[RISA-L LIST] Date of usage of the word Bhaarata to denote India

[Christopher Wallis]

Dear colleagues,

Thanks to Carlos, Diana, and Sudalaimuthu for their responses. I perhaps
should have been more clear; I was aware of the compound *bhaaratavar.sa* in
earlier sources, but I was (perhaps mistakenly) assuming that *bhaarata* was
not found by itself in the meaning "India" until the modern period.  My
author uses Bhaarata to mean "all the land in which tiirthas are found" so
that is clearly not just north India.  Does anyone else have any further
evidence to date this usage?

Happy holidays to all!

thank you,
Chris

-- 
*śivās te panthānaḥ santu* = May there be blessings on your journey.
______________________________________

Christopher D. Wallis, M.A. (Cal), M.Phil. (Oxon)


On 24 December 2010 13:22, Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan <palaniappa at aol.com>wrote:

> If I remember right, the Critical Edition of the Mahābhārata is dated
> between 400BC - 400CE. The date of the Hāthīgumphā inscription of Khāravela
> falls within a narrower range, possibly 2nd half of 1st century BC.
> According to Jayaswal and Banerji, Khāravela has used Bharadavasa (Skt.
> Bhāratavarṣa) to refer to the plains of north India. (See EI, vol. 20, p.
> 78)
>
> Regards,
> S. Palaniappan
> South Asia Research and Information Institute (SARII)
>
> On Dec 24, 2010, at 2:23 PM, Diana Eck wrote:
>
> > The Mahabharata describes Bharata as the land that stretches from the
> Himalayas to the southern sea. Then, of course, all the cosmologies that
> include Bharata.
> > Diana
> >
> >> Dear Chris,
> >>
> >> I'm not sure of the earliest usage, but the expression "bhaaratavarSa"
> is already used in puranic literature, well before the 19th century, so
> perhaps that phrase may not be useful for dating purposes.
> >>
> >> Hope this helps. All the best,
> >>
> >> Carlos Pomeda
> >> ABD, U.C. Berkeley
> >>
> >> On 12/24/10 11:14 AM, Christopher Wallis wrote:
> >>> Dear esteemed colleagues,
> >>>
> >>> Happy holidays.  I am reading and translating a very late ha.tha-yoga
> text
> >>> called the Yoga-Kar.nikaa, the date of which can possibly be determined
> by
> >>> its use of the phrase* sarvatiirthe.su bhaarate*.  Does anyone know
> the
> >>> earliest usage of Bhaarata in the meaning "India"?  I am guessing 19th
> >>> century, but I really don't know.
> >>>
> >>> thank you,
> >>> Chris Wallis
> >>>
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> >
> > --
> > Diana L. Eck
> > Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies
> > Fredric Wertham Professor of Law and Psychiatry in Society
> > Barker Center 307
> > Harvard University
> > Cambridge, MA 02138
> >
> > Master of Lowell House
> > 50 Holyoke Street
> > Cambridge, MA 02138
> >
> > Director, The Pluralism Project
> > http://www.pluralism.org
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>



-- 
*śivās te panthānaḥ santu* = May there be blessings on your journey.
______________________________________

Christopher D. Wallis, M.A. (Cal), M.Phil. (Oxon)