"Hindu" (Was: Re: Ancient India's Contribtuion...)

[Dr. Jai Maharaj]

Namaste! At 9:13 a.m. BST on 6/14/97, Dominique.Thillaud wrote:
> . . . Incidentally, India is not strictly a *foreign* word:
> the ancient  greek words 'India', 'indikos' come probably 
> from sindhu or apparented forms.

An excerpt is now offered:

"'HINDU' DOES NOT COME FROM 'SINDHU'

   "How many times have you explained that the name
of your religion is a concoction invented by the
Persians who called the people who lived beyond the
Sindhu Reiver "Hindus," mispronouncing the "S"?

    "Recant.

   "A. Krishna Kumar of Hyderabad, India, explains.
'This [Sindhu/Hindu] view is untenable since Indians
at that time enviably ranked highest in the world in
terms of civilization and wealth would not have been
without a name.  They were not the unknown aborigines
waiting to be discovered, identified and Christened
by foreigners.'

   "He cites a more solid argument from the book
Self-Government in India by N. B. Pavgee, published
in 1912.  The author tells of an old Swami and
Sanskrit scholar Mangal Nathji, who found an ancient
Puran known as Brihannaradi in the Sham village,
Hoshiarpur, Punjab.  It contained the verse:

 "HIMALAYAM SAMARABHYA YAVAT BINDUSAROVARAM
 HINDUSTHANAMITI QYATAM HI ANTARAKSHARAYOGATAH

  "Kumar translates it as:

   "'The country lying between the Himalayan mountain
and Bindu Sarovara (Cape Comorin sea) is known as
Hindusthan by combination of the first letter "hi" of
"Himalaya" and the last compound letter "ndu" of the
word "Bindu."'"

SOURCE: Hinduism Today, April 1992. 

Jai Maharaj
http://www.flex.com/~jai
Om Shanti

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