Jambudvīpa

Jambudvīpa (Pali; Jambudīpa) is a name often used to describe the territory of Indian Subcontinent in ancient Indian sources.

The term is based on the concept of dvīpa, meaning "island" or "continent" in ancient Indian cosmogony. The term Jambudvipa was used by Ashoka to represent his realm in the third century BCE. The same terminology was used in subsequent texts, for instance Kannada inscriptions from the tenth century CE which also described the region, presumably Ancient India, as Jambudvipa.

The word Jambudvīpa literally refers to "the land of jambu trees", where jambu is Sanskrit for Syzygium cumini.

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