BHARATVARSHA-ugc history

BHARATVARSHA-ugc history

Ancient india was known as bharatvarsha .The ancient indian historians and scholars differ in thier views regarding how the name bharatvarsha had been derived.According to Vedavyasa the name bharatvarsha was derived from the name of the Bharat ,the son of emperor Dhyanta.

Bharatvarsha signifies the nation of bharat. According to Aitareya brahmana “bharatha was a universal monarch who had built a vast empire winning vast areas of land spread all over the four directions.He had performed aswamedha yega and the name bharatvarsha derived from his name”.According to one of the hearsay of Maitareya purana “the land ruled by manu,the promugenator of the huma race,was named bharatvarsha.For system of justic e and love for the public,manu was known as bharat.

According to Jainas and Bhagavadas ‘the name of the eldest son of Rishabha deva was bharat,who was a virtous person and great ascetic.The name bharatvarsha was derived from his name.

All the facts cannot be taken to be logical because traditionally only some small towns or provinces have been noticed to have derived thier names from the name of some prominent person.The large countries  are named after its citizen and race.In this context,it could be siad that the name bharatvarsha had been derived from the bharata race of the vedic aryans because this race is known to be in the forfront of the contemporary political power.Consequently under the influence of its culture the entire nation came to be known as bharatvarsha.This fact has been explained in the vayu pura na as ”the nation to the north of the sea and to the south of the himalaya is known as bharat,because it is inhabited by the progeny of bharat.

Various invaders gave various name to india.Iranians named it HindusthanTthese people pronounced ‘SA’ as’ HA’.The people along side the sindhu river ware named hindu and the land inhabited by them was named as hinduthan.This name was use by the islamic countries under the influence of iran.Indian people adopted the name bharatvarsha or bharatkanda ,the other name could not be adopted by the indians.The  name india was coined by the GREECKS.The sindhu river was called by them indus ,thus the land as india and its inhabitants ware came to be known as indians.

Bharatvarsha is said to be widely spread.It also used to be called greater bharatTthe matsya purana states that there were 9 divisions of greater bharat which have since submerged in the sea and are now beyond reach.These divisions were

1-indradweepe

2-kaseru

3-tamraparni

4-gabhistiman

5-nagdweepa

6-saumya

7-gandharva

8-varuna

9-bharat sarrounded by the sea.

Bharatvarsha forms a triangle amidst the various continents falling under the indian ocean of the asian continent.Bhartvarsha is situated in the centre of 7*and 37* latitude and 62*and 98* longtitude.The tropi c of cancer passes from theupper  region of calcutta to the ran of kutchTthe southern region is a tropical zone and the northern region is a temperate one.The area of bharatvarsha is equel to the whole area of europe minus russia.Lengthwise its area extents from kashmir to srilanka covering a distance of approximatly 2000 miles and its equidistant width extents from kathiawar to assam.

The high and inaccessible himalayan border of bharatvarsha on north separating from the other side of asia.The lower part of bharatvarsha is bordered by the indian ocean on all three sides.The whole bharatvarsha is divided into the following natural divisions.....

1-Himalayas

2-the northern plateau

3-vidhy mountain region

4-the southern peninsula

5-the far south.its northern plateau can be divided in to three sub divisions like 

1-Ganges region

2-Indus plain

3-Brahmaputra plain....................................