Bharata Varsha Gets Divided Into Two Parts

First, after King Bharata in the lineage of Swayambhuva Manu:
Swayambhuva Manu → Agnidhra → Nabhi → Rishabha → Bharata.

Second, the son of Dushyanta, who became an emperor.

Third, the presiding deity of our motherland Bharata Varsha is Agni. Bharata is a Vedic name for Agni. Agni's land is Bharata Varsha.

Fourth, only we Indians recognize the Antaryami aspect of the supreme divinity, who does Bharana of all beings from within. Also, Agni, being the presiding devata of our land, is a god who shares. He takes offerings and gives them to Devas during yajnas. We, as a samskriti, believe in sharing, not keeping everything to ourselves. So our land is Bharata—a land where we believe in the absolute rulership of God both from outside and inside and a land where sharing is a culture built into it.

We have already seen that the Sindhu Nadi divides Bharata Varsha into two parts: east of Sindhu up to Taiwan, and west of Sindhu up to the Mediterranean, including Iran. This is how it was originally.

The River Sindhu originates in the Tibetan Plateau near Manasarovar, turns through Ladakh towards Gilgit-Baltistan, and then flows in a southerly direction along the entire length of Pakistan to merge into the Arabian Sea near Karachi.

East and West of Sindhu

Those who lived west of Sindhu—that is, present-day Pakistan, Iran, and beyond—called the part of Bharata Varsha east of Sindhu as Hindustan.

What is the proof of this?

Dasatir-i-Asmani is a Parsi scripture. In that, you will find the term 'Hind' to represent the land to the east of Sindhu:

वैव हिन्द वाजगश्ते

In the 65th Ayat of Zarathustra, you will find:
अकनू विरहमने व्यास नाम अज हिंद आमद वसदान के आकिल चुना नेस्त
'Vyasa, who was super-intelligent, came from Hind.'

In the 163rd Ayat, it is also mentioned:
चू व्यास हिंदा बलख आमद गस्तस्प जरतुस्तरा बखवांद
Gastasp was an Iranian king. Gastasp is the Parsi pronunciation of गुप्ताश्व. During his time, Vyasa came from Hind. The king called in Zarathustra also for a discussion about Atma.

मन मरदे अमं हिंदी नजाई

Vyasa introduced himself as belonging to Hind.

So this division of Bharata Varsha into east and west shows that to the east, it extended up to Formosa, which is present-day Taiwan. To the west of Sindhu, it included Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mesopotamia, Iran, Greece, and up to the Mediterranean. Saudi Arabia, up to the Red Sea, was also part of it.

Basically, from the China Sea on the east to the Mediterranean and the Red Sea on the west, this entire region was Bharata Varsha.

Aryavarta

There is a region called Aryavarta:
आ समुद्रात्तु वै पूर्वादा समुद्राच्च पश्चिमात्। तयोरेवान्तरं गिर्योरार्यावर्तं विदुर्बुधाः

Samudra to the east and west, Himalaya to the north, and Vindhya to the south—this is Aryavarta as per Manusmriti. But originally, if you see, Arya Desha was much bigger and vaster.

In Rigveda, Fourth Mandala, 30th Sukta, 18th Richa, there is mention of how Indra eliminated two kings, Arna and Chitraratha, who lived on the other side of Sarayu. They were Aryas but still did not pay respect to Indra. Indra killed them.

This Sarayu is not the Sarayu of Ayodhya. The Vedic Sarayu is different. The Vedic Sarayu originated from the Hindu Kush. This is the river being referred to here. The Hindu Kush extends through present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Tajikistan. This mantra from Rigveda itself is proof that the land of the Aryans extended beyond what is presently conceived as Aryavarta.

Aryavarta is limited to India. Setting Sindhu Nadi as the western boundary of Aryavarta was done by a muni called पैठीनसि.

Originally, those living to the west of Sindhu called the land on the east as Sindhustan or Hindustan, and those living to the east of Sindhu called the land to its west as पारस्थान, the land of the Parsis.

The land of the Aryans to the west of Sindhu was originally called आर्यायण (Ariana or Oriens).

Why the Change?

How did this change occur? Why did Paitheenasi Muni and even Manu consider only the land to the east of Sindhu as suitable for performing yajnas or as punya bhumi (pure land)?

People living to the west of the Sindhu River took a completely opposite stand, right opposite to that in the Vedas.

We will go into this in detail later. But essentially, we can say that originally the entire Jambudweepa were followers of Devas. Later on, those to the west of Sindhu Nadi became rebels and stopped worshipping Devas. They stopped accepting the supremacy of the Devas. This region included Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, the entire Middle East, Greece, Turkey, etc.

Bhauma Triloka

You should remember that in the Bhauma Triloka, the Bhauma Devas lived above the Pamir Mountains up to the North Sea, largely in Siberia. The Upa Devas, such as Yakshas and Gandharvas, lived below the Pamir up to Himachal Pradesh. Men lived below the Himalayas up to the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent.

Manushyas were followers of Devas.

India is a Greek word in Hellenistic Greek and also 'Indos' in ancient Greek. Originally, they used it to refer to the land east of Ariana, to segregate the totally opposite religious beliefs.

See what a distorted picture of our real history the western historians and some modern Indologists with vested interests have given us. Originally, from the China Sea to the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, it was one land inhabited by the Aryans. This got divided into east and west of Sindhu as Hindustan and Parastan. Those west of Sindhu took up a different religious path.

These historians tell us Aryans were a tribe that migrated from Mesopotamia into India and fought with the natives here to establish supremacy. See how untrue it is. We are going to explore this much more in detail.

Summary

Up till now, we have seen two major things in the real history of Bharata Varsha:

1. The concept of Bhauma Triloka: Bharata Varsha is the Agni Loka, Central Asia is the Antariksha Loka, and Siberia is the Swarga Loka. This is a reflection of the Divya Triloka on the surface of Earth. All the events that happen in the Divya Triloka reflect and happen on the Bhauma Triloka also. This concept of gods living on Earth is nothing new to us. Lord Rama and Sri Krishna have all lived on Earth in certain identifiable places—Ayodhya, Mathura. The Vedic gods also lived on Earth.

2. Aryans were the original inhabitants of Bharata Varsha, which is the land with the China Sea in the east and the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea in the west. Bharata Varsha got divided into two parts vertically: east of Sindhu and west of Sindhu. East of Sindhu remained as the followers of Devas, and west of Sindhu became rebels and started following a different path.

Why and how this happened, we will explore further.