The Etymology of India

What is common between Bharata, Tenjiku and Jambudvipa? Though one, isn't it? Let’s save you the trouble of Googling. Believe it or not these are actually alternate names of India, historical and mostly referring to the pre-modern India. Allow me to start this blog at the very starting point, the etymology of the words associated with India. Here’s how the names came about,

INDIA

The English term is from Greek Indía, via Latin India. Iindía in Byzantine (Koine Greek) ethnography denotes the region beyond the Indus. The name is derived ultimately from Sindhu, the Sanskrit name of the river, but also meaning "river" generically. The name India was known in Old English, and was used in King Alfred's translation of Orosius. In Middle English, the name was, under French influence, replaced by Ynde or Inde, which entered Early Modern English as Indie. The name India then came back to English usage from the 17th century onwards, and may be due to the influence of Latin, or Spanish or Portuguese.

BHARATA

The name is used for the Republic of India. Bhārata is the official Sanskrit name of the country, Bhārata Gaṇarājya, and the name is derived from the ancient Indian texts, the Puranas, which refers to the land that comprises India as Bharata vasam, and uses this term to distinguish it from other varsas or continents. According to the puranas, this country is known as Bharatavasha after the Jain king Bharat Chakravarti. This has been mentioned in Vishnu Purana, Vayu Purana, Linga Purana, Brahmanda Purana, Agni Purana, Skanda Purana ,Khanda and Markandaya Purana.

HINDUSTAN and HIND

The name Hind is derived from the Iranian equivalent of Indo-Aryan Sindh. The Avestan -stān means country or land (cognate to Sanskrit sthāna "place, land"). India was called Hindustan in Persian although the term Hind is in current use. It also occurs intermittently in usage within India, such as in the phrase Jai Hind. Hindustān, as is 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 northern region of India between the Indus and Brahmaputra rivers and between the Himalayas and the Vindhyas in particular, hence the term Hindustani for the Hindi-Urdu language. Hindustan was in use synonymously with India during the British Raj.Hind (Hindi: हिन्द) remains in use in Hindi-Urdu. In contemporary Persian language, the term Hindustan has come to mean the Indian subcontinent, and the modern Indian Union is called Hind. The same is the case with Arabic language, where al-Hind is the name of the Republic of India.

TENJIKU

Tenjiku is the Japanese word commonly used in reference to pre-modern India. Tian, the root word for the Japanese kanji means, heaven, while, jiku, means: 'the center of'. Therefore the word is known to mean: 'the heavenly center of the world" or "the spiritual axis (center)", a reference to the Indian origins of Buddhism.

JAMBUDVIPA

There is a story in Jain mythology and in Hindu and Buddhist texts as well that describe Jambudvipa being one of the seven islands/continents of the world. It is possible that perhaps "island" is used to refer to India because India in one time was a separate Indian Plate. Perhaps the phrase is used in the manner that the land of India is still an island in between the Indus River and the rest of the Asian Plate.

Hoddu in Hebrew and Aryavarta in Sanskrit also refer to India, but the origins of these names is not clear.

Information Credit: Wikipedia