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Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an
ethnocultural An ethnoreligious group (or an ethno-religious group) is a grouping of people who are unified by a common religious and ethnic background. Furthermore, the term ethno-religious group, along with ethno-regional and ethno-linguistic groups, is a s ...
self-designation by
Indo-Iranians Indo-Iranian peoples, also known as Indo-Iranic peoples by scholars, and sometimes as Arya or Aryans from their self-designation, were a group of Indo-European peoples who brought the Indo-Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-European l ...
in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In
Ancient India According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by m ...
, the term ''ā́rya'' was used by the Indo-Aryan speakers of the
Vedic period The Vedic period, or the Vedic age (), is the period in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age of the history of India when the Vedic literature, including the Vedas (ca. 1300–900 BCE), was composed in the northern Indian subcontinent, betwe ...
as an endonym (self-designation) and in reference to the geographic region known as '' Āryāvarta'' ('abode of the Aryas'), where the Indo-Aryan culture emerged. In the ''
Avesta The Avesta () is the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language. The Avesta texts fall into several different categories, arranged either by dialect, or by usage. The principal text in the lit ...
'' scriptures, ancient
Iranian peoples The Iranian peoples or Iranic peoples are a diverse grouping of Indo-European peoples who are identified by their usage of the Iranian languages and other cultural similarities. The Proto-Iranians are believed to have emerged as a separat ...
similarly used the term ''airya'' to designate themselves as an ethnic group, and in reference to their mythical homeland, '' Airyanem Waēǰō'' ('stretch of the Aryas'). The root also forms the
etymological Etymology () The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words a ...
source of place names such as ''
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
'' (*''Aryānām'') and '' Alania'' (*''Aryāna-''). Although the root ''*arya-'' may be of
Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo- ...
(PIE) origin, its use as an ethnocultural self-designation is only attested among Indo-Iranian peoples, and it is not known if PIE speakers had a term to designate themselves as a group. In any case, scholars point out that, even in ancient times, the idea of being an ''Aryan'' was religious, cultural and linguistic, not racial.


Etymology

The term ''Arya'' was first rendered into a modern European language in 1771 as ''Aryens'' by French Indologist Abraham-Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron, who rightly compared the Greek ''arioi'' with the Avestan ''airya'' and the country name ''
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
.'' A German translation of Anquetil-Duperron's work led to the introduction of the term ''Arier'' in 1776. The
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
word ''ā́rya'' is rendered as 'noble' in William Jones' 1794 translation of the Indian '' Laws of Manu'', and the English ''Aryan'' (originally spelt ''Arian'') appeared a few decades later, first as an adjective in 1839, then as a noun in 1851.


Indo-Iranian

The
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
word ''ā́rya'' (
आर्य Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ...
) was originally an ethnocultural term designating those who spoke
Vedic Sanskrit Vedic Sanskrit was an ancient language of the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European language family. It is attested in the Vedas and related literature compiled over the period of the mid- 2nd to mid-1st millennium BCE. It was orally preser ...
and adhered to Vedic cultural norms (including religious rituals and poetry), in contrast to an outsider, or ''an-ā́rya'' ('non-Arya'). By the time of the
Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...
(5th–4th century BCE), it took the meaning of 'noble'. In
Old Iranian languages The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian languages are grouped ...
, the Avestan term ''airya'' ( Old Persian ''ariya'') was likewise used as an ethnocultural self-designation by ancient
Iranian peoples The Iranian peoples or Iranic peoples are a diverse grouping of Indo-European peoples who are identified by their usage of the Iranian languages and other cultural similarities. The Proto-Iranians are believed to have emerged as a separat ...
, in contrast to an '' an-airya'' ('non-Arya'). It designated those who belonged to the 'Aryan' (Iranian) ethnic stock, spoke the language and followed the religion of the 'Aryas'. These two terms derive from the reconstructed Proto-Indo-Iranian stem ''*arya''- or ''*āryo-'', which was probably the name used by the prehistoric
Indo-Iranian peoples Indo-Iranian peoples, also known as Indo-Iranic peoples by scholars, and sometimes as Arya or Aryans from their self-designation, were a group of Indo-European peoples who brought the Indo-Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-Europea ...
to designate themselves as an ethnocultural group. The term did not have any
racial A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...
connotation, which only emerged later in the works of 19th-century Western writers. According to David W. Anthony, "the ''
Rigveda The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts ('' śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one ...
'' and ''
Avesta The Avesta () is the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language. The Avesta texts fall into several different categories, arranged either by dialect, or by usage. The principal text in the lit ...
'' agreed that the essence of their shared parental Indo-Iranian identity was linguistic and ritual, not racial. If a person sacrificed to the right gods in the right way using the correct forms of the traditional hymns and poems, that person was an Aryan."


Proto-Indo-European

Since Adolphe Pictet (1799–1875), a number of scholars have proposed to derive the Indo-Iranian stem ''arya''- from the reconstructed
Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo- ...
(PIE) term ''*h₂erós'' or ''*h₂eryós'', variously translated as 'member of one's own group, peer, freeman'; as 'host, guest; kinsman'; or as 'lord, ruler'.; ; ; However, the proposed Anatolian, Celtic and Germanic
cognates In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical eff ...
are not universally accepted. In any case, the Indo-Iranian ethnic connotation is absent from the other Indo-European languages, which rather conceived the possible cognates of *''arya''- as a social status, and there is no evidence that
Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo- ...
speakers had a term to refer to themselves as '
Proto-Indo-Europeans The Proto-Indo-Europeans are a hypothetical prehistoric population of Eurasia who spoke Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the ancestor of the Indo-European languages according to linguistic reconstruction. Knowledge of them comes chiefly from ...
'. * Early PIE: ''*h₂erós'', ** Anatolian: *''ʔor-o-'', 'peer, freeman', *** Hittite: ''arā-'', 'comrade, peer, companion, friend'; ''arāwa-'', 'free from'; ''arawan(n)i-'', 'free, freeman (not being slave)'; ''natta ara'', 'not proper to the community', *** Lycian: ''arus-'', 'citizens'; ''arawa''-, 'freedom', ** Late PIE: ''*h₂eryós'', *** Indo-Iranian: ''*arya-'', 'Aryan, Indo-Iranian', **** Old Indo-Aryan: ''árya-'', 'Aryan, faithful to the Vedic religion'; ''aryá-'', 'noble, favourable, true, devoted'; ''arí-'', 'faithful; devoted person, ± kinsman'; ****
Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...
: *''arya-'', 'Aryan, Iranian', ***** Avestan: ''airya''- (pl. ''aire''), 'Aryan, Iranian', ***** Old Persian: ''ariya-'', 'Aryan, Iranian',' *** Celtic: ''*aryo-'', 'freeman; noble'; or perhaps from *''prio-'' ('first > prominent, eminent'), ****
Gaulish Gaulish was an ancient Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switze ...
: ''ario-'', 'freeman, lord; foremost', ****
Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic ( sga, Goídelc, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ga, Sean-Ghaeilge; gd, Seann-Ghàidhlig; gv, Shenn Yernish or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive writt ...
: ''aire,'' 'freeman, chief; noble'; *** Germanic ''*arjaz'', 'noble, distinguished, esteemed', ****
Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...
: ''arjosteʀ'', 'foremost, most distinguished'. The term ''*h₂er(y)ós'' may derive from the PIE verbal
root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the su ...
''*h₂er-'', meaning 'to put together'. Oswald Szemerényi has also argued that the stem could be a Near-Eastern loanword from the
Ugaritic Ugaritic () is an extinct Northwest Semitic language, classified by some as a dialect of the Amorite language and so the only known Amorite dialect preserved in writing. It is known through the Ugaritic texts discovered by French archaeologist ...
''ary'' ('kinsmen'), although J. P. Mallory and
Douglas Q. Adams Douglas Quentin Adams is a professor of English at the University of Idaho and an Indo-European comparativist. Adams studied at the University of Chicago, taking his PhD in 1972. He is an expert on Tocharian and a contributor on this subject to ...
find this proposition "hardly compelling". According to them, the original PIE meaning had a clear emphasis on the in-group status of the "freemen" as distinguished from that of outsiders, particularly those captured and incorporated into the group as slaves. In
Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...
, the base word has come to emphasize personal relationship, whereas it took a more ethnic meaning among
Indo-Iranians Indo-Iranian peoples, also known as Indo-Iranic peoples by scholars, and sometimes as Arya or Aryans from their self-designation, were a group of Indo-European peoples who brought the Indo-Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-European l ...
, presumably because most of the unfree (*''anarya'') who lived among them were captives from other ethnic groups.


Historical usage


Proto-Indo-Iranians

The term *''arya'' was used by Proto-Indo-Iranian speakers to designate themselves as an ethnocultural group, encompassing those who spoke the language and followed the religion of the ''Aryas'' (
Indo-Iranians Indo-Iranian peoples, also known as Indo-Iranic peoples by scholars, and sometimes as Arya or Aryans from their self-designation, were a group of Indo-European peoples who brought the Indo-Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-European l ...
)'','' as distinguished from the nearby outsiders known as the *''Anarya'' ('non-Arya'). Indo-Iranians (''Aryas'') are generally associated with the
Sintashta culture The Sintashta culture (russian: Синташтинская культура, Sintashtinskaya kul'tura), around 2050–1900 BCE, is the first phase of the Sintashta–Petrovka culture. or Sintashta–Arkaim culture,. and is a late Middle Bronze Ag ...
(2100–1800 BCE), named after the Sintashta archaeological site in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. Linguistic evidence show that Proto-Indo-Iranian (Proto-Aryan) speakers dwelled in the Eurasian steppe, south of early Uralic tribes; the stem *''arya''- was notably borrowed into the Pre- Saami language as *''orja''-, at the origin of ''oarji'' ('southwest') and ''årjel'' ('Southerner'). The loanword took the meaning 'slave' in other
Finno-Permic languages The Finno-Permic (''Fenno-Permic'') or Finno-Permian (''Fenno-Permian'') languages, or sometimes just Finnic (''Fennic'') languages, are a proposed subdivision of the Uralic languages which comprise the Balto-Finnic languages, Sami languages, Mor ...
, suggesting conflictual relations between Indo-Iranian and Uralic peoples in prehistoric times. The stem is also found in the Indo-Iranian god *''Aryaman,'' translated as 'Arya-spirited', 'Aryanness', or 'Aryanhood'; he was known in Vedic Sanskrit as ''
Aryaman Aryaman () is one of the early Vedic Hindu deities. His name signifies "Life-Partner", "close friend", "Partner", "play-fellow" or "companion".Monier-Williams Sanskrit Dictionary He is the third son of Kashyapa and Aditi, the father and mothe ...
'' and in Avestan as ''
Airyaman In the Avesta, (or ') is both an Avestan language common noun as well as the proper name of a Zoroastrian divinity. The common noun is a theological and social term literally meaning "member of (the) community or tribe." In a secondary developm ...
''. The deity was in charge of welfare and the community, and connected with the institution of marriage. Through marital ceremonies, one of the functions of ''Aryaman'' was to assimilate women from other tribes to the host community. If the Irish heroes ''
Érimón Érimón, (modern spelling: Éiremhón), commonly Anglicised as Heremon, son of Míl Espáine (and great-grandson of Breoghan, king of Celtic Galicia), according to medieval Irish legends and historical traditions, was one of the chieftains who t ...
'' and ''Airem'' and the Gaulish personal name ''Ariomanus'' are also cognates (i.e. linguistic siblings sharing a common origin), a deity of Proto-Indo-European origin named ''*h₂eryo-men'' may also be posited.


Ancient India

Vedic Sanskrit Vedic Sanskrit was an ancient language of the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European language family. It is attested in the Vedas and related literature compiled over the period of the mid- 2nd to mid-1st millennium BCE. It was orally preser ...
speakers viewed the term ''ā́rya'' as a religious–linguistic category, referring to those who spoke the Sanskrit language and adhered to Vedic cultural norms, especially those who worshipped the Vedic gods ( Indra and
Agni Agni (English: , sa, अग्नि, translit=Agni) is a Sanskrit word meaning fire and connotes the Vedic fire deity of Hinduism. He is also the guardian deity of the southeast direction and is typically found in southeast corners of Hindu ...
in particular), took part in the sacrifices and festivals, and practiced the art of poetry. The 'non-Aryas' designated primarily those who were not able to speak the ''āryā'' language correctly, the ''
Mleccha Mleccha (from Vedic Sanskrit ', meaning "non-Vedic", "foreigner" or "barbarian") is a Sanskrit term, initially referring to those of an incomprehensible speech, later foreign or barbarous invaders as contra-distinguished from elite groups. The ...
'' or ''Mṛdhravāc.'' However, ''āryā'' is used only once in the
Vedas upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute th ...
to designate the language of the texts, the Vedic area being defined in the '' Kauṣītaki Āraṇyaka'' as that where the ''āryā vāc'' ('Ārya speech') is spoken. Some 35 names of Vedic tribes, chiefs and poets mentioned in the ''
Rigveda The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts ('' śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one ...
'' were of 'non-Aryan' origin, demonstrating that
cultural assimilation Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's majority group or assume the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group whether fully or partially. The different types of cultural ass ...
to the ''ā́rya'' community was possible, and/or that some 'Aryan' families chose to give 'non-Aryan' names to their newborns. In the words of Indologist
Michael Witzel Michael Witzel (born July 18, 1943) is a German-American philologist, comparative mythologist and Indologist. Witzel is the Wales Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University and the editor of the Harvard Oriental Series (volumes 50–80). Witz ...
, the term ''ārya'' "does not mean a particular ''people'' or even a particular 'racial' group but all those who had joined the tribes speaking Vedic Sanskrit and adhering to their cultural norms (such as ritual, poetry, etc.)". In later Indian texts and Buddhist sources, ''ā́rya'' took the meaning of 'noble', such as in the terms ''Āryadésa''- ('noble land') for India, ''Ārya-bhāṣā''- ('noble language') for Sanskrit, or ''āryaka''- ('honoured man'), which gave the
Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Buddh ...
''ayyaka''- ('grandfather'). The term came to incorporate the idea of a high social status, but was also used as an honorific for the
Brahman In Hinduism, ''Brahman'' ( sa, ब्रह्मन्) connotes the highest universal principle, the ultimate reality in the universe.P. T. Raju (2006), ''Idealistic Thought of India'', Routledge, , page 426 and Conclusion chapter part X ...
a or the Buddhist monks. Parallelly, the Mleccha acquired additional meanings that referred to people of lower castes or aliens.


Ancient Iran

In the words of scholar Gherardo Gnoli, the Old Iranian ''airya'' ( Avestan) and ''ariya'' ( Old Persian) were collective terms denoting the "peoples who were aware of belonging to the one ethnic stock, speaking a common language, and having a religious tradition that centred on the cult of Ahura Mazdā", in contrast to the 'non-Aryas', who are called ''anairya'' in Avestan, ''anaryān'' in Parthian, and '' anērān'' in
Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle ...
. By the late 6th–early 5th century BCE, the
Achaemenid The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest emp ...
king Darius the Great and his son
Xerxes I Xerxes I ( peo, 𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠 ; grc-gre, Ξέρξης ; – August 465 BC), commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, ruling from 486 to 465 BC. He was the son and successor of D ...
described themselves as ''ariya'' ('Arya') and ''ariya čiça'' ('of Aryan origin'). In the Behistun inscription, authored by Darius during his reign (522 – 486 BCE), the Old Persian language is called ''ariya'', and the
Elamite Elamite, also known as Hatamtite and formerly as Susian, is an extinct language that was spoken by the ancient Elamites. It was used in what is now southwestern Iran from 2600 BC to 330 BC. Elamite works disappear from the archeological record ...
version of the inscription portrays the
Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic ...
deity Ahura Mazdā as the "god of the Aryas" (''ura-masda naap harriia-naum''). In the sacred ''
Avesta The Avesta () is the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language. The Avesta texts fall into several different categories, arranged either by dialect, or by usage. The principal text in the lit ...
'' scriptures, the stem can also be found in poetic expressions such as the 'glory of the Aryas' (''airyanąm xᵛarənō'' ), the 'most swift-arrowed of the Aryas' (''xšviwi išvatəmō airyanąm''), associated with the mythical archer Ǝrəxša, or the 'hero of the Aryas' (''arša airyanąm''), attached to Kavi Haosravō. The self-identifier was inherited in ethnic names such as the Parthian ''Ary'' (pl. ''Aryān''), the
Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle ...
''Ēr'' (pl. ''Ēran''), or the
New Persian New Persian ( fa, فارسی نو), also known as Modern Persian () and Dari (), is the current stage of the Persian language spoken since the 8th to 9th centuries until now in Greater Iran and surroundings. It is conventionally divided into thr ...
''Irāni'' (pl. ''Irāniyān''). The
Scythian The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...
branch has '' Alān'' or *''Allān'' (from *''Aryāna''; modern ''Allon''), '' Rhoxolāni'' ('Bright Alans'), ''Alanorsoi'' ('White Alans'), and possibly the modern Ossetian ''Ir'' (adj. ''
Iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...
''), spelled ''Irä'' or ''Erä'' in the
Digorian dialect Digor or Digorian (''дигорон digoron'') is a dialect of the Ossetian language spoken by the Digor people. It is less widely spoken than Iron (dialect), Iron, the other extant Ossetian dialect. The two are distinct enough to sometimes be ...
. The
Rabatak inscription The Rabatak Inscription is an stone inscribed with text written in the Bactrian language and Greek script, found in 1993 at the site of Rabatak, near Surkh Kotal in Afghanistan. The inscription relates to the rule of the Kushan emperor Kani ...
, written in the Bactrian language in the 2nd century CE, likewise uses the term ''ariao'' for 'Iranian'. The name ''Arizantoi'', listed by Greek historian
Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society ...
as one of the six tribes composing the Iranian
Medes The Medes ( Old Persian: ; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were an ancient Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media between western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BC, ...
, is derived from the Old Iranian *''arya-zantu''- ('having Aryan lineage'). Herodotus also mentions that the Medes once called themselves ''Arioi'', and Strabo locates the land of ''Arianē'' between Persia and India. Other occurrences include the Greek ''áreion'' (
Damascius Damascius (; grc-gre, Δαμάσκιος, 458 – after 538), known as "the last of the Athenian Neoplatonists," was the last scholarch of the neoplatonic Athenian school. He was one of the neoplatonic philosophers who left Athens after laws ...
), ''Arianoi'' ( Diodorus Siculus) and ''arian'' (pl. ''arianōn'';
Sasanian period The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...
), as well as the Armenian expression ''ari'' (
Agathangelos Agathangelos (in xcl, Ագաթանգեղոս Agatʿangełos, in Greek "bearer of good news" or angel, 5th century AD ) is the pseudonym of the author of a life of the first apostle of Armenia, Gregory the Illuminator, who died about 332. He ...
), meaning 'Iranian'. Until the demise of the
Parthian Empire The Parthian Empire (), also known as the Arsacid Empire (), was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe in conque ...
(247 BCE–224 CE), the Iranian identity was essentially defined as cultural and religious. Following conflicts between
Manichean Manichaeism (; in New Persian ; ) is a former major religionR. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian prophet Mani (AD ...
universalism and
Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic ...
nationalism during the 3rd century CE, however, traditionalistic and nationalistic movements eventually took the upper hand during the
Sasanian period The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...
, and the Iranian identity (''ērīh'') came to assume a definite political value. Among Iranians (''ērān''), one ethnic group in particular, the
Persians The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian. ...
, were placed at the centre of the ''Ērān-šahr'' ('Kingdom of the Iranians') ruled by the ''šāhān-šāh ērān ud anērān'' ('King of Kings of the Iranians and non-Iranians'). Ethical and ethnic meanings may also intertwine, for instance in the use of ''anēr'' ('non-Iranian') as a synonymous of 'evil' in ''anērīh ī hrōmāyīkān'' ("the evil conduct of the Romans, i.e. Byzantines"), or in the association of ''ēr'' ('Iranian') with good birth (''hutōhmaktom ēr martōm'', 'the best-born Arya man') and the use of ''ērīh'' ('Iranianness') to mean 'nobility' against "labor and burdens from poverty" in the 10th-century '' Dēnkard''. The Indian opposition between ''ārya''- ('noble') and ''dāsá''- ('stranger, slave, enemy') is however absent from the Iranian tradition. According to linguist
Émile Benveniste Émile Benveniste (; 27 May 1902 – 3 October 1976) was a French structural linguist and semiotician. He is best known for his work on Indo-European languages and his critical reformulation of the linguistic paradigm established by Ferdinand ...
, the root ''*das-'' may have been used exclusively as a collective name by Iranian peoples: "If the word referred at first to Iranian society, the name by which this enemy people called themselves collectively took on a hostile connotation and became for the Aryas of India the term for an inferior and barbarous people."


Place names

In ancient Sanskrit literature, the term '' Āryāvarta'' (आर्यावर्त, the 'abode of the Aryas') was the name given to the cradle of the Indo-Aryan culture in northern India. The '' Manusmṛiti'' locates ''Āryāvarta'' in "the tract between the
Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...
and the Vindhya ranges, from the Eastern (
Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line betwee ...
) to the Western Sea (
Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea ( ar, اَلْبَحرْ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Bahr al-ˁArabī) is a region of the northern Indian Ocean bounded on the north by Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel ...
)". The stem ''airya-'' also appears in '' Airyanəm Waēǰō'' (the 'stretch of the Aryas' or the 'Aryan plain'), which is described in the ''Avesta'' as the mythical homeland of the early Iranians, said to have been created as "the first and best of places and habitations" by the god Ahura Mazdā. It was referred to in Manichean Sogdian as ''ʾryʾn wyžn'' (''Aryān Wēžan''), and in Old Persian as ''*Aryānām Waiǰah'', which gave the
Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle ...
''Ērān-wēž'', said to be the region where the first cattle were created and where Zaraθuštra first revealed the Good Religion. The Sasanian Empire, officially named ''Ērān-šahr'' ('Kingdom of the Iranians'; from Old Persian *''Aryānām Xšaθram''), could also be referred to by the abbreviated form ''Ērān'', as distinguished from the Roman West known as ''Anērān.'' The western variant ''Īrān'', abbreviated from ''Īrān-šahr'', is at the origin of the English country name ''Iran''. '' Alania'', the name of the medieval kingdom of the
Alans The Alans (Latin: ''Alani'') were an ancient and medieval Iranian nomadic pastoral people of the North Caucasus – generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have connected the A ...
, derives from a dialectal variant of the Old Iranian stem *''Aryāna-'', which is also linked to the mythical '' Airyanem Waēǰō''. Besides the ''ala''- development, *''air-y''- may have turned into the stem ''ir-y-'' via an
i-mutation I-mutation (also known as umlaut, front mutation, i-umlaut, i/j-mutation or i/j-umlaut) is a type of sound change in which a back vowel is fronted or a front vowel is raised if the following syllable contains , or (a voiced palatal appro ...
in modern
Ossetian language Ossetian (, , ), commonly referred to as Ossetic and rarely as Ossete (), is an Eastern Iranian language that is spoken predominantly in Ossetia, a region situated on both sides of the Greater Caucasus. It is the native language of the Oss ...
s, as in the place name ''Iryston'' (
Ossetia Ossetia ( , ; os, Ирыстон or , or ; russian: Осетия, Osetiya; ka, ოსეთი, translit. ''Oseti'') is an ethnolinguistic region located on both sides of the Greater Caucasus Mountains, largely inhabited by the Ossetians. ...
), here attached to the Iranian suffix *'' -stān''. Other place names mentioned in the ''Avesta'' include ''airyō šayana'', a movable term corresponding to the 'territory of the Aryas', ''airyanąm dahyunąm'', the 'lands of the Aryas', ''Airyō-xšuθa'', a mountain in eastern Iran associated with Ǝrəxša, and ''vīspe aire razuraya,'' the forest where Kavi Haosravō slew the god
Vāyu Vayu (, sa, वायु, ), also known as Vata and Pavana, is the Hindu god of the winds as well as the divine massenger of the gods. In the ''Vedic scriptures'', Vayu is an important deity and is closely associated with Indra, the king of g ...
.


Personal names

Old Persian names derived the stem *''arya''- include ''Aryabignes'' (*''arya-bigna'', 'Gift of the Aryans'), ''Ariarathes'' (*''Arya-wratha-'', 'having Aryan joy'), ''Ariobarzanēs'' (*''Ārya-bṛzāna''-, 'exalting the Aryans'), ''Ariaios'' (*''arya-ai-'', probably used as a
hypocorism A hypocorism ( or ; from Ancient Greek: (), from (), 'to call by pet names', sometimes also ''hypocoristic'') or pet name is a name used to show affection for a person. It may be a diminutive form of a person's name, such as ''Izzy'' for I ...
of the precedent names), or '' Ariyāramna'' (whose meaning remains unclear). The English '' Alan'' and the French '' Alain'' (from Latin ''Alanus'') may have been introduced by Alan settlers to Western Europe during the first millennium CE. The name ''Aryan'' (including derivatives such as ''Aaryan,'' ''
Arya Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ' ...
, Ariyan'' or ''Aria'') is still used as a given name or surname in modern South Asia and Iran. There has also been a rise in names associated with ''Aryan'' in the West, which have been popularized due to pop culture. According to the U.S. Social Security Administration in 2012, ''Arya'' was the fastest-rising girl's name in popularity in the U.S., jumping from 711th to 413th position. The name entered the top 200 most commonly used names for baby girls born in England and Wales in 2017.


In Latin literature

The word Arianus was used to designate
Ariana Ariana was a general geographical term used by some Greek and Roman authors of the ancient period for a district of wide extent between Central Asia and the Indus River, comprising the eastern provinces of the Achaemenid Empire that covered the ...
, the area comprising Afghanistan, Iran, North-western India and Pakistan. In 1601,
Philemon Holland Philemon Holland (1552 – 9 February 1637) was an English schoolmaster, physician and translator. He is known for the first English translations of several works by Livy, Pliny the Elder, and Plutarch, and also for translating William Camden's ...
used 'Arianes' in his translation of the Latin Arianus to designate the inhabitants of Ariana. This was the first use of the form ''Arian'' verbatim in the English language.


Modern Persian nationalism

In the aftermath of the Islamic conquest in Iran, racialist rhetoric became a literary idiom during the 7th century, i.e., when the Arabs became the primary "
Other Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...
" – the
Aniran Anērān (Middle Persian, ) or Anīrân (Modern Persian, ) is an ethno-linguistic term that signifies "non-Iranian" or "non-Iran" (non-Aryan). Thus, in a general sense, 'Aniran' signifies lands where Iranian languages are not spoken. In a pejorativ ...
– and the antithesis of everything Iranian (i.e. Aryan) and
Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic ...
. But "the antecedents of resent-dayIranian ultra-nationalism can be traced back to the writings of late nineteenth-century figures such as Mirza Fatali Akhundov and
Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani ( fa, میرزا آقا خان کرمانی;‎ 1854 – 1896/97) was an Iranian intellectual reformer, a Babi, and son-in-law of Subh-i-Azal. In his writings, he advocates for political, social, and religious reform ch ...
. Demonstrating affinity with Orientalist views of the supremacy of the '' Aryan peoples'' and the mediocrity of the ''
Semitic peoples Semites, Semitic peoples or Semitic cultures is an obsolete term for an ethnic, cultural or racial group.Achaemenid The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest emp ...
and
Sassanid The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...
empires, whilst negating the 'Islamization' of
Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
by Muslim forces." In the 20th century, different aspects of this idealization of a distant past would be instrumentalized by both the Pahlavi monarchy (In 1967, Iran's Pahlavi
dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...
verthrown_in_the_ verthrown_in_the_1979_Iranian_Revolution">1979_Iranian_Revolution.html"_;"title="verthrown_in_the_1979_Iranian_Revolution">verthrown_in_the_1979_Iranian_Revolutionadded_the_title_ verthrown_in_the_1979_Iranian_Revolution">1979_Iranian_Revolution.html"_;"title="verthrown_in_the_1979_Iranian_Revolution">verthrown_in_the_1979_Iranian_Revolutionadded_the_title_Aryamehr">Āryāmehr_''Light_of_the_Aryans''_to_the_other_styles_of_the_Mohammad_Reza_Pahlavi.html" ;"title="Aryamehr.html" ;"title="1979_Iranian_Revolution.html" ;"title="1979_Iranian_Revolution.html" ;"title="verthrown in the 1979 Iranian Revolution">verthrown in the 1979 Iranian Revolution">1979_Iranian_Revolution.html" ;"title="verthrown in the 1979 Iranian Revolution">verthrown in the 1979 Iranian Revolutionadded the title Aryamehr">Āryāmehr ''Light of the Aryans'' to the other styles of the Mohammad Reza Pahlavi">Iranian monarch, the Shah of Iran being already known at that time as the Shahanshah (''King of Kings'')), and by the Iran, Islamic republic that followed it; the Pahlavis used it as a foundation for anticlerical monarchism, and the clerics used it to exalt Iranian values vis-á-vis westernization.


Modern religious use

The word ''ārya'' is often found in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain texts. In the Indian spiritual context, it can be applied to Rishis or to someone who has mastered the four noble truths and entered upon the spiritual path. According to Indian leader
Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...
, the religions of
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
may be called collectively ''ārya dharma,'' a term that includes the religions that originated in the
Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
(e.g.
Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
,
Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...
,
Jainism Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle bein ...
and possibly
Sikhism Sikhism (), also known as Sikhi ( pa, ਸਿੱਖੀ ', , from pa, ਸਿੱਖ, lit=disciple', 'seeker', or 'learner, translit=Sikh, label=none),''Sikhism'' (commonly known as ''Sikhī'') originated from the word ''Sikh'', which comes fro ...
). The word ārya is also often used in
Jainism Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle bein ...
, in Jain texts such as the Pannavanasutta. In Avaśyakaniryukti, an early Jaina text, a character named ''Ārya Mangu'' is mentioned twice.


Scholarship


19th and early 20th century

The term 'Aryan' was initially introduced into the English language through works of comparative philology, as a modern rendering of the Sanskrit word ''ā́rya''. First translated as 'noble' in William Jones' 1794 translation of the '' Laws of Manu'', early-19th-century scholars later noticed that the term was used in the earliest
Vedas upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute th ...
as an ethnocultural self-designation "comprising the worshipers of the gods of the Brahmans". This interpretation was simultaneously influenced by the presence of the word ''Ἀριάνης'' (Ancient Greek) ~ ''Arianes'' (Latin) in classical texts, which had been rightly compared by
Anquetil-Duperron Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron (7 December 173117 January 1805) was the first professional French Indologist. He conceived the institutional framework for the new profession. He inspired the founding of the École française d'Extrême-Orien ...
in 1771 to the Iranian ''airya'' ( Avestan) ~ ''ariya'' ( Old Persian), a self-identifier used by the speakers of
Iranian languages The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian languages are groupe ...
since ancient times. Accordingly, the term 'Aryan' came to refer in scholarship to the
Indo-Iranian languages The Indo-Iranian languages (also Indo-Iranic languages or Aryan languages) constitute the largest and southeasternmost extant branch of the Indo-European language family (with over 400 languages), predominantly spoken in the geographical subre ...
, and, by extension, to the native speakers of the Proto-Indo-Iranian language, the prehistoric
Indo-Iranian peoples Indo-Iranian peoples, also known as Indo-Iranic peoples by scholars, and sometimes as Arya or Aryans from their self-designation, were a group of Indo-European peoples who brought the Indo-Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-Europea ...
. During the 19th century, through the works of
Friedrich Schlegel Karl Wilhelm Friedrich (after 1814: von) Schlegel (; ; 10 March 1772 – 12 January 1829) was a German poet, literary critic, philosopher, philologist, and Indologist. With his older brother, August Wilhelm Schlegel, he was one of the main figure ...
(1772–1829), Christian Lassen (1800–1876), Adolphe Pictet (1799–1875), and
Max Müller Friedrich Max Müller (; 6 December 1823 – 28 October 1900) was a German-born philologist and Orientalist, who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life. He was one of the founders of the western academic disciplines of Indian ...
(1823–1900), the terms ''Aryans'', ''Arier'', and ''Aryens'' came to be adopted by a number of Western scholars as a synonym of ' (Proto-)Indo-Europeans'. Many of them indeed believed that ''Aryan'' was also the original self-designation used by the prehistoric speakers of the
Proto-Indo-European language Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...
, based on the erroneous assumptions that
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
was the oldest Indo-European language and on the linguistically untenable position that ''
Ériu In Irish mythology, Ériu (; modern ga, Éire ), daughter of Delbáeth and Ernmas of the Tuatha Dé Danann, was the eponymous matron goddess of Ireland. The English name for Ireland comes from the name Ériu and the Germanic (Old Norse or Ol ...
'' (Ireland) was related to ''Arya''. This hypothesis has since been abandoned in scholarship due to the lack of evidence for the use of ''arya'' as an ethnocultural self-designation outside the Indo-Iranian world.


Contemporary scholarship

In contemporary scholarship, the terms 'Aryan' and 'Proto-Aryan' are still sometimes used to designate the prehistoric Indo-Iranian peoples and their
proto-language In the tree model of historical linguistics, a proto-language is a postulated ancestral language from which a number of attested languages are believed to have descended by evolution, forming a language family. Proto-languages are usually unattes ...
. However, the use of 'Aryan' to mean 'Proto-Indo-European' is now regarded as an "aberration to be avoided". The ' Indo-Iranian' subfamily of languages – which encompasses the Indo-Aryan,
Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...
, and Nuristani branches – may also be referred to as the 'Aryan languages'. However, the atrocities committed in the name of Aryanist racial ideologies during the first part of the 20th century have led academics to generally avoid the term 'Aryan', which has been replaced in most cases by 'Indo-Iranian', although its Indic branch is still called 'Indo-Aryan'. The name 'Iranian', which stems from the Old Persian *''Aryānām'', also continues to be used to refer to specific
ethnolinguistic group An ethnolinguistic group (or ethno-linguistic group) is a group that is unified by both a common ethnicity and language. Most ethnic groups share a first language. However, "ethnolinguistic" is often used to emphasise that language is a major ba ...
s. * Indo-Aryan refers to the populations speaking an
Indo-Aryan language The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated in India, Pa ...
or identifying as Indo-Aryan; they form the predominant group in Northern India. The largest Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic groups are
Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Rajasthani, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Odia, and Sindhi. More than 900 million people are native speakers of an Indo-Aryan language. *
Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...
(or Iranic) is used to designate the speakers of
Iranian languages The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian languages are groupe ...
or the peoples who identify as "Iranians", especially in Greater Iran. Modern Iranian ethnolinguistic groups include
Persians The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian. ...
,
Pashtuns Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically r ...
,
Kurds ug:كۇردلار Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Ira ...
,
Tajiks Tajiks ( fa, تاجيک، تاجک, ''Tājīk, Tājek''; tg, Тоҷик) are a Persian-speaking Iranian ethnic group native to Central Asia, living primarily in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Tajiks are the largest ethnicity in Taj ...
,
Balochs The Baloch or Baluch ( bal, بلۏچ, Balòc) are an Iranian people who live mainly in the Balochistan region, located at the southeasternmost edge of the Iranian plateau, encompassing the countries of Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. There ar ...
, Lurs,
Pamiris The Pamiris, russian: Пами́рцы, Pamírtsy, zh, s=帕米尔人, p=Pàmǐ'ěrrén, ur, are an Eastern Iranian ethnic group, native to the Badakhshan region of Central Asia, which includes the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of T ...
, Zazas, and
Ossetians The Ossetians or Ossetes (, ; os, ир, ирæттæ / дигорӕ, дигорӕнттӕ, translit= ir, irættæ / digoræ, digorænttæ, label=Ossetic) are an Iranian ethnic group who are indigenous to Ossetia, a region situated across the no ...
. An estimated 150 to 200 million people are native speakers of an Iranian language. Some authors writing for popular consumption have kept on using the word "Aryan" for all Indo-Europeans in the tradition of
H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''
Poul Anderson Poul William Anderson (November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001) was an American fantasy and science fiction author who was active from the 1940s until the 21st century. Anderson wrote also historical novels. His awards include seven Hugo Awards and ...
, and scientists writing for the popular media, such as Colin Renfrew. According to F. B. J. Kuiper, echoes of "the 19th century prejudice about 'northern' Aryans who were confronted on Indian soil with black barbarians ..can still be heard in some modern studies."


Aryanism and racism


Invention of the "Aryan race"


Origin

Racially-oriented interpretations of the Vedic ''Aryas'' as "fair-skinned foreign invaders" coming from the North led to the adoption of the term ''Aryan'' in the West as a racial category connected to a supremacist ideology known as Aryanism, which conceived the
Aryan race The Aryan race is an obsolete historical race concept that emerged in the late-19th century to describe people of Proto-Indo-European heritage as a racial grouping. The terminology derives from the historical usage of Aryan, used by modern I ...
as the " superior race" responsible for most of the achievements of ancient civilizations. In 1888
Max Müller Friedrich Max Müller (; 6 December 1823 – 28 October 1900) was a German-born philologist and Orientalist, who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life. He was one of the founders of the western academic disciplines of Indian ...
, who had himself inaugurated the racial interpretations of the ''
Rigveda The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts ('' śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one ...
'', denounced talk of an "Aryan race, Aryan blood, Aryan eyes and hair" as a nonsense comparable to a linguist speaking of "a dolichocephalic dictionary or a brachycephalic grammar". But an increasing number of Western writers, especially anthropologists and non-specialists influenced by Darwinist theories, came to see the ''Aryans'' as a "physical-genetic species" contrasting with the other human races - rather than as an ethnolinguistic category. During the late-19th and early-20th centuries, a fusion of Aryanism with
Nordicism Nordicism is an ideology of racism which views the historical race concept of the "Nordic race" as an endangered and superior racial group. Some notable and seminal Nordicist works include Madison Grant's book ''The Passing of the Great Race ...
- promoted by writers such as Arthur de Gobineau (1816-1882),
Theodor Poesche Theodor Friedrich Wilhelm Poesche (23 March 1825 – 27 December 1899) was a German American anthropologist and author, specializing in historical anthropology. Life Born in 1825 in Zoeschen (now part of Leuna) in the Province of Saxony of the ...
(1825-1899),
Houston Chamberlain Houston Stewart Chamberlain (; 9 September 1855 – 9 January 1927) was a British-German philosopher who wrote works about political philosophy and natural science. His writing promoted German ethnonationalism, antisemitism, and scientific ...
(1855-1927),
Paul Broca Pierre Paul Broca (, also , , ; 28 June 1824 – 9 July 1880) was a French physician, anatomist and anthropologist. He is best known for his research on Broca's area, a region of the frontal lobe that is named after him. Broca's area is involve ...
(1824-1880), Karl Penka (1847-1912), and Hans Günther (1891-1968) - led to the portrayal of the Proto-Indo-Europeans as blond and tall, with blue eyes and
dolichocephalic Dolichocephaly (derived from the Ancient Greek δολιχός 'long' and κεφαλή 'head') is a condition where the head is longer than would be expected, relative to its width. In humans, scaphocephaly is a form of dolichocephaly. Dolichoce ...
skulls. Modern scholars reject those views and remind that the idea of a Vedic opposition between ''ārya'' and ''dāsa'' underlying a racial division remains problematic, since "most of the
edic Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level (hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased a ...
passages may not refer to dark or light skinned people, but dark and light worlds".


Theories of racial supremacy

Arthur de Gobineau, the author of the influential '' Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races'' (1853), viewed the white or Aryan race as the only civilized one, and conceived cultural decline and
miscegenation Miscegenation ( ) is the interbreeding of people who are considered to be members of different races. The word, now usually considered pejorative, is derived from a combination of the Latin terms ''miscere'' ("to mix") and ''genus'' ("race") ...
as intimately intertwined. According to him, northern Europeans had migrated across the world and founded the major civilizations, before being diluted through racial mixing with indigenous populations described as racially inferior, leading to the progressive decay of the ancient Aryan civilizations. In 1878, German American anthropologist Theodor Poesche published a survey of historical references attempting to demonstrate that the Aryans were light-skinned blue-eyed blonds. The use of ''Arier'' to mean 'non-Jewish' seems to have first occurred in 1887, when a Viennese physical-fitness society decided to allow as members only "Germans of Aryan descent" (). In ''
The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century ''The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century'' (''Die Grundlagen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts,'' 1899) is a book by British-born German philosopher Houston Stewart Chamberlain. In the book, Chamberlain advances various racialist and especially ''v ...
'' (1899), which Stefan Arvidsson notes is identified as "one of the most important proto-Nazi texts", British-German writer Houston Chamberlain theorized an existential struggle to the death between a superior German-Aryan race and a destructive Jewish-Semitic race. The best-seller ''
The Passing of the Great Race ''The Passing of the Great Race: Or, The Racial Basis of European History'' is a 1916 racist and pseudoscientific book by American lawyer, self-styled anthropologist, and proponent of eugenics, Madison Grant (1865–1937). Grant expounds a theo ...
'', published by American writer Madison Grant in 1916, warns of a danger of miscegenation with the immigrant "inferior races" – including speakers of Indo-European languages (such as Slavs, Italians, and Yiddish-speaking Jews) – allegedly faced by the "racially superior" Germanic ''Aryans'' (that is: Americans of English, German, and Scandinavian descent). Led by
Guido von List Guido Karl Anton List, better known as Guido von List (5 October 1848 – 17 May 1919), was an Austrian occultist, journalist, playwright, and novelist. He expounded a modern Pagan new religious movement known as Wotanism, which he claimed was ...
(1848–1919) and Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels (1874–1954), Ariosophists founded an ideological system combining ''Völkisch'' nationalism with
esoterism Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas ...
. Prophesying a coming era of German (Aryan) world rule, they argued that a conspiracy against Germans – said to have been instigated by the non-Aryan races, by the Jews, or by the early Church – had "sought to ruin this ideal Germanic world by emancipating the non-German inferiors in the name of a spurious egalitarianism".


North European hypothesis

In the meantime, the idea that Indo-European languages had originated from South Asia gradually lost support among academics. After the end of the 1860s, alternative models of Indo-European migrations began to emerge, some of them locating the ancestral homeland in Northern Europe. Karl Penka, credited as "a transitional figure between Aryanism and Nordicism", argued in 1883 that the Aryans originated in southern
Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...
. In the early-20th century, German scholar
Gustaf Kossinna Gustaf Kossinna (28 September 1858 – 20 December 1931) was a German philologist and archaeologist who was Professor of German Archaeology at the University of Berlin. Along with Carl Schuchhardt he was the most influential German prehisto ...
(1858-1931), attempting to connect a prehistoric material culture with the reconstructed
Proto-Indo-European language Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...
, contended on archaeological grounds that the 'Indo-Germanic' () migrations originated from a homeland located in northern Europe. Until the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, scholarship on the Indo-European
Urheimat In historical linguistics, the homeland or ''Urheimat'' (, from German '' ur-'' "original" and ''Heimat'', home) of a proto-language is the region in which it was spoken before splitting into different daughter languages. A proto-language is the r ...
broadly fell into two camps: Kossinna's followers and those, initially led by Otto Schrader (1855-1919), who supported a steppe homeland in Eurasia, which became the most widespread hypothesis among scholars.


British Raj

In India, the British colonial government had followed de Gobineau's arguments along another line, and had fostered the idea of a superior "Aryan race" that co-opted the
Indian caste system The caste system in India is the paradigmatic ethnographic example of classification of castes. It has its origins in ancient India, and was transformed by various ruling elites in medieval, early-modern, and modern India, especially the Mu ...
in favor of imperial interests. In its fully developed form, the British-mediated interpretation foresaw a segregation of Aryan and non-Aryan along the lines of caste, with the upper castes being "Aryan" and the lower ones being "non-Aryan". The European developments not only allowed the British to identify themselves as high-caste, but also allowed the Brahmins to view themselves as on-par with the British. Further, it provoked the reinterpretation of Indian history in racialist and, in opposition, Indian Nationalist terms.


Nazism and white supremacy

Through the works of
Houston Stewart Chamberlain Houston Stewart Chamberlain (; 9 September 1855 – 9 January 1927) was a British-German philosopher who wrote works about political philosophy and natural science. His writing promoted German ethnonationalism, antisemitism, and scientific ...
, Gobineau's ideas influenced the Nazi racial ideology, which saw the "
Aryan race The Aryan race is an obsolete historical race concept that emerged in the late-19th century to describe people of Proto-Indo-European heritage as a racial grouping. The terminology derives from the historical usage of Aryan, used by modern I ...
" as innately superior to other putative racial groups. The Nazi official
Alfred Rosenberg Alfred Ernst Rosenberg ( – 16 October 1946) was a Baltic German Nazi theorist and ideologue. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart and he held several important posts in the Nazi government. He was the head o ...
argued for a new " religion of the blood" based on the supposed innate promptings of the Nordic soul to defend its "noble" character against racial and cultural degeneration. Rosenberg believed the
Nordic race The Nordic race was a racial concept which originated in 19th century anthropology. It was considered a race or one of the putative sub-races into which some late-19th to mid-20th century anthropologists divided the Caucasian race, claiming tha ...
to be descended from Proto-Aryans, a hypothetical prehistoric people who dwelt on the
North German Plain The North German Plain or Northern Lowland (german: Norddeutsches Tiefland) is one of the major geographical regions of Germany. It is the German part of the North European Plain. The region is bounded by the coasts of the North Sea and the Balt ...
and who had ultimately originated from the lost continent of
Atlantis Atlantis ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works '' Timaeus'' and '' Critias'', wherein it represents the antagonist naval power that b ...
. Under Rosenberg, the theories of Arthur de Gobineau,
Georges Vacher de Lapouge Count Georges Vacher de Lapouge (; 12 December 1854 – 20 February 1936) was a French anthropologist and a theoretician of eugenics and racialism. He is known as the founder of anthroposociology, the anthropological and sociological study of race ...
, Blavatsky,
Houston Stewart Chamberlain Houston Stewart Chamberlain (; 9 September 1855 – 9 January 1927) was a British-German philosopher who wrote works about political philosophy and natural science. His writing promoted German ethnonationalism, antisemitism, and scientific ...
, Madison Grant, and those of
Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
, all culminated in Nazi Germany's race policies and the "
Aryanization Aryanization (german: Arisierung) was the Nazi term for the seizure of property from Jews and its transfer to non-Jews, and the forced expulsion of Jews from economic life in Nazi Germany, Axis-aligned states, and their occupied territories. I ...
" decrees of the 1920s, 1930s, and early 1940s. In its "appalling medical model", the annihilation of the "racially inferior" ''
Untermensch ''Untermensch'' (, ; plural: ''Untermenschen'') is a Nazi term for non-Aryan "inferior people" who were often referred to as "the masses from the East", that is Jews, Roma, and Slavs (mainly ethnic Poles, Serbs, and later also Russians). The ...
en'' was sanctified as the excision of a diseased organ in an otherwise healthy body, which led to the
Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
.According to Nazi racial theorists, the term "Aryans" (''Arier'') described the
Germanic peoples The Germanic peoples were historical groups of people that once occupied Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages. Since the 19th century, they have traditionally been defined by the use of ancient and e ...
, and they considered the purest Aryans to be those that belonged to a "
Nordic race The Nordic race was a racial concept which originated in 19th century anthropology. It was considered a race or one of the putative sub-races into which some late-19th to mid-20th century anthropologists divided the Caucasian race, claiming tha ...
" physical ideal, which they referred to as the "
master race The master race (german: Herrenrasse) is a pseudoscientific concept in Nazi ideology in which the putative " Aryan race" is deemed the pinnacle of human racial hierarchy. Members were referred to as "''Herrenmenschen''" ("master humans"). T ...
". However, a satisfactory definition of "Aryan" remained problematic during
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
. Although the physical ideal of Nazi racial theorists was typically the tall, blond haired, and light-eyed Nordic individual, such theorists accepted the fact that a considerable variety of hair and eye colour existed within the racial categories they recognised. For example,
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
and many Nazi officials had dark hair and were still considered members of the
Aryan race The Aryan race is an obsolete historical race concept that emerged in the late-19th century to describe people of Proto-Indo-European heritage as a racial grouping. The terminology derives from the historical usage of Aryan, used by modern I ...
under Nazi racial doctrine, because the determination of an individual's racial type depended on a preponderance of many characteristics in an individual rather than on just one defining feature. In September 1935, the Nazis passed the
Nuremberg Laws The Nuremberg Laws (german: link=no, Nürnberger Gesetze, ) were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of ...
. All Aryan Reich citizens were required to prove their Aryan ancestry; one way was to obtain an ''
Ahnenpass The ''Ahnenpaß'' (literally, "ancestor pass") documented the Aryan lineage of people "of German blood" in Nazi Germany. It was one of the forms of the Aryan certificate (''Ariernachweis'') and issued by the "Reich Association of Marriage Regis ...
'' ("ancestor pass") by providing proof through baptismal certificates that all four grandparents were of Aryan descent. In December of the same year, the Nazis founded ''
Lebensborn Lebensborn e.V. (literally: "Fount of Life") was an SS-initiated, state-supported, registered association in Nazi Germany with the stated goal of increasing the number of children born who met the Nazi standards of "racially pure" and "hea ...
'' ("Fount of Life") to counteract the falling Aryan birth rates in Germany, and to promote
Nazi eugenics Nazi eugenics refers to the social policies of eugenics in Nazi Germany, composed of various pseudoscientific ideas about genetics. The racial ideology of Nazism placed the biological improvement of the German people by selective breeding of ...
. Many American
white supremacist White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White s ...
neo-Nazi groups and prison gangs refer to themselves as 'Aryans', including the
Aryan Brotherhood The Aryan Brotherhood, also known as the Brand or the AB, is a neo-Nazi prison gang and an organized crime syndicate which is based in the United States and has an estimated 15,000–20,000 members both inside and outside prisons. The Southern P ...
, the Aryan Nations, the Aryan Republican Army, the
White Aryan Resistance White Aryan Resistance (WAR) is a white supremacist and neo-Nazi organization in the United States which was founded and formerly led by former Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon Tom Metzger. It is based in Warsaw, Indiana, and it is also incorporated ...
, or the Aryan Circle. Modern nationalist political groups and neo-Pagan movements in Russia claim a direct linkage between themselves as Slavs and the ancient 'Aryans', and in some Indian nationalist circles, the term 'Aryan' can also be used in reference to an alleged Aryan 'race'.


"Aryan invasion theory"

Translating the sacred Indian texts of the Rig Veda in the 1840s, German linguist Friedrich Max Muller found what he believed was evidence of an ancient invasion of India by Hindu Brahmins, a group which he called "the Arya." In his later works, Muller was careful to note that he thought that Aryan was a linguistic rather than a racial category. Nevertheless, scholars used Muller's invasion theory to propose their own visions of racial conquest through
South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth descr ...
and the
Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...
. In 1885, the New Zealand polymath
Edward Tregear Edward Robert Tregear , Ordre des Palmes académiques (1846–1931) was a New Zealand public servant and scholar. He was an architect of New Zealand's advanced social reforms and progressive labour legislation during the 1890s. Biography He was ...
argued that an "Aryan tidal-wave" had washed over India and continued to push south, through the islands of the East Indian archipelago, reaching the distant shores of New Zealand. Scholars such as
John Batchelor John Calvin Batchelor (born April 29, 1948) is an American author and host of ''Eye on the World'' on the CBS Audio Network. His flagship station is New York's 710 WOR. The show is a hard-news-analysis radio program on current events, world his ...
, Armand de Quatrefages, and Daniel Brinton extended this invasion theory to the Philippines, Hawaii, and Japan, identifying indigenous peoples who they believed were the descendants of early Aryan conquerors. With the discovery of the
Indus Valley civilisation The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300  BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form 2600 BCE to 1900& ...
, mid-20th century archeologist
Mortimer Wheeler Sir Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler CH CIE MC TD (10 September 1890 – 22 July 1976) was a British archaeologist and officer in the British Army. Over the course of his career, he served as Director of both the National Museum of Wales an ...
argued that the large urban civilisation had been destroyed by the Aryans. This position was later discredited, with climate aridification becoming the likely cause of the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilisation. The term "invasion", while it was once commonly used in regard to Indo-Aryan migration, is now usually used only by opponents of the Indo-Aryan migration theory. The term "invasion" does not any longer reflect the scholarly understanding of the Indo-Aryan migrations, and is now generally regarded as polemical, distracting and unscholarly. In recent decades, the idea of an Aryan migration into India has been disputed mainly by Indian scholars, who claim various alternate
Indigenous Aryans Indigenous Aryanism, also known as the Indigenous Aryans theory (IAT) and the Out of India theory (OIT), is the conviction that the Aryans are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent, and that the Indo-European languages radiated out from a homela ...
scenarios contrary to established
Kurgan model The Kurgan hypothesis (also known as the Kurgan theory, Kurgan model, or steppe theory) is the most widely accepted proposal to identify the Proto-Indo-European homeland from which the Indo-European languages spread out Indo-European migrations, t ...
. However, these alternate scenarios are rooted in traditional and religious views on Indian history and identity and are universally rejected in mainstream scholarship. According to Michael Witzel, the "indigenous Aryans" position is not scholarship in the usual sense, but an "apologetic, ultimately religious undertaking". A number of other alternative theories have been proposed including
Anatolian hypothesis The Anatolian hypothesis, also known as the Anatolian theory or the sedentary farmer theory, first developed by British archaeologist Colin Renfrew in 1987, proposes that the dispersal of Proto-Indo-Europeans originated in Neolithic Anatolia. ...
,
Armenian hypothesis The Armenian hypothesis, also known as the Near Eastern model, is a theory of the Proto-Indo-European homeland, initially proposed by linguists Tamaz V. Gamkrelidze and Vyacheslav Ivanov in the early 1980s, which suggests that the Proto-Indo-Eu ...
, the Paleolithic Continuity Theory but these are not widely accepted and have received little or no interest in mainstream scholarship.


See also

* Arya (name) *
Airyanem Vaejah (; ; ; , 'expanse of the Aryans') is considered in Zoroastrianism to be the homeland of the early Iranians and the place where Zarathustra received the religion from Ahura Mazda. The Avesta also names it as the first of the "sixteen perfect ...
* Arya Samaj *
Graeco-Aryan Graeco-Aryan, or Graeco-Armeno-Aryan, is a hypothetical clade within the Indo-European family that would be the ancestor of Greek, Armenian, and the Indo-Iranian languages. The Graeco-Armeno-Aryan group supposedly branched off from the parent ...
*
Yamnaya culture The Yamnaya culture or the Yamna culture (russian: Ямная культура, ua, Ямна культура lit. 'culture of pits'), also known as the Pit Grave culture or Ochre Grave culture, was a late Copper Age to early Bronze Age archa ...


Notes


References


Bibliography

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Further reading

* * * * * * * * * {{Authority control Etymologies Esoteric anthropogenesis Ancient peoples Indo-Iranian peoples History of Iran History of India Avesta Vedas Indo-European linguistics