印度是何时得名“India”的，为什么国名被叫做印度，这个名称的由来

When was the name "India" given to the country of India?

印度是何时得名“India”的？

以下是Quora网友的评论：

Kumar Abhinandan

When was India called India?

Bharat, India, Hindustan but the official name, states that "India, that is Bharat, shall be a union of states." Thus, not only in usage but officially India and Bharat are both accorded primary status. The name India is derived from the river Indus.

印度什么时候被称为India？

婆罗多，印度，印度斯坦，但印度对官方名称的介绍为：“印度，即婆罗多，应是各邦的联合体。”因此，不仅在日常使用中，而且在官方层面上，印度和婆罗多都有着同样重要的地位。India这个名字源于印度河。

The original name of the river came from the fact that in the north-west of the subcontinent, there are seven main tributaries of the one river. The local inhabitants therefore called it Sapta-Sindhu, meaning the seven rivers. As the seven tributaries are part of the one river, the entire river system came to be known in time as Sindhu. In general, Sindhu also means any river or water body in Sanskrit.

这条河的名字源于一个事实，在次大陆的西北部一条大河有着七条较大的支流。当地居民因此称它为Sapta-Sindhu，意思是七条河流。由于七条支流属于这条大河，所以大河也被称为Sindhu。一般而言，Sindhu在梵语中也指代所有的河流或水域。

Persian explorers visited the area even in ancient times, and the Iranian 'h' is cognate with Sanskrit 's'. Thus Sindhu became Hindu. Similarly, Sanskrit Asura (a spirit, later an evil spirit) is cognate with Ahura, the Supreme God of the early Iranian people.

波斯探险家早在古代就造访过该地区，伊朗语中的“h”与梵语中的“s”同源。所以Sindhu就成了Hindu。同样地，梵语中的阿修罗(一位圣灵，后来变成了恶魔)与早期伊朗人尊奉的至高之神阿胡拉也属同源。

The name of the river entered Greek from Persian, with the loss of the initial 'h', to become Indos, from which the Greeks derived their name for the region, India. The Latin form of Indos is Indus, the name by which the river system is still known in the West. Its name was given to the entire subcontinent by the Romans, who adapted it to the current India.

The word India is the form used by Europeans over the ages.

这条大河的名字从波斯语传入希腊语，又被抹去了开头的“h”变成了Indos，希腊人也因此为这个地区衍生出了India这个名字。Indos的拉丁语写法是Indus，西方人现在还用这个名字来指代这条大河。罗马人用这条大河的名字来命名整个次大陆并将其改为现行的India。

India这个词是欧洲人长期使用的拼写方式。

Sindhu is also the Sanskrit term for Ocean and for any large water body. It would specifically mean the modern river Indus, if ancient Indic originated there. It could just mean "water dwellers" as well.

Sindhu也是指代海洋和任何大型水域的梵语词。如果印欧语系发源于此，它也许具体指的就是现代的印度河。它还有“水中居民”的意思。

Interestingly, the Vedas did not assign any particular name for India, although some scholars assert that references to Indu in the Rig Veda relate to India's present name. Many traditional literary/cultural works from around the globe lack definite terminology for their home culture as a political unit; China, Greece, and many other civilizations lacked fixed names for themselves in traditional literature of their early periods.

有趣的是，吠陀并没有为印度起名，尽管有些学者坚称梨俱吠陀中提到的Indu与印度现在的名字有关。世界各地的许多传统文学作品/文化作品都没有明确的词语来描述其作为政治单位的本土文化；中国、希腊和许多其他文明在早期的传统文学中也都没有固定的名称。

In the Matsya Purana 126, the length of India (Bharatavarsa) is 9,000 puranic yojanas, which is a good estimation.

在《鱼往世书》126中，印度(婆罗多邦)的长度是9,000由旬，是较为准确的估算。

Listed by, among others, Colonel James Todd in his Annals of Rajputana, he describes the ancient India under control of tribes claiming descent from the Moon, or "Indu", and their influence in Trans-Indian regions where they referred to the land as Industhan. This explanation might serve better to explain the term Hindu. Having said that, ancient Greeks do mention the Indic tribes or related tribes (could be of Iranian origin or joint Indo-Iranian origin) inhabiting what is now Ukraine as Sindoi or Sindkoi.

詹姆斯·托德上校在他的《拉杰普塔纳编年史》中描述了古印度处在自称月族后裔的部落或“Indu人”及他们在跨印度地区的影响的控制下，他们将这片土地称为“Industhan”。这个解释也许更适合用来解释Hindu这个词。话虽如此，古希腊人确实提到了印度部落或相关部落(可能是伊朗血统或印度-伊朗血统) 居住在如今属于乌克兰的Sindoi或Sindkoi地区。

Evolution of the name “India” in the history:

历史上“印度”这个名字的演变:

Anonymous

The name is derived from the name of the river Indus/Sindhu .

The name has evolved so many times over the years , from Hindustan, Hind , Hidush , Hodu , Bharath , Bharatham etc .

However the name "India" was first used around 440 B.C by Megasthenese , but later on the name underwent several changes until 1298 , Marco Polo used the name India .

这个名字起源于印度河/Sindhu河的名字。

长期以来，这个名字经过了多次演变，从Hindustan，Hind, Hidush, Hodu到Bharath, Bharatham等。

但“India”这个名字最早是麦加斯梯尼在公元前440年左右提出的，这个名字经历了数次变化，1298年马可·波罗使用了India这个名字。

Archit Srivastava

How our country name is decided INDIA?

Actually the correct question should be 'How our country name was decided India?’

We had different names like Jambudeep, Bharat, Saptsaindhav etc but Aryans which came in 1500BC preferred to call it as Aryavrat (in later vedic period ).

我们的国名是怎么决定的？

实际上，问题应该这样问才对：“我们的国名India是如何定下的？””

印度有很多不一样的名字，如Jambudeep, Bharat, Saptsaindhav等，但公元前1500年的雅利安人更喜欢称它为Aryavrat(吠陀时期晚期)。

Fast Forward to 5 th century BC. India as we all know is derived from River Indus. The first mention of Indus is in the work of Herodotus Greek Historian (also the father of history) in 5th century BC, he mentioned it while stating the Greeco-Persian war (Persia is modern Iran).

我们把时间快进到公元前5世纪。众所周知，印度起源于Indus印度河。Indus首次出现在公元前5世纪希腊历史学家希罗多德(也是历史之父)的著作中，他在讲述希腊-波斯战争时提到了Indus，波斯也就是现代的伊朗。

4rth Century BC- The conquest of Alexander, and his retreat from Indus, also the various stories of wealth and prosperity on the other side of Indus, made India a comparatively hot topic and consequently name 'India' came into being. By that time old Persian language named the people beyond Indus as 'Hindus' (pronunciation issue)

公元前4世纪——亚历山大的征服之战，他从印度河撤军，加上印度河对岸各种财富神话，让印度成为一个热门话题，“India”这个名字由此出现。当时古波斯语将印度河对岸的人称为“Hindus”(发音问题)。

2nd Century BC- Till that time no proper written record of our people were there until Megasthenes gave an account of India in his book Indica. By that time we were popular in western and central world by name India (In Latin too) though the pronunciation changed with region.

公元前2世纪——在此之前，我们没有书面记录，直到麦加斯梯尼在他的书《Indica》中对印度进行了描述。当时西方和中部世界都使用India这个名字(在拉丁语中也是如此)，但各地的发音有所不同。

1st Century AD:- After 1st century there were several mention in greek literature.

公元1世纪：公元1世纪之后，希腊文学中多次提到。

4rth Century AD:- The first reference of name India in Old English was used in King Alfred's translation of Orosius.

公元4世纪：古英语中第一次提到India这个名字是在阿尔弗雷德国王翻译的《奥罗修斯》。

This was the first mention among The English. After this, we were known by different names by Muslims , French , Spanish, Portuguese but recently our land was called HINDUSTAN by Mughals which was changed to INDIA by the Britishers as they always knew us since King Alfred.

这是英国人第一次提到India。在此之后，msl、法国人、西班牙人、葡萄牙人用不同的名字称呼我们，但近代我们的国土被莫卧儿人称为HINDUSTAN印度斯坦，后被英国人改为India印度，因为从阿尔弗雷德国王起他们就听说过我们了。

And after 1857 we came directly under the rule of queen through 'Government Of India Act' and finally our official name was India which remained unchanged after Independence.

1857年之后，我们通过《印度政府法案》直接划归女王统治，我们的官方名称最终定为India印度，独立后也未曾修改。

Nakul Kaushal

When was our country named India?

The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu. The latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi which is translated as "The people of the Indus".

我们国家什么时候被命名为印度？

印度这个名字来源于Indus这个起源于古波斯语Hindu的词。Hindu源于梵语Sindhu，是历史上印度河的当地名字。古希腊人把印度人称为Indoi，翻译过来就是“印度河上的人”。

Well The name India was known in Old English, and was used in King Alfred's translation of Orosius. In Middle English, the name was, under French influence, replaced by Ynde or Inde, which entered Early Modern English as Indie. The name India then came back to English usage from the 17th century onwards, and may be due to the influence of Latin, or Spanish or Portuguese.

India这个名字在古英语中开始为人所知，阿尔弗雷德国王翻译的《奥罗修斯》中就提及了这个词。在中世纪英语中，因受法语的影响，这个名字被Ynde和Inde所取代，并以Indie的拼写进入早期现代英语。从17世纪开始，India这个名字又回归英语的习惯拼写，可能是受到了拉丁语、西班牙语或葡萄牙语的影响。

Ranjiv Kurup

Why and from when is our country called India?

The English term “India” is from Greek ἰνδία via Latin India. Iindía in Byzantine ethnography denotes the region beyond the Indus (ἰνδός) River, since Herodotus alluded to "Indian land" and made famous in ancient Greece by the work of Megasthenes, an ambassador sent by Hellenistic king Seleucus I to the court of Chandragupta Maurya. The work was called “Indica”.

为什么我们的国家被称为印度？是从什么时候开始？

英语词“India”起源于希腊语ἰνδία，起源于拉丁语中的India。因为希罗多德提到“Indian land”，所以拜占庭民族志中用Iindía表示印度河(ἰνδός)河对岸的地区，并因麦加斯梯尼的著作在古希腊声名远扬，麦加斯梯尼是希腊时期的国王塞琉古斯一世派往孔雀王朝旃陀罗笈多宫廷的大使。这部著作被称为“Indica”。

Sandeep Satishchandra

The Indian Subcontinent has been known by a variety of names like Jambuweepa, Bharata Varsha, Bharata Kanda, Aryavrata and many more. The name Bharat has been around since antiquity. The name “India” has been in usage since the first records of Latin translations of the Greek name “Indos” for the land beyond the river Sindhu.

印度次大陆有过不少名字，如Jambuweepa, Bharata Varsha, Bharata Kanda, Aryavrata等等。Bharat婆罗多这个名字在远古时期就出现了。“India”这个名字最初是从希腊名字“Indos”的拉丁语翻译开始使用的，意思是Sindhu河对岸的土地。

Sakshi Goyal

Since when is India called India?

By the time the Persians conquered both, the then Indian subcontinent and Greece in 5th century BCE, 'Sindhu' became 'Hindus' to mark the 'land of Hindus'. From the Greek Herodotus (4th century BC) 'Hindus' evolved to 'Indos' and made its first ever appearance in Old English in 9th century. Finally, in 17th century as 'Indos' made way to Modern English the name 'India' came into exstence.

印度什么时候开始被称为India？

当波斯人在公元前5世纪征服了当时的印度次大陆和希腊时，就把“Sindhu”改成了“hindus”，指代“Hindus印度土地”。自希腊的希罗多德(公元前4世纪)起，“Hindus”演化为“Indos”，并于9世纪首次出现在古英语中。最后，在17世纪，“Indos”进入现代英语，“India”这个名字就出现了。

Although the name was inspired from the Indus, the river now runs mostly through Pakistan, Jammu & Kashmir in India and western Tib.

虽然这个名字的灵感来自印度河，但这条河现在主要流经的是巴基斯坦、印度的查谟和克什米尔地区以及西藏西部。

Pratap Codadu

The name, India, is said to be derived from the word ‘Sindhu’. This latter is the name of a large river on the north-West of India. The earliest civilizational relics, Mohanzodaro and Harappa were also discovered on the banks of Sindhu. Through an anglicism, the river's name mutated into Indus, and the civilizational relics have begun to be called, Indus Valley Civilization. Further mutation of the word Indus gave India. The word replaced Bharat and religiously connoted Hindustan, given the preponderance of Britain at that time and of their language (till date).

India这个名字据称是由“Sindhu”这个词衍生而来的。Sindhu是印度西北部一条大河的名字。摩亨佐达罗和哈拉帕最早的文明遗迹也出现在Sindhu河岸。这条河的名字在英语中演变为Indus，当地的文明遗迹开始被称为印度河流域文明。Indus一词后来进一步演变成India。鉴于历史上英国和英语的优势地位(直到今天)，这个词取代了Bharat，在宗教上意味着印度斯坦。

ABHISHEK TIWARY

How our country name is decided INDIA?

According to oxford dictionary india stand for independent nation which declared in august but somewhere you can hear when india is not independent country that time british government open a company its East India Company so i think there is crop of indigo neel so our country n ame india

我们的国家名是怎么定为India的？

根据牛津词典，印度是8月份宣布独立的国家，但你多少听说过印度曾经不是独立国家，英国政府在印度开了一家公司，即东印度公司，所以我猜是把indigo靛蓝色这个词演变成了国家名India。