india Summary and Overview

occurs only in Esther 1:1 and 8:9, where the extent of the dominion of the Persian king is described. The country so designated here is not the peninsula of Hindustan, but the country surrounding the Indus, the Punjab. The people and the products of India were well known to the Jews, who seem to have carried on an active trade with that country (Ezek. 27:15, 24).

The name of India does not occur in the Bible before the book of Esther where it is noticed as the limit of the territories of Ahasuerus in the east, as Ethiopia was in the west. #Es 1:1; 8:9| The India of the book of Esther is not the peninsula of Hindostan, but the country surrounding the Indus, the Punjab and perhaps Scinde. The people and productions of that country must have been tolerably well known to the Jews. An active trade was carried on between India and western Asia. The trade opened by Solomon with Ophir through the Red Sea consisted chiefly of Indian articles.

IN'DIA . The Persian king Ahasuerus is described as reigning "from India unto Ethiopia." Esth 1:1; Rom 8:9. The India of the book of Esther is not the peninsula of Hindostan, but the country surrounding the Indus, the Punjab, and perhaps Scinde. Later, India is reckoned among the countries which Eumenes, king of Pergamus, received out of the former possessions of Antiochus the Great. 1 Mace. 8:8; 11:37. The people and productions of that country must have been tolerably well known to the Jews. An active trade was carried on between India and western Asia. The trade opened by Solomon by his navy and through Hiram, king of Tyre, consisted chiefly of Indian articles. 1 Kgs 10:10-22.

(Esther 1:1; Esther 8:9). Ahasuerus' (Xerxes') easternmost dominion, as Ethiopia was the westernmost. The country round the Indus, the Punjab, and Scinde, which Alexander the Great afterward conquered. Hebrew Hoddu, i.e. Honadu, Hindu; occurring in the Persepolitan inscriptions. Solomon imported through the Red Sea from Ophir Indian articles, of which some have Indian names; algumiym "sandal wood," kophim "apes," thucim "peacocks," pitdah "topaz," Sanskrit pita.