India

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

India (Heb. Hôddû ) is named as the E. boundary of the empire of Ahasuerus (  Esther 1:1;   Esther 8:9 ). The Heb. is contracted from Hondu , the name of the river Indus. It indicated the country through which that river flows: not the great peninsula of Hindustan. So also in 1Ma 8:8 , Ad. Est 13:1, 14:1,   Esther 3:2  Esther 3:2 . Possibly the drivers of the elephants ( 1Ma 6:37 ) were true Indians. If India proper is not named, there is little doubt that from ancient times Israel had relations with the country, by means of the caravan trade through Arabia. Many of the articles of commerce in the account given of this trade are of Indian origin: e.g. ‘ivory and ebony,’ ‘cassia and calamus,’ ‘broidered work,’ and ‘rich apparel’ (  Ezekiel 27:15;   Ezekiel 27:19;   Ezekiel 27:24 ).

W. Ewing.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

In'dia. The name of India does not occur in the Bible, before the book of Esther, where it is noticed as the limit of the territories of Ahasuerus in the east, as Ethiopia was in the west.  Esther 1:1;  Esther 8:9. The India of the book of Esther is not the peninsula of Hindostan, but the country surrounding the Indus, the Punjab and perhaps Scinde .

The people and productions of that country must have been tolerably well known to the Jews. An active trade was carried on between India and western Asia. The trade opened by Solomon with Ophir, through the Red Sea, consisted chiefly of Indian articles.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

( Esther 1:1;  Esther 8:9). Ahasuerus' (Xerxes') easternmost dominion, as Ethiopia was the westernmost. The country round the Indus, the Punjab, and Scinde, which Alexander the Great afterward conquered. Hebrew Ηoddu , i.e. Honadu, Hindu; occurring in the Persepolitan inscriptions. Solomon imported through the Red Sea from Ophir Indian articles, of which some have Indian names; Algumiym "sandal wood," Kophim "apes," Thucim "peacocks," Pitdah "topaz," Sanskrit Pita .

Morrish Bible Dictionary

This was the boundary of the Persian empire of Ahasuerus on the east, as Ethiopia was its boundary on the west.  Esther 1:1;  Esther 8:9 . India is not mentioned elsewhere in scripture, but Solomon's ships may have visited it in their three-year voyages for sandal wood, apes, peacocks, etc.  1 Kings 10:22 .

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

 Esther 1:1   8:9 , the country lying east of the ancient Persia and Bactria, so named from the river Indus which passed through it. The India of the ancients extended more to the north and west than modern India; and the southern region, now best known to us, was comparatively unknown until the era of modern navigation.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Esther 1:1 Esther 8:9 1 Kings 10:22

Webster's Dictionary

(n.) A country in Southern Asia; the two peninsulas of Hither and Farther India; in a restricted sense, Hither India, or Hindostan.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Esther 1:1,8:9 Ezekiel 27:15,24

King James Dictionary

IN'DIA, n. A country in Asia, so named from the river Indus.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Hoddu', הֹדּוּ , for הֹנְדּוּ , i.e. Hindu, of Sanscrit origin; see Gesenius, Thesaur. Heb. p. 366; Sept. Ι᾿Νδική , Vulg. India), occurs in the Bible only in  Esther 1:1;  Esther 8:9, where the Persian king is described as reigning "from India unto Ethiopia, over a hundred and seven and twenty provinces;" the names of the two countries are similarly connected by Herodotus ( Esther 7:9). It is found again, however, in the Apocrypha (compare Esther 13:1), where India is mentioned among the countries which the Romans took from Antiochus and gave to Eumenes ( 1 Maccabees 8:8). It is also with some reason conceived that in the list of foreign Jews present at the Pentecost ( Acts 2:9) we should read Ι᾿Νδίαν , India, and not Ι᾿Ουδαίαν , Judaea; but the still more probable reading is Ι᾿Δουμαίαν , Idumaea, if indeed the common reading ought to be changed at all (see Kuinol, Conmment. ad loc.). The Hebrew form "Hoddu" is an abbreviation of Honadu, which is identical with the indigenous names of the river Indus, "Hindu," or "Sindhu," and again with the ancient name of the country as it appears in the Vendidad, "Hapta Hendu." The native form "Sindus" is noticed by Pliny (vi, 23). The India of the book of Esther is not the peninsula of Hindostan, but the country surrounding the Indus - the Punjab, and perhaps Scinde — the India which Herodotus describes (3, 98) as forming part of the Persian empire under Darius, and the India which at a later period was conquered by Alexander the Great. The name occurs in the inscriptions of Persepolis and Nakhsh-Rustam, but not in those of Behistufn (Rawlinson, Herod. 2, 485). In  1 Maccabees 8:8, it is clear that India proper cannot be understood, inasmuch as this never belonged either to Antiochus or Eumenes. At the same time, none of the explanations offered by commentators are satisfactory: the Eneti of Paphlagonia have been suggested, but these people had disappeared long before (Strabo, 12:534): the India of Xenophon (Cyrop. 1, 5, 3; 3:2, 25), which may have been above the Carian stream named Indus (Pliny, 5, 29; probably the Calbis), is more likely; but the emendation "Mysia and Ionia" for ilfedia and India offers the best solution of the difficulty. (See Ionia). A more authentic notice of the country occurs in  1 Maccabees 6:37; where Indians are noticed as the drivers of the war-elephants introduced into the army of the Syrian king (see also  1 Esdras 3:2; Esther 16:1). (See Elephant).

But, though the name of India occurs so seldom, the people and productions of that country must have been tolerably well known to the Jews. There is undoubted evidence that an active trade was carried on between India and Western Asia: the Tyrians established their depots on the shores of the Persian Gulf, and procured "horns of ivory and ebony," "broidered work and rich apparel" ( Ezekiel 27:15;  Ezekiel 27:24), by a route which crossed the Arabian desert by land, and then followed the coasts of the Indian Ocean by sea. The trade opened by Solomon with Ophir through the Red Sea chiefly consisted of Indian articles, and some of the names even of the articles, Algummim, "sandal wood," kophims, "apes," tukiims, "peacocks," are of Indian origin (Humboldt, Kosmos, 2, 133); to which we may add the Hebrew name of the "topaz," pitdah, derived from the Sanscrit pita. There is a strong probability that productions of yet greater utility were furnished by India through Syria to the shores of Europe, and that the Greeks derived both the term Κασσίτερος (compare the Sanscrit Kastira), and the article it represents, "tin," from the coasts of India. The connection thus established with India led to the opinion that the Indians were included under the ethnological title of Cush ( Genesis 10:6), and hence the Syriac, Chaldee, and Arabic versions frequently render that term by India or Indians, as in  2 Chronicles 21:16;  Isaiah 11:11;  Isaiah 18:1;  Jeremiah 13:23;  Zephaniah 3:10. For the connection which some have sought to establish between India and Paradise, (See Eden).

The above intimations, and indeed, all ancient history, refer not to the whole of Hindostan, but chiefly to the northern parts of it, or the countries between the Indus and the Ganges; although it is not necessary to assert that the rest of that peninsula, particularly its western coast, was then altogether unknown. It was from this quarter that the Persians and Greeks (to whom we are indebted for the earliest accounts of India) invaded the country; and this was consequently the region which first became generally known. The countries bordering on the Ganges continued to be involved in obscurity, the great kingdom of the Prasians excepted, which, situated nearly above the modern Bengal, was dimly discernible. The "nearer we approach the Indus, the more clear becomes our knowledge of the ancient geography of the country; and it follows that the districts of which at the present day we know the least, were anciently best known. Besides, the western and northern boundaries were not the same as at present. To the west, India was not then bounded by the river Indus, but by a chain of mountains which, under the name of Koh (whence the Grecian appellation of the Indian Caucasus), extended from Bactria to Makran, or Gedrosia, inclosing the kingdoms of Candahar and Cabul, the modern kingdom of Eastern Persia, or Afghanistan. These districts anciently formed part of India, as well as, further to the south, the less perfectly known countries of the Arabi and Haurs (the Arabitse and Oritse of Arrian, 6:21), bordering on Gedrosia. This western boundary continued at all times the same, and was removed to the Indus only in consequence of the victories of Nadir Shah. Towards the north, ancient India over passed not less its present limit. It comprehended the whole of the mountainous region above Cashmir, Badakshan, Belur Land, the western boundary mountains of Little Bucharia, or Little Thibet, and even the desert of Cobi, so far as it was known. (See Heeren's Historical Researches, 1, c. 1, § 3, on Persian India; and Rennell's Geography of Herodotus. For other conjectures respecting the location of the Scriptural India, see Winer's Realworterbuch, s.v. Indien. For the history of ancient India, see Anthon's Class. Diet s.v.) — Smith; Kitto.

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

This name occurs only in; , where the Persian king is described as reigning 'from India unto Ethiopia, over a hundred and seven and twenty provinces.' It is found again, however, in the Apocrypha, where India is mentioned among the countries which the Romans took from Antiochus and gave to Eumenes .

It is evident from all ancient history, that the country known as India in ancient times extended more to the west, and did not reach so far to the east—that is, was not known so far to the east—as the India of the moderns. When we read of ancient India, we must clearly not understand the whole of Hindustan, but chiefly the northern parts of it, or the countries between the Indus and the Ganges; although it is not necessary to assert that the rest of that peninsula, particularly its western coast, was then altogether unknown. It was from this quarter that the Persians and Greeks (to whom we are indebted for the earliest accounts of India) invaded the country; and this was consequently the region which first became generally known. The countries bordering on the Ganges continued to be involved in obscurity, the great kingdom of the Prasians excepted, which, situated nearly above the modern Bengal, was dimly discernible. Besides the western and northern boundaries were not the same as at present. To the west, India was not then bounded by the river Indus, but by a chain of mountains which, under the name of Koh (whence the Grecian appellation of the Indian Caucasus), extended from Bactria to Makran, or Gedrosia, enclosing the kingdoms of Kandahar and Cabul, the modern kingdom of Eastern Persia or Afghanistan. These districts anciently formed part of India, as well as, further to the south, the less perfectly known countries of the Arabi and Haurs, bordering on Gedrosia. This western boundary continued at all times the same, and was removed to the Indus only in consequence of the victories of Nadir Shah.

Towards the north, ancient India overpassed not less its present limit. It comprehended the whole of the mountainous region above Cashmir, Badakshan, Belur Land, the western boundary mountains of Little Buchama, or Little Thibet, and even the desert of Cobi, so far as it was known. The discovery of a passage by sea to the coasts of India has contributed to withdraw from these regions the attention of Europeans, and left them in an obscurity which hitherto has been little disturbed, although the current of events seems likely before long to lead to our better knowledge.

From this it appears that the India of Scripture included no part of the present India, seeing that it was confined to the territories possessed by the Persians and the Syrian Greeks, that never extended beyond the Indus, which, since the time of Nadir Shah, has been regarded as the western boundary of India. Something of India beyond the Indus became known through the conquering march of Alexander, and still more through that of Seleucus Nicator, who penetrated to the banks of the Ganges; but the notions thus obtained are not embraced in the Scriptural notices, which, both in the canonical and the apocryphal text, are confined to Persian India.

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

British dependency, consisting of the great peninsula in the S. of Asia, which has the Bay of Bengal on the E. and the Arabian Sea on the W., and is separated from the mainland by the Hindu-Kush and the Himalaya Mountains; politically the name includes besides the Punjab in the N. and Burma in the E.; the centre of the peninsula is a great plateau called the Deccan, between which and the snow-clad Himalaya stretch the great fertile basins of the Ganges, the Thar Desert, and the arid wastes of the Indus Valley; great varieties of climate are of course met with, but the temperature is prevailingly high, and the monsoons of the Indian Ocean determine the regularity of the rainy season, which occurs from June to October; the country generally is insalubrious; the vegetation is correspondingly varied, but largely tropical; rice, cereal crops, sugar, and tobacco are generally grown; cotton in Bombay and the Central Provinces, opium in the Ganges Valley, jute in Eastern Bengal, and indigo in Behar; coffee and tea are raised by Europeans in the hill country on virgin soil; the chief mineral deposits are extensive coal-fields between the Ganges and the Godavari, the most valuable salt deposits in the world in the Punjab, and deposits of iron, the purest found anywhere, in many parts of the country, which, however, are wrought only by native methods; native manufactures are being largely superseded by European methods, and the young cotton-weaving industry flourishes well; the country is well populated on the whole, with a relative scarcity of big towns; the people belong to many different races, and speak languages representing four distinct stocks; the vast bulk of them are Brahmanists or Hindus; there are many Mohammedans, Buddhists (in Burma), and Parsees (in Bombay); 2¼ millions are Christians, and there are other religions; India has been subject to many conquests; the Aryan, Greek, and Mussulman invasions swept from the NW.; the Portuguese obtained a footing on the SW. coast in the 15th century; the victories of Plassey 1757, and Seringapatam 1799, established British rule throughout the whole peninsula, and the principle that native princes where they retained their thrones were vassals; Sind was won in 1843 and the Punjab in 1849, and the powers of the East India Company transferred to the Queen in 1857, who was proclaimed Empress in 1877; the government is vested in a governor-general aided by an executive and a legislative council, under control, however, of a Secretary of State for India and council at home; there are governors and lieutenant-governors of the presidencies of Madras and Bombay, and of the various provinces; native States are all attached to and subject to the supervision of the government of a province; there is a native army of 146,000 men, and 74,000 European troops are maintained in the country; British rule has developed the resources of the country, advanced its civilisation, and contributed to the welfare of the people; Indian finance is not yet satisfactory; the currency is based on silver, the steady depreciation of which metal has never ceased to hamper the national funds.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

in´di - a ( הדּוּ , hōddū ̌ : ἡ Ἰνδική , hē Indikḗ ): The name occurs in canonical Scripture only in   Esther 1:1;  Esther 8:9 , of the country which marked the eastern boundary of the territory of Ahasuerus. The Hebrew word comes from the name of the Indus, Hondu , and denotes, not the peninsula of Hindustan, but the country drained by that great river. This is the meaning also in 1 Esdras 3:2; Additions to Esther 3:2; 16:1. Many have thought that this country is intended by Havilah in  Genesis 2:11 and that the Indus is the Pishon. The drivers of the elephants (1 Macc 6:37) were doubtless natives of this land. The name in 1 Macc 8:9 is certainly an error. India never formed part of the dominions of Antiochus the Great. It may possibly be a clerical error for "Ionia," as Media is possibly a mistake for Mysia. If the Israelites in early times had no direct relations with India, many characteristic Indian products seem to have found their way into Palestinian markets by way of the Arabian and Syrian trade routes, or by means of the Red Sea fleets (  1 Kings 10:11 ,  1 Kings 10:15;  Ezekiel 27:15 , etc.). Among these may be noted "horns of ivory and ebony," "cassia and calamus," almug (sandalwood), apes and peacocks.