Name of Iran their country "Arya", "Iran", "Iranshahr", "Iranzamin" (Land of Iran), "Aryānām" (the equivalent of "Iran" in the proto-Iranian language) or its equivalents. The term "Arya" has been used by the Iranian people, as well as by the rulers and emperors of Iran, from the time of the Avesta. Evidently from the time of the Sassanids (226–651 CE) Iranians have called it "Iran", meaning "the land of Aryans" and "Iranshahr". In Middle Persian sources, the name "Arya" and "Iran" is used for the pre-Sassanid Iranian empires as well as the Sassanid empire. As an example, the use of the name "Iran" for
Balochistan either a proper name "milu-akam" (from which "tamilakam" was derived when the Indus people migrated south) or "melu-akam", meaning "high country", a possible reference to Balochistani high lands. Historian Romila Thapar also interprets "Meluḫḫa" as a proto-Dravidian term, possibly "mēlukku", and suggests the meaning "western extremity" (of the Dravidian-speaking regions in the Indian subcontinent). A literal translation into Sanskrit, "aparānta", was later used to describe the region by the Indo-Aryans. During the time of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), the Greeks called the land "Gedrosia" and its people "Gedrosoi", terms of unknown origin. Using etymological reasoning, H. W. Bailey reconstructs