Ancient names of India

In ancient times, India was divided into smaller kingdoms like Kalinga, Magadh, Gandhar and so on. But most of these kingdoms followed the Aryan culture, Vedic rituals and religion and similar political set ups. You could say they were all part of one civilization. 

That is why, the concept of India was always there- from the time of Alexender's invasion to invasions by Sakas, Huns, Pathans, Mughals- all of them invaded 'India'. The travellers like Hieun Tsang, Fa Huen, Ibn Batuta talked about their visits to India. And that is why, while we do agree that it was the British who gave the final shape to what we today know as India, much before they came- Christopher Columbus had set out to 'discover' India. 

The British, French, Portuguese and Dutch all came to the land they had already known to be India because they had heard about it's riches. And from ancient times, many kings have tried to be emperor of this whole land that together formed India- Samudragupta, Kanishka, later the Mughals and finally the Europians. King Harshavardhana of Kanauj could not conquer the Southern part of India, so he called himself 'Uttarapathanatha'- the lord of the North. The title itself shows he acknowledged the un-vanquished South to be part of the same country which he could not conquer. 

Coming to the ancient name of this country- the ancient kings of the land called it Bharat after the name of King Bharat who had conquered the whole land. By ancient kings I mean the Aryans. Now the Aryans themselves were foreigners who settled by the river Sindhu. It is through mispronunciation that Sindhu became 'Hindu' or 'Indus' (Hinduism is therefore rather a way if life of the people who lived by the Sindhu than a religion, at least, that was what it was originally) and from there we have the names 'Hindusthan' and 'India.'

Update:

Some of old names of our motherland are here:

1) The ancient name of India was Aja Nabha Varsha.

(Aja means Brahma. Nabha means navel or central portion.Varsha means nation/country.)

2) Bharata (Bha means light and knowledge. Rata means devoted to light as against darkness.) The whole country was highly enlightened spiritually.

According to another source, the name Bharat for India is derived from king Bharat, the son of Shakuntala, wife of king Dushyanta.

3) People who lived on the bank of river Indus were called originally as Indu and later as Hindu and the land came to be called as Hindusthan.

4) The name India was given by the British.

5) Aryavarta is another name which refers to India. The Aryans who entered the country,ruled it, and settled here. Aryan means good and noble.

The natives who were non-Aryans were called as Dasyus.

6) Jambu Dweepa ( the shape of India resembles jamun fruit) is the vedic name of India.

7) ”Tianzhu”(=spiritual centre) was the Chinese name during Tang Dynasty for ancient India. This was because of the Indian origin of Buddhism.

8) Before the British and Muslims came to India, our Bharat Varsha was a land of plenty and was nicknamed as ”Sone ki Chidiya” (=”Bird of Gold”)-according to author Shri S.P.Attri.

9. Hodu is the Biblical name for India mentioned in the
Book of Esther.

Source: Cultures of Ancient India