Names for India
The Republic of India has two principal short names in both official and popular usage, each of which is historically significant, "India" and "Bharata". The first article of the Constitution of India states that "India, that is Bharat, shall be a union of states," implicitly codifying "India" and "Bharata" () as equally official short names for the Republic of India. A third name, "Hindustān", is sometimes an alternative name for the region comprising most of the modern Indian states of the subcontinent when Indians speak among themselves. The usage of "Bhārat", "Hindustān", or "India" depends on the context  and language of conversation. "Bhārat", the name for India in several Indian languages, is variously said to be derived from the name of either Dushyanta's son Bharata or Rishabha's son Bharata. At first the name Bhārat referred only to the western part of the Ganges in North India, but was later more broadly applied to the Indian subcontinent and the region of Greater India, as was the name "India". Today it refers to the contemporary Republic of India located therein. 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 the 9th century and reemerged in Modern English in the 17th century. India. The English term is from Greek Ἰνδική / Indikē (cf. Megasthenes' work Indica) or (), via Latin transliteration . The name derives ultimately from Sanskrit (), which was the name of the Indus River as well as the lower Indus basin (modern Sindh, in Pakistan). The Old Persian equivalent of was . Darius I conquered Sindh in about 516 BCE, upon which the Persian equivalent was used for the province at the lower Indus basin . Skylax of Karyanda who explored the Indus river for the Persian emperor probably took over the Persian name and passed it into Greek. The terms () 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, in Koine  Greek denoted the region beyond the Indus. Alexander's companions were aware of at least North India up to the Ganges delta (Gangaridai). Later, Megasthenes included in India the southern peninsula as well. Latin is used by Lucian (2nd century AD). 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 or , which entered Early Modern English as "". 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. Hind / Hindustān. The words () and () came from Indo-Aryan/Sanskrit (the Indus River or its region). The Achaemenid emperor Darius I conquered the Indus valley in about 516 BCE, upon which the Achaemenid equivalent of , viz., ""Hindush"" (, ) was used for the lower Indus basin. The name was also known as far as the Achaemenid province of Egypt where it was written () on the , circa 500 BCE. In middle Persian, probably from the first century CE, the suffix () was  added, indicative of a country or region, forming the name . Thus, Sindh was referred to as "Hindūstān" in the Naqsh-e-Rustam inscription of Sassanid emperor Shapur I in 262 CE. Emperor Babur 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 () for India, e.g. in the 11th century "Tarikh Al-Hind" ('History of India'). It occurs intermittently in usage within India, such as in the phrase () or in (), the Standard Hindi name for the Indian Ocean, but otherwise is deemed  archaic. Both the names were current in Persian and Arabic 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 Urdu language, the term Hindustan has recently come to mean the Republic of India. The same is the case with Arabic, where 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 Raj. Bhārata. Bhārata was selected as an alternative name of India in 1950. The name Bhārata or Bhārata-varṣa (Bharata-varsha) is said to be derived from the name of either Dushyanta's son Bharata or Rishabha's son Bharata. Several Puranas state that it is derived from the name of Bharata, the son of Rishabha. However, some Puranic passages state that it is derived from Bharata, which was another name for Rishabha's ancestor Manu. Some other Puranic passages refer to the Bharata people, who are described as the descendants of Dushyanta's son  Bharata in the "Mahabharata". The earliest recorded use of Bhāratavarṣa 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. In the Sanskrit epic, the "Mahabharata" (200 BCE to 300 CE), a larger region of North India is encompassed by the term, but much of the Deccan and South India are still excluded. Bhārata has been used as a self-ascribed name by some people of the Indian subcontinent and the Republic of India. The  designation "Bhārata" appears in the official Sanskrit name of the country, "Bhārata Gaṇarājya". 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 "varṣa"s or continents. For example, the Vayu Purana says ""he who conquers the whole of Bhāratavarṣa is celebrated as a samrāt" (Vayu Purana 45, 86)." The Sanskrit word "bhārata" is a vṛddhi 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". According to the Puranas, this country is known as Bharatavarsha after Bharata, the son of Rishabha.He was a Kshatriya born in Ikshvaku Dynasty(Solar Dynasty).(Reference -Champat Rai Jain 1929, p. 92). This has been mentioned in Vishnu Purana (2,1,31), Vayu Purana (33,52), Linga Purana (1,47,23), Brahmanda Purana (14,5,62), Agni Purana (107,11–12), Skanda Purana, Khanda  (37,57) and Markandaya Purana (50,41), all using the designation "Bharata Varsha". Vishnu Purāna mentions: The Srimad Bhagavat Purana 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 Bhârata-varsha" The Bhāratas were also a Vedic tribe mentioned in the Rigveda, notably participating in the Battle of the Ten Kings. The realm of Bharata is known as "Bharātavarṣa" in the "Mahabhārata" (the core portion of which is itself known as "Bhārata") and later texts. According  to the text, the term "Bharata" is from the king Bharata, who was the son of Dushyanta and Shakuntala and the term "varsa" means a division of the earth or a continent. Bharata Khanda (or Bharata Ksetra) is a term used in Hindu texts, including the Vedas, "Mahabharata", "Ramayana" and the Puranic, to describe the geographic region that encompassed the modern countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar—that is, "South Asia" at the term's furthest extent. Jambudvīpa. Jambudvipa () was used in ancient scriptures as a name of India before Bhārata became the official  name. 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. Tianzhu. or (; originally pronounced ) is used since ancient times, the Japanese and some other Asian peoples, especially devout Buddhists, traditionally used "Tenjiku" and its related terms to designate India as their "heavenly centre", referring to the sacred origins of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent. Some historical East  Asian name for India that comes from the Chinese transliteration of the Persian "Hindu", which itself is derived from the Sanskrit "Sindhu", the native name of the Indus River. is one of several Chinese transliterations of Sindhu. () appears in Sima Qian's Shiji and () is used in the Hou Hanshu (Book of the Later Han). () 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 (, 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 or "Five Inds". The term is also used in Japan, where it is pronounced as Tenjiku (). The foreign loanwords () and () are also used in some cases. The current Japanese name for modern India is the foreign loanword (). The current Chinese word for India is (), first used by the seventh-century monk and traveller Xuanzang. Similar to Hindu and Sindhu, the term 狼之印 was used in classical Chinese much like the English "Ind". Hodu. Hodu ( "Hoddû ) 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. Historical definitions of India. Some historical definitions prior to 1500 are presented below. Historical definitions of a Greater India. Writers throughout history, both Indian and of other nationalities have written about a  'Greater India', which Indians have called either Akhand Bharat or Mahabharata. Republic of India. The official names as set down in article 1 of the Indian constitution are: