Somebody who teaches elementary school in USA wrote in to us at pak.org and asked us to explain what the “stan” in Pakistan means.
The teacher used several different examples including Tejikistan, Uzbekistan, etc.
Can someone post a comprehensive answer?
We were always told that "tan" is the end of Baluchis*tan*
Pa for Punjab
ki for Kasmir
s for Sindh
tan for Baluchistan
Hum. That left NWFP out. That's now right. Someone want to help me out here?
p.s: At first I thought you were talking about Pakis being "tan"ed ... skin color. hehe Shouldn't this be a question for FAQ forum???
i thought “stan” means “land of” and pakistan means “land of pure”
…not sure though
Stan in Farsi means Land..e.g., Hindustan, land of Hindus or Tajikistan. In Pakistan’s case it means land of the Pure.
Well .. yeah that too!
http://www3.pak.org/gupshup/smilies/smile.gif
nice try ahmadjee
Thanks NYA.
[quote]
Originally posted by ahmadjee:
We were always told that "tan" is the end of Baluchistan**
Pa for Punjab
ki for Kasmir
s for Sindh
tan for Baluchistan
Hum. That left NWFP out. That's now right. Someone want to help me out here?
**
[/quote]
P is for punjab;
A is for Afghania Sarhad (NWFP)
K is for Kashmir;
S is for Sind;
TAN for Baluchistan
This was an idea by Ch Rahmat Ali who was a student in Cambridge and it was published by him in the 30s many years before the idea of Pakistan was raised by the Muslim League and it did not include Bengal in it.
ps: the I in PAKISTAN was just to make sure that the gorays could call us pakis !!
its not 'tan', or 'stan'. Its 'istan'.
'Istan' in persian stands for a province/state. It can also be related to a city/country or any grouping you want to associate it with....eg district, division, borough etc.
there is also sanskrit word 'sthan' which means place. in the explanations of above like pa--> punjab and so on, how come bengal was left out which was a part of pakistan.
[This message has been edited by ZZ (edited October 16, 2001).]
[quote]
Originally posted by ZZ:
**there is also sanskrit word 'sthan' which means place. in the explanations of above like pa--> punjab and so on, how come bengal was left out which was a part of pakistan.
[This message has been edited by ZZ (edited October 16, 2001).]**
[/quote]
When Ch Rehmat Ali published his plans, They were not just for Pakistan. He made a map of India in which he proposed many muslim states within British India such as Pakistan, Banglistan (Bengal), Hyderabad, etc etc. Interestingly, these plans were dismissed by MA Jinnah during the round table conferences as a student's dream. It was only after the nehru report that the Muslim League started pursuing Pakistan. Also Ch Rehmat Ali felt that his plans (& other Indian muslims) had been betrayed as the other proposed Muslim states were not pursued by the ML.
Akif, how about Hindustan? I think “I” is placed where it sounds pleasing. There is no hard and fast rule.
Farsi is very flexible (like most Indo-European languages, which is in contrast to Afro-Asiatic or Semitic languages where rules are very hard and fast – even though Farsi, like other Indo-European developed from the Semitic languages).
[quote]
Originally posted by NYAhmadi:
**Akif, how about Hindustan? I think I is placed where it sounds pleasing. There is no hard and fast rule.
Farsi is very flexible (like most Indo-European languages, which is in contrast to Afro-Asiatic or Semitic languages where rules are very hard and fast even though Farsi, like other Indo-European developed from the Semitic languages).
**
[/quote]
actually indo-european family is older i believe. sanskrit is considered to be oldest language in the world according to encyclopedia britanica.
it is interesting how much ancient persian is in common with sanskrit. while the word 'stan' is common in both, pak is probably different.
while 'pak' means pure in these languages, 'pak' means 'to cook' in sanskrit, 'pakshastra' is 'science of cooking'.
in short, in sanskrit, pakistan will be 'land of cooks'. it is a different matter that it ended up as 'land of crooks'.
just kidding.
[This message has been edited by ZZ (edited October 17, 2001).]
[quote]
Originally posted by NYAhmadi:
Akif, how about Hindustan? I think “I” is placed where it sounds pleasing. There is no hard and fast rule.
[/quote]
NYA...actually the word indeed is 'istaan'. Regarding Hindustan, its not about the flexibility of faarsi, though I dont disagree with faarsi's flexibility, but the word hindustan is formed such because of it having been wrongly commonized, since it goes along with the word 'hindu'.
The other option would have been Hindistan. Now while 'hind' in india means land of hindus, in english it means 'ass'. And it would have been viewed as 'land of asses' around the world.
just kidding.
Akif, then that’s perfect. Land of Cooks vs. Land of Assess. And yes, it is Istan, notating State Province etc., but Farsi is such a poetic language that to ensure poeticity many principles are sacrificed. Bostan-e-Saadi and Rubayat-e-Omar-Khayam are my favorite books in the whole wide world.
by akif’s english, ‘hind wing’ means ‘ass wing’
anyway, coming back to persian-sanskrit comparison, ancient persian is so close to sanskrit that without knowledge of sanskrit it is not possible to decipher old parsi texts like avesta.
http://www.netiran.com/Htdocs/Clippings/Art/010416XXAR01.html