Hinduism

Hindustan & India

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 w ay 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 India and Hindu became popular, and the religion and culture of Hindus began to be called the Hinduism. Hindu philosophy, religion and history are all intertwined. The Sages and the achayas who produced the scriptures (which form the body of Sanatan Dharm) are the prominent personalities of Bhartiya history.