According to the scriptural description of the brahmand the entire earth planet is called Bharatvarsh, but particularly the area of the continent that lies south of the Himalayas is called Bharatvarsh. It is also called Aryavart. The inhabitants of Aryavart are called the Aryans as referred to in the Rigved. Thus, the words Bhartiya or Aryans were both used for the inhabitants of Bharatvarsh or Aryavart, however, the words Bhartiya and Bharatvarsh were more popular.
Persians used to call ‘Hindu’ for the Sindhu river, which was a localized version of the word Sindhu. When Muslims invaded Bharatvarsh from the west (which was the land of the Sindhu river) they started calling the inhabitants of Bharatvarsh ‘the Hindus.’ Accordingly, the country of the Hindus was called Hindustan by them which means:
the place(
sthan)
of the Hindus(
Hindu)
For speaking convenience the colloquial form of the word ‘sthan’ became ‘stan’ and in this way the word Hindustan (Hindu + stan) came into being. The Greeks used to call ‘Indu’ for ‘Hindu,’ because there is no letter ‘h’ in the Greek alphabet.
When English people came, for their convenience, they altered the names of quite a few places and also some of the rivers. They called ‘Indus’ for the Sindhu river and, accordingly, ‘India’ for Hindustan or Bharatvarsh. Thus, the words Hindu and India became popular.
Āryāvarta[
pronunciation?] (
Sanskrit: आर्यावर्त, "abode of the
Aryans") is a name for
North India in classical
Sanskrit literature.
[1] The
Manu Smriti (2.22) gives the name to "the tract between the
Himalaya and the
Vindhya ranges, from the
eastern(Bay of Bengal) to the
Western Sea(Arabian Sea)".
The
Vasistha Dharma Sutra I.8-9 and 12-13 locates Āryāvarta to the east of the disappearance of the
Sarasvatiin the desert, to the west of
Kalakavana, to the north of the mountains of
Pariyatra and
Vindhya and to the south of the
Himalaya.
Baudhayana Dharmasutra (BDS) 1.1.2.10 gives similar definitions and declares that Āryāvarta is the land that lies west of
Kalakavana, east of
Adarsana, south of the
Himalayas and north of the
Vindhyas, but in BDS 1.1.2.11 Āryāvarta is confined to the
Ganges -
Yamuna doab, and BDS 1.1.2.13-15.
Patañjali's
Mahābhāṣya[
citation needed] defines Āryāvarta like the Vasistha Dharma Sutra.
Some sutras recommend expiatory acts for those who have crossed the boundaries of Āryāvarta.
Baudhayana Shrauta Sutra recommends this for those who have crossed the boundaries of Āryāvarta and ventured into far away places.[
citation needed]
The
Gurjar Pratihar king in the tenth century was entitled as
Maharajadhiraja of Aryavarta.