All about India: How did India get its name?

All about India is the space where we cover something about India or Indians that you wouldn’t have known.

Today, we sought an answer to a very unique question, ‘how did India get its name?’

The answer being:

India is primarily called as ‘India’, ‘Bharat’ and ‘Hindustaan.’ The word for a `river’ in Sanskrit is Sindhu. In the language of ancient Persian, a near relative of Sanskrit, the initial `s’ of a Sanskrit word was invariably rendered as an apirate – `h’ and sindhu is thus Hind(h)u.

When, from Persian, the word found its way into Greek, the initial aspirate was dropped, and it started to appear as the route `Ind’ (as in `India’, `Indus’, etc.). In this form it reached Latin and most other European languages.

However, in Arabic and related languages it retained the initial `h’, giving `Hindustan’ as the name by which Turks and Mughals would know India. That word also passed on to Europe to give `Hindu’ as the name of the country’s indigenous people and of what, by Muslims and Christians alike, was regarded as their infidel religion.

Bhaarat desh is the name used by locals. Bharat was a king who ruled over the whole nation wisely, hence the name “of bharat” = bhaarat.

The lesser known explanation is that of bharata who ruled for 14 years on behalf of his brother Raama. He ruled very wisely and Raama out of gratitude declared that it will henceforth be known as ‘bharata desha’.

“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. Arya in Sanskrit means “noble” and it is not to be confused with the term Aryan which was introduced by colonialists.

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. “