Chapter Notes

India, That Is Bharat

The region we now know as India has a profound spiritual and cultural unity that developed very early in its history, encompassing the vast stretch of humanity between the Himalayas and the two surrounding seas.

The Indian Subcontinent: A Region of Changing Names and Boundaries

Today, India is a modern nation with clearly defined borders, states, and a known population. However, this definition is relatively new. In ancient times, even 5,000 years ago, the region often called the Indian Subcontinent had many different names and its boundaries were constantly shifting. We can understand India's rich past and evolution by studying various sources such as ancient texts, accounts of travellers and pilgrims, and inscriptions.

How Indians Named India

Over the course of history, the people living in the Indian Subcontinent gave it many names. These names often reflected geographical features or significant groups of people.

Early Regional Names

• Rig Veda: This is India’s most ancient text, dating back several thousand years.
  • It refers to the northwest region of the Subcontinent as Sapta Sindhava, meaning 'the land of the seven rivers'.
  • The word Sindhava itself comes from Sindhu, which is the name of the Indus River, or sometimes a general term for a river.
• Mahābhārata: This famous Indian text, written from a few centuries BCE onward, lists many distinct regions within the Subcontinent.
  • Examples include Kāshmīra (roughly modern Kashmir), Kurukșhetra (parts of Haryana), Vanga (parts of Bengal), Prāgjyotiṣha (roughly today’s Assam), Kaccha (today’s Kutch), and Kerala (today’s Kerala).
  • [!note] The detailed mention of these regions in the Mahābhārata shows that ancient Indians had a comprehensive understanding of the diverse geography of their land.

Names for the Entire Indian Subcontinent

As time progressed, terms emerged that referred to the entire geographical expanse of the Indian Subcontinent.

• Bhāratavarṣha:
  • The Mahābhārata uses this term, which literally means 'the country of the Bharatas'.
  • The name Bharata first appears in the Rig Veda, where it refers to one of the main Vedic groups of people. Later literature also mentions several kings named Bharata.
  • This term clearly described the whole Subcontinent, mentioning numerous rivers and peoples within its scope.
• Jambudvīpa:
  • Another term found in the Mahābhārata, Jambudvīpa means 'the island of the fruit of the jamun tree' (also known as jambul tree or Malabar plum tree). This common tree is native to India.
  • This name came to represent the entire Indian Subcontinent.
  • Emperor Aśhoka, who ruled around 250 BCE, used the name Jambudvīpa in his inscriptions to describe the whole of India.
  • [!example] At that time, the territory described as Jambudvīpa by Aśhoka was vast, including what we know today as Bangladesh, Pakistan, and even parts of Afghanistan, in addition to modern India.
• Bhārata:
  • A few centuries after Aśhoka, the name Bhārata became widely adopted as the general name for the Indian Subcontinent.
  • An ancient text called the Vişhṇu Purāṇa describes Bhārata as the land situated north of the ocean and south of the snowy mountains.
  • This name is still in use today; it is commonly written as Bharat in north India and Bharatam in south India.
  • [!note] The Indian Constitution, which lays down the basic principles and laws of the nation, begins by stating "India, that is Bharat" in its English version, and "Bhārat arthāth India" in its Hindi version. This highlights the historical significance and enduring relevance of the name Bhārata.

Ancient Indians' Awareness of Geography

Ancient Indian literature demonstrates a strong awareness of the Subcontinent's geographical extent. For instance, a Tamil poem from about 2,000 years ago praises a king whose fame stretched "from [Cape] Kumari in the south, from the great mountain in the north, from the oceans on the east and on the west..." This description clearly identifies the Himalayas as the "great mountain in the north" and Cape Kumari (Kanyakumari) as the southernmost point, showing that ancient Indians had a good understanding of their vast homeland's boundaries.

How Foreigners Named India

Visitors and invaders from outside the Subcontinent also contributed to the array of names for India, often deriving them from geographical features they encountered.

• Persians:
  • The Persians, ancient inhabitants of Iran, were the first foreigners to mention India.
  • In the 6th century BCE, a Persian emperor launched a military campaign and gained control of the region around the Indus River, which was known as Sindhu.
  • As a result, in their earliest records and stone inscriptions, the Persians adapted Sindhu into Hind, Hidu, or Hindu to refer to this region.
  • [!note] It's crucial to understand that in ancient Persian, the word Hindu was a purely geographical term referring to the land beyond the Indus River, and did not refer to the Hindu religion.
• Greeks:
  • Building on these Persian sources, the ancient Greeks named the region Indoi or Indike.
  • They typically dropped the initial 'h' sound from 'Hindu' because that sound was not common in their Greek language. This linguistic adaptation led to the root of the name 'India'.
• Chinese:
  • The ancient Chinese also engaged with India and referred to it in several texts as Yintu or Yindu. This word, too, originally came from Sindhu.
  • Another Chinese word, Tianzhu, also derived from Sindhu, could additionally be understood as 'heavenly master'. This dual meaning reflects the significant respect the ancient Chinese held for India, particularly as the birthplace of the Buddha.
  • [!example] Famous Chinese scholars like Xuanzang travelled to India in the 7th century CE. He spent 17 years visiting various parts of India, meeting scholars, collecting Buddhist texts, and then returned to China to translate the Sanskrit manuscripts into Chinese.
• Hindustān:
  • This term, which is quite familiar today, was first used in a Persian inscription about 1,800 years ago.
  • Later, Hindustān became the term predominantly used by most invaders of India to describe the Indian Subcontinent.

Before We Move On...

To summarize the journey through India's many names:

• India is an ancient land that has acquired numerous names throughout its long history, each reflecting different periods and perspectives.
• The names given by the ancient inhabitants of India include Jambudvīpa and Bhārata. The name Bhārata eventually became widespread and is still the name of India in most Indian languages today.
• Foreign visitors to, or invaders of, India mostly adopted names that were derived from the Sindhu or Indus River. This linguistic evolution resulted in names like Hindu (Persian), Indoi (Greek), and ultimately, the name India that is widely used in English and many other languages.