Names for India

"Bhāratavarṣa" is derived from the name of the Vedic tribe of Bharatas who are mentioned in the Rigveda as one of the principal peoples of Aryavarta (the part of the Indian subcontinent settled by Aryans).

"Hindustan" is still commonly used in the subcontinent to refer to the modern day Republic of India by Hindustani speakers.

Darius I took over Sindh around 516 BCE, and the Persian word Hinduš was used for the lower Indus area in Ancient Pakistan.

The terms Indos (Ἰνδός) for the Indus River and Indian are found in Hecataeus of Miletus and Herodotus's writings.

The loss of the /h/ sound in Hinduš was likely because of the Greek dialects spoken in Asia Minor and the word became Indos.

After the partition, the modern Republic of India kept the colonial name that originally referred to what is now Pakistan (Indus Valley).

Months before independence in August 1947, both Jinnah and the Muslim League were against the using the name India by Nehru's Hindustan.

Even today, many Hindu nationalists and Hindi speakers in India argue for the word Bharat to become the only official name of the country.

Jinnah only found out months before independence that Mountbatten and Nehru were going to name Hindustan the "Republic of India".

Naresh Bansal, a BJP member of parliament, said the name India is a symbol of "colonial rule" and "should be removed from the constitution."

Critics say these new names are an attempt to erase the Mughals, who were Muslims and ruled the subcontinent for almost 300 years, from Indian history.

It said:"Pakistan may lay claim to the name 'India' if India derecognizes it officially at the United Nation (UN) level".

Meanwhile, former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said that the original name of the country was "definitely" Bharat and that it was the British who started calling it India.

[8] Darius I conquered Sindh in about 516 BCE, upon which the Persian equivalent Hinduš was used for the province at the lower Indus basin.

[citation needed] India was known in Old English language and was used in King Alfred's translation of Paulus Orosius.

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.

[citation needed] Sanskrit indu "drop (of Soma)", also a term for the Moon, is unrelated, but has sometimes been erroneously connected.

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 varṣas or continents.

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).

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[24]) 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.

[25] Some other Puranic passages refer to the same Bhārata people, who are described as the descendants of Dushyanta's son Bharata in the Mahabharata.

[26] The use of Bharat often has political overtones, appealing to a certain cultural conception of India especially in majority vernacular speaking regions.

[27] 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.

'Bharat mainland') 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.

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.

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.

The land produces elephants, rhinoceros, tortoise shell, gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin.

[54] वर्षं तद् भारतं नाम भारती यत्र संततिः ।।" i.e. "The country (varṣam) that lies north of the ocean and south of the snowy mountains is called Bhāratam; there dwell the descendants of Bharat."

वर्षं तद् भारतं नाम भारती यत्र संततिः ।।" i.e. "The country (varṣam) that lies north of the ocean and south of the snowy mountains is called Bhāratam; there dwell the descendants of Bharat."