"... those
Who dwell beyond the everlasting snows
Of Hindoo Koosh, in stormy freedom bred."—Mokanna.
HINDOSTAN, n.p. Pers. Hindūstān. (a) 'The country of the Hindūs,' India. In modern native parlance this word indicates distinctively (b) India north of the Nerbudda, and exclusive of Bengal and Behar. The latter provinces are regarded as pūrb (see [POORUB]), and all south of the Nerbudda as Dakhan (see [DECCAN]). But the word is used in older Mahommedan authors just as it is used in English school-books and atlases, viz. as (a) the equivalent of India Proper. Thus Baber says of Hindustān: "On the East, the South, and the West it is bounded by the Ocean" (310).
a.—
1553.—"... and so the Persian nation adjacent to it give it as at present its proper name that of Indostān."—Barros, I. iv. 7.
1563.—"... and common usage in Persia, and Coraçone, and Arabia, and Turkey, calls this country Industam ... for istām is as much as to say 'region,' and indu 'India.'"—Garcia, f. 137b.
1663.—"And thus it came to pass that the Persians called it Indostan."—Faria y Sousa, i. 33.
1665.—"La derniere parti est la plus connüe: c'est celle que l'on appelle Indostan, et dont les bornes naturelles au Couchant et au Levant, sont le Gange et l'Indus."—Thevenot, v. 9.
1672.—"It has been from old time divided into two parts, i.e. the Eastern, which is India beyond the Ganges, and the Western India within the Ganges, now called Indostan."—Baldaeus, 1.