Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 Notes India, That is Bharat
Naming of India by Indians :
- In past, the Indian sub-continent has had many different names and shifting boundaries. India has been known by many names throughout history. These names are mentioned in ancient texts, accounts of travellers and pilgrims and inscriptions.
- Both inhabitants of India and visitors from outside (foreigners), have called India by various names.
- Rigveda is several thousand years old and it is the most ancient text of India. The North-West region of the sub-continent is named as ‘Sapta Sindhava’ in the Rigveda.
- ‘Sapta Sindhava’ means the ‘land of the seven rivers’. The word ‘Sindhava’ originates from ‘Sindhu’, meaning the Indus river or a river in general.
- Later, the names for the other parts of India appeared in the literature. Mahabharata, one of the India’s most famous texts mentions the name of many regions such as follows
| Name of Region in Mahabharata | Modern name for the Region |
| Kashmira | More or less today’s Kashmir |
| Kurukshetra | Parts of Haryana |
| Vanga | Parts of Bengal |
| Pragjyotisha | Roughly today’s Assam |
| Kaccha | Kutch |
| Kerala | More or less today’s Kerala |
- The earliest known name for the entire Indian sub-continent appears in the Mahabharata, a poem written around a few centuries BCE. It uses the terms ‘Bharatavarsha’ and ‘Jambudvipa’.
- The term Bharatavarsha refers to the entire Indian sub-continent. It means ‘the country of the Bharatas’.
- The name ‘Bharata’ originates from the Rig Veda where it refers to one of the main Vedic groups of people. In the literature of the later period, it mentions several kings named as ‘Bharata’ are mentioned.
- ‘Jambudvipa’ means ‘the island of the fruit of the Jamun tree’. It is a native Indian tree which is also called as ‘Jambul tree’, ‘Malabar plum tree’ etc. Over time, it came to represent the Indian sub-continent.
- Ashoka, an Indian emperor who ruled around 250 BCE, used the term ‘Jambudvipa’ for whole of India in one of his inscriptions. At that time, India included the areas of present day Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
- A few centuries later, ‘Bharata’ became the widely accepted name for the Indian sub-continent.
- The ancient text, Vishnu Purana, defines Bharata as ‘The country that lies North of the ocean and South of the snowy mountains is called Bharata’.
- The name Bharata is still used today. In North India, the term ‘Bharat’ is used while in South India the term ‘Bharatam’ is used.
- Different parts of the country had similar definitions for India. For example, a 2,000-year-old Tamil poem praises a king, whose name is known from Cape Kumari in the South, the great mountain (Himalayas) in the North and the oceans in the East and West. This shows that the ancient Indians had a clear understanding of their country’s geography.
Must Know!
The Indian Constitution uses the phrase “India, that is Bharat’ at the beginning. The Hindi version of the Constitution also mentions the same as ‘Bharat, arthath India’. This clearly indicates that ‘India’ and Bharat’ are two names for the same country.
Naming of India By Foreigners :
- Persians were the first foreigners to mention India. They were ancient inhabitants of Iran.
- In 6th century BCE, a Persian emperor conquered the Indus river region (earlier known as ‘Sindhu’). Hence, this India was named as ‘Hind’, ‘Hidu’, or ‘Hindu’ in their earliest records and inscriptions. These names are adaptations of the term ‘Sindhu’. It is notable that ‘Hindu’ was a geographical term, not related to the Hindu religion.
- Another term, Hindustan which is quite recent was first used by Persians 1,800 years ago. It was later adopted by invaders to refer to the Indian sub-continent.
- The ancient Greeks adopted the name from the Persians and called India-Indoi or Indike. This word originally comes from the term ‘Sindhu’ in the following way
Sindhu → Hindhu → Indoi/Indike - Greeks dropped the letter ‘H’ of ‘Hindu’ because this letter did not exist in the Greek language.
The ancient Chinese called India Yintu or Yindu. This name is also derived from the term ‘Sindhu’ in the following way
Sindhu → Hindhu → Indu → Yindu - The Chinese also called India Tianzhu, meaning ‘heavenly master’. This shows the respect the ancient Chinese had for India as the land of Buddha. This word is also derived from the term ‘Sindhu’.
Glossary :
→ Inhabitants: People living in a particular region or country (in this context, the people of India).
→ Jambudvipa: The Indian sub-continent, meaning ‘island of the Jamun tree’.
→ Bharata Region bounded by the ocean and Himalayas.
→ Constitution: The foundational legal document of India, which establishes the country’s framework, laws and principles and officially recognises ‘India’ and ‘Bharat’ as interchangeable names for the nation.
In India at a very early time the spiritual and cultural unity was made complete and became the very stuff of the life of all this great surge of humanity between the Himalayas and the two seas.
– Sri Aurobindo
Today, the India we know is a modern nation, with defined borders, defined states and a known population. However, it was very different 500 years ago, 2,000 years ago or even 5,000 years ago. This region of the world, which we often call the ‘Indian Subcontinent’, has had many different names and shifting boundaries. We can learn about India’s past and evolution from many different sources. Let us explore.
THINK ABOUT IT
Consider the physical map of the Indian Subcontinent at the start of the chapter. What are its natural boundaries that you can make out?
In the course of history, India has been called by many names – both by its nha bita nts and by visitors from outside. These names come to us from ancient texts, accounts of travellers and pilgrims, and inscriptions.
How Indians Named India
The Rig Veda is India’s most ancient text; as we will see in Chapter 7, it is several thousand years old. It gives the northwest region of the Subcontinent the name ‘Sapta Sindhava’, that is, the ‘land of the seven rivers’. The word ‘Sindhava’ comes from ‘Sindhu’, which refers to the Indus River, or at times to a river in general.
Moving on in time, we see names for other parts of India appear in the literature. The Mahabharata is one of India’s most famous texts (we read about it in the theme ‘Our Cultural Heritage and Knowledge Traditions’). Interestingly, it lists many regions, such as Kashmlra (more or less today’s Kashmir), Kurukshetra (parts of Haryana today), Vanga (parts of Bengal), Pragjyotisha (roughly today’s Assam), Kaccha (today’s Kutch), Kerala (more or less today’s Kerala), and so on.
LET’S EXPLORE
Do you recognise the names of any regions given in the map (Fig. 5.4) on page 79? List the ones that you have heard of.
But when do we come across a name for the entire Indian Subcontinent? Because ancient Indian texts are difficult to date, this is not an easy question to answer. The Mahabharata uses the terms ‘Bharatavarsha’ and ‘Jambudvlpa’, and scholars generally agree that this long poem was written from a few centuries BCE onward.
The first term, ‘Bharatavarsha’, clearly extends to the entire Subcontinent, and the text includes the names of numerous rivers and peoples. ‘Bharatavarsha’ means ‘the country of the Bharatas’. ‘Bharata’ is a name that first appears in the Rig Veda, where it refers to one of the main Vedic groups of people. In later literature, several kings named ‘Bharata’ are mentioned.
The second term, ‘Jambudvlpa’, means ‘the island of the fruit of the jamun tree’. This is indeed a common tree native to India, also called ‘jambul tree’, ‘Malabar plum tree’, etc. ‘Jambudvlpa’ came to mean the Indian Subcontinent.
In fact, we get a good clue from an Indian emperor – his name is Ashoka and we will meet him later; for now, we can take his date to be about 250 BCE. As we will see, he left us many inscriptions. In one of them, he used the same name ‘Jarnbudvlpa’ to describe the whole of India, which at the time included what is today Bangladesh, Pakistan, as well as parts of Afghanistan.
A few centuries later, ‘Bharata’ became the name generally used for the Indian Subcontinent. For instance, in an ancient text called the Vishnu Purana, we read:
This name, ‘Bharata’ remains in use even today. In north India, it is generally written as ‘Bharat’, while in south India, it is often ‘Bharatam’.
THINK ABOUT IT
Have you identified the ‘snowy mountains’? Do you think this brief description of Bharata is correct?
It is interesting to note that different parts of the country adopted a similar definition for India. For instance, a poem of ancient Tamil literature, from about 2,000 years ago, praises a king whose name is known “from [Cape] Kumari in the south, from the great mountain in the north, from the oceans on the east and on the west…” You can now recognise ‘the great mountain in the north’, and it should not be difficult to identify ‘Cape Kumari’. It looks like ancient Indians knew their geography well!
DON’T MISS OUT
The Indian Constitution, which was first written in English, uses the phrase ‘India, that is Bharat’ right at the beginning. Similarly, the Hindi version of the Constitution mentions the same as ‘Bharat arthath India’.
LET’S EXPLORE
In this reproduction of the first page of the original Constitution of India in Fig. 5.5 (page 82), can you make out the phrase ‘India, that is Bharat’?
How Foreigners Named India
The first foreigners to mention India were the Persians, the ancient inhabitants of Iran. In the 6th century BCE, a Persian emperor launched a military campaign and gained control of the region of the Indus River, which, as we saw, was earlier called ‘Sindhu’. So, it is no surprise that in their earliest records and stone inscriptions, the Persians referred to India as ‘Hind’, ‘Hidu’ or ‘Hindu’, which are adaptations in their language of ‘Sindhu’. (Note that in ancient Persian, ‘Hindu’ is a purely geographical term; it does not refer here to the Hindu religion.)
Based on these Persian sources, the ancient Greeks named the region ‘Indoi’ or ‘Indike’. They dropped the initial letter ‘h’ of ‘Hindu’ because this letter did not exist in their Greek language.
The ancient Chinese also interacted with India. In several texts, they refer to India as ‘Yintu’ or ‘Yindu’. This word also originally comes from ‘Sindhu’, in the following manner:
DONT MISS OUT
Xuanzang (formerly spelt Hiuen Tsang, Hsuan Tsang, etc.) travelled from China to India in the 7th century CE. He visited many parts of India, met scholars, collected Buddhist texts, and returned to China after 17 years. There, he translated the manuscripts he took back with him from Sanskrit into Chinese. Several other Chinese scholars visited India over the centuries.
Another Chinese word, also derived from ‘Sindhu’, was ‘Tianzhu’; but this word could also be understood as ‘heavenly master’. This reflects the respect the ancient Chinese had for India as the land of the Buddha.
You are probably quite familiar with a more recent term, ‘Hindustan’, but you may not know that it was first used in a Persian inscription some 1,800 years ago! Later on, this became the term used by most invaders of India to describe the Indian Subcontinent.
LET’S EXPLORE
Can you complete this table of the many names of India?
| Persian | |
| Greek | |
| Latin | India |
| Chinese | |
| Arabic & Persian | |
| English | India |
| French | Inde |
Before we move on …
- India is an ancient land, which has had many names in the course of its history.
- The names given by the ancient inhabitants of India include ‘Jambudvlpa’ and ‘Bharata’. The latter became widespread in time and is the name of India in most Indian languages.
- Foreign visitors to, or invaders of, India mostly adopted names derived from the Sindhu or Indus River; this resulted in names like ‘Hindu’, ‘Indoi’, and eventually ‘India’.