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42
Jainism
Vidyadharas alike. His son Bharata was the first emperor of India and after his name the country came to be known as Bharatavarṣa and his progeny as the Bharatas.1 Prior to that this land was known as Añjanabha or Himavarṣa. Ayodhya, the first Indian city was the birth place of Rṣabha and the seat of Bharata's government. Gajapur (later on known as Hastinagpur) and few other cities and states soon came into being.
2
There are, however, some scholars who still like to believe that it was the Puruvamsi Sarvadamana alias Bharata of Hastinagpur, the son of Dusy anta and Sakuntala (of Kalidasa fame) who was responsible for the country being named as such.
But there is ample evidence to show that even long before the birth of this son of Śakuntala, nay even before Puru, the father of his race, migrated to India, this country was called Bharatavarșa and its natives Bharatas. Not only the Jaina traditions but almost all the Brahmanic Puranas testify to the fact that it was the Bharata, son of Rṣabha, the son of Nabhi after whom the country was named Bharata.3 References to this fact are also available in the Vedas and other branches of the Vedic literature.4 Prof. J. C. Vidyalankara says, "We are tempted to think. that our country was named Bharatavarsa after this Bharata (the son of Śakuntala and Dusy anta) but this naming is attributed to another much more earlier king. Bharata, the son of Rṣabha, who is either a legendry
1 'Bharata Aura Bhārata' and Bhārata kā Ādi Samrat'. 2 N. L. Dey-Geog. Dic. of Anc. Ind., pt. I, Calcutta, 1899.
3 See p. 43 Note 4. and the Markandeya-Brahma Purana issue of Kalyāṇa XXI, 1, p. 251.
4 See p. 46, Note 1.
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