Evolution of the meaning of India throughout history. The Final Debate

[Juggernaut_Flat_Plane_V8]

Let's see it in a way people would understand

Babylonian World Map ca. 600 BCE: (No Mention of Indus or hte big continents only focussing on the Fertile Crescent)

Map of Anaximander ca. 550 BC: (Shows Asia but not much else for our relevance)

Map of Hecataeus of Miletus ca. 500 BCE identifies Indus Valley as India

Eratosthenes ca. 200 BCE (Shows Entire subcontinent as India)

Posidonious ca.100 BCE (fails to show either Indus or Indus Valley or India or fails to name them properly)

Strabo roughly 1 AD: (Shows entire subcontinent as India)

Pomponius Mela ca.40 AD: (Debatable but I would say he shows entire subcontinent as India)

Ptolemy's world Map: (shows Two Indias..One between Indus River and Ganges and another East of Ganges)

Tabula Peutingeriana ca.300 AD : (basically a road network map of Roman Empire still tries to squeeze contemporary knowledge of the world...The Word India extends till south and the sea opening of Rive Ganges)

I rest my case.. Ertosthenes onwards, India has meant the whole of subcontinental landmass ....that's 2,200 years

More than the history of even Christianity


I have deliberately not included the higher resilution images as that may crash many computers..You are encouraged to find the higher resolutions on wikicommons, if in doubt

@Indus Pakistan

 

[Indus Pakistan]

India has meant the whole of subcontinental

Although non of the original maps used 'India' but these have been transliterated probably in the 19th century. But besides transliteration how do you translate the contents? I mean the maps also mention Europe, Africa or even call it Libya.

 

[El Sidd]

How many of these are first hand accounts?

India's map and territorial definition is subject to change. This is however proven by this thread

 

[M. Sarmad]

The Arab historians, when they mentioned "India" or "Arz (land) al Hind", they only meant southern and eastern parts of the Indian peninsula. The Northern parts (modern day Pakistan roughly; the Indus basin) were referred to by Arabs as "The Nation of Sindh" always.

For reference: "Meadows of gold and mines of gems" by Al-Masudi; "the Herodotus of the Arabs" (p.176):