the word hindu was initially a term used by the
Hindu The historical meaning of the term Hindu has evolved with time. Starting with the Persian and Greek references to the land of the Indus in the 1st millennium BCE through the texts of the medieval era,[5] the term Hindu implied a geographic, ethnic or cultural identifier for people living in the Indian subcontinent around or beyond the Sindhu (Indus) river.[6] By the 16th century, the term began to refer to residents of the subcontinent who were not Turkic or Muslims.[6][a][b]
Punjab The region was originally called Sapta Sindhu,[4] the Vedic land of the seven rivers flowing into the ocean.[5] The Classical Sanskrit name for the region, as mentioned in the Ramayana and Mahabharata for example, was Panchanada which means "Land of the Five Rivers", and was translated to Persian as Punjab after the Muslim conquests.[6] The later name of the region, Punjab, is a compound of two Persian words,[1][7]