The Indian Ocean covers a 28,400,130 sq mile (73,556,000 km²) area between the eastern coast of Africa, the shores of the Middle East and India to its north, and is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by Southeast Asia and Australia/Oceania. Home to a great variety of humankind throughout history, the Indian Ocean is also rich in exotic plant and animal species, and still supplies the world with spices such as black pepper, nutmeg, and ginger. While these spices are now used primarily to flavor the world’s cuisines, they were used from earliest times to preserve foods, and were thought to have great medicinal properties. Indeed, during the terrible plagues of the 13th through 17th Centuries, Europeans were so convinced of their curative powers that their countries fought repeated wars and gambled untold fortunes to gain control of the Spice Islands, and the number of explorers and sailors willing to risk their lives charting new maps to reach them is difficult to imagine.
Many of us know India either by the name of "India" or "Bharata". Some who have a little interest in history, also, know India by the name of "Bharatvarsha" or "Aryavarta". But in past immemorial, India was known by several different names in several different eras and societies and some of those names are listed here: Jambudvipa Jambudvipa is the ancient name of India which literally means “the land of Jambu trees” and can be found in numerous religious texts of various Sanathan Dharma ’s offshoots viz. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. The Jambu or Jambul means Indian blackberry and dvipa means the continent. Nabhivarsha In Jain texts, India was known as Nabhivarsha, the country of Nabhi. Nabhi was a Chakravarti King and father of first Jain thirthankara Rishabhanatha. In ancient Hindu texts, a different definition for the Nabhivarsha is given. According to Hindu texts, here Nabhi means “navel of the Brahma” and varsha means “the country.” Arya...
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