Hindustan

Hindustan was long interpreted to mean "the land of the blacks." But a chapter in Philology shows that it means "the country of the River Indus." The original name of the great river was Sindhu, to flow, to fertilize. How the letter "s" dropped out, and the letter "h" took its place, opens up a leaf in the earliest history of India.

The ancient Persians, driven out by the Greeks, crossed over from Persia to India many centuries before Christ, and reached the banks of one of the most magnificent rivers in the world. They asked the natives the name of their river, and were told it was Sindhu, "the fertilizer." The Persians, speaking the Zend language, had no "s" in their alphabet, and therefore called it "Hindu," and added "stan," meaning in the Persian, "land." Thus "Hindustan" means "the land of the Hindu River." Later on, the Greeks, under Alexander, crossed over and stood upon the banks of the great river and asked the name. They were told "Hindu." But the Greek alphabet had no "h," so they wrote it "Indus." Therefore, since the time of Alexander the Great (327 B. C.) the great river has been called "Indus," and the land through which it flows, India.