India and the Middle East go back a long way–as far back as the Indus Valley Civilisation. Around the second century B.C., the Greek historian Megasthenes remarked that the irrigation systems of Egypt and the Indus Valley were similar. In the past, the tombs in Bahrain and Kuwait were identical to the graves in South India. The Sangam literature, written over four thousand years ago, hints at trade relations between India, Alexandria in Egypt, and Palmyra in Syria. Given the close historical linkages between the two regions, it is no surprise that India got its name from them.
The name ‘India’ evolved from the word ‘Sindhu’–which was what the Indus River was called at the time. In the fifth century B.C., the Persians ruled over North-Western India and Greece. However, as already established, the Persians had relations with the Indians much before that. The Rig Veda, which was composed after the Persian Avesta, has many similarities with it.
The Persians mispronounced ‘Sindhu’ as ‘Hindu.’ Meanwhile, the Indians traded with the Greeks, who were known to change words from other places into words familiar to them. Just as the Indians changed Alexander to Sikander, the Greeks changed Sindhu to Indus. Later, they went much beyond the Sindhu River. The Greeks and Persians began to refer to the region beyond the river Indus as “Indian land.” They associated the place with the river.
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