Social Sciences: Class 6 — Chapter 5: India, That Is Bharat

The Ṛig Veda, India's most ancient text (several thousand years old), refers to the northwest region of the Subcontinent as Sapta Sindhava, meaning the 'land of the seven rivers'. This is derived from Sindhu, referring to the Indus River.

The Mahābhārata uses two primary terms to describe the entire Subcontinent:

• Bhāratavarṣha: Meaning 'the country of the Bharatas'. The name 'Bharata' first appears in the Ṛig Veda as a major Vedic group of people.
• Jambudvīpa: Meaning 'the island of the fruit of the jamun tree'. This term was used by Emperor Aśhoka (circa 250 BCE) in his inscriptions to describe the entire region, which then included modern India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and parts of Afghanistan.

Ancient texts show a clear geographical awareness of the subcontinent:

• Viṣhṇu Purāṇa: Describes the land as: "uttaram yat samudrasya himādreścaiva dakṣiṇam varṣam tad bhāratam nāma" ("The country that lies north of the ocean and south of the snowy mountains is called Bhārata").
• Ancient Tamil Literature: A poem from ~2,000 years ago praises a king whose domain is defined from Cape Kumari (Kanyakumari) in the south to the great mountain (Himalayas) in the north, bounded by oceans on the east and west.

The Indian Constitution (which came into force in 1950) explicitly uses both names right at the beginning: 'India, that is Bharat' in English, and 'Bhārat arthāth India' in Hindi.

• Persians (6th Century BCE): The ancient inhabitants of Iran gained control of the Indus region and adapted the name Sindhu into Hind, Hidu, or Hindu (used purely as a geographical term, not religious).
• Greeks: Based on Persian sources, the Greeks dropped the initial 'h' (which did not exist in their language) and named the region Indoi or Indike, which eventually evolved into India.

Ancient Chinese texts referred to India using terms derived from 'Sindhu':

• Yintu or Yindu (derived via Sindhu → Hindhu → Indu → Yindu).
• Tianzhu: Meaning 'heavenly master', reflecting deep respect for India as the birthplace of Buddhism.
• Xuanzang: A famous Chinese scholar who travelled to India in the 7th century CE, spent 17 years collecting Buddhist texts, and translated them from Sanskrit to Chinese.

The term Hindustān was first used in a Persian inscription about 1,800 years ago. It later became the common term used by most invaders to describe the Indian Subcontinent.

• Persian: Hind, Hidu, Hindu, Hindustān
• Greek: Indoi, Indike
• Latin: India
• Chinese: Yintu, Yindu, Tianzhu
• Arabic & Persian: Hind, Hindustān
• English: India
• French: Inde