History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c96.s1.5

v7.c96.s1.5

Many passages of the Ṛgveda where the singular is employed refer to the river Sindhu alone (as in Ṛg. II. 15.6, IV. 30.12, V. 4.9 &c). In Ṛg. II. 15.6 it is said that Indra made Sindhu flow northwards. This would obviously refer to the first part of the river flowing northward from the Himālayas. Pāṇini uses the word 'Sindhu' as the name of a country in IV. 3.93 ('Saindhava' means one who or whose ancestors lived in the Sindhu country). For the fluctuating limits of Āryāvarta, vide H. of Dh. Vol. II pp. 11-16 and p. 1525, note 2483 above, where Ṛg. passages about Bharatas are set out and it is shown that the Purāṇas speak of Bhārata-varṣa as of the same extent as that of modern India and the name is said to have been due to Bharata, son of Duṣyanta and Śakuntalā. Bhāratavarṣa occurs in the Hathigumpha Inscription of Khāravela (line 10 on p. 79) which cannot be assigned to a date later than the 1st century²⁶⁰¹ B. C. It has been shown above (p. 1016 n. 1649) that Aśoka in one of his edicts refers to his kingdom as Jambudvīpa. Even in these days in the rather long *saṅkalpa* (declaration) at the beginning of a religious act in Mahārāṣṭra, occur the words 'Jambudvīpe Bhāratavarṣe Bauddhāvatāre Godāvaryā dakṣiṇe tīre' &c. Therefore, the proper word to be used by us for our country should be Bhāratavarṣa. It may be said that our culture and civilization had throughout the past ages a geographical background. The Constitution of India has recognized this in its very first Article which runs 'India, that is Bharat, shall be a union of States'. In view of the fact, however, that the words 'Hindu' and 'Indian' have been employed for centuries by foreign as well as our own writers, this work will employ these words instead of 'Bhāratavarṣa'.