Jambudvipa
Topic: India, That Is Bharat: Names of India and Unity in Diversity · NCERT: Class 6, Ch 5 "India, That Is Bharat"; Class 9, Ch 5 "State and Society up to 1000 CE"
Meaning
Jambudvīpa means "island of the jamun tree" (the jambul or Malabar plum, which is native to India). The Mahābhārata uses it as one of the first names for the whole Subcontinent. In Puranic geography, the way the Puranas pictured the world, Jambudvīpa is the central island-continent of the world. The name matters because it appears in a datable inscription. This gives a firm date to a naming tradition that is otherwise hard to date from texts alone.
Example
Ashoka (c. 250 BCE) used Jambudvīpa in his Minor Rock Edict to mean his whole land. At the time, that land covered today's India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan. In the edict, he speaks of the religious changes he had brought about across Jambudvīpa.
Don't confuse with
- Bhāratavarṣha: this was the other Mahābhārata name for the land. In the Puranic world-map, Bhāratavarṣha is a part inside the larger Jambudvīpa.