The Sindhu River is one of the great holy rivers of India, from which the name of India is derived. Unlike other holy rivers in India such as the Ganga, Yamuna and Sarasvati, the Sindhu is masculine. 

The Sindhu is virtually unknown to people in western countries, but for the people of India it has great significance. Indeed, the Sindhu gave birth to the earliest of India's civilizations known as the Indus Valley Civilization. For those readers who know their history, then the names of ancient cities and archaeological digs at places like Harappa and Mohenjo-daro will be familiar — the land of the 'Aryan Invasion' – a topic of much debate, even after more than 200 years of research and scholarly studies.


But one fact is for sure — human civilization along the banks of the Sindhu River has been present since hoary antiquity. Archaeological evidence shows human habitation along the Sindhu for at least the past 17,000 years. In truth, the name Sindhu is older than civilization itself and is mentioned in the classical histories of ancient India such as the Rig Veda (170 times), the Puranas and in the Iranic Zend Avesta. On modern world maps the Sindhu is marked as the Indus.




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Indeed, the etymology of the name of 'India' takes us on a journey back in time and is also closely associated with famous personalities in western history such as King Darius of Persia, Alexander the Great, Megasthenes and others.

In bygone days, the people living east of the Sindhu commonly referred to themselves as Aryans – a term originating from the Sanskrit word arya, a self-designation meaning "honorable, respectable and noble". But for the Arabs, west of the Sindhu, they were the al-Hindus, and for the Persians they were the Hindus.

It only came to pass, after centuries of use, that the word Hindu came to designate a people with particular religious beliefs. In the beginning ‘Hindu’ was simply a general designation for anyone living east of, or along the banks of the Sindhu. It also came to pass that the word Hindu became Sanskritized and the land of the Hindus became known as Hindustan, meaning 'land of the Hindus' — a name that is still in use today in India.

Thousand of years ago the people living between the Sindhu and the Himalayas called their land Bharata-varsa, the land ruled by Maharaja Bharat (in Treta-yuga), a character of great repute who is mentioned repeatedly throughout the Puranas. Prior to the reign of Maharaja Bharata, the land of Bharata-varsa and for that matter the entire planet Earth was referred to by the Aryans as Ajanabha (thus indicating a One World Culture once upon a time).

West of the Sindhu was the empire of Persia – an empire so vast that it stretched from the Sindhu to the Mediterranean Sea. Though originally part of Bharata-varsa, Persia's ancestors had lost their connection to Aryan culture in Bharata-varsa, and well before the time of the Mahabharata War in 3138 BCE they had become known amongst the Aryans as Yavanas. Yavana is derived from the Pali word Yona, also used to identify the Greeks. These Yavanas were also sometimes referred to as Mlechhas.

In Bharata-varsa lived two half-brothers, Vasistha Muni and Jarutha (circa 6000 BCE). The brothers quarreled over theistic issues and afterwards Jarutha traveled west of the Sindhu to present day Iran in search of converts, eventually converting a king named Vistaspa. Jarutha had a philosophy of his own liking, quite different from that found in the traditional Aryan (Vedic) literature, but in the kingdom of Vistaspa, Jarutha found acceptance. Thus began the religion of the Zoroastrians and its founder, Jarutha, became known as Zarathustra or Zoroaster.

Incidentally, for the people of China during the early period, the land between the Himalayas and the Sindhu was called ‘Yin Du’ and for the people of Japan, pre-modern India was known as ‘Tenjiku’ meaning 'the Heavenly Center of the World'.

In his book "Indica", while recounting the exploits of Alexander the Great, the Greek writer Megasthenes calls the mighty Sindhu the ‘Indus’ (the name still retained today). Thus Indus is a Hellenic derivative of the Persian and Arab word Hindu, from the Sanskrit Sindhu.

Greeks also called the land east of the Indus ‘Indike’ or ‘Indica’. And from the Greek we finally arrive at the English spelling 'India' first used by King Alfred (circa 9th Century) in his translation of the writings of Paulus Orosius, a Christian apologist  (circa 375) who wrote in defense of the Pagan idea that the Roman Empire had declined due to its acceptance of Christianity.

Thus a modern nation attained her name "India" – beginning with the Sanskrit 'Sindhu,' to the Persian 'Hindu', to the Hellenic 'Indu' and 'Indica', to the English, the name of India and a nationality of people was born.



Travelers such as myself have been coming to Ladakh for a very long time. Legend has it that Jesus of Nazareth traveled to India/Ladakh in his youth to study the teachings of the great Buddha. In the 19th Century, Nicolas Notovitch, a Russian aristocrat traveling in Ladakh, reportedly happened upon a remote mountain valley and visited the monastery of Hemis, belonging to the Drukpa lineage of Buddhism. There, Notovich claims to have discovered an ancient manuscript/gospel that described Jesus (Issa) as having come to Ladakh and studied with Buddhist monks. Notovitch claimed that at the monastery of Hemis he discovered the ‘Gospel of the Life of Saint Issa, Best of the Sons of Men’. His story was published in French in 1894 and was later translated into German, English, Spanish and Italian — a popular book for the public, but one that created quite a stir in scholarly communities.




It seems Nicolas Notovitch was either a trickster, a man with a wild imagination or both. In any case, I wasn't able to find suitable proof for Notovitch's story.


Incidentally, I found out later that shortly after the publication of Notovich's book in 1894, the head lama of the Hemis Monastery signed a document stating that Notovich's story was a complete hoax.






*1-footnote: The first Article of the Constitution of India (1949) states that, "India, that is Bharat, shall be a union of states." Thus, India and Bharat are equally official short names for the Republic of India. Indians commonly refer to their country as Bharat, India, or Hindustan, depending on the context and language of conversation. This is even printed on their money.