Hindostan

Hindustan ( pronunciation ) is the Persian name for India, broadly the Indian subcontinent, which later became an endonym. After the Partition of India, it continues to be used as a name for the Republic of India.

A secondary meaning of Hindustan is as a geographic term for the Indo-Gangetic Plain in north India.

Hindustan is derived from the Persian word Hindū cognate with the Sanskrit Sindhu. The Proto-Iranian sound change *s > h occurred between 850–600 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 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 Sanskrit suffix -stān was added, indicative of a country or region, forming the present word Hindūstān. Thus, Sindh was referred to as Hindūstān in the Naqsh-e-Rustam inscription of Shapur I in c. 262 CE.

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