Chapter 5 — India, That is Bharat

The chapter explains the many different names that the Indian Subcontinent has been known by throughout history. It covers names given by ancient Indians (like Sapta Sindhava, Jambudvipa, and Bharatavarsha) as well as names used by foreign visitors such as the Persians, Greeks, and Chinese. All the foreign names can be traced back to the word 'Sindhu', which refers to the Indus River.

'Sapta Sindhava' means 'the land of the seven rivers'. This name is found in the Rig Veda, which is India's most ancient text and is several thousand years old. It was used for the northwest region of the Indian Subcontinent. The word 'Sindhava' comes from 'Sindhu', which refers to the Indus River.

'Jambudvipa' means 'the island of the fruit of the jamun tree'. The jamun tree is native to India and is also called the jambul tree or Malabar plum tree. This term is found in the Mahabharata and came to mean the entire Indian Subcontinent. Emperor Ashoka (around 250 BCE) also used this name in one of his inscriptions to describe all of India.

'Bharatavarsha' means 'the country of the Bharatas'. The name 'Bharata' first appears in the Rig Veda, where it refers to one of the main Vedic groups of people; several kings named Bharata are also mentioned in later literature. The Mahabharata uses 'Bharatavarsha' to refer to the entire Indian Subcontinent.

Ashoka was an Indian emperor who lived around 250 BCE. He left behind many inscriptions, and in one of them he used the name 'Jambudvipa' to describe the whole of India. At that time, 'Jambudvipa' included what is today India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and parts of Afghanistan.

The Vishnu Purana, an ancient Indian text, states: 'The country that lies north of the ocean and south of the snowy mountains is called Bhārata.' This definition covers the entire Indian Subcontinent, bounded by the Himalayas in the north and the seas in the south. Ancient Tamil literature from about 2,000 years ago describes a similar boundary, from Cape Kumari in the south to the great mountain in the north.

In the 6th century BCE, a Persian emperor gained control of the region of the Indus River, which was earlier called 'Sindhu'. The Persians adapted this word in their language, producing 'Hind', 'Hidu', or 'Hindu'. It is important to note that in ancient Persian, 'Hindu' is a purely geographical term and does not refer to the Hindu religion.

The ancient Greeks based their name on Persian sources. They called India 'Indoi' or 'Indike', dropping the initial 'h' of 'Hindu' because that letter did not exist in the Greek language. The ancient Chinese also derived their names from 'Sindhu': through the path Sindhu → Hindhu → Indu → Yindu, they called India 'Yindu' or 'Yintu'. Another Chinese word, 'Tianzhu', could also mean 'heavenly master', reflecting the respect the ancient Chinese had for India as the land of the Buddha.

'Hindustan' first appeared in a Persian inscription about 1,800 years ago. After that, it became the term most often used by invaders of India to describe the Indian Subcontinent. The chapter notes that students may be familiar with this term even today.

The Indian Constitution, which was first written in English, uses the phrase 'India, that is Bharat' right at its beginning. Its Hindi version similarly states 'Bhārat arthāth India'. The Indian Constitution came into force in 1950.

Xuanzang (formerly spelt Hiuen Tsang) was a Chinese traveller who came to India in the 7th century CE. He visited many parts of India, met scholars, and collected Buddhist texts. After 17 years, he returned to China and translated the manuscripts he had brought back from Sanskrit into Chinese. He is mentioned in this chapter as an example of a foreign visitor who came to India and wrote about it.

The Mahabharata lists many regions across the Subcontinent. These include Kashmira (roughly today's Kashmir), Kurukshetra (parts of Haryana), Vanga (parts of Bengal), Pragjyotisha (roughly today's Assam), Kaccha (today's Kutch), and Kerala (more or less today's Kerala), among others. These regions cover the entire geography of the Subcontinent.

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