Aryan: Difference between revisions

{{About|the cultural and historical concept|other uses of "Arya" and "Aryan"}}

'''Aryan''' or '''Arya''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɛər|i|ə|n}};<ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/aryan "Aryan"]. ''[[Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary]].''</ref> [[Proto-Indo-Iranian language|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'').<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" /> In [[Ancient India]], the term ''ā́rya'' was used by the [[Indo-Aryan peoples|Indo-Aryan speakers]] of the [[Vedic period]] as an [[endonym]] (self-designation) and in reference to a region known as ''[[Āryāvarta]]'' ('abode of the Aryas'), where the Indo-Aryan culture emerged.{{Sfn|Witzel|2001|pp=4, 24}} In the ''[[Avesta]]'' scriptures, ancient [[Iranian peoples]] similarly used the term ''airya'' to designate themselves as an [[ethnic group]], and in reference to their mythical homeland, ''[[Airyanem Vaejah|Airyanǝm Vaēǰō]]'' ('expanse of the Aryas' or 'stretch of the Aryas').<ref name=":5" /><ref name="Gnoli" /> The [[Word stem|stem]] also forms the [[etymological]] source of place names such as ''[[Name of Iran#Etymology of "Iran"|Iran]]'' (*''Aryānām'') and ''[[Alania]]'' (*''Aryāna-'').<ref name="Mallory" />

Although the stem ''*arya-'' may be of [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] (PIE) origin,<ref name=":2" /> 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 'Proto-Indo-Europeans'. In any case, scholars point out that, even in ancient times, the idea of being an ''Aryan'' was religious, cultural and linguistic, not racial.{{Sfn|Bryant|2001|pp=60–63}}<ref name=":0">{{harvnb|Witzel|2001|p=24|ps=: "''Arya''/''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.)"}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{harvnb|Anthony|2007|p=408|ps=: "The ''Rigveda'' and ''Avesta'' 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."}}</ref>

In the 1850s the term '[[Aryan_race|Aryan]]' was adopted as a [[Historical race concepts|racial category]] by French writer [[Arthur de Gobineau]], who, through the later works of [[Houston Stewart Chamberlain]], influenced the [[Nazism and race|Nazi racial ideology]].{{sfn|Anthony|2007|pp=9–11}} Under [[Nazi Germany|Nazi rule]] (1933–1945), the term applied to most inhabitants of Germany excluding [[History of the Jews in Germany|Jews]].<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|last=Gordon|first=Sarah Ann|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/9946459|title=Hitler, Germans, and the "Jewish Question"|date=1984|publisher=Princeton University Press|others=Mazal Holocaust Collection|isbn=0-691-05412-6|location=Princeton, N.J.|pages=96|oclc=9946459}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Longerich|first=Peter|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/610166248|title=Holocaust : the Nazi persecution and murder of the Jews|date=2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-280436-5|location=Oxford|pages=83,241|oclc=610166248}}</ref> [[Aryan certificate]] was a primary requirement to become a Reich citizen for those who were of German or related blood (Aryan) and wanted to become Reich citizens after the Nuremberg Laws were passed in 1935. A "Swede or an Englishman, a Frenchman or Czech, a Pole or Italian" was considered to be related, that is, "Aryan". Those classified as 'non-Aryans,' especially Jews,<ref>{{cite web|date=2020|title=Aryan {{!}} Arian, adj. and n.|url=https://oed.com/view/Entry/11296|url-status=live|website=Oxford English Dictionary|quote=Under the Nazi régime (1933–45) applied to the inhabitants of Germany of non-Jewish extraction. cf. 1933 tr. Hitler's ''Mein Kampf'' in ''Times'' 25 July 15/6: "The exact opposite of the Aryan is the Jew." 1933 Education 1 Sept. 170/2: "The basic idea of the new law is that non-Aryans, that is to say mainly Jews..."}}</ref> were [[Racial policy of Nazi Germany|discriminated against]] before suffering the [[Genocide|systematic mass killing]] known as [[the Holocaust]] <ref name=":7" /> (see [[Porajmos]] for the genocide of the [[Romani people]]). The atrocities committed in the name of [[Aryanism|Aryanist]] supremacist ideologies have led academics to generally avoid the term 'Aryan', which has been replaced in most cases by '[[Indo-Iranians|Indo-Iranian]]', although the South Asian branch is still known as '[[Indo-Aryan peoples|Indo-Aryan]]'.<ref name=":6" />

These two terms derive from the reconstructed [[Proto-Indo-Iranian language|Proto-Indo-Iranian]] stem ''*arya''- or ''*āryo-'',<ref>{{harvnb|Szemerényi|1977|pp=125–146}}; {{harvnb|Watkins|1985|p=3}}; {{harvnb|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=304}}; {{harvnb|Fortson|2011|p=209}}</ref> which was probably the name used by the prehistoric [[Indo-Iranians|Indo-Iranian peoples]] to designate themselves as an ethnocultural group.<ref name=":3">{{harvnb|Benveniste|1973|p=295|ps=: "''Arya'' ... is the common ancient designation of the 'Indo-Iranians'."}}</ref>{{Sfn|Gamkrelidze|Ivanov|1995|pp=657–658}}{{Sfn|Kuzmina|2007|p=456}} The term did not have any [[Race (human categorization)|racial]] connotation, which only emerged later in the works of 19th-century Western writers.{{Sfn|Bryant|2001|pp=60–63}}<ref name=":0"/>{{Sfn|Anthony|2007|p=408}} According to [[David W. Anthony]], "the ''[[Rigveda]]'' and ''[[Avesta]]'' 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."{{Sfn|Anthony|2007|p=408}}

Since [[Adolphe Pictet]] (1799–1875), a number of scholars have proposed to derive the Indo-Iranian stem ''arya''- from the reconstructed [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] (PIE) term ''*h₂erós'' or ''*h₂eryós'', variously translated as 'member of one's own group, peer, freeman'; as 'host, guest; kinsman'; or as 'lord, ruler'.<ref name=":2">{{harvnb|Watkins|1985|p=3}}; {{harvnb|Gamkrelidze|Ivanov|1995|pp=657–658}}; {{harvnb|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=213}}; {{harvnb|Anthony|2007|pp=92, 303}}</ref> However, the proposed Anatolian, Celtic and Germanic [[cognates]] are not universally accepted.<ref name="Delamarre">{{harvnb|Delamarre|2003|p=55|ps=: "Cette équation est cependant très controversée et de multiples tentatives pour expliquer indépendamment les formations celtiques et indo-iraniennes ont été produites : on a proposé entre autres de dériver le celtique ''ario''- de *''pṛrio''- [*''pṛhio''-, racine *''per(h)''- 'devant, en avant', d'où le sens dérivé 'qui est en avant, éminent' ; on pourrait expliquer alors le NP ''Ario-uistus'' comme "Celui qui connaît (/ est connu) en avance", < *''ario-wid-to''-, ''LG 60''. L'absence de corrélats indiscutables dans d'autres langues i.-e. (grec ''ari''-, ''eri''-, hitt. ''arawa'', runique ''arjosteR'' etc.) rend l'équation incertaine. Un fait d'ordre mythologique, la comparaison entre l'Irlandais ''Eremon'' et l'Indien ''Aryaman'', figures dotées de fonctions sociales similaires, renforcerait cependant la validité de la comparaison (*''Ario-men''-), cf. G. Dumézil ''Le troisième souverain'' et J. Puhvel ''Analecta'' 322-330."}}</ref><ref name=":02">{{harvnb|Matasović|2009|p=43|ps=: "A different etymology (e.g. in Meid 2005: 146) relates these Celtic words to PIE *''prh₃''- 'first' (Skt. ''pūrvá''- etc.), but this is less convincing because there are no traces of the laryngeal in the purported Celtic reflexes (*''prh₃yo''- would have probably given PCelt. *''frāyo''-)."}}</ref> 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 language|Proto-Indo-European]] speakers had a term to refer to themselves as '[[Proto-Indo-Europeans]]'.{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=213}}{{sfn|Fortson|2011|p=209}}

* Early PIE: ''*h₂erós'',{{snf|Mallory|Adams|2006|page=266}}

** Late PIE: ''*h₂eryós'',{{snf|Mallory|Adams|2006|page=266}}

*** [[Proto-Indo-Iranian language|Indo-Iranian]]: ''*arya-'', 'Aryan, [[Indo-Iranians|Indo-Iranian']],{{sfn|Schmitt|1987}}{{snf|Mallory|Adams|2006|page=266}}

**** [[Proto-Iranian language|Iranian]]: *''arya-'', 'Aryan, Iranian',{{Sfn|Mayrhofer|1992|pp=174–175}}

*** [[Proto-Celtic language|Celtic]]: ''*aryo-'', 'freeman; noble'; or perhaps from *''prio-'' ('first > prominent, eminent'),<ref>{{harvnb|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=213|ps=: "OIr ''aire'' 'freeman (whether commoner or noble), noble (as distinct from commoner)' (the latter meaning may be rather from *''pṛios'', a derivative of 'first')."}}</ref><ref name="Delamarre"/><ref name=":02"/>

*** [[Proto-Germanic language|Germanic]] ''*arjaz'', 'noble, distinguished, esteemed',{{sfn|Orel|2003|p=23}}

The term ''*h₂er(y)ós'' may derive from the PIE verbal [[Root (linguistics)|root]] ''*h₂er-'', meaning 'to put together'.{{sfn|Duchesne-Guillemin|1979|p=337}}{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=213}} [[Oswald Szemerényi]] has also argued that the stem could be a Near-Eastern loanword from the [[Ugaritic]] ''ary'' ('kinsmen'),{{sfn|Szemerényi|1977|pp=125–146}} although [[J. P. Mallory]] and [[Douglas Q. Adams]] find this proposition "hardly compelling".{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=213}} 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 [[Anatolian languages|Anatolia]], the base word has come to emphasize personal relationship, whereas it took a more ethnic meaning among [[Indo-Iranians]], presumably because most of the unfree (*''anarya'') who lived among them were captives from other ethnic groups.{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=213}}

The term *''arya'' was used by [[Proto-Indo-Iranian language|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]])'','' as distinguished from the nearby outsiders known as the *''Anarya'' ('non-Arya').<ref name=":4">{{harvnb|Schmitt|1987|ps=: "The name ''Aryan'' is the self designation of the peoples of Ancient India and Ancient Iran who spoke Aryan languages, in contrast to the 'non-Aryan' peoples of those 'Aryan' countries."}}</ref>{{Sfn|Anthony|2007|p=408}}{{Sfn|Kuzmina|2007|p=456}} Indo-Iranians (''Aryas'') are generally associated with the [[Sintashta culture]] (2100–1800 BC), named after the [[Sintashta|Sintashta archaeological site]] in [[Chelyabinsk Oblast]], Russia.{{Sfn|Anthony|2007|p=408}}{{Sfn|Kuzmina|2007|p=451}} Linguistic evidence show that Proto-Indo-Iranian (Proto-Aryan) speakers dwelled in the [[Eurasian steppe]], south of early [[Uralic languages|Uralic tribes]]; the stem *''arya''- was notably borrowed into the Pre-[[Sámi languages|Saami language]] as *''orja''-, at the origin of ''oarji'' ('southwest') and ''årjel'' ('Southerner'). The loanword took the meaning 'slave' in other [[Finno-Permic languages]], suggesting conflictual relations between Indo-Iranian and Uralic peoples in prehistoric times.{{Sfn|Rédei|1986|p=54}}{{Sfn|Anthony|2007|p=385}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Koivulehto|first=Jorma|title=Early contacts between Uralic and Indo-European|publisher=Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne|year=2001|isbn=978-9525150599|editor-last=Carpelan|editor-first=Christian|pages=248|chapter=The earliest contacts between Indo-European and Uralic speakers|author-link=Jorma Koivulehto}}</ref>

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]]'' and in Avestan as ''[[Airyaman]]''.{{Sfn|Benveniste|1973|p=303}}{{sfn|Mallory|1989|p=130}}{{sfn|West|2007|pp=142–143}} The deity was in charge of welfare and the community, and connected with the institution of marriage.{{Sfn|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=375}}{{sfn|West|2007|pp=142–143}} Through marital ceremonies, one of the functions of ''Aryaman'' was to assimilate women from other tribes to the host community.{{sfn|Benveniste|1973|p=72}} If the Irish heroes ''[[Érimón]]'' and [[Eochu Airem|''Airem'']] and the Gaulish personal name ''Ariomanus'' are also [[cognate]]s (i.e. linguistic siblings sharing a common origin), a deity of Proto-Indo-European origin named ''*h₂eryo-men'' may also be posited.{{Sfn|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=375}}{{Sfn|Delamarre|2003|p=55}}{{sfn|West|2007|pp=142–143}}

By the late 6th–early 5th century BC, the [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid]] king [[Darius the Great]] and his son [[Xerxes I]] described themselves as ''ariya'' ('Arya') and ''ariya čiça'' ('of Aryan origin'). In the [[Behistun Inscription|Behistun inscription]], authored by Darius during his reign (522 – 486 BC), the [[Old Persian language]] is called ''ariya'', and the [[Elamite language|Elamite]] version of the inscription portrays the [[Zoroastrianism|Zoroastrian]] deity [[Ahura Mazda|Ahura Mazdā]] as the "god of the Aryas" (''ura-masda naap harriia-naum'').{{sfn|Bailey|1987}}{{Sfn|Gnoli|2006}} In the sacred ''[[Avesta]]'' 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 [[Arash the Archer|Ǝrəxša]], or the 'hero of the Aryas' (''arša airyanąm''), attached to Kavi Haosravō.{{sfn|Bailey|1987}}

The self-identifier was inherited in ethnic names such as the [[Parthian language|Parthian]] ''Ary'' (<small>pl.</small> ''Aryān''), the [[Middle Persian]] ''Ēr'' (<small>pl.</small> ''Ēran''), or the [[New Persian]] ''Irāni'' (<small>pl.</small> ''Irāniyān'').<ref name="Bailey3">{{harvnb|Bailey|1987|ps=: "In the inscription of Šāpūr I on the Kaʿba-ye Zardošt (ŠKZ), Parth. ''ʾryʾn W ʾnʾryʾn'' (''aryān ut anaryān''), Mid. Pers. ''ʾyrʾn W ʾnyrʾn'' (''ērān ut anērān''; cf. Armenian ''eran eut aneran'') comprises the inhabitants of all the known lands ... In the singular Parth. ''ʾry'', Mid. Pers. ''ʾyly'', Greek ''arian'' occurs in a title: ''ʾry mzdyzn nrysḥw MLKʾ'', *''ary mazdēzn Narēsahv šāh'' (Parth. ŠKZ 19); ''ʾyly mzdysn nrsḥy MLKʾ'' (Mid. Pers. version 24), Greek ''arian masdaasnou'' ... New Persian has ''ērān'' (western, ''īrān''), ''ērān-šahr''. In the Caucasus, Ossetic has Digoron ''erä'', ''irä'', Iron ''ir'', with Dig. ''iriston'', Iron ''iryston'' (the i-umlaut modifying the vowel  ''a''-, but leaving the -''r''- untouched), [and] the ancestral ''Alān''."}}</ref>{{Sfn|Mayrhofer|1992|pp=174–175}} The [[Scythian languages|Scythian]] branch has ''[[Alans|Alān]]'' or *''Allān'' (from *''Aryāna''; modern ''Allon''), ''[[Rhoxolani|Rhoxolāni]]'' ('Bright Alans'), ''Alanorsoi'' ('White Alans'), and possibly the modern [[Ossetian language|Ossetian]] ''Ir'' (<small>adj.</small> ''[[Iron people|Iron]]''), spelled ''Irä'' or ''Erä'' in the [[Digorian dialect]].<ref name="Bailey3"/><ref name="Mallory">{{harvnb|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=213|ps=: "Iran ''Alani'' (< *''aryana'') (the name of an Iranian group whose descendants are the Ossetes, one of whose subdivisions is the ''Iron'' [< *''aryana''-)), *''aryanam'' (<small>pl.</small>) ‘of the Aryans’ (> MPers ''Iran'')."}}</ref><ref name="Alemany">{{harvnb|Alemany|2000|pp=3–4, 8|ps=: "Nowadays, however, only two possibilities are admitted as regards [the etymology of ''Alān''], both closely related: (a) the adjective *''aryāna''- and (b) the <small>pl.</small> *''aryānām''; in both cases the underlying OIran. ajective *''arya''- 'Aryan' is found. It is worth mentioning that although it is not possible to give an unequivocal option because both forms produce the same phonetic result, most researchers tend to favour the derivative *''aryāna''-, because it has a more appropriate semantic value ... The ethnic name *''arya''- underlying in the name of the Alans has been linked to the Av. ''Airiianəm Vaēǰō'' 'the Aryan plain'."}}</ref> The [[Rabatak inscription]], written in the [[Bactrian language]] in the 2nd century CE, likewise uses the term ''ariao'' for 'Iranian'.{{Sfn|Gnoli|2006}} The name ''Arizantoi'', listed by Greek historian [[Herodotus]] as one of the six tribes composing the Iranian [[Medes]], is derived from the Old Iranian *''arya-zantu''- ('having Aryan lineage').<ref>{{cite book|last=Brunner|first=C. J.|title=Encyclopædia Iranica|publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul|year=1986|volume=2|chapter=Arizantoi|chapter-url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/arizantoi-one-of-the-six-tribes-of-the-median-nation-as-listed-by-herodotus}}</ref> 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]]), ''Arianoi'' ([[Diodorus Siculus]]) and ''arian'' (<small>pl.</small> ''arianōn''; [[Sasanian period]]), as well as the Armenian expression ''ari'' ([[Agathangelos]]), meaning 'Iranian'.{{sfn|Bailey|1987}}{{Sfn|Gnoli|2006}}

Until the demise of the [[Parthian Empire]] (247 BC–224 AD), the Iranian identity was essentially defined as cultural and religious. Following conflicts between [[Manichaeism|Manichean]] universalism and [[Zoroastrianism|Zoroastrian]] nationalism during the 3rd century CE, however, traditionalistic and nationalistic movements eventually took the upper hand during the [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanian period]], and the Iranian identity (''ērīh'') came to assume a definite political value. Among Iranians (''ērān''), one ethnic group in particular, the [[Persians]], 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').{{Sfn|Gnoli|2006}}

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]]''.{{sfn|Bailey|1987}} The Indian opposition between ''ārya''- ('noble') and ''dāsá''- ('stranger, slave, enemy') is however absent from the Iranian tradition.{{sfn|Bailey|1987}} According to linguist [[Émile Benveniste]], 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."{{sfn|Benveniste|1973|pp=259–260}}

The stem ''airya-'' also appears in ''[[Airyanem Vaejah|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]] ''Ērān-wēž'', said to be the region where the first cattle were created and where [[Zaratustra|Zaraθuštra]] first revealed the Good Religion.{{sfn|Bailey|1987}}{{sfn|MacKenzie|1998b}} The [[Sasanian Empire]], officially named ''Ērān-šahr'' ('Kingdom of the Iranians'; from Old Persian *''Aryānām Xšaθram''),{{Sfn|Alemany|2000|p=3}} 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 [[Name of Iran|''Iran'']].{{sfn|Schmitt|1987}}{{sfn|Bailey|1987}}{{sfn|MacKenzie|1998a}}

''[[Alania]]'', the name of the medieval kingdom of the [[Alans]], derives from a dialectal variant of the Old Iranian stem *''Aryāna-'', which is also linked to the mythical ''[[Airyanem Vaejah|Airyanem Waēǰō]]''.<ref>{{harvnb|Benveniste|1973|p=300|ps=: "The name of ''Alani'' goes back to *''Aryana''-, which is yet another form of the ancient ''ārya''."}}</ref><ref name="Mallory" /><ref name="Alemany"/> Besides the ''ala''- development, *''air-y''- may have turned into the stem ''ir-y-'' via an [[i-mutation]] in modern [[Ossetian language]]s, as in the place name ''Iryston'' ([[Ossetia]]), here attached to the Iranian suffix *''[[-stan|-stān]]''.{{Sfn|Bailey|1987}}{{Sfn|Harmatta|1970|pp=78–81}}

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 [[Arash the Archer|Ǝrəxša]], and ''vīspe aire razuraya,'' the forest where Kavi Haosravō slew the god [[Vāyu]].{{sfn|Bailey|1987}}{{sfn|MacKenzie|1998b}}

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'), [[Ariaeus|''Ariaios'']] (*''arya-ai-'', probably used as a [[hypocorism]] of the precedent names), or ''[[Ariaramnes|Ariyāramna]]'' (whose meaning remains unclear).<ref>{{cite book|last=Shahbazi|first=A. Sh.|title=Encyclopædia Iranica|publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul|year=1986|isbn=|volume=2|chapter=Ariyāramna|author-link=Alireza Shapour Shahbazi|chapter-url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/ariyaramna-greek-ariaramnes-old-persian-proper-name}}, {{cite book|last=Shahbazi|first=A. Sh.|title=Encyclopædia Iranica|publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul|year=1986|isbn=|volume=2|chapter=Ariabignes|author-link=Alireza Shapour Shahbazi|chapter-url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/ariabignes-an-achaemenid-prince}}, {{cite book|last=Brunner|first=C. J.|title=Encyclopædia Iranica|publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul|year=1986|isbn=|volume=2|chapter=Ariaratus|chapter-url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/ariaratus-one-of-the-three-sons-of-the-achaemenid-king-artaxerxes-ii}}, {{cite book|last=Lecoq|first=P.|title=Encyclopædia Iranica|publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul|year=1986|isbn=|volume=2|chapter=Ariobarzanes|chapter-url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/ariobarzanes-greek-form-of-old-iranian-proper-name-arya-brzana}}, {{cite book|last=Shahbazi|first=A. Sh.|title=Encyclopædia Iranica|publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul|year=1986|volume=2|chapter=Ariaeus|author-link=Alireza Shapour Shahbazi|chapter-url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/ariaeus-military-commander-in-the-army-of-cyrus-the-younger}}</ref> The English ''[[Alan (given name)|Alan]]'' and the French ''[[Alain (given name)|Alain]]'' (from Latin ''Alanus'') may have been introduced by Alan settlers to Western Europe during the first millennium AD.{{Sfn|Alemany|2000|p=5}}

The word Arianus was used to designate [[Ariana]],<ref>{{cite book|title=The Annals and Magazine of Natural History: Including Zoology, Botany, and Geology|page=162|publisher=Taylor & Francis, Limited|year=1881}}</ref> the area comprising Afghanistan, Iran, North-western India and Pakistan.<ref>{{cite book|title=Udayana|quote=whole of Ariana (North-western India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran)|first=Udai|last=Arora|publisher=Anamika Pub & Distributors|year=2007|isbn=9788179751688}}</ref> In 1601, [[Philemon Holland]] 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.<ref>[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=arian&searchmode=none Online Etymology Dictionary]</ref><ref>Robert K. Barnhart, Chambers Dictionary of Etymology pg. 54</ref><ref name="OED">{{citation|editor-last=Simpson|editor-first=John Andrew|editor2-last=Weiner|editor2-first=Edmund S. C.|chapter=Aryan, Arian|title=Oxford English Dictionary|volume=I|edition=2nd|year=1989|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=0-19-861213-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordenglishdic01oxfo/page/672 672]|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordenglishdic01oxfo/page/672}}</ref>

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]], the religions of [[India]] may be called collectively ''ārya dharma,'' a term that includes the religions that originated in the [[Indian subcontinent]] (e.g. [[Hinduism]], [[Buddhism]], [[Jainism]] and possibly [[Sikhism]]).<ref>{{cite book|last=Kumar|first=Priya|title=Beyond tolerance and hospitality: Muslims as strangers and minor subjects in Hindu nationalist and Indian nationalist discourse|work=Living Together: Jacques Derrida's Communities of Violence and Peace|publisher=Fordham University Press|year=2012|isbn=9780823249923|editor=Elisabeth Weber|page=96}}</ref>

In contemporary scholarship, the terms 'Aryan' and 'Proto-Aryan' are still sometimes used to designate the prehistoric Indo-Iranian peoples and their [[Proto-Indo-Iranian language|proto-language]]. However, the use of 'Aryan' to mean 'Proto-Indo-European' is now regarded as an "aberration to be avoided".<ref name="Witzel2012">{{harvnb|Witzel|2001}}</ref> The '[[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]]' subfamily of languages – which encompasses the [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan]], [[Iranian languages|Iranian]] and [[Nuristani languages|Nuristani]] branches – may also be referred to as the 'Aryan languages'.<ref>{{harvnb|Schmitt|1987|ps=: "''The Aryan parent language''.  The common ancestor of the historical Aryan or Indo-Iranian languages, called the Aryan parent language or Proto-Aryan, can be reconstructed by the methods of historical comparative linguistics."}}</ref>{{Sfn|Anthony|2007|p=385}}{{sfn|Fortson|2011|p=209}}

However, the atrocities committed in the name of [[Aryanism|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'.{{Sfn|Arvidsson|2006|p=22}}{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=10}}<ref name=":6">{{harvnb|Witzel|2001|p=3|ps=: "Linguists have used the term ''Ārya'' from early on in the 19th century to designate the speakers of most Northern Indian as well as of all Iranian languages and to indicate the reconstructed language underlying both Old Iranian and Vedic Sanskrit. Nowadays this well-reconstructed language is usually called Indo-Iranian (IIr.), while its Indic branch is called (Old) Indo-Aryan (IA)."}}</ref> The name 'Iranian', which stems from the [[Old Persian]] *''Aryānām'', also continues to be used to refer to specific [[ethnolinguistic group]]s.{{sfn|Schmitt|1987}}

Drawing on racially-oriented interpretations of the Vedic ''Aryas'' as "fair-skinned foreign invaders" coming from the North, the term ''Aryan'' came to be adopted in the West as a [[Historical race concepts|racial category]] connected to a supremacist ideology known as [[Aryanism]], which conceived the [[Aryan race]] as the '[[superior race]]' responsible for most of the achievements of ancient civilizations.{{Sfn|Bryant|2001|pp=60–63}} [[Max Müller]], who had himself inaugurated the racial interpretations of the ''[[Rigveda]]'',{{Sfn|Bryant|2001|p=60}} denounced in 1888 those who spoke 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".{{Sfn|Mallory|1989|p=269}} But for an increasing number of Western writers, especially among anthropologists and non-specialists influenced by [[Darwinism|Darwinist]] theories, the ''Aryans'' came to be seen as a "physical-genetic species" contrasting with the other human races rather than an ethnolinguistic category.{{Sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|1985|p=5}}{{Sfn|Arvidsson|2006|p=61}} During the late 19th–early 20th century, a fusion of Aryanism with [[Nordicism]] promoted by writers such as [[Joseph Arthur de Gobineau|Arthur de Gobineau]], [[Theodor Poesche]], [[Houston Chamberlain]], [[Paul Broca]], [[Karl Penka]] and [[Hans F. K. Günther|Hans Günther]] led to the portrayal of the Proto-Indo-Europeans as blond and tall, with blue eyes and dolichocephalic skulls.{{Sfn|Mallory|1989|p=268}}{{Sfn|Arvidsson|2006|p=43}} 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 [Vedic] passages may not refer to dark or light skinned people, but dark and light worlds."<ref>{{harvnb|Bryant|Patton|2005|p=8}}; cf. {{harvnb|Bryant|2001|pp=60–63}}</ref>

[[File:Arthur_de_Gobineau.jpg|thumb|240x240px|[[Arthur de Gobineau]]]]

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]] 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.{{Sfn|Arvidsson|2006|p=45}} In 1878, [[German Americans|German American]] anthropologist Theodor Poesche published a survey of historical references attempting to demonstrate that the Aryans were light-skinned blue-eyed blonds.{{Sfn|Mallory|1989|p=268}} 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" (''Deutsche arischer Abkunft'').{{Sfn|Arvidsson|2006|p=21}} In ''[[The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century]]'' (1899), described as "one of the most important proto-Nazi texts", British-German writer Houston Chamberlain theorized an existential struggle to death between a superior German-Aryan race and a destructive Jewish-Semitic race.{{Sfn|Arvidsson|2006|p=155}} The best-seller ''[[The Passing of the Great Race]]'', 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 Americans|English]], [[German Americans|German]] and [[Scandinavian Americans|Scandinavian]] descent.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|pp=9–11}}

Led by [[Guido von List]] (1848–1919) and [[Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels]] (1874–1954), [[Ariosophy|Ariosophists]] founded an ideological system combining ''[[Völkisch movement|Völkisch]]'' nationalism with [[Western esotericism|esoterism]]. 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, the Jews, or the early Church – had "sought to ruin this ideal Germanic world by emancipating the non-German inferiors in the name of a spurious egalitarianism."{{Sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|1985|p=2}}

[[File:Passing_of_the_Great_Race_-_Map_2.jpg|thumb|280x280px|"Expansion of the Pre-Teutonic Nordics" — Map from [[The Passing of the Great Race]] by [[Madison Grant]] showing hypothesized migrations of Nordic peoples.]]

In the meantime, the idea that Indo-European languages 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 their [[Proto-Indo-European homeland|ancestral homeland]] in Northern Europe.{{Sfn|Mallory|1989|p=268}}{{Sfn|Arvidsson|2006|p=52}} [[Karl Penka]], credited as "a transitional figure between Aryanism and Nordicism",<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hutton|first=Christopher M.|title=Race and the Third Reich: Linguistics, Racial Anthropology and Genetics in the Dialectic of Volk|date=2005|publisher=Polity|isbn=978-0-7456-3177-6|pages=108}}</ref> argued in 1883 that the Aryans originated in southern Scandinavia.{{Sfn|Mallory|1989|p=268}} In the early 20th century, German scholar [[Gustaf Kossinna]], attempting to equal a prehistoric [[material culture]] with the reconstructed [[Proto-Indo-European language]], contended on archaeological grounds that the 'Indo-Germanic' (''Indogermanische'') migrations originated from a homeland located in northern Europe.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|pp=9–11}} Until the end of World War II, scholarship was broadly divided between Kossinna's followers and those, initially led by [[Otto Schrader (philologist)|Otto Schrader]], who supported a [[Steppe hypothesis|steppe homeland]] in Eurasia, now the most widespread hypothesis among scholars.{{Sfn|Mallory|1989|p=269}}

Through the works of [[Houston Stewart Chamberlain]], Gobineau's ideas influenced the [[Nazism and race|Nazi racial ideology]], which saw the "[[Aryan race]]" as innately superior to other putative racial groups.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|pp=9–11}} The Nazi official [[Alfred Rosenberg]] argued for a new "[[Blood and soil|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]] to be descended from [[Proto-Indo-Europeans|Proto-Aryans]], a hypothetical [[Prehistory|prehistoric]] people who dwelt on the [[North German Plain]] and who had ultimately originated from the lost continent of [[Atlantis]].{{refn|group=note|[[Alfred Rosenberg|Rosenberg, Alfred]], "[[The Myth of the 20th Century]]". The term "Atlantis" is mentioned two times in the whole book, the term "Atlantis-hypothesis" is mentioned just once. Rosenberg (page 24): "''It seems to be not completely impossible, that at parts where today the waves of the Atlantic ocean murmur and icebergs move along, once a blossoming land towered in the water, on which a creative race founded a great culture and sent its children as seafarers and warriors into the world; but if this Atlantis-hypothesis proves untenable, we still have to presume a prehistoric Nordic cultural center.''" Rosenberg (page 26): "''The ridiculed hypothesis about a Nordic creative center, which we can call Atlantis – without meaning a sunken island – from where once waves of warriors migrated to all directions as first witnesses of Nordic longing for distant lands to conquer and create, today becomes probable.''" Original: Es erscheint als nicht ganz ausgeschlossen, dass an Stellen, über die heute die Wellen des Atlantischen Ozeans rauschen und riesige Eisgebirge herziehen, einst ein blühendes Festland aus den Fluten ragte, auf dem eine schöpferische Rasse große, weitausgreifende Kultur erzeugte und ihre Kinder als Seefahrer und Krieger hinaussandte in die Welt; aber selbst wenn sich diese Atlantishypothese als nicht haltbar erweisen sollte, wird ein nordisches vorgeschichtliches Kulturzentrum angenommen werden müssen. ... Und deshalb wird die alte verlachte Hypothese heute Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass von einem nordischen Mittelpunkt der Schöpfung, nennen wir ihn, ohne uns auf die Annahme eines versunkenen atlantischen Erdteils festzulegen, die Atlantis, einst Kriegerschwärme strahlenförmig ausgewandert sind als erste Zeugen des immer wieder sich erneut verkörpernden nordischen Fernwehs, um zu erobern, zu gestalten."}} Under Rosenberg, the theories of [[Arthur de Gobineau]], [[Georges Vacher de Lapouge]], Blavatsky, [[Houston Stewart Chamberlain]], [[Madison Grant]], and those of [[Hitler]],<ref>Mein Kampf, tr. in The Times, 25 July 1933, p.&nbsp;15/6</ref> all culminated in [[Racial policy of Nazi Germany|Nazi Germany's race policies]] and the "[[Aryanization (Nazism)|Aryanization]]" decrees of the 1920s, 1930s, and early 1940s. In its "appalling medical model", the annihilation of the "racially inferior" ''[[Untermensch]]en'' was sanctified as the excision of a diseased organ in an otherwise healthy body,<ref>{{citation|last=Glover|first=Jonathan|chapter=Eugenics: Some Lessons from the Nazi Experience|editor-last=Harris|editor-first=John|editor2-last=Holm|editor2-first=Soren|title=The Future of Human Reproduction: Ethics, Choice, and Regulation|location=Oxford|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1998|pages=57–65}}</ref> which led to the [[Holocaust]].[[File:ArnoBrekerDiePartei.jpg|thumb|220x220px|[[Arno Breker]]'s sculpture ''Die Partei (The Party)'', depicting a Nazi-era ideal of the "Nordic Aryan" racial type.|left]]According to [[Nazism and race|Nazi racial theorists]], the term "Aryans" (''Arier'') described the [[Germanic peoples]],<ref>Davies, Norman (2006). ''Europe at War: 1939–1945 : No Simple Victory'', p. 167</ref> and they considered the purest Aryans to be those that belonged to a "[[Nordic race]]" physical ideal, which they referred to as the "[[master race]]".{{refn|The ''American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' states at the beginning of its definition, "[it] is one of the ironies of history that ''Aryan''<!--source is in italics-->, a word nowadays referring to the blond-haired, blue-eyed physical ideal of [[Nazi Germany]], originally referred to a people who looked vastly different. Its history starts with the ancient [[Indo-Iranians]], peoples who inhabited parts of what are now <!-- THIS IS INSIDE A LITERAL QUOTATION --> [[Greater Iran|Iran]], [[Afghanistan]], Pakistan and India. <!-- THIS IS INSIDE A LITERAL QUOTATION -->"<ref name="AHD">{{citation|last=Watkins|first=Calvert|chapter=Aryan|title=American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language|edition=4th|year=2000|location=New York|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|isbn=0-395-82517-2|quote=...when [[Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel|Friedrich Schlegel]], a German scholar who was an important early [[Indo-European studies|Indo-Europeanist]], came up with a theory that linked the Indo-Iranian words with the German word ''Ehre'', 'honor', and older Germanic names containing the element ''ario-'', such as the [[Suebi|Swiss]] {{sic}} warrior [[Ariovistus]] who was written about by [[Julius Caesar]]. Schlegel theorized that far from being just a designation of the Indo-Iranians, the word ''*arya-'' had in fact been what the Indo-Europeans called themselves, meaning [according to Schlegel] something like 'the honorable people.' (This theory has since been called into question.)|url=https://archive.org/details/americanheritage0000unse_a1o7}}</ref>|group=note}} However, a satisfactory definition of "Aryan" remained problematic during [[Nazi Germany]].<ref>Ehrenreich, Eric (2007). ''The Nazi Ancestral Proof: Genealogy, Racial Science, and the Final Solution'', pp, 9–11</ref> Although the physical ideal of Nazi racial theorists was typically the tall, [[blond|blond haired]] and [[Eye color|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]] and many Nazi officials had dark hair and were still considered members of the [[Aryan race]] 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.<ref>"The range of blond hair color in pure Nordic peoples runs from flaxen and red to shades of chestnut and brown... It must be clearly understood that blondness of hair and of eye is not a final test of Nordic race. The Nordics include all the blonds, and also those of darker hair or eye when possessed of a preponderance of other Nordic characters. In this sense the word "blond" means those lighter shades of hair or eye color in contrast to the very dark or black shades which are termed brunet. The meaning of "blond" as now used is therefore not limited to the lighter or flaxen shades as in colloquial speech. In England among Nordic populations there are large numbers of individuals with hazel brown eyes joined with the light brown or chestnut hair which is the typical hair shade of the English and Americans. This combination is also common in Holland and Westphalia and is frequently associated with a very fair skin. These men are all of "blond" aspect and constitution and consequently are to be classed as members of the Nordic race." Quoted in Grant, 1922, p. 26.</ref> In September 1935, the Nazis passed the [[Nuremberg Laws]]. All Aryan Reich citizens were required to prove their Aryan ancestry; one way was to obtain an ''[[Ahnenpass]]'' ("ancestor pass") by providing proof through baptismal certificates that all four grandparents were of Aryan descent.<ref>Ehrenreich, Eric (2007). ''The Nazi Ancestral Proof: Genealogy, Racial Science, and the Final Solution'', p. 68</ref> In December of the same year, the Nazis founded ''[[Lebensborn]]'' ("Fount of Life") to counteract the falling Aryan birth rates in Germany, and to promote [[Nazi eugenics]].<ref name="bissell">{{cite news |last=Bissell |first=Kate |title=Fountain of Life |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4080822.stm |access-date=30 September 2011 |publisher=BBC Radio 4 |date=13 June 2005}}</ref>

* Koenraad Elst (May 10, 2016): "Of course it is a fringe theory, at least internationally, where the Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) is still the official paradigm. In India, though, it has the support of most archaeologists, who fail to find a trace of this Aryan influx and instead find cultural continuity."<ref name="Elst_2016">Koenraad Elst (May 10, 2016), Koenraad Elst: "I am not aware of any governmental interest in correcting distorted history", ''Swarajya Magazine''</ref>}} According to Michael Witzel, the "indigenous Aryans" position is not scholarship in the usual sense, but an "apologetic, ultimately religious undertaking".{{sfn|Witzel|2001|p=95}} A number of other alternative theories have been proposed including [[Anatolian hypothesis]], [[Armenian hypothesis]], the [[Paleolithic Continuity Theory]] but these are not widely accepted and have received little or no interest in mainstream scholarship.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.370.8351&rep=rep1&type=pdf|title=Towards a generalised continuity model for Uralic and Indo European languages|year=2002| citeseerx=10.1.1.370.8351 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World|author=David W. Anthony|pages=300–400}}</ref>