'' mainly to the northern and central India region from Kuru (modern Haryana) to Magadha (modern Bihar). Gendun Chopel (translated by Thupten Jinpa and Donald S. Lopez Jr.), 2014
Grains of Gold: Tales of a Cosmopolitan Traveler
University of Chicago Press, p.73-74. The Epic of King Gesar, 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), "''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, China. The Central Tibetan Administration, 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 reveres India as the guru with Tibet as its chela (shishya or disciple) and ''"refers to himself the ‘Son of India’ and a true follower of Mahatma Gandhi. He continues to advocate the revival of India's ancient wisdom based on the Nalanda tradition."''Thank you India
Central Tibetan Administration, published: Jan 2018, accessed: 19 Dec 2022.

Tianzhu

( originally pronounced ) is one of several Chinese transliterations of the Sanskrit ''Sindhu'' via Persian ''Hindu'' and is used since ancient times in China and its peripheries. Its Sino-Xenic reading is in Japanese, () in Korean, and in Vietnamese. Devout Buddhists in the Sinosphere traditionally used this term and its related forms to designate India as their "heavenly centre", referring to the sacred origins of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent.

Other forms include (), which appears in Sima Qian's Shiji. Another is (), which is used in the Hou Hanshu (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 name Tianzhu and its Sino-Xenic cognates were eventually replaced by terms derived from the Middle Chinese borrowing of *''yentu'' from Kuchean, though a very long time elapsed between that term's first use and its becoming the standard modern name for India in East Asian languages. Pronounced () in Chinese, it was first used by the seventh-century monk and traveler Xuanzang. In Japanese for example, the name (, , or occasionally ) had been found occasionally in 18th and early 19th-century works, such as Arai Hakuseki's '' Sairan Igen'' (1713) and 's (, a translation of a work by Johann Hübner). However, the use of the name , which was heavily associated with the image of India as a land of Buddhism, was not completely displaced until the early 20th century: scholars such as Soyen Shaku and who travelled to India for pilgrimages to Buddhist historical sites, continued to use the name to emphasise the religious aspect of their travels, though most of their contemporaries (even fellow Buddhist pilgrims) adopted the name by then.

India is nowadays also called () in Korean, and in Vietnamese. Similar to Hindu and Sindhu, the term ''Yin'' was used in classical Chinese much like the English ''Ind''.

Hodu

Hodu ( ''Hodû'') is the Biblical Hebrew name for India mentioned in the ''Book of Esther'' part of the Jewish Tanakh

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