Tianzhu
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Tiānzhú (in Chinese) is the pronunciations of the characters 天竺, the main pre-modern name for India.
[edit] Etymology
The name was inspired by the Indus River, the main topographic element from the area of contact. The oldest extant Chinese writing about this area appears in Records of the Grand Historian, by Sima Qian (about 1st century BCE – 1st century CE), based on the reports of Zhang Qian’s explorations in Central Asia. It employed the name 身毒, which may be pronounced Juāndú, Shēndú or Yuándú, pointing to a derivation from Sindhu. In the writings of those times, other Chinese names for India also appear; among them Tiānzhú (天竺) would become the most popular. It is probable that, at the beginning of the first millennium, 天竺 was pronounced Xiandu, again suggesting a derivation from Sindhu (the actual pronunciation of Classical Chinese is mostly a matter of tentative reconstruction). The Buddhist monks favored the character 天 (tiān) because it meant heaven, thus emphasizing the special status of India as the origin of Buddhism. Subsequently Tianzhu would become the most popular as Buddhism became an integral part of Chinese culture.
This term would also spread to other countries in the area: Tenjiku in Japanese, Cheonchuk (Hangul: 천축) in Korean, Thiên Trúc in Vietnamese.
[edit] References
- Alin Dosoftei (2008-02-11). "India - Bharat - Tenjiku: one reality, more perspectives". http://www.web4desi.com/Articles/34-ArticlesByAlinDosoftei/57-IndiaHindustanBharatTianzhuTenjiku. Retrieved on 2008-04-16.
