The 15 Names of India
To learn about the criteria used for this article, please see the notes at the end.
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- Aja Nabha Varsa
Aja Nabha Varsa is the first name of India.
“Aja” is another name for the Vedic God, Lord Brahma, “nahba” meaning centre or navel, and “varsa” meaning an expanse of space.
Aja Nabha Varsa is sometimes simply known as “Ajanabha”.
In order to fully understand why Lord Brahma was incorporated into the original name of India, we have to go back to the Vedic story of Creation. In the beginning, the formless God, Brahman (not to be confused with Lord Brahma), had a timeless and perpetual desire to experience love. Love was the only thing Brahman, as the sole entity in existence, could not experience alone. So Brahman decided to build a universe wherein He could create children and enjoy a loving relationship with them.
Thus, He manifested a second part of Himself known as Lord Vishnu; and saddled Him with the task of directing the construction of His creation.
Physically, Lord Vishnu first appeared sleeping, coiled up on “the serpent of infinity”. The serpent represented Brahman’s pure feminine energy known as Shakti or Durga.
The reason that Brahman, as Lord Vishnu, appeared in a sleeping form was that He was going to dream this universe into being. And, just as we can then enter our dream-worlds at night, He would then be able interact, intercede and incarnate (e.g. as Lord Krishna or Lord Rama) as required. And in the same way we can never be completely lost in our nightly dream (as we can wake up); Brahman, as Lord Vishnu, could wake up and extinguish the dream-universe at any given moment should He choose to.
Whilst initiating the dream-state, it is written that Lord Vishnu sprouts a lotus from his navel upon a long stalk (akin to the umbilical cord). On this lotus rests a being He has created — the aforementioned Lord Brahma.
Lord Brahma is then tasked with managing and creating the universal dream. And in doing so, Lord Brahma creates our earth. Taking his seat at the summit of Mount Meru (northern India), this becomes his residence. And this is the reason why Lord Brahma has such a close relationship with India and the earth, and why the first name of India bore his name.
To learn more about this name, please see the notes at the bottom of the article*
The river Narmada conveniently scores India into two reasonably equal halves, horizontally, through the central state of Madhya Pradesh.
It was this river that was fated to play a part in the next two recorded names given to India.
2. Aryavarta
3. Dravida
The river’s convenient natural border was used by the Iran-Indians as a dividing line to establish two regions in India: the northern half, called Aryavarta and the southern half, Dravida.
The two regions were recorded into the sacred texts of India (such as the Manu Smirti and the Hindu Puranas), where Aryavarta was described as being the stretch of land from the Himalayas to the Vindhya regions of Madhya Pradesh, and from the eastern Bay of Bengal to the western Arabian Sea.
When translated, Aryavarta means the land of the noble (Arya was a Sanskrit word meaning noble, and varta, a Sanskrit word meaning land, country or place of abode).
Dravida was recorded as being the land towards the south of India, where three stretches of waters met (the Indian Ocean, the Arabic Sea and the Bay of Bengal). The name Dravida is a sandhi word combining dravya meaning water and vida meaning a meeting place.
Dravidians can be still be considered to make up around 20% of Indians today — largely as the ancestors of Tamils, Malayalis, Telugas and Kannadigas.
4. Jambudvipa
After Aryavarta and Dravida, the naming of India fell under the influence of Vedic cosmology and the land was known as Jambudvipa, which translates as the continent of the sacred jambul or jamun fruit.
Vedic texts such as the Markandeya Purana and the Surya Siddhanta refer heavily to India (and the northern hemisphere of the world) by this title. They vividly describe Jambudvipa to be a land sitting at the centre of seven concentric circles of existence, and blessed by the Gods via elephant-sized versions of the jambul fruit! Which, it states, poured forth (from the heavens, I assume!) into the rivers of the earth from which humans were sustained.
5. Nabhivarsa
Ruler for many a year of Jambudvipa was Maharaja Priyavrata. After his retirement he handed the land over to his son, Agnidhra. Knowing he would require a wife of great honour and power, Agnidhra took to meditation upon Lord Brahma for assistance. Being suitably pleased with the new king’s devotion, Lord Brahma sent Purvachitti unto him — a woman famed for her celestial beauty in this world and beyond.
Over time, King Agnidhra and Queen Purvachitti had nine sons. And so Jambudvipa was divided up into nine portions or continents (varsas), for each to rule over. On his retirement, King Agnidhra handed a section, which spanned from the Himalayas down to the ocean, to his eldest son, Nabhi. And thus, this stretch of land (India) was named after King Nabhi: Nabhivarsa.
Interestingly, nabhi means navel, centre or hub in Sanskrit, the ancient language of India. And Jambudvipa was known to be the centre of the God’s attention on this globe. I postulate as to whether King Agnidhra deliberately gave India to his eldest, Nabhi, for this very reason. Or if fate somehow played a part in the naming of Nabhi.
Of further passing note — the Japanese name for India in ancient times was Tenjiku (jiku meaning centre, and tian, as a root verb, meaning heaven).
6. Ilavativarsa
Many texts and scholars also mention that the land we now know as India was also known as Ilavativarsa during the Jambudvipa and Nabhivarsa identification phase. For the sake of being clinical chronologically this is not convenient. However, this is simply what history has left us with!
In much the same way as the sovereign state of “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland” is sometimes referred to as “The U.K.”, “Britain” and even sometimes “England”, depending on who is speaking, the names for India mentioned in this section seem to have existed at the same time, and been used at the will and discretion of each individual writer.
What I have noticed about the use of Ilavativarsa is that, in much the same way as Jambudvipa is described as both India and the earth, many suggest Ilavativarsa is no different. My conclusion about these times is that India’s kings were actually so dominant on this planet that although India was their home and personal kingdom, their domain was actually the entire globe; and their powers stretched its expanse.
Coming back to the example of “the U.K.” again, it was probably a similar scenario, in the technical sense alone, as when “The British Empire” existed over many parts of the globe, yet it had its base in one country. In other words Ilavativarsa, for example, represents the world empire of India, with its central government existing within the sub-continent of India alone.
7. Bharatavarsa
Nabhivarsa was to remain the name for India, for no more than two generations. The title was soon to be passed over to a man named Bharata, with Nabhivarsa going on to be renamed Bharatavarsa after him.
However, history records two great Bharatas in India, both of whom may stake a claim as to which Bharata the country’s name originates from. In my opinion, I consider the first in existence to be the origin, and the second to be an equally valid reiteration — and evolution of the name, to the more commonly used “Bharat”, which is still in some use today.
We will look at the first Bharata to begin with: King Nabhi, mentioned above, had a son from his wife Merudevi. The child’s name was Rishabha. The son was, in fact, born after the king’s and his priests’ deep prayers for a boy born with the same qualities as God Himself (no small request!). However, because of their intensely deep and clearly impressive worship, Lord Vishnu extended Himself to appear within Queen Merudevi as the boy Rishabha.
Being what was essentially a manifestation of God, and taking over the mantle of king, his rule was naturally well received. Lord Rishabhdeva, as he was then known, is also noted as the first tirthankar of Jainism, a most highly regarded position, with many considering him the founder of Jainism itself.
Lord Rishabhadeva had exactly 100 sons, with the eldest being a boy called Bharata. Signs of the imminent birth of a great soul known as a chakravartin (ethical and great world leader) came to his Queen Yasasvati Devi one night in her dreams. These signs were dreams of (1) a lake with swans, (2) the earth and the ocean, (3) the aforementioned Mount Meru and (4) the sun and the moon. Lord Rishabdeva informed his queen that these 4 auspicious dreams came to signal the arrival of a special child. That child would be Bharata.
Growing up as a warrior, and after Lord Rishabhadeva had begun to fulfil his desire to renounce the material world to become a monk, Bharata Chakravartin went on to conquer to world, as was his destiny.
Being a world leader, he had India and (as many researchers would suggest) the entire world named after him, hence the name: Bharatavarsa.
Moving on some generations now to the other Bharata, who was also a great leader and emperor. All the while, between these generations, the name for India remained Bharatavarsa.
The second Bharata was born of King Dushyanta and Queen Shukuntala and was heir to the Kuru dynasty, a ruling clan that dominated a major portion of India’s recorded history. King Dushyanta was the king of Hastinapur, the capital city of the Kuru Kingdom.
History records that this Bharata was notable for his bravery and strength, and eventually conquered the entire region of India. As India was already known as Bharatavarsa, Emperor Bharat more than honoured the title of his ancestor, and India recognised itself as the land of this man.
The only change that came from Emperor Bharat’s dominion was that, as previously mentioned, the name of the land was shortened simply to “Bharat” — a version of Bharatavarsa which is still used today within the sub-continent (note that “ Bharatakhanda” and “Bharatadesha” also came in to use around this time as less popularised alternative versions of the name). So, in many significant ways both great Bharats contributed to the naming of India in different and equally merited ways.
8. Punya Bhumi
Around the era the first Bharata (Bharata Chakravartin), India was also known as Punya Bhumi. Punya means holy, good, blessed and charitable, and Bhumi means earth, land or soil.
During the same era, and on a similar theme, India was also known as:
9. Karma Bhumi
The land of good karma.
10. Yoga Bhumi
The land of spiritual union with God.
11. Pavitra Bhumi
The land of the pure.
12. Moksha Bhumi
The land of the enlightened.
In essence, all of this group of names means the same thing.
Scriptures of the time widely declared that India was the land of the gods. And as such, anyone born in India was thought to be spiritually advantaged by default. Yogis, religious priests and members of the general populace would openly declare this sentiment and encourage others to make the best of use of their current incarnation in India.
They believed that by following the Vedic way of life natural to India, and by the following the various strands of those religions which began and blossomed in India (like Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism), individuals would reach spiritual liberation and God much sooner than on any other place on the planet.
Whether this is true or not is a matter of opinion, and probably involves a degree of national bias. This is especially so considering that other nationalities and faiths would undoubtedly believe the same thing about their own historical, geographical and spiritual backgrounds. A good example of this is the fact that Jewish people, Christians and Muslims all consider Jerusalem to be the “holy land”, or at least, a very pious place. And would probably consider spiritual evolution to be greater there than in any other place. This is not to say India was not special, but just to allow for some objective perspective.
13. Himavat Pradesha
An extremely rare name for India comes by way of the Himalayan mountain range which spans from Pakistan to China, and an ancient Indian king mentioned in many scriptures, including the Mahabharata itself: King Himavat.
The Sanskrit word “hima” found in both “Hima-layas” and “Hima-vat” means cold, icy and snowy. King Himavat’s name simply means one who personifies the attributes of ice and snow. And the word “laya” makes the word Himalayas mean the abode or place of ice and snow.
The period of use for this name remains inconclusive over the various sources, hence it remains somewhat of an elusive term to date. Appearances of its use date back to a similar time as the first name of India — Aja Nabha Varsa; but also much later on — after the reign of the second King Bharata.
The full name for one of the names of India at this time was “Himavat Pradesha”. Pradesha is a word used for a particular length of measurement in an ancient Indian counting system (In Hinduism, a pradesha can be 3–6 inches. It can also be used broadly to represent any point or area of space). Together the words Himavat Pradesha represent the kingdom of India, as owned by King Himavat himself.
This king was no ordinary mortal, and was said to be the son of none other than Lord Brahma by some sources. At this point it is worth noting from the description of Aja Nabha Varsa above, that Lord Brahma was said to reside in Mount Meru, which is said to be part of the Himalayas in some Vedic scriptures. Hence, the Himalayas may have been somewhat of a “family home” to the Gods of old!
What is roundly agreed is that King Himavat was the father of Parvati, who went on to become Lord Shiva’s consort. This great king was also the father of Ganga, who was the personification of the legendary Indian holy river, the Ganges; and the wife of King Shantanu of the Chandravanshi Dynasty.
The next phase of India’s naming made reference to an area which sits on the western side of the current political division between India and Pakistan. This area of land contains the Indus Valley and the great Sindhu (or Indus) River. It is worth noting that prior to the 1947 separation of Indian and Pakistan, both countries were seen as one nation.
14. Hindustan
Darius I, otherwise known as Darius the Great, was a Persian ruler who was said to have had one of the largest empires ever known to humankind, with 44% of the world’s population (or 50 million people) being under his rule at its peak.
In 515 BC, during Darius’ invasion of Central and Eastern Asia, the “Great” king and his Persians (now known as Iranians), came across the Sindhu River, whereupon they took the Sanskrit word Sindh (meaning river or water from the name of the Sindhu River) and changed it to hind.
History is full of incredible stories that hide behind names; but in this case the reason why Darius changed the name of the Sindhu River to the Hindu River was that, in Persian, the “s” is pronounced with an “h”!
Of course, the people of the region were then referred to as the people of the Hindu River, and eventually, simply Hindus.
When it came to naming the land itself, Darius again went back to his Persian tongue and named the land Hindu-stan (the word “sthan” meaning country).
Naturally, you can see where the word Hindi came from to describe the language spoken by those of the Hindu region. However, the term Hindu had nothing to do with any religion at the time, and was simply a geographically-derived name given to describe a civilisation and land.
In due course, the Arabs took the word Hind, and nominated India to be known as Al-Hind.
15. India
Once the Greek king Alexander the Great and his Macedonian army arrived in India around the 3rd Century BC, they took the pre-fix Hind, which had been handed down by Darius and the Persians, and put their own spin on it!
In Greek, it was not unusual to have a silent “h” in a word, so Alexander and the Greeks began renaming everything that was prefixed “hind” to the shortened “ind”, giving us the words Indus, Indos, Indika and eventually the current terms India and Indians.
The word “Hindu” was slowly phased out as a term to describe an entire civilisation, and grew to be strictly associated with those following a certain system of Vedic practices and beliefs.
The word Hindustan was eventually replaced by the word India permanently on the worldwide stage after it was adopted as the chosen term of preference by the British during their invasion and colonisation of this land some years later.
“India” remains the most well-used name for this land. Bharat and Hindustan are also commonly used today, especially within the sub-continent itself, and by traditionalists. This concludes the 15 names of India. I hope you enjoyed your read.
Namaste.
Neil Patel
Notes
Criteria for article
In writing this article I’ve tried to do three things: (1) look into the history and geography of each name (2) look into the metaphysical and spiritual backgrounds to as many names as possible (3) list the names in chronological order, according to first usage.
The names I’ve counted as the “15 Names of India” fit into at least one of these three criteria: (1) names used by Indians to describe India, (2) names used globally to describe India or (3) names given by other nations to India — which have then been adopted by Indians. All these names must have historical, classical and academic value.
What is not included are names given to India in foreign languages, which have not been adopted by Indians or India (as a nation) e.g. the Chinese name for India, which is “Tianzhu”; as India and Indians do not use that name. Also not included are subsets of names for India, such as “Indika” (a subset of India) or “Bharatakhanda” (a subset of Bharatavarsa). If such names were to be included, this list may run into the many hundreds!
*Notes on Aja Nabhi Varsa
Shrouded in mystery and intrigue, Aja Nabha Varsa is arguably not only the first name of India, but also of a much larger area — potentially extending beyond the borders of the earth itself!
Lord Brahma’s residence, Mount Meru, was said to be in the Himalayas. Scholars and historians cannot be sure exactly where it is; however a place currently named “Meru Peak” is given as a strong possibility due to its name, as well as its location. Another mountain range next to the Himalayas known as the Pamir Mountains is also given as a likely seat of Brahma. And just to give complete journalistic balance, the North Pole is also suggested by some; as well as a mountain which exists of the same name today in Tanzania — Africa!
However, focusing on the Vedic scriptures for this study, we are pointed towards somewhere in northern India as being the chosen abode for Lord Brahma.
It is worth noting that Mount Meru was not simply supposed to be a physical domain, but was actually up to 7 dimensions above the earth (7 of the 14 dimensions in total which are said to exist above and beneath the earth). And in some of these dimensions, it would be in very close proximity to Vishnu Nabhi — the grand centre of the universe (Lord Vishnu’s navel from where the original spiritual lotus flower extended from).
Thus, the first name of India is actually deeply metaphysical, and describes a place where Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu are connected. It is also worth mentioning that it is possible that Lord Brahma created and managed several planets, and took a seat on many — hence, Ajanabha may ultimately not only be the name of India and the earth, but of several planets and planes of existence.
Arguably, Ajanabha may even be a common noun like the word “universe”, and not the name of a particular place. One thing is for sure, with Mount Meru supposedly being in India; this nation appears to be at the centre of a very powerful spiritual territory.
Appearances
This article was shared in the newsletter for the United Kingdom’s All Party Parliamentary Group for Indian Traditional Sciences in September 2018.
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neil@chikri.com / www.chikri.com
