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 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 in North India, but was later more broadly applied to the Indian subcontinent and the region of Greater India, 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 (5th century BCE). The term appeared in Old English as early the 9th century and reemerged in Modern English in the 17th century.

India

The English term is from Greek 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, 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 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 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 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 (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 settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

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 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 bicycle ...

)", also a term for the Moon, is unrelated, but has sometimes been erroneously connected.

Hind / Hindustān

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

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 () on the Statue of Darius I, circa 500 BCE. In middle Persian, 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 emperor Shapur I 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 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, 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 estab ...

: the rulers in the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal periods called their Indian dominion, centered around Delhi, "Hindustan" (; ). In contemporary Persian and Urdu language, 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

. "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 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 himsel ...

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 Manu may refer to: Geography *Manú Province, a province of Peru, in the Madre de Dios Region **Manú National Park, Peru **Manú River, in southeastern Peru *Manu River (Tripura), which originates in India and flows into Bangladesh * Manu Templ ...

. Some other Puranic passages refer to the Bharata people, who are described as the descendants of Dushyanta's son Bharata in the '' Mahabharata''. 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 Ganges west of Magadha. In the Sanskrit epic, the '' Mahabharata'' (200 BCE to 300 CE), a larger region of North India is encompassed by the term, but much of the Deccan and South India 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 ...

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

. 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 ''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 Marudevī was the mother of the first Jain Tirthankara, Rishabhanatha and the queen of King Nabhi. Birth of Rishabhanatha The enlivening of the embryo through the descent of the future Tīrthankara's soul in the mortal body is celebrated ...

, 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 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, 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 '' Mahabharata'' (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 Vedi ...

(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, '' Mahabharata'', '' Ramayana'' 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 bordere ...

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, Pakistan, Nepal,

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 and Myanmar—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 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.

Gyagar and Phagyul

Both, Gyagar and Phagyul, are

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken diale ...

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

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

vihāra Vihāra generally refers to a Buddhist monastery for Buddhist renunciates, mostly in the Indian subcontinent. The concept is ancient and in early Sanskrit and Pali texts, it meant any arrangement of space or facilities for dwellings . The term ev ...

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

Kuru Kuru may refer to: Anthropology and history * Kuru (disease), a type of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy associated with the cannibalistic funeral practices of the Fore people * Kuru (mythology), part of Meithei mythology * Kuru Kingdom, ...

(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 ar ...

) to Magadha (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 West Ben ...

). 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 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 repor ...

), "''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 Liaoning Normal University (LNU; ) in Dalian, Liaoning Province, China is a comprehensive university with an emphasis on teacher training. It has the largest teacher college in Liaoning Province. History Liaoning Normal University was establi ...

, Dalian, 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 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 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 gra ...

in the Indian subcontinent. 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's Shiji and () is used in the Hou Hanshu (Book of the Later Han). () comes from the

Kuchean Kuchean (also known as Tocharian B or West Tocharian) was a Western member of Tocharian branch of Indo-European languages, extinct from ninth century. Once spoken in the Tarim Basin in Central Asia. Tocharian B shows an internal chronological d ...

''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 Tianzhu which also referred as Heaven is the historical East Asian name for India, Originally pronounced as l̥induk or *qʰl'iːn tuɡ 天竺 in Old Chinese, it comes from the Chinese transliteration of unattested Old Persian diminutive *Hi ...

(). 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 t ...

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 and Christian Old Testament. In Esther, 1:1 and 8.9, and

Ahasuerus Ahasuerus ( ; , commonly ''Achashverosh'';; fa, اخشورش, Axšoreš; fa, label=New Persian, خشایار, Xašāyār; grc, Ξέρξης, Xérxēs. grc, label=Koine Greek, Ἀσουήρος, Asouḗros, in the Septuagint; la, Assuerus ...

had been described as King ruling 127 provinces from ''Hodu'' (India) to '' Ethiopia''. The term seemingly derives from Sanskrit ''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 are: : Hindi: (') :

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 ...

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