Reinterpreting the notion of the Bharatvarsha

Abstract

This paper is attempted to examine the origin of the idea of Bharatavarsha-whether this idea originated in the early historic times [Rigvedic period]/or in the early medieval or medieval period or whether the ‘idea of India is a colonial construct’. In this paper a panoply of not only literary/Brahmanic/Puranic sources but also archaeological sources from across the country even the extreme south or the Jambudvip have been utilized. Whether the idea of India represented the idea of a ‘Hindu Sacred Space’ or is a colonial construct of a mere ‘Geographical entity/ unit’ where the civilizational traits were in the evolutionary stage/ primordial stage.