Sindhu
Also called: Indus River · Topic: India, That Is Bharat: Names of India and Unity in Diversity · NCERT: Class 6, Ch 5 "India, That Is Bharat"; Class 6, Ch 6 "The Beginnings of Indian Civilisation"
Meaning
Sindhu is the Sanskrit name of the Indus River. It was also used for any river in general. The Ṛig Veda's name for the north-west, Sapta Sindhava ("land of seven rivers"), is built from it. Almost every major foreign name for India comes from Sindhu: Persian Hindu, Greek Indoi, Latin India, and Chinese Yintu. So the name "India" itself goes back to this river.
Example
The Ṛig Veda, India's oldest text, praises the rivers of Sapta Sindhava in the north-west. Many centuries later, the Persian emperor Darius I (6th century BCE) called the same land Hindush. This is how the chain Sindhu → Hindu → Indoi → India began.
Don't confuse with
- Sapta Sindhava: this is the name of a region, the land of seven rivers in the north-west. Sindhu is the river itself.