Aryavarta

Āryāvarta (Sanskrit: आर्यावर्त) is a term for northern parts of the Indian subcontinent in the ancient Hindu texts such as Dharmashastras and Sutras, referring to the area of the Indian subcontinent settled by Indo-Aryan tribes and where Indo-Aryan religion and rituals predominated.

Quotes

  • That (country) which (lies) between the Himavat and the Vindhya (mountains) to the east of Prayaga and to the west of Vinasana (the place where the river Sarasvati disappears) is called Madhyadesa (the central region). But (the tract) between those two mountains (just mentioned), which (extends) as far as the eastern and the western oceans, the wise call Aryavarta (the country of the Aryans).
    • Manu smriti, ch. ii [1]
  • Aryavarata was the sacred land of Dharma, the elevated path to Heaven and to Moksha; where men were nobler than the Devatas themselves; where all knowledge, thought and worship were rooted in the Vedas, revealed by the Devatas themselves.
    • Vishnupuranam, II, 3, 4; trans. and paraphrased in Sandeep Balakrishna - Invaders and Infidels_ From Sindh to Delhi_ The 500-Year Journey of Islamic Invasions. Bloomsbury India (2020)
  • Visaladeva, the Chahamana king, proudly declares that “he once more made Aryavarta (Northern India) what its name signifies (abode of the Aryas i.e. Hindus) by repeatedly exterminating the Mlechchhas (Muslims, who had rendered the name meaningless by their occupation of the country).
    • quoted in R.C. Majumdar editor, Volume 5: The Struggle for Empire [1000-1300 A.D.] p 497-502
  • The Vedic Hindus called themselves Aryas, and the tract in which they
    settled themselves in India has the distinctive name of Aryadesa ...
    The Aryadesa or Arya-vartta [sic!] of Manu is bounded on the north
    by the Himalaya; and on the south by the Vindhyan chain.
    • Rajendralala Mitta, Indo-Aryans:Contributions Indo-Aryans: contributions towards the elucidation of their ancient and mediaeval history the EJ11cilltl- tum of their Ancinst 11ntl Metlinlll Hisuwy, vol. II, pp. 438-9., 21.. in Indira Chowdhury - The Frail Hero and Virile History_ Gender and the Politics of Culture in Colonial Bengal-Oxford University Press (1998)
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