Hindush (
Old Persian cuneiform:
𐏃𐎡𐎯𐎢𐏁, Hidūš, transcribed as Hiⁿdūš since the nasal "n" before consonants was omitted in the Old Persian script, and simplified as Hindūš) was a province of the
Achaemenid Empire in lower
Indus Valley established after the
Achaemenid conquest circa 500 BC. According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, it was the "easternmost province" of the empire. It is believed to have continued as a province until the
invasion of the empire by Alexander the Great circa 326 BC.
Name
Hindush was written in
Achaemenid inscriptions as Hidūsh (
Old Persian cuneiform: 𐏃𐎡𐎯𐎢𐏁, H-i-du-u-š). It is also transliterated as Hiⁿdūš since the nasal "n" before consonants was omitted in the Old Persian script, and simplified as Hindush).[2][3]
It is widely accepted that the name Hindush derives from Sindhu, the Sanskrit name of the
Indus river as well as the region at the lower Indus basin. The
Proto-Iranian sound change *s > h occurred between 850–600 BCE, according to
Asko Parpola.[4] The -sh suffix is common among the names of many Achaemenid provinces, such as Harauvatish (the land of Harauvati or Haraxvaiti, i.e.,
Arachosia) or Bakhtrish (
Bactria). Accordingly, Hindush would mean the land of Sindhu.
The Greeks of
Asia Minor, who were also part of the Achaemenid empire, called the province 'India'. More precisely, they called the people of the province as 'Indians' ('Ινδοι, Indoi[5]) The loss of the
aspirate/
h/ was probably due to the dialects of Greek spoken in
Asia Minor.[6][7] Herodotus also generalised the term "Indian" from the people of Hindush to all the people living to the east of Persia, even though he had no knowledge of the geography of the land.[8]
Geography
The territory of Hindush may have corresponded to the area covering the lower and central
Indus basin (present day
Sindh and the southern
Punjab region of Pakistan).[9][10][11] Hindush bordered
Gandāra (spelt as Gaⁿdāra by the Achaememids) to the north. These areas remained under Persian control until the
invasion by Alexander.[12] Alternatively, some authors consider that Hindush may have been located in the
Punjab region.[10][13]
Representatives of Hindush are depicted as delegates bringing gifts to the king on the Apadana staircases, and as throne/ dais bearers on the Tripylon and Hall of One Hundred Columns reliefs at Persepolis
The representatives of Hindush (as well as Gandara and Thatagus) in each in- stance are characterized by their loincloths, sandals, and exposed upper body, which distinguish them from the representatives of other eastern provinces such as Bactria and Arachosia.[20]
^"Arachosia, Sattagydia, and India are represented and named among the subject nations sculptured on the base of the Egyptian statue of Darius I from Susa."Yar-Shater, Ehsan (1982).
Encyclopaedia Iranica. Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 10.
ISBN9780933273955.
^Horrocks, Geoffrey (2009),
Greek: A History of the Language and its Speakers (Second ed.), John Wiley & Sons, pp. 27–28,
ISBN978-1-4443-1892-0: "Note finally that the letter H/η was originally used to mark word-initial aspiration... Since such aspiration was lost very early in the eastern Ionic-speaking area, the letter was recycled, being used first to denote the new, very open, long e-vowel [æ:] ... and then to represent the inherited long e-vowel [ε:] too, once these two sounds had merged. The use of H to represent open long e-vowels spread quite early to the central Ionic-speaking area and also to the Doric-speaking islands of the southern Aegean, where it doubled up both as the marker of aspiration and as a symbol for open long e-vowels."
^Panayotou, A. (2007),
"Ionic and Attic", in A.-F. Christidis (ed.), A History of Ancient Greek: From the Beginnings to Late Antiquity, Cambridge University Press, p. 410,
ISBN978-0-521-83307-3: "The early loss of aspiration is mainly a characteristic of Asia Minor (and also of the Aeolic and Doric of Asia Minor)...In Attica, however (and in some cases in Euboea, its colonies, and in the Ionic-speaking islands of the Aegean), the aspiration survived until later... During the second half of the fifth century BC, however, orthographic variation perhaps indicates that 'a change in the phonetic quality of [h] was taking place' too."
^Arora, Udai Prakash (2005),
"Ideas of India in Ancient Greek Literature", in Irfan Habib (ed.), India — Studies in the History of an Idea, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, p. 47,
ISBN978-81-215-1152-0: "The term 'Indians' was used by
Herodotus as a collective name for all the peoples living east of Persia. This was also a significant development over
Hekataios, who had used this term in a strict sense for the groups dwelling in Sindh only."
^Basham, Arthur Llewellyn (1974). The Civilizations of Monsoon Asia. Angus and Robertson. p. 24.
ISBN978-0-207-12687-1. ... that he annexed parts of India as Hindush, the twentieth satrapy of his empire.
^
abSethna, Kaikhushru Dhunjibhoy (2000). Problems of Ancient India. Aditya Prakashan. p. 127.
ISBN978-81-7742-026-5. Olmstead's Hindush is the Punjāb east of the Indus - as his first Map, "Satrapies of the Persian Empire ", makes perfectly clear.
^M. A. Dandamaev. "A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire" p 147. BRILL, 1989
ISBN978-9004091726
^"A Sindhu contingent formed a part of his army which invaded Greece and stormed the defile at Thermopylae in 480 BC, thus becoming the first ever force from India to fight on the continent of Europe. It, apparently, distinguished itself in battle because it was followed by another contingent which formed a part of the Persian army under Mardonius which lost the battle of Platea"Sandhu, Gurcharn Singh (2000).
A military history of ancient India. Vision Books. p. 179.
ISBN9788170943754.