Why is India Called Bharat?

India is the land of our ancestors. It is also our spiritual land. The
original and ancient name of India is Bharata. Do you know how our
spiritual land got its name "Bharat"?

There lived a great and brave king whose name was Bharat. Our
spiritual land India was named after him. There is a wonderful story
about the birth of King Bharata. 

Bharata was the son of King Dushyanta and Shakuntala. Dushyanta

was the king of Hastinapur and the ancestor of the Kauravas-
Pandavas. Once while hunting in the forest, he saw a beautiful
woman named Shakuntala. Both fell in love with each other and
both of them got married to Gandharva. After a few days, a soldier
came from the kingdom and told some news, due to which King
Dushyanta had to leave for his kingdom. He promised Shakuntala
that he would come later and take her to his kingdom, Hastinapur. 

Once Durvasha Rishi was going through the forest, and he saw a hut
on the way which looked like a sage. When they entered that hut,
Shakuntala was alone and she was lost in the thoughts of King
Dushyanta, she did not notice the arrival of the sage and could not
bear the humiliation of the sage for not paying any attention to his
arrival. He immediately cursed Shakuntala that he would forget her
in whose thoughts he was lost. Shakuntala apologized to the sage for
his mistake, seeing this, the sage's anger cooled and he left the
ashram saying that he could not take back his curse but when the
right time came, he (Maharaj) would remember everything.  

King Dushyanta completely forgot Shakuntala. Many days passed,

but when Shakuntala did not receive any message from the king, she
went to Hastinapur to meet the king. He could not even recognize
Shakuntala, after that Shakuntala became sad and disappointed and
started living with Rishi Maricha in his ashram. Here she gave birth
to a son named Bharata. He was a very brave child. He was not
afraid of anyone. Bharat used to play with the lion cubs every day. 

King Dushyanta had forgotten his wife Shakuntala and did not know
that he also had a son. Once, Hastinapur Naresh Maharaj Dushyant
was passing through the ashram while playing hunting in the forest,
when he saw a little boy playing with lions. The boy opened the
lion's jaws with his hands and said, "O king of the jungle! Open your
mouth so that I can count your teeth”, Maharaj Dushyant was very
surprised to see such bravery of the child. 

Later Shakuntala and the sage came there and Maharaj Dushyant
came to know from them that Bharata was his son. Hearing this, the
king remembered all the words he had forgotten and he was very
happy that Bharat is his son. On hearing this, he did not delay in
embracing his son with love. Maharaj Dushyanta took Shakuntala
and Bharat with him to Hastinapur. Later Bharata developed into a
great Chakravarti emperor. 

The name of our country "Bharat" is derived from his name

"Bharat", because Emperor Bharata had increased the boundaries of
his kingdom so much that there was no other state other than his
kingdom, all were subordinate states within his kingdom. Everyone
remembers Chakravarti Emperor Bharata for his bravery.

Thank You!

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