Hindustan

Hindustan is a geographic term for the northern/northwestern Indian subcontinent, sometimes also used for entire subcontinent. The terms Hind and Hindustān were current in Persian and Arabic at the time of the 11th century Turkic conquests.EtymologyThe Proto-Iranian sound change *s > h occurred between 850–600 BCE, according to Asko Parpola. Hence, the Rigvedic sapta sindhava (the land of seven rivers) became hapta hindu in Zend Avesta. It was said to be the "fifteenth domain" created by Ahura Mazda, apparently a land of 'abnormal heat'. In 515 BCE, Darius I annexed the Indus valley to his empire, calling the land Hindu from the Sanskrit name Sindhu of the Indus river. During the time of Xerxes, the term was applied to the lands to the east of Indus.In middle Persian, probably from the first century CE, the suffix -stān was added, indicative of a country or region, forming the present word Hindūstān.In the 11th century, a satellite state of the Ghaznavids in the Punjab became known as "Hindustan", with the capital at Lahore.The rulers of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire called their dominion, centered around Delhi, "Hindustan".