Who was the first to use the word Hindustan ?
“Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, was the first to use this word. Unfortunately, this fact is little known to scholars and others concerned,” asserts Dr Jodh Singh, famed scholar of philosophy and religion and the editor-in-chief of Encyclopaedia of Sikhism, which is being prepared by Punjab University, Patiala.
“In fact, Guru Nanak Dev was the first holy man to conceptualise our country as Hindustan. And Guru Granth Sahib is the first religious scripture of the Bhakti movement period in which the word Hindustan was used for the first time. Before Guru Granth Sahib, the word Hindustan had not been used in any religious granth,” claims Dr Jodh Singh. “I would stand corrected if any one shows me the reference to Hindustan in any other religious scripture before it was used by Guru Nanak Dev,” adds Dr Jodh Singh.
Guru Nanak Dev wrote the word Hindustan in his shloka that was authored to lodge a protest to God against Babar's reign of terror in Hindustan. The shloka is “Khurasan khasmana kiya, Hindustan draya, eti mar pai kurlane, tain ke dard na aiya.” Dr Jodh Singh, who has completed in four volumes the translation of Guru Granth Sahib in Hindi, says Guru Nanak Dev was in fact also the first to visualise the integration of this country which during his period had been divided into several provinces and principalities. All literature was full of references regarding provinces and there was no talk of the country as a unit as such during that period.
“Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, was the first to use this word. Unfortunately, this fact is little known to scholars and others concerned,” asserts Dr Jodh Singh, famed scholar of philosophy and religion and the editor-in-chief of Encyclopaedia of Sikhism, which is being prepared by Punjab University, Patiala.
“In fact, Guru Nanak Dev was the first holy man to conceptualise our country as Hindustan. And Guru Granth Sahib is the first religious scripture of the Bhakti movement period in which the word Hindustan was used for the first time. Before Guru Granth Sahib, the word Hindustan had not been used in any religious granth,” claims Dr Jodh Singh. “I would stand corrected if any one shows me the reference to Hindustan in any other religious scripture before it was used by Guru Nanak Dev,” adds Dr Jodh Singh.
Guru Nanak Dev wrote the word Hindustan in his shloka that was authored to lodge a protest to God against Babar's reign of terror in Hindustan. The shloka is “Khurasan khasmana kiya, Hindustan draya, eti mar pai kurlane, tain ke dard na aiya.” Dr Jodh Singh, who has completed in four volumes the translation of Guru Granth Sahib in Hindi, says Guru Nanak Dev was in fact also the first to visualise the integration of this country which during his period had been divided into several provinces and principalities. All literature was full of references regarding provinces and there was no talk of the country as a unit as such during that period.
(Courtesy: The Tribune,)
