Q1.
Can you complete this table of the many names of India? (Persian / Greek / Latin — India / Chinese / Arabic & Persian / English — India / French — Inde)
Answer
Here is the completed table. Every entry comes from the chapter itself — none of it has to be guessed.
| Language | Name for India | Where the chapter says so |
|---|---|---|
| Persian | Hind, Hidu, Hindu | Page 81 — the Persians' adaptations of ‘Sindhu’, in their earliest records and stone inscriptions, from the 6th century BCE |
| Greek | Indoi, Indike | Page 81 — based on Persian sources, with the initial ‘h’ dropped |
| Latin | India | Already filled in the book — the Greek forms passed into Latin |
| Chinese | Yintu, Yindu (also Tianzhu) | Pages 81 and 83 — Sindhu → Hindhu → Indu → Yindu; ‘Tianzhu’ could also be read as ‘heavenly master’ |
| Arabic & Persian | Hindustān | Page 83 — first used in a Persian inscription some 1,800 years ago, later the term used by most invaders of India |
| English | India | Already filled in the book — taken from Latin |
| French | Inde | Already filled in the book — the same Latin word, shortened in French |
Notice the pattern down the column. Six of the seven names are the same word, worn down differently by six different languages:
Sindhu → Hindu (Persian) → Indoi / Indike (Greek) → India (Latin) → India (English), Inde (French)
Sindhu → Hindhu → Indu → Yindu (Chinese)
Sindhu → Hind → Hindustān (Persian, then Arabic)
Sindhu → Hindhu → Indu → Yindu (Chinese)
Sindhu → Hind → Hindustān (Persian, then Arabic)
Why the ‘h’ keeps appearing and disappearing: Sanskrit s regularly became h in old Persian — so Sindhu naturally became Hindu. Greek then had the opposite problem: it had no letter for that ‘h’ sound at the start of the word, so the Greeks simply dropped it and wrote Indoi. One sound change in Iran and one missing letter in Greece are the reason our country is called India in English today.
Try this: add two more rows of your own. Hindi → भारत / हिंदुस्तान; Tamil → பாரதம் (Bhāratam). Now compare the two halves of your table: the Indian languages nearly all use a form of Bhārata, while the foreign languages nearly all use a form of Sindhu. That single contrast is the whole chapter in one page.