Names for India

The Republic of India has two principal official short names, each of which is historically significant: India and Bharat. A third name, Hindustan, is also used when North Indians speak among themselves. The usage of "India", "Bharat", or "Hindustan" depends on the context and language of conversation.
The name "India" is originally derived from the name of the Indus river and has been in use in Greek since Herodotus (5th century BCE). The term appeared in Old English by the 9th century and reemerged in Modern English in the 17th century.
"Bhārat" gained popularity in India during the nineteenth century. It is the shortened form of the term "Bhāratavarṣa" which is extensively used in the literature of the native religions. "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). At first the name Bhāratavarṣa referred only to the western part of the Gangetic Valley, In 1949, it was adopted as an official name for the Republic of India by the Constituent Assembly along with "India".
"Hindustān" is another common name for the Republic of India and is also derived from the name of the river Indus. It gained popularity in India in the 11th century in Islamic literature and became the common name for the northern Indian subcontinent in Indian languages, though it has been in Persian usage since at least the 3rd century CE while its earlier form "Hindush" was used as early as 6th century BCE. The term 'Hindu' was the Old Persian adaption of "Sindhu" (another name for the river Indus). "Hindustan" is still commonly used in the subcontinent to refer to the modern day Republic of India by Hindustani speakers.
The English term is from Greek Indikē (cf. Megasthenes' work Indica) or Indía (Ἰνδία), via Latin transliteration India.
The name derives from Sanskrit Sindhu, which was the name of the Indus River as well as the lower Indus basin (modern Sindh, in Pakistan).
Southworth suggests that the name Sindhu is in turn derived from Cintu, a Dravidian word for date palm, a tree commonly found in Sindh.
The Old Persian equivalent of Síndhu was Hindu. Darius I conquered Sindh in about 516 BCE, upon which the Persian equivalent Hinduš was used for the province at the lower Indus basin. Scylax of Caryanda who explored the Indus river for the Persian emperor probably took over the Persian name and passed it into Greek. The terms Indos for the Indus river as well as "an Indian" are found in Herodotus's Geography. The loss of the aspirate /h/ was probably due to the dialects of Greek spoken in Asia Minor. Herodotus also generalised the term "Indian" from the people of lower Indus basin, to all the people living to the east of Persia, even though he had no knowledge of the geography of the land.
By the time of Alexander, Indía in Koine Greek denoted the region beyond the Indus. Alexander's companions were aware of at least India up to the Ganges delta (Gangaridai). Later, Megasthenes included in India the southern peninsula as well.
Latin India is used by Lucian (2nd century CE). India was known in Old English language and was used in King Alfred's translation of Paulus 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 onward, and may be due to the influence of Latin, or Spanish or Portuguese.
Sanskrit indu "drop (of Soma)", also a term for the Moon, is unrelated, but has sometimes been erroneously connected.
The term "Indies" refers to the land east of river Indus. It is fully interchangeable with the word India. Portuguese initially described the entire region they discovered as the Indies. Caribbean islands were initially described as "Indies" as they were thought to be India. When they became known to be in western hemisphere, they were renamed as West Indies. Thus West Indies means India in the western hemisphere. Indonesia's former name is Dutch East Indies which means India in southeast Asia (this should not to be confused with Dutch India, which referred to the trading posts of VOC within the Indian subcontinent).
Bharat is another name of India, as set down in Article 1 of the Constitution, adopted in 1950, which states in English: "India, that is Bharat,..." Bharat, which was predominantly used in Sanskrit, was adopted as a self-ascribed alternative name by some people of the Indian subcontinent and the Republic of India.
Bharat is derived from the name of the Vedic community Bharatas, who are mentioned in the Rigveda as one of the original community of the Āryāvarta and notably participating in the Battle of the Ten Kings.
The designation Bharat appears in the official Sanskrit name of the country, Bhāratagaṇarājya. 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. For example, the Vayu Purana says "he who conquers the whole of Bhāratavarṣa is celebrated as a samrāṭa (Vayu Puran 45, 86)."
The Sanskrit word Bhārata is a vrddhi derivation of Bharata, which was originally an epithet of Agni. 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). The root bhr is cognate with the English verb to bear and Latin ferō. This term also means "one who is engaged in search for knowledge". Barato, the Esperanto name for India, is also a derivation of Bhārata.
This realm of Bharat, which has been referred to as Bhāratavarṣa in puranas - after Bharata, the son of Rishabha. He is described to be a Kshatriya born in the Solar dynasty. This has been mentioned in Vishnu Purana (2,1,31), Vayu Puran (33,52), Linga Purana (1,47,23), Brahmanda Purana (14,5,62), Agni Purana (107,11–12), Skand Purana (37,57) and Markanday Purana (50,41), all using the designation Bhāratavarṣa.
The Vishnu Purana mentions:
The Bhagavat Puran mentions (Canto 5, Chapter 4) - "He (Rishabha) begot a hundred sons that were exactly like him... 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) 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. Some other Puranic passages refer to the same Bhārata people, who are described as the descendants of Dushyanta's son Bharata in the Mahabharata.
The use of Bharat often has political overtones, appealing to a certain cultural conception of India. 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. Such a change would need a constitutional amendment, meaning two-thirds of the vote in each of the two houses of parliament, and an official notice to the UN, advising how to write the name in the UN's six official languages.
The earliest recorded use of Bhārata-varṣa (lit. '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. The inscription clearly mentions Bharat was named after Bharata, the son of first Jain tirthankar Rishabhanatha.
In middle Persian, probably from the first century CE, the suffix -stān (Persian: ستان) was added, indicative of a country or region, forming the name Hindūstān. Thus, Sindh was referred to as Hindustān in the Naqsh-e-Rustam inscription of Sassanid emperor Shapur I in c. 262 CE.
Emperor Babur of the Mughal Empire said, "On the East, the South, and the West it is bounded by the Great Ocean." Hind was notably adapted in the Arabic language as the definitive form Al-Hind (الهند) for India, for example, in the 11th-century Tarikh Al-Hind ('History of India'). It occurs intermittently in usage within India, such as in the phrase Jai Hind (Hindi: जय हिन्द) or in Hind Mahāsāgar (हिन्द महासागर), the Standard Hindi name for the Indian Ocean.
Both the names were current in Persian and Arabic, and from that into northern Indian languages, from the 11th century Islamic conquests: the rulers in the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal periods called their Indian dominion, centered around Delhi, "Hindustan". In contemporary Persian and Hindi-Urdu, the term Hindustan has recently come to mean the Republic of India. The same is the case with Arabic, where al-Hind is the name for the Republic of India.
"Hindustan", as 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 Subcontinent. "Hindustan" was in use simultaneously with "India" during the British era.
Jambudvīpa (Sanskrit: जम्बुद्वीपम्, romanized: Jambu-dvīpam, lit. 'berry island') was used in ancient scriptures as a name of India before the term Bhārat became widespread. It might be an indirect reference to the Insular India. The derivative Jambu Dwipa was the historical term for India in many Southeast Asian countries before the introduction of the English word "India". This alternate name is still used occasionally in Thailand, Malaysia, Java and Bali to describe the Indian Subcontinent. However, it also can refer to the whole continent of Asia. It was used by Maurya Emperor Ashoka in his inscriptions to denote his realm.
Both Gyagar ("White expanse", analogous to the names Gyanak for China and Gyaser for Russia) and Phagyul are Tibetan names for India. Ancient Tibetan Buddhist authors and pilgrims used the ethnogeographic referents Gyagar or Gyagar to the south and Madhyadesa (central land or holy centre) for India. 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. Tibetan scholar Gendun Chopel explains that Tibetan word gyagar comes from the Indian sanskrit language word vihāra (buddhist monastery), and the ancient Tibetans applied the term Geysar mainly to the northern and central India region from Kuru (modern Haryana) to Magadha (modern Bihar). The Epic of King Gesar, which originally developed around 200 BCE or 300 BCE and about 600 CE, describes India as the "Gyagar: The Kingdom of Buddhist Doctrine", "Gyagar: The Kingdom of Aru Medicine" (ayurveda), "Gyagar: The Kingdom of Pearls" and "Gyagar: The Kingdom of Golden Vases". The Central Tibetan Administration, often referred to as the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, asserts "Tibet is inextricably linked to India through geography, history, culture, and spiritually, Tibetans refer to India as ‘Gyagar Phagpay Yul’ or ‘India the land of Aryas.’" Dalai Lama reveres India as the guru with Tibet as its chela (shishya or disciple) and "refers to himself the ‘Son of India’ and a true follower of Mahatma Gandhi. He continues to advocate the revival of India's ancient wisdom based on the Nalanda tradition."
Tiānzhú (Chinese: 天竺 originally pronounced *qʰl'iːn tuɡ) is one of several Chinese transliterations of the Sanskrit Sindhu via Persian Hindu and is used since ancient times in China and its peripheries. Its Sino-Xenic reading is Tenjiku in Japanese, Cheonchuk (천축) in Korean, and Thiên Trúc in Vietnamese. 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.
Other forms include Juāndú (身毒), which appears in Sima Qian's Shiji. Another is Tiāndǔ (天篤), which is used in the Hou Hanshu (Book of the Later Han). Yìntèjiā or Indəkka (印特伽) comes from the Kuchean Indaka, another transliteration of Hindu.
A detailed account of Tianzhu is given in the "Xiyu Zhuan" (Record of the Western Regions) in the Hou Hanshu compiled by Fan Ye (398–445):
Tianzhu was also referred to as Wǔtiānzhú (五天竺, literally "Five Indias"), because there were five geographical regions in India known to the Chinese: Central, Eastern, Western, Northern, and Southern India. The monk Xuanzang also referred to India as Wǔ Yìn or "Five Inds".
The name Tianzhu and its Sino-Xenic cognates were eventually replaced by terms derived from the Middle Chinese borrowing of *yentu from Kuchean, though a very long time elapsed between that term's first use and its becoming the standard modern name for India in East Asian languages. Pronounced Yìndù (Chinese: 印度) in Chinese, it was first used by the seventh-century monk and traveler Xuanzang. In Japanese for example, the name Indo (インド, 印度, or occasionally 印土) had been found occasionally in 18th and early 19th-century works, such as Arai Hakuseki's Sairan Igen (1713) and Yamamura Saisuke [ja]'s Indoshi (印度志, a translation of a work by Johann Hübner). However, the use of the name Tenjiku, which was heavily associated with the image of India as a land of Buddhism, was not completely displaced until the early 20th century: scholars such as Soyen Shaku and Seki Seisetsu [ja] who travelled to India for pilgrimages to Buddhist historical sites, continued to use the name Tenjiku to emphasise the religious aspect of their travels, though most of their contemporaries (even fellow Buddhist pilgrims) adopted the name Indo by then.
India is nowadays also called Indo (인도) in Korean, and Ấn Độ in Vietnamese. Similar to Hindu and Sindhu, the term Yin was used in classical Chinese much like the English Ind.
Hodu (Hebrew: הֹדּוּ Hodû) is the Biblical Hebrew name for India mentioned in the Book of Esther part of the Jewish Tanakh and Christian Old Testament. In Esther, 1:1 and 8:9, Ahasuerus had been described as King ruling 127 provinces from Hodu (India) to Ethiopia. The term seemingly derives from Sanskrit Sindhu, "great river", i.e., the Indus River, via Old Persian Hiñd°u. It is thus cognate with the term India.
Some historical definitions prior to 1500 are presented below.
Writers throughout history, both Indian and of other nationalities have written about a 'Greater India', which Indians have called either Akhand Bharat or Mahabharat.
The official names as set down in article 1 of the Indian constitution are: