Jambudvīpa (Pali; Jambudīpa) is a term for the Indian Subcontinent, often used in ancient Indian sources.
The term comes from ancient Indian cosmogony and is based on the concept of dvīpa, meaning "island" or "continent". The term Jambudvipa, was used by Ashoka to describe his realm in the 3rd century BC. The same term is also found in subsequent texts, for instance the Kannada inscriptions from the 10th century CE, to refer to the region, presumably ancient India.
Uttarapatha (Hindi: ą¤ą¤¤ą„ą¤¤ą¤°ą¤¾ą¤Ŗą¤„) is the name used by ancient Buddhist and Hindu texts to describe the Northern part of Jambudvipa (equivalent of present-day Afro - Eurasia), one of the "continents" in Vedic belief. In modern times, the Sanskrit word uttarapatha is sometimes used to denote the geographical regions of North India, Western India, Central India, Eastern India, Northeast India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal in just one term. The pronunciation of the word varies depending on the regional language of the speaker.