How did India get its name? (2024)

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How did India get its name? ›

The name "India" is originally derived from the name of the river Sindhu (Indus River) and has been in use in Greek since Herodotus (5th century BCE). The term appeared in Old English as early as the 9th century and reemerged in Modern English in the 17th century.

Indus River: The name 'India' has its roots in 'Indus,' the Sanskrit term 'Sindhu,' referring to the mighty river that traversed this ancient land. The Greeks and Iranians adapted it as 'Hindos' or 'Indos,' signifying the region east of the Indus River. Notably, the name 'Bharat' also played a role.

The word 'India' comes from the word 'Indus', called 'Sindhu' in Sanskrit. The Greeks and Iranians called it 'Hindos' or 'Indos' meaning the land to the east of the river called Indus. The name Bharat was used by the people who lived in the North-West. Later, it was used for the country India.

Definition. India is a country in South Asia whose name comes from the Indus River. The name 'Bharata' is used as a designation for the country in their constitution referencing the ancient mythological emperor, Bharata, whose story is told, in part, in the Indian epic Mahabharata.

In his monumental 'Discovery of India', Nehru referred to “India”, “Bharata” and “Hindustan”: “Often, as I wandered from meeting to meeting, I spoke to my audiences of this India of ours, of Hindustan and of Bharata, the old Sanskrit name derived from the mythical founders of the race.”

The Hebrew form "Hoddu" is an abbreviation of Honadu, which is identical with the indigenous names of the river Indus, "Hindu," or "Sindhu," and again with the ancient name of the country as it appears in the Vendidad, "Hapta Hendu." The native form "Sindus" is noticed by Pliny (vi, 23).

“India” has etymological roots in the Indus River, which was called “Sindhu” in Sanskrit. Another popular but not legally recognized name for the country is Hindustan, which means “land of the Indus” in Persian. All three names were in use long before British rule.

Even Alexander and his historians have referred Bharatvarsha as INDOS. In Latin, Sindhu was known as Indus and later in Roman it became India. This name was used by Britishers as well.

In 1492 there was no country known as India. Instead that country was called Hindustan. I think that is closer to the truth that the Spanish padre that sailed with Columbus was so impressed with the innocence of the Natives he observed that he called them Los Ninos in Dios.

The Greeks used the term 'Indus' while the Iranians used the term 'Hindu'. The Chinese preferred the term 'Tien Chu' while the traveller Huin Tsang called India as Yin-Yu. In the Bible, the term used to describe India is 'Hoddu'.

What is the Chinese name for India? ›

Yes, the ancient Chinese called India as Tianzhu. Tianzhu was also referred to as Wutianzhu (五天竺, literal meaning is “Five Indias”), because there were five geographical regions in the Indian subcontinent known to the Chinese: Central, Eastern, Western, Northern, and Southern India .

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive in India and the last to leave. In c. 1498 CE, Vasco da Gama of Portugal discovered a new sea route from Europe to India. He sailed around Africa via the Cape of Good Hope and reached Calicut.

Till the Muslim conquests, eastern regions of Afghanistan including the Kabul Valley and Zabulistan were considered culturally part of Indian subcontinent, and the town of Kabul was noted by Iranian traveller and geographer Istakhri in 921 to be inhabited by the people of Hind.

British rule extended over present-day India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan together about a fifth of the world's population.

The region under British control was commonly called India in contemporaneous usage and included areas directly administered by the United Kingdom, which were collectively called British India, and areas ruled by indigenous rulers, but under British paramountcy, called the princely states.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, archaeologists discovered traces of India's earliest civilization, one that developed in the fertile Indus River Valley between 3000 and 1900 BCE.

Origin:Latin. Other Origin(s):Sanskrit. Meaning:From India; From the Indus River. Along with connecting baby to the southern Asian country, India as a name actually stems from Latin and Sanskrit roots. The feminine title is derived from the Indus river, which flows through South and Central Asia.

In·​dia ˈin-dē-ə 1. large peninsular region that is usually referred to as a subcontinent and is located in southern Asia south of the Himalayas between the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea; occupied by the countries India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh and formerly often considered to include Burma (but not Ceylon) 2.