66-689: Kedarkantha ( Hindi : केदारकंठ) is a mountain peak of the Himalayas in Uttarakhand , India. Its elevation is 12,500 ft (3,800 m). Kedarkantha is located within Govind Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttarkashi district . A trek to the peak of Kedarkantha usually starts from Sankri, a small village, and takes four days to complete. This article related to a location in the Indian state of Uttarakhand
132-585: A Sanskritised register of the Hindustani language , which itself is based primarily on the Khariboli dialect of Delhi and neighbouring areas. It is an official language in nine states and three union territories and an additional official language in three other states. Hindi is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of the Republic of India . Apart from the script and formal vocabulary, standard Hindi
198-573: A core vocabulary of native Prakrit and Sanskrit-derived words. However, Hindi is written in the Devanagari script and contains more direct tatsama Sanskrit -derived words than Urdu, whereas Urdu is written in the Perso-Arabic script and uses more Arabic and Persian loanwords compared to Hindi. Because of this, as well as the fact that the two registers share an identical grammar, a consensus of linguists consider them to be two standardised forms of
264-540: A land of 'abnormal heat'. In 515 BCE, Darius I annexed the Indus Valley including Sindhu , the present day Sindh , which was called Hindu in Persian. During the time of Xerxes , the term "Hindu" was also applied to the lands to the east of Indus. In middle Persian , probably from the first century CE, the suffix -stān was added, indicative of a country or region, forming the present word Hindūstān . Thus, Sindh
330-569: A larger amount are still used in Urdu poetry written in the Devanagari script. Many words borrowed from Persian in turn were loanwords from Arabic (e.g. muśkil "difficult", havā "air", x(a)yāl "thought", kitāb "book"). Hindi also makes extensive use of loan translation ( calqueing ) and occasionally phono-semantic matching of English . Many Hindustani words were derived from Portuguese due to interaction with colonists and missionaries: Hindustan Hindūstān ( pronunciation )
396-477: A literary language in the 19th century. Earliest examples could be found as Prēm Sāgar by Lallu Lal , Batiyāl Pachīsī of Sadal Misra, and Rānī Kētakī Kī Kahānī of Insha Allah Khan which were published in Devanagari script during the early 19th century. John Gilchrist was principally known for his study of the Hindustani language , which was adopted as the lingua franca of northern India (including what
462-523: A medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India and to secure its enrichment by assimilating without interfering with its genius, the forms, style and expressions used in Hindustani and in the other languages of India specified in the Eighth Schedule, and by drawing, wherever necessary or desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily on Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages. It
528-410: A part of the process of Sanskritisation , new words are coined using Sanskrit components to be used as replacements for supposedly foreign vocabulary. Usually these neologisms are calques of English words already adopted into spoken Hindi. Some terms such as dūrbhāṣ "telephone", literally "far-speech" and dūrdarśan "television", literally "far-sight" have even gained some currency in formal Hindi in
594-544: A second language. A Hindi proponent, Indian-born Paramananda Jha , was elected vice-president of Nepal. He took his oath of office in Hindi in July 2008. This created protests in the streets for 5 days; students burnt his effigies, and there was a general strike in 22 districts. Nepal Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that his oath in Hindi was invalid and he was kept "inactive" as vice-president. An "angry" Jha said, "I cannot be compelled to take
660-641: A similar expanse (northern Indian subcontinent ). Hindustan is derived from the Persian word Hindū cognate with the Sanskrit Sindhu . The Proto-Iranian sound change *s > h occurred between 850 and 600 BCE, according to Asko Parpola . Hence, the Rigvedic sapta sindhava (the land of seven rivers) became hapta hindu in the Avesta . It was said to be the "fifteenth domain" created by Ahura Mazda , apparently
726-569: A standardised form of Hindustani separate from Urdu took form. In 1881, Bihar accepted Hindi as its sole official language, replacing Urdu, and thus became the first state of India to adopt Hindi. However, in 2014, Urdu was accorded second official language status in the state. After independence, the Government of India instituted the following conventions: On 14 September 1949, the Constituent Assembly of India adopted Hindi written in
SECTION 10
#1733085488845792-458: Is mutually intelligible with standard Urdu , another recognised register of Hindustani, as both Hindi and Urdu share a core vocabulary base derived from Prakrit (a descendant of Sanskrit). Hindi is also spoken, to a lesser extent, in other parts of India (usually in a simplified or pidginised variety such as Bazaar Hindustani or Haflong Hindi ). Outside India, several other languages are recognised officially as "Hindi" but do not refer to
858-399: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Hindi Modern Standard Hindi ( आधुनिक मानक हिन्दी , Ādhunik Mānak Hindī ), commonly referred to as Hindi , is the standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in Devanagari script . It is the official language of India alongside English and the lingua franca of North India . Hindi is considered
924-642: Is a standard register of the Hindustani language; additionally, Indian media are widely viewed in Pakistan. A sizeable population in Afghanistan , especially in Kabul , can also speak and understand Hindi-Urdu due to the popularity and influence of Bollywood films, songs and actors in the region. Hindi is also spoken by a large population of Madheshis (people having roots in north-India but having migrated to Nepal over hundreds of years) of Nepal . Apart from this, Hindi
990-409: Is an official language of Gujarat , along with Gujarati . It acts as an additional official language of West Bengal in blocks and sub-divisions with more than 10% of the population speaking Hindi. Similarly, Hindi is accorded the status of official language in the following Union Territories : Delhi , Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu . Although there
1056-542: Is based on the language that was spoken in the Ganges-Yamuna Doab ( Delhi , Meerut and Saharanpur ) called Khariboli ; the vernacular of Delhi and the surrounding region came to replace earlier prestige languages such as Awadhi and Braj . Standard Hindi was developed by supplanting foreign loanwords from the Hindustani language and replacing them with Sanskrit words, though Standard Hindi does continue to possess several Persian loanwords. Modern Hindi became
1122-573: Is borrowed from Sanskrit as tatsam borrowings, especially in technical and academic fields. The formal Hindi standard, from which much of the Persian, Arabic and English vocabulary has been replaced by neologisms compounding tatsam words, is called Śuddh Hindi (pure Hindi), and is viewed as a more prestigious dialect over other more colloquial forms of Hindi. Excessive use of tatsam words sometimes creates problems for native speakers. They may have Sanskrit consonant clusters which do not exist in Hindustani, causing difficulties in pronunciation. As
1188-455: Is commonly used to specifically refer the modern literary Hindi language, as opposed to colloquial and regional varieties that are also referred to as Hindi in a wider sense . Like other Indo-Aryan languages, Hindi is a direct descendant of an early form of Vedic Sanskrit , through Shauraseni Prakrit and Śauraseni Apabhraṃśa (from Sanskrit apabhraṃśa "corrupt"), which emerged in the 7th century CE. The sound changes that characterised
1254-624: Is mirror to a hand with bangles, What is Persian to a literate. The emergence of Modern Standard Hindi in the 19th century went along with the Sanskritisation of its vocabulary, leading to a marginalisation of Persian vocabulary in Hindi, which continued after Partition when the Indian government co-opted the policy of Sanskritisation. However, many Persian words (e.g. bas "enough", khud "self") have remained entrenched in Standard Hindi, and
1320-597: Is no specification of a national language in the constitution, it is a widely held belief that Hindi is the national language of India. This is often a source of friction and contentious debate. In 2010, the Gujarat High Court clarified that Hindi is not the national language of India because the constitution does not mention it as such. Outside Asia , the Awadhi language (an Eastern Hindi dialect) with influence from Bhojpuri , Bihari languages , Fijian and English
1386-513: Is now present-day Pakistan ) by British colonists and indigenous people. He compiled and authored An English-Hindustani Dictionary , A Grammar of the Hindoostanee Language , The Oriental Linguist , and many more. His lexicon of Hindustani was published in the Perso-Arabic script , Nāgarī script , and in Roman transliteration .In the late 19th century, a movement to further develop Hindi as
SECTION 20
#17330854888451452-594: Is our Hindustan) The 1940 Lahore Resolution of the All-India Muslim League demanded sovereignty for the Muslim-majority areas in the northwest and northeast of British India , which came to be called 'Pakistan' in popular parlance and the Dominion of India came to be called 'Hindustan'. The British officials too picked up the two terms and started using them officially. However, this naming did not meet
1518-713: Is spoken by the large Indian diaspora which hails from, or has its origin from the "Hindi Belt" of India. A substantially large North Indian diaspora lives in countries like the United States of America , the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates , Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, South Africa, Fiji and Mauritius , where it is natively spoken at home and among their own Hindustani-speaking communities. Outside India, Hindi speakers are 8 million in Nepal ; 863,077 in
1584-523: Is spoken in Fiji. It is an official language in Fiji as per the 1997 Constitution of Fiji, where it referred to it as "Hindustani"; however, in the 2013 Constitution of Fiji , it is simply called " Fiji Hindi " as the official language. It is spoken by 380,000 people in Fiji. Hindi is spoken as a first language by about 77,569 people in Nepal according to the 2011 Nepal census , and further by 1,225,950 people as
1650-854: Is the dominant form of Hindi online. In an analysis of YouTube comments, Palakodety et al., identified that 52% of comments were in Romanised Hindi, 46% in English, and 1% in Devanagari Hindi. Traditionally, Hindi words are divided into five principal categories according to their etymology: Hindi has naturally inherited a large portion of its vocabulary from Shauraseni Prakrit , in the form of tadbhava words. This process usually involves compensatory lengthening of vowels preceding consonant clusters in Prakrit, e.g. Sanskrit tīkṣṇa > Prakrit tikkha > Hindi tīkhā . Much of Standard Hindi's vocabulary
1716-495: Is the language of Hindustan and the lingua franca of the northern Indian subcontinent. Hindustani derives from the Old Hindi language of Western Uttar Pradesh and Delhi areas. Its literary standard forms— Modern Standard Hindi and Modern Standard Urdu —use different scripts. The Hindi register itself derives its name from shortened form, Hind (India). The region of Hindustan is extensive, full of men and full of produce. On
1782-566: Is written in the Devanagari script, an abugida . Devanagari consists of 11 vowels and 33 consonants and is written from left to right. Unlike Sanskrit, Devanagari is not entirely phonetic for Hindi, especially failing to mark schwa deletion in spoken Standard Hindi. The Government of India uses Hunterian transliteration as its official system of writing Hindi in the Latin script. Various other systems also exist, such as IAST , ITRANS and ISO 15919 . Romanised Hindi , also called Hinglish ,
1848-483: The 2011 census of India . The term Hindī originally was used to refer to inhabitants of the Indo-Gangetic Plain . It was borrowed from Classical Persian هندی Hindī ( Iranian Persian pronunciation: Hendi ), meaning ' of or belonging to Hind (India) ' (hence, ' Indian ' ). Another name Hindavī ( हिन्दवी ) or Hinduī ( हिन्दुई ) (from Persian هندوی 'of or belonging to
1914-774: The Ghaznavids in the Punjab with its capital at Lahore was called "Hindustan". After the Delhi Sultanate was established, north India, especially the Gangetic plains and the Punjab, came to be called "Hindustan". Scholar Bratindra Nath Mukherjee states that this narrow meaning of Hindustan existed side by side with the wider meaning, and some of the authors used both of them simultaneously. The Delhi Sultanate established differences between "Hindustan" and "Hind", where Hindustan referred to
1980-575: The Hindi Belt ), as well as an official language of the Government of India, along with English. In Northeast India a pidgin known as Haflong Hindi has developed as a lingua franca for the people living in Haflong , Assam who speak other languages natively. In Arunachal Pradesh , Hindi emerged as a lingua franca among locals who speak over 50 dialects natively. Hindi is quite easy to understand for many Pakistanis , who speak Urdu, which, like Hindi,
2046-506: The Indian subcontinent , with its western limit formed by the river Indus, southern limit going up to the Great Sea and the eastern limit at Kamarupa , the present day Assam. For the next ten centuries, both Hind and Hindustan were used within the subcontinent with exactly this meaning, along with their adjectives Hindawi , Hindustani and Hindi . Indeed, in 1220 CE, historian Hasan Nizami described Hind as being "from Peshawar to
Kedarkantha - Misplaced Pages Continue
2112-608: The Muslim conquests , the meaning of Hindustan interacted with its Arabic variant Hind , which was derived from Persian as well, and almost became synonymous with it. The Arabs, engaging in oceanic trade, included all the lands from Tis in western Balochistan (near modern Chabahar ) to the Indonesian archipelago, in their idea of Hind , especially when used in its expansive form as " Al-Hind ". Hindustan did not acquire this elaborate meaning. According to André Wink, it also did not acquire
2178-814: The United States of America ; 450,170 in Mauritius; 380,000 in Fiji; 250,292 in South Africa; 150,000 in Suriname; 100,000 in Uganda ; 45,800 in the United Kingdom; 20,000 in New Zealand ; 20,000 in Germany ; 26,000 in Trinidad and Tobago; 3,000 in Singapore . Linguistically , Hindi and Urdu are two registers of the same language and are mutually intelligible. Both Hindi and Urdu share
2244-612: The 50th birthday of Beohar Rajendra Simha on 14 September 1949, the efforts came to fruition following the adoption of Hindi as the official language. Now, it is celebrated as Hindi Day . Part XVII of the Indian Constitution deals with the official language of the Indian Union. Under Article 343, the official languages of the Union have been prescribed, which includes Hindi in Devanagari script and English: (1) The official language of
2310-623: The Devanagari script as the official language of the Republic of India replacing the previous usage of Hindustani in the Perso-Arabic script in the British Indian Empire . To this end, several stalwarts rallied and lobbied pan-India in favour of Hindi, most notably Beohar Rajendra Simha along with Hazari Prasad Dwivedi , Kaka Kalelkar , Maithili Sharan Gupt and Seth Govind Das who even debated in Parliament on this issue. As such, on
2376-402: The Hindi heartland. Persian borrowings reached a heyday in the 17th century, pervading all aspects of life. Even grammatical constructs, namely the izafat , were assimilated into Hindi. The status of Persian language then and thus its influence, is also visible in Hindi proverbs : हाथ कंगन को आरसी क्या, पढ़े लिखे को फ़ारसी क्या। Hāth kaṅgan ko ārsī kyā, Paṛhe likhe ko Fārsī kyā. What
2442-563: The Hindu/Indian people') was often used in the past, for example by Amir Khusrau in his poetry. The terms Hindi and Hindu trace back to Old Persian which derived these names from the Sanskrit name Sindhu ( सिन्धु ), referring to the Indus River . The Greek cognates of the same terms are Indus (for the river) and India (for the land of the river). The term Modern Standard Hindi
2508-575: The Miyan-Doab and adjacent regions under Muslim political control, while "Hind" referred to the rest of India. For example, the army of Ghiyas ud din Balban was referred to as "Hindustani" troops, who were attacked by the "Hindus". "Hindustan" is often an informal and colloquial term to refer to the modern-day Republic of India . Slogans involving the term are commonly heard at sports events and other public programmes involving teams or entities representing
2574-592: The Mughal Empire, called his French translation La Carte générale de l'Inde (General Map of India). This 'Hindustan' of British reckoning was divided into British-ruled territories (more often referred to as 'British India') and the territories ruled by native rulers. The British officials and writers, however, thought that the Indians used 'Hindustan' to refer to only North India. An Anglo-Indian Dictionary published in 1886 states that, while Hindustan means India, in
2640-530: The Official Languages Act of 1963, which provided for the continued use of English indefinitely for all official purposes, although the constitutional directive for the Union Government to encourage the spread of Hindi was retained and has strongly influenced its policies. Article 344 (2b) stipulates that the official language commission shall be constituted every ten years to recommend steps for
2706-494: The President may, during the said period, by order authorise the use of the Hindi language in addition to the English language and of the Devanagari form of numerals in addition to the international form of Indian numerals for any of the official purposes of the Union. Article 351 of the Indian constitution states: It shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language, to develop it so that it may serve as
Kedarkantha - Misplaced Pages Continue
2772-480: The Standard Hindi language described here and instead descend from other nearby languages, such as Awadhi and Bhojpuri . Such languages include Fiji Hindi , which has an official status in Fiji , and Caribbean Hindustani , which is spoken in Suriname , Trinidad and Tobago , and Guyana . Hindi is the fourth most-spoken first language in the world, after Mandarin, Spanish and English. If counted together with
2838-460: The Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. The form of numerals to be used for the official purposes of the Union shall be the international form of Indian numerals. (2) Notwithstanding anything in clause (1), for a period of fifteen years from the commencement of this Constitution, the English language shall continue to be used for all the official purposes of the Union for which it was being used immediately before such commencement: Provided that
2904-480: The approval of Indian leaders due to the implied meaning of 'Hindustan' as the land of Hindus . They insisted that the new Dominion of India should be called 'India', not 'Hindustan'. Probably for the same reason, the name 'Hindustan' did not receive official sanction of the Constituent Assembly of India , whereas 'Bharat' was adopted as an official name. It was recognised however that 'Hindustan' would continue to be used unofficially. The Indian Armed Forces use
2970-542: The distinction, which faded away, between Sind (roughly what is now western Pakistan) and Hind (the lands to the east of the Indus River); other sources state that Sind and Hind were used synonymously from early times, and that after the arrival of Islamic rule in India , "the variants Hind and Sind were used, as synonyms, for the entire subcontinent." The 10th century text Hudud al-Alam defined Hindustan as roughly
3036-421: The east, south and even on the west it ends at its great enclosing ocean ( muḥiṭ-daryā-sī-gha ). On the north it has mountains that connect with those of Hindu-Kush , Kafiristan and Kashmir . North-west of it lies Kabul, Ghazni and Qandahar. Dihlī is held ( aīrīmīsh ) to be the capital of the whole of Hindustan... Early Persian scholars had limited knowledge of the extent of India. After the advent of Islam and
3102-547: The empire expanded, so too did 'Hindustan'. At the same time, the meaning of 'Hindustan' as the entire Indian subcontinent is also found in Baburnama and Ain-i-Akbari . The Mughals made a further distinction between "Hindustani" and "Hindu". In Mughal sources, Hindustani commonly referred to Muslims in Hindustan, while non-Muslim Indians were referred to as Hindus. The last Gorkhali King Prithvi Narayan Shah self proclaimed
3168-603: The entire subcontinent since the early modern period . Since the Partition of India in 1947, Hindustan continues to be used to the present day as a historic name for the Republic of India . The Arabic equivalent of the term is Hind. The two terms are used synonymously in Hindi-Urdu. Hindustan was also commonly spelt as Hindostan in English. Historically, the terms "Hindustan", " Āryāvarta " and "India proper" have denoted
3234-531: The last 125 years, there are no academic studies of any of them – of their use in South Africa, their evolution and current decline. Hindi is adopted as the third official court language in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi . As a result of this status, the Indian workforce in UAE can file their complaints to the labour courts in the country in their own mother-tongue. Hindi is the lingua franca of northern India (which contains
3300-453: The modern nation-state of India. In marketing, it is also commonly used as an indicator of national origin in advertising campaigns and is present in many company names . Muhammad Ali Jinnah , the founder of Pakistan , and his party the Muslim League , insisted on calling the modern-day Republic of India "Hindustan" in reference to its Hindu-majority population. The Hindustani language
3366-400: The mutually intelligible Urdu, it is the third most-spoken language in the world, after Mandarin and English. According to reports of Ethnologue (2022, 25th edition) Hindi is the third most-spoken language in the world including first and second language speakers. Hindi is the fastest growing language of India , followed by Kashmiri , Meitei , Gujarati and Bengali according to
SECTION 50
#17330854888453432-501: The native parlance it had come to represent the region north of Narmada River excluding Bihar and Bengal . During the independence movement, the Indians referred to their land by all three names: 'India', 'Hindustan' and 'Bharat'. Mohammad Iqbal 's poem Tarānah-e-Hindī ("Anthem of the People of Hind") was a popular patriotic song among Indian independence activists. Sāre jahāṉ se acchā Hindustān hamārā (the best of all lands
3498-495: The newly unified Kingdom of Nepal as Asal Hindustan (Real Hindustan) due to North India being ruled by the Islamic Mughal rulers . The self proclamation was done to enforce Hindu social code Dharmashastra over his reign and refer to his country as being inhabitable for Hindus . He also referred Northern India as Mughlan (Country of Mughals ) and called the region infiltrated by Muslim foreigners. The dual meanings of
3564-641: The oath now in Nepali. I might rather take it in English." Hindi is a protected language in South Africa . According to the Constitution of South Africa , the Pan South African Language Board must promote and ensure respect for Hindi along with other languages. According to a doctoral dissertation by Rajend Mesthrie in 1985, although Hindi and other Indian languages have existed in South Africa for
3630-460: The official language of the imperial court during the reign of Shah Jahan . It is recorded that Emperor Aurangzeb spoke in Hindvi . The Hindustani vernacular became an expression of Indian national unity during the Indian Independence movement , and continues to be spoken as the common language of the people of the northern Indian subcontinent, which is reflected in the Hindustani vocabulary of Bollywood films and songs. Standard Hindi
3696-426: The place of the English borrowings (ṭeli)fon and ṭīvī . Hindi also features significant Persian influence, standardised from spoken Hindustani . Early borrowings, beginning in the mid-12th century, were specific to Islam (e.g. Muhammad , Islām ) and so Persian was simply an intermediary for Arabic. Later, under the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire , Persian became the primary administrative language in
3762-522: The progressive use of Hindi language and impose restrictions on the use of the English language by the union government. In practice, the official language commissions are constantly endeavouring to promote Hindi but not imposing restrictions on English in official use by the union government. At the state level, Hindi is the official language of the following Indian states: Bihar , Chhattisgarh , Haryana , Himachal Pradesh , Jharkhand , Madhya Pradesh , Rajasthan , Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand . Hindi
3828-440: The same language, Hindustani or Hindi-Urdu. Hindi is the most commonly used scheduled language in India and is one of the two official languages of the union , the other being English. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan and is one of 22 scheduled languages of India , also having official status in Uttar Pradesh , Jammu and Kashmir , Delhi , Telangana , Andhra Pradesh and Bihar . Hindi
3894-417: The shores of the [Indian] Ocean , and in the other direction from Siwistan to the hills of Chin." With the Turko-Persian conquests starting in the 11th century, an accurate meaning of Hindustan took shape, defining the land of the river Indus. The conquerors were liable to call the lands under their control Hindustan , ignoring the rest of the subcontinent. In the early 11th century a satellite state of
3960-408: The terms "India," "Hindustan," and the "Mughal Empire" persisted with the arrival of Europeans. For instance, Rennel produced an atlas titled the Memoir of a Map of Hindoostan or the Mogul Empire in 1792, which actually depicted the Indian subcontinent. This conflation of terms by Rennel illustrates the complexity and overlap of these concepts during that period. J. Bernoulli, to whom Hindustan meant
4026-402: The territories of today's Northern India and the Punjab , the lands of the Indus. In the Miyan-Doab and adjacent regions under Muslim political control. For example, the army of Delhi Sultanate was referred to as "Hindustani" troops, who were attacked by the "Hindus". The Mughal Empire (1526–1857) called its lands 'Hindustan'. The term 'Mughal' itself was never used to refer to the land. As
SECTION 60
#17330854888454092-471: The transition from Middle Indo-Aryan to Hindi are: During the period of Delhi Sultanate in medieval India , which covered most of today's north India, eastern Pakistan, southern Nepal and Bangladesh and which resulted in the contact of Hindu and Muslim cultures , the Sanskrit and Prakrit base of Old Hindi became enriched with loanwords from Persian , evolving into the present form of Hindustani. Hindi achieved prominence in India after it became
4158-482: Was a historical region , polity , and a name for India , historically used to refer to the northern Indian subcontinent later expanded to the entire subcontinent, used in the modern day to refer to the Republic of India . Being the Iranic cognate of the Indic word Sindhu , it originally referred to the land of lower Indus basin (present-day Sindh ) during the ancient era, but was later extended to refer to northern Indian subcontinent . It finally referred to
4224-399: Was envisioned that Hindi would become the sole working language of the Union Government by 1965 (per directives in Article 344 (2) and Article 351), with state governments being free to function in the language of their own choice. However, widespread resistance to the imposition of Hindi on non-native speakers, especially in South India (such as those in Tamil Nadu ) led to the passage of
4290-433: Was previously used by the Arabs to refer to the much wider Indianised region from the Makran coast to the Indonesian archipelago . But eventually it too became identified with the Indian subcontinent. In the time of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal empire, the ruling elite and its Persian historiographers made a further distinction between "Hindustan" and "Hind". Hindustan referred to the territories of Northern India in
4356-433: Was referred to as Hindūstān , or "Indus land" in the Naqsh-e-Rustam inscription of Shapur I in c. 262 CE. Historian B. N. Mukherjee states that from the lower Indus basin, the term Hindūstān got gradually extended to "more or less the whole of the subcontinent ". The Greco-Roman name "India" and the Chinese name Shen-tu also followed a similar evolution. The Arabic term Hind , derived from Persian Hindu ,
#844155