India, the names of
The word India
The Avestan name for Sindh is Hinduš. It was inscribed by Persian emperor Darius I (550-486 BC) on the Persepolis terrace
The ancient Greeks used the name Ἰνδία (Indía). Herodotus (484 – 425/413 BC) referred to "Indian land" Ἰνδός/ Indos (‘an Indian’), following the Persians.
The Byzantine people used the word Iindía to describe the region beyond the Indus (Ἰνδός) River
Ancient Latin speakers borrowed the name India from the Greeks.
Most European languages—including English—use a variant of the Latin word India.
In English, King Alfred (A.D. 848-899)'s translation of Orosius is the oldest known use of the word India in the English language.
However, English writers who were influenced by the French replaced India with Ynde and Inde. Inde remains the French spelling.
William Shakespeare (1564- 1616) and the first edition of the King James Bible (1611) used the spelling Indie
In the 1600s the Spanish and the Portuguese spelt the word as it is today, India, which was also the official Latin spelling. This could have induced the British to revert to the spelling India.
Summary: The British did not ‘give’ us the name India. They took it from the Latin languages, which in turn took it from the Greeks, who were influenced by the Persians, who preceded the oldest known use of the word India by the British by more than 1300 years
The names of India in the languages of the world
Afrikaans Indië
Albanian India
Arabic الهند Al Hind
Belarusian Індыя
Bulgarian Индия
Catalan Índia
Czech Indie
Chinese: 印度 (Yìndù) . Ancient name 天竺 (Tiānzhú) The Chinese name "Tiānzhú" means "Heavenly Land",
Danish Indien
Dutch Indië
English India
Estonian India
Farsi هندوستان Hindostan, with an o
Filipino: India
Finnish Intia
French Inde
Galician India
German Indien
Greek Ινδία
Hebrew הודו Hodu is the Biblical Hebrew name for India mentioned in the Book of Esther
Hindi भारत
Hungarian India
Icelandic Indland
Indonesian India Ancient name: Hindia
Irish An India
Italian India
Japanese インド (Indoku) Tenjiku: ancient Japanese name for India, somewhat similar to the Chinese name. It is said that a merchant-adventurer Tokubei (1612–1692) had a lifelong ambition to visit 'Tenjiku' (the Heavenly Land). He even renamed himself Tenjiku Tokubei out of reverence for India.
Korean 인도 (Indeo)
Latvian Indija
Lithuanian Indija
Macedonian Индија
Malay: India
Mandarin 印度
Norwegian India
Polish Indie (Indi)
Portuguese Índia
Romanian India
Russian Индия (Indiya)
Serbian Индија
Slovak India
Slovenian Indija
Spanish India
Southeast Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, Java and Bali) Ancient name: Jambu Dwipa
Swahili Uhindi
Swedish Indien
Tagalog. Filipino Indiya
Thai อินเดีย (Indiya/ In-thi-ya )
Tibet: Ancient names:
i) Gyagar: This is the name that the people of Ladakh use to this day.
ii) བོད་ཡུལ་ (Bod-yul) The Tibetan name "Bod-yul" means "Land of the Bhoṭiya people" who live in the Himalayan area bordering Tibet and Nepal and are found in three states of India – Sikkim, West Bengal and Utarakhand. In Utarakhand, the Bhotia primarily reside in the districts of Pithoragarh, Chamoli, Almorah, Utarkashi and Nainital.
iii) Phagyul: the land of the Aryas i
Turkish Hindistan
Ukrainian Індія
Vietnamese Ấn Độ
Welsh India
