How India Got Her Name

Sham .S.Misri

India is also known as Bharat. A story goes that, Bharata, the fearless son of king Dushyanta and Shakuntala, could count the teeth of a lion’s cub while playing with it. India was named Bharat after this valiant ruler of ancient times.

India derived its name from the river Indus, which the early Aryans called the Sindhu, (ocean) meaning a huge sheet of water. This great river, in ancient times, formed the western boundary of India.  The Persians, who conquered the country  

 Around the river Sindhu, pronounced the letter ‘S’ as ‘H’, thus terming the region beyond the Sindhu as ‘Hindu’ or Hind.

With the coming of the Muslims, the name Hindustan, and the people inhabiting the land were known as Hindus. Europeans, however, called India the country of the Indus.

The tributary of Indus is believed to flow underground. The Sarasvati, celebrated both as a river and a deity in the hymns of the Vedas, was an important tributary of the Indus. Once broad and big, the Sarasvati is now lost in the sands of the Thar Desert. Interestingly, it is believed that flowing underground; the Sarasvati joins Ganga at her confluence with the Yamuna at Prayag in Allahabad. The place where the three rivers meet is known as Triveni Sangam and is venerated as Holy River. The Sarasvat Brahmins, inhabiting areas around Sarasvati River in the Punjab, take their name from the river.

Ganga has her mount the crocodile, while Yamuna has the tortoise as her mount. 

The Indus or river Sindhu rises in the Mount Kailash range about 100 kilometres north of Mansarovar Lake. It flows in Tibet before entering Jammu and Kashmir. Meeting a number of rivers on its way, it cuts through, at one place, a gorge 5200 metres deep. The Indus then enters Pakistan and joins the Arabian Sea near Karachi.

It is believed that the Ganga descended to earth from heaven in answer to the prayers of the mythical king, Bhagirath, in order to redeem the condemned souls of his ancestors. Thus, at its source, lying in the Himalayas in Uttar Pradesh, the river is known as Bhagirathi. After flowing for about 175 Kilometres, the Bhagirathi is joined by the rivers Alakananda and Mandakini, at Deva Prayag. The combined waters then take the name Ganga. The Ganga is the longest river in India. An ice cave called Gomukh (cow’s mouth), stands at the foot of the Gangotri glacier, is the source of the Ganga.