Columbus wanted to search for Maharashtra? ..and did Vasco da Gama search for Gomantaka/Goa?
Ashoka's accounts are as factually proven as the Roman or Greek accounts. Historically there is no dispute whatsoever. No historian disputes that.
As for the name - yes India came to exist in the people's imagination only in the late 19th century and as a geopolitical entity from 1947 as Dominion of India.
But there were also elaborate descriptions of Aryavarta, Bharata, Mahabharata ... not only in myths but also in documents written, signed, and preserved by visitors, traders, scientists, poets - mentioning that. There was a consciousness regarding what was Bharat and what was not.
Quite distinct to that of 'Pakistan'.