How did Bharat get the name India, An interesting mail from Bhargava Kulkarni

Bharatvarsh (which is now called India) has beget Divine dignitaries  who not only Graced the soils of India with their presence and Divine intelligence, but they also showed and revealed the true path of peace, happiness and the Divine enlightenment for the souls of the world that still is the guideline for the true lovers of God who desire to taste the sweetness of His Divine love in an intimate style

According to the Shastras the area of the continent, Jambu-dwipa (Asia) 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 ‘Indoi’ or ‘Indu’ or ‘Indu-mati’ 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.