"Bharat" how did our country get this name!

[KS]

Name me a king who has authority over region as present India ? There is no one ..

Let's face the bitter truth, Naming differently can not change History. It was Muslims rulers and British who gave this part of land a unity.Other wise from 300B.C-1200B.C, There was no central rule. It was small small 'Riyasats' i.e kingdoms all around India.

NCERT syllabus doing wonders...

Indians unaware of their own past and looking upon invaders/pillagers/looters as some kind of saviours...Incredibly sad

Good tree. There is one error though, and should have been added as a caveat, i.e., Pandavas were not the sons of Pandu.

LOL.....

 

[Kunal Biswas]

I like the term Bharat than India..

Also similarly Japan is actually Nipon if i am not wrong..

 

[Virendra]

Good tree. There is one error though, and should have been added as a caveat, i.e., Pandavas were not the sons of Pandu.

Would you like to elaborate that?
Mahabharata Parva 17, Chapter 1 and Verse 57 (hope I didn't sound like Zakir Naik )
'Ye heroic sons of Pandu, know me for the deity of fire. O mighty-armed Yudhishthira, O Bhimasena that art a scorcher of foes, O Arjuna, and ye twins of great courage, listen to what I say! Ye foremost ones of Kuru's race, I am the god of fire.....'
Parva 1, Chapter 1 and Verse 11 :
समन्तपञ्चकं नाम पुण्यं थविजनिषेवितम
गतवान अस्मि तं थेशं युथ्धं यत्राभवत पुरा
पाण्डवानां कुरूणां च सर्वेषां च महीक्षिताम

 

[Rahul Singh]

Despite our official name as Bharat, we are referred to as India. Even Pakis are called by the name they invented. We should be called by our ancient name and not by "India" which the British named to 5 other places around the world (red Indians, west indians, Canadian indians, south american Indians etc).

You have unknowingly offended to many by asking them to own a GAWAR identity in place of a ultramodern forward-looking secular one which they portrays with utmost pride.

Good tree. There is one error though, and should have been added as a caveat, i.e., Pandavas were not the sons of Pandu.

What?????????

 

[pmaitra]

Would you like to elaborate that?
Mahabharata Parva 17, Chapter 1 and Verse 57 (hope I didn't sound like Zakir Naik )
'Ye heroic sons of Pandu, know me for the deity of fire. O mighty-armed Yudhishthira, O Bhimasena that art a scorcher of foes, O Arjuna, and ye twins of great courage, listen to what I say! Ye foremost ones of Kuru's race, I am the god of fire.....'
Parva 1, Chapter 1 and Verse 11 :
समन्तपञ्चकं नाम पुण्यं थविजनिषेवितम
गतवान अस्मि तं थेशं युथ्धं यत्राभवत पुरा
पाण्डवानां कुरूणां च सर्वेषां च महीक्षिताम

You have unknowingly offended to many by asking them to own a GAWAR identity in place of a ultramodern forward-looking secular one which they portrays with utmost pride.

What?????????

All right guys, I'll give it one more try:

"Pandavas were not the sons of Pandu."

Now, I would recommend one read the complete Mahabharata, and understand it well.

 

[KS]

Would you like to elaborate that?

What?????????

Yudhistra - son of Yama
Bhima - Son of Vayu
Arjuna - son of Indra
Nakula/Sahadeva - Sons of Ashwini twins.

 

[pmaitra]

Karthic, perhaps explain to all how Kunti and Madri got their blessings? I will post in short from Wiki:

The first three of the Pandavas were the sons of Kunti, and the younger two were sons of Madri. Since Pandu had been cursed to die if ever he had intercourse with a woman, the actual fatherhood of the children is traditionally attributed to various gods, in virtue of a boon that Kunti had received from Durvaasa and had transferred to Madri. Thus, Yudhisthira was the son of Dharma, the god of righteousness; Bhima the son of Vayu, the wind-god; Arjuna the son of Indra, the sky-god; and Nakula and Sahadeva the sons of the Ashwini Gods. Karna was also born of Kunti Devi, and was the son of Surya, the Sun God.

Source: Pandava - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[civfanatic]

We should name ourselves Aryavarta to evoke the ancient superiority of the Aryas.

Down with all the mlecchas!

Aryavarta Sieg Heil!

 

[johnee]

Despite our official name as Bharat, we are referred to as India. Even Pakis are called by the name they invented. We should be called by our ancient name and not by "India" which the British named to 5 other places around the world (red Indians, west indians, Canadian indians, south american Indians etc).

Wonderful. Nobody can put it better than this. Yep, even the pakis are better in this regard.

--------
Virendra,
great post. Cheers.

-------

Generally, the legend says that the name 'Bharatha' came because of the Emperor named Bharatha, son of Dushyanta and Shakuntala.

Etymology of 'Bharatha' can be divided into: Bha + Ratha.

Ratha means one who has rathi(interest/passion).
Bha means light. It also means fire.

So, etymologically 'Bharatha' means one who has passion for light/fire.

There are several meanings to the above sentence:
a) Indians worship the holy fire of Yagya, so they are called Bharathas.
b) Indians worship the holy light of Sun, so they are called Bharathas.
c) Indians worship the light(which symbolically represents Truth/Satya, immortality/amrita and freedom/moksha), so they are called Bharathas.

There is a famous verses in this regard:
Astoma sad gamaya (From untruth lead me to truth),
Tamosorma jyothirgamaya (From darkness lead to light),
Mrityurmoa Amritamgayama (From death lead to immortality).

In the above verses, it is clear that light represents truth and immortality.

---------

BTW, what does 'India' mean etymologically? Why were people of Bharatha called 'Indians' by the British? It seems, they named many others also as Indians. What similarity did the British perceive in those people with the people of Bharatha?

 

[Mad Indian]

We should name ourselves Aryavarta to evoke the ancient superiority of the Aryas.

Down with all the mlecchas! India Sieg Heil!

This is one of the two culprits who destroyed another thread in a similiar manner.

 

[Bachchu Yadav]

India can not be reactionary state like Pakistan.

 

[KS]

India can not be reactionary state like Pakistan.

There comes a time in history when everyone has to be reactionary...its "when" and "how" that matters

 

[Bachchu Yadav]

There comes a time in history when everyone has to be reactionary...its "when" and "how" that matters

there are always excuses and justifications even one can justifies to extra marital affairs.

 

[KS]

there are always excuses and justifications even one can justifies to extra marital affairs.

Some they are valid too.

 

[IBSA]

I think India has most important issues to care about than exchange its name

Maybe Indians like be called Bharat, but in rest of world India means a more familiar name. Asks people outside India if they know a country called Bharat and where is it, they will say they dont knows. India will need to lead a public world campaign to difuse the new name and expend money for a thing with no real benefits.

Iran in 1930' years also requested the West countries to exchange the country name from Persia to Iran, as they called their land all time. But, today there people in West calling Iran as Persia yet, because so it is referred in Holy Bible.

But if the Indians thinks country's nickname most important than Education and other things which truely builds a country, it is not a foreign as me that will stop them to do it.

This is my humble opinion.

 

[pmaitra]

^^

The Iranians still call their language Farsi.

Iran makes sense. Iran means "the Land of Aryans."

I agree, India should be India.

 

[Virendra]

Karthic, perhaps explain to all how Kunti and Madri got their blessings? I will post in short from Wiki:
The first three of the Pandavas were the sons of Kunti, and the younger two were sons of Madri. Since Pandu had been cursed to die if ever he had intercourse with a woman, the actual fatherhood of the children is traditionally attributed to various gods, in virtue of a boon that Kunti had received from Durvaasa and had transferred to Madri. Thus, Yudhisthira was the son of Dharma, the god of righteousness; Bhima the son of Vayu, the wind-god; Arjuna the son of Indra, the sky-god; and Nakula and Sahadeva the sons of the Ashwini Gods. Karna was also born of Kunti Devi, and was the son of Surya, the Sun God.

Oh God .. so they were not biological sons of Pandu? But they're still called his sons. Good that I learned the truth. Is is mentioned clearly in any Parva ?
Coming back to the name:
Lets leave the others for a while, we can't force them. Atleast among ourselves we should call the nation with its proper name - Bharata.
'India; was given greeks based on 'Indus and the people around it'. So let the greeks and their brothers call it India. But we should keep in practice the name we setup ourselves.

Regards,
Virendra

 

[pmaitra]

Oh God .. so they were not biological sons of Pandu? But they're still called his sons. Good that I learned the truth. Is is mentioned clearly in any Parva ?
Coming back to the name:
Lets leave the others for a while, we can't force them. Atleast among ourselves we should call the nation with its proper name - Bharata.
'India; was given greeks based on 'Indus and the people around it'. So let the greeks and their brothers call it India. But we should keep in practice the name we setup ourselves.

Regards,
Virendra

Virendra, when we are taught Ramayana and Mahabharata as children, we are taught the 'vegetarian' version, so we learn that Pandavas are the sons of Pandu. Once we get older, we are supposed to learn the real Mahabharata and Ramayana, but, we usually get caught in studying for enginnering, medical, etc..

Regarding the name, the thing is, India is also a brand, and we lose the brand value if we suddenly change the name. However, yes, amongst ourselves, of course we use the terms Bharat and Bharatiya.

 

[IBSA]

^^

The Iranians still call their language Farsi.

Iranians continued calling their language as Farsi, because there isn't one Iranian language. The Iranian is a branch of Indo-European languages family not a single idiom. Several Iranian idioms exists in Iran: Farsi, Kurdish, Lori. The Farsi is the language of hegemonic ethnic group, not for all Iranian people.

I agree, India should be India.

India makes geopolitically more sense than Bharat. India does reference to the Indus Valley. If India claims Pakistanese territories as Kashmir, the name of India sends a message to international community that she recognizes Indus Valley lands as of her.

 

[A chauhan]

Name me a king who has authority over region as present India ? There is no one ..

You are applying wrong standards, our land was given the name "Bharat" because of glorious past of our civilisation i.e. civilisation and culture of Bharat (Bhartiya Sabhyta & Bharatiya Sanskriti) and not because of Muslims or British. You can't judge the greatness of a civilisation or culture by the territories of its land alone. Cultures and civilisations are judged by their contributions and development in the field of Arts, Science, Finance, Military powers, Education, Agriculture, their Continuity etc. and in all those Bharatiya civilisation is one of the best.The spread of Bharatiya civilisation was from Afghanistan to Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia etc.

Using the name "Bharat" wont create any bad effect, in fact in a due course of time it will give a very lovely and pleasant experience. You see Bombay was renamed to Mumbai as people believed that "Bombay" was a corrupted English version of "Mumbai" and an unwanted legacy of British colonial rule. Today people love to call it Mumbai as Bombay appears clumsy now, people now don't use the name Bombay, it's all about habits. Burma was renamed to Myanmar, and now people call it Myanmar.