Although the stem*arya may originate from theProto-Indo-European language,[9] it seems to have been used exclusively by the Indo-Iranian peoples, as there is no evidence of it having served as an ethnonym for theProto-Indo-Europeans. The view of many modern scholars is that the ethos of the ancient Aryan identity, as it is described in the Avesta and theRigveda, was religious, cultural, and linguistic, and was not tied to the concept ofrace.[10][11][12]
In the 1850s, the French diplomat and writerArthur de Gobineau brought forth the idea of the "Aryan race", essentially claiming that the Proto-Indo-Europeans were superior specimens of humans and that their descendants comprised either adistinct racial group or a distinct sub-group of the hypotheticalCaucasian race. Through the work of his later followers, such as the British-German philosopherHouston Stewart Chamberlain, Gobineau's theory proved to be particularly popular among Europeanracial supremacists and ultimately laid the foundation forNazi racial theories, which also co-opted the concept ofscientific racism.[13]
InNazi Germany, and also inGerman-occupied Europe duringWorld War II, any citizen who was classified as an Aryan would be honoured as a member of the "master race" of humanity. Conversely, non-Aryans werelegally discriminated against, includingJews,Roma, andSlavs (mostlyPoles andRussians).[14][15] Jews, who were regarded as the arch enemy of the "Aryan race" in a "racial struggle for existence",[16] were especially targeted by theNazi Party, culminating inthe Holocaust.[14] The Roma, who are of Indo-Aryan origin, were also targeted, culminating in thePorajmos. The genocides and other large-scale atrocities that have been committed byAryanists have led academic figures to generally avoid using "Aryan" as a stand-alone ethno-linguistic term, particularly in theWestern world, where "Indo-Iranian" is the preferred alternative, although the term "Indo-Aryan" is still used to denote theIndic branch.[17]
One of the earliest epigraphically attested reference to the wordarya occurs in the 6th-century BCBehistun inscription, which describes itself as having been composed "inarya [language or script]" (§ 70). As is also the case for all other Old Iranian language usage, thearya of the inscription does not signify anything but "Iranian".[18]
The termArya was first rendered into a modern European language in 1771 asAryens by French IndologistAbraham-Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron, who rightly compared the Greekarioi with theAvestanairya and the country nameIran. In Germany,Johann Friedrich Kleuker's translation of Anquetil-Duperron's work led to the introduction of the termArier in 1776.[19][20]
TheSanskrit wordā́rya is rendered as 'noble' inWilliam Jones' 1794 translation of the IndianLaws of Manu.[19] The EnglishAryan (originally speltArian) appeared a few decades later, first as an adjective in 1839, then as a noun in 1849, probably after the GermanArier (noun),arisch (adjective).[1] During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the meaning varied between the broader category equivalent toIndo-European, and the narrower one equivalent toIndo-Iranian.[1]
Use of Aryan to designate a "white non-Jewish person, especially one of northern European origin or descent" entered the English language from German,[1] after this meaning was introduced in 1887 and further developed by German anti-Semitic propagandists in the context of a so-called "Aryan race".[21] It is still used in far-right and white supremacist discourse, and sometimes appears in the names of such groups.[1]
TheSanskrit wordā́rya (आर्य) was originally an ethnocultural term designating those who spokeVedic Sanskrit and adhered to Vedic cultural norms (including religious rituals and poetry), in contrast to an outsider, oran-ā́rya ('non-Arya').[22][5] By the time of theBuddha (5th–4th century BCE), it took the meaning of 'noble'.[23] InOld Iranian languages, theAvestan termairya (Old Persianariya) was likewise used as an ethnocultural self-designation by ancientIranian peoples, in contrast to anan-airya ('non-Arya'). It designated those who belonged to the 'Aryan' (Iranian) ethnic stock, spoke the language and followed the religion of the 'Aryas'.[6][7]
These two terms derive from the reconstructedProto-Indo-Iranian stem*arya- or*āryo-,[24] which was probably the name used by the prehistoricIndo-Iranian peoples to designate themselves as an ethnocultural group.[2][25][26] The term did not have anyracial connotation, which only emerged later in the works of 19th-century Western writers.[10][11][27] According toDavid W. Anthony, "theRigveda andAvesta 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."[27]
TheProto-Indo-European (PIE) origin of the Indo-Iranian stemarya- remains debated. A number of scholars, starting withAdolphe Pictet (1799–1875), have proposed to derivearya- from the reconstructed PIE term*h₂erós or*h₂eryós, variously translated as 'member of one's own group, peer, freeman'; as 'host, guest; kinsman'; or as 'lord, ruler'.[9] However, the proposed Anatolian, Celtic and Germaniccognates are not universally accepted.[28][29] 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 (a freeman or noble), and there is no evidence thatProto-Indo-European speakers had a term to refer to themselves as 'Proto-Indo-Europeans'.[30][31]
The term*h₂er(y)ós may derive from the PIE verbalroot*h₂er-, meaning 'to put together'.[41][30]Oswald Szemerényi has also argued that the stem could be a Near-Eastern loanword from theUgariticary ('kinsmen'),[42] althoughJ. P. Mallory andDouglas Q. Adams find this proposition "hardly compelling".[30] 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. InAnatolia, the base word has come to emphasize personal relationship, whereas it took a more ethnic meaning amongIndo-Iranians, presumably because most of the unfree (*anarya) who lived among them were captives from other ethnic groups.[30]
The term*arya was used byProto-Indo-Iranian speakers to designate themselves as an ethnocultural group, encompassing those who spoke the language and followed the religion of theAryas (Indo-Iranians), as distinguished from the nearby outsiders known as the*Anarya ('non-Arya').[4][27][26] Indo-Iranians (Aryas) are generally associated with theSintashta culture (2100–1800 BCE), named after theSintashta archaeological site inChelyabinsk Oblast, Russia.[27][43] Linguistic evidence show that Proto-Indo-Iranian (Proto-Aryan) speakers dwelled in theEurasian steppe, south ofearly Uralic tribes; the stem*arya- was notably borrowed into thePre-Sámi language as *orja-, at the origin ofoarji ('southwest') andårjel ('Southerner'). The loanword took the meaning 'slave' in otherFinno-Permic languages, suggesting conflictual relations between Indo-Iranian and Uralic peoples in prehistoric times.[44][45][46]
The stem is also found in the Indo-Iranian god*Aryaman, translated as 'Arya-spirited,' 'Aryanness,' or 'Aryanhood;' he was known in Vedic Sanskrit asAryaman and in Avestan asAiryaman.[47][48][49] The deity was in charge of welfare and the community, and connected with the institution of marriage.[50][49] Through marital ceremonies, one of the functions ofAryaman was to assimilate women from other tribes to the host community.[51] If the Irish heroesÉrimón andAirem and the Gaulish personal nameAriomanus are alsocognates (i.e. linguistic siblings sharing a common origin), a deity of Proto-Indo-European origin named*h₂eryo-men may also be posited.[50][37][49]
The approximate extent ofĀryāvarta during the lateVedic period (ca. 1100–500 BCE).Aryavarta was limited to northwest India and the western Ganges plain, whileGreater Magadha in the east was habitated by non-Vedic Indo-Aryans, who gave rise to Jainism and Buddhism.[52][53]
Vedic Sanskrit speakers viewed the termā́rya 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 andAgni in particular), took part in theyajna and festivals, and practiced the art of poetry.[54]
The 'non-Aryas' designated primarily those who were not able to speak theāryā language correctly, theMleccha orMṛdhravāc.[55] However,āryā is used only once in theVedas to designate the language of the texts, the Vedic area being defined in theKauṣītaki Āraṇyaka as that where theāryā vāc ('Ārya speech') is spoken.[56] Some 35 names of Vedic tribes, chiefs and poets mentioned in theRigveda were of 'non-Aryan' origin, demonstrating thatcultural assimilation to theā́rya community was possible, and/or that some 'Aryan' families chose to give 'non-Aryan' names to their newborns.[57][58][59] In the words of IndologistMichael Witzel, the termārya "does not mean a particularpeople 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.)".[60]
In later Indian texts and Buddhist sources,ā́rya took the meaning of 'noble', such as in the termsĀryadésa- ('noble land') for India,Ārya-bhāṣā- ('noble language') for Sanskrit, orāryaka- ('honoured man'), which gave thePaliayyaka- ('grandfather').[61] The term came to incorporate the idea of a high social status, but was also used as an honorific for theBrahmana or the Buddhist monks. Parallelly, the Mleccha acquired additional meanings that referred to people of lower castes or aliens.[55]
In the words of scholarGherardo Gnoli, the Old Iranianairya (Avestan) andariya (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 ofAhura Mazdā", in contrast to the 'non-Aryas', who are calledanairya inAvestan,anaryān inParthian, andanērān inMiddle Persian.[61][35]
The nameArizantoi, listed by Greek historianHerodotus as one of the six tribes composing the IranianMedes, is derived from the Old Iranian*arya-zantu- ('having Aryan lineage').[67] Herodotus also mentions that the Medes once called themselvesArioi,[68] andStrabo locates the land ofArianē between Persia and India.[69] Other occurrences include the Greekáreion (Damascius),Arianoi (Diodorus Siculus) andarian (pl.arianōn;Sasanian period), as well as the Armenian expressionari (Agathangelos), meaning 'Iranian'.[61][35]
Until the demise of theParthian Empire (247 BCE–224 CE), the Iranian identity was essentially defined as cultural and religious. Following conflicts betweenManichean universalism andZoroastrian nationalism during the 3rd century CE, however, traditionalistic and nationalistic movements eventually took the upper hand during theSasanian period, and the Iranian identity (ērīh) came to assume a definite political value. Among Iranians (ērān), one ethnic group in particular, thePersians, were placed at the centre of theĒrān-šahr ('Kingdom of the Iranians') ruled by thešāhān-šāh ērān ud anērān ('King of Kings of the Iranians and non-Iranians').[35]
Ethical and ethnic meanings may also intertwine, for instance in the use ofanēr ('non-Iranian') as a synonymous of 'evil' inanērīh ī hrōmāyīkān ("the evil conduct of the Romans, i.e. Byzantines"), or in the association ofēr ('Iranian') with good birth (hutōhmaktom ēr martōm, 'the best-born Arya man') and the use ofērīh ('Iranianness') to mean 'nobility' against "labor and burdens from poverty" in the 10th-centuryDēnkard.[61] The Indian opposition betweenārya- ('noble') anddāsá- ('stranger, slave, enemy') is however absent from the Iranian tradition.[61] According to linguistÉmile 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."[70]
Old Persian names derived the stem*arya- includeAryabignes (*arya-bigna, 'Gift of the Aryans'),Ariarathes (*Arya-wratha-, 'having Aryan joy'),Ariobarzanēs (*Ārya-bṛzāna-, 'exalting the Aryans'),Ariaios (*arya-ai-, probably used as ahypocorism of the precedent names), orAriyāramna (whose meaning remains unclear).[71] The EnglishAlan and the FrenchAlain (from LatinAlanus) may have been introduced by Alan settlers to Western Europe during the first millennium CE.[72]
The stemairya- also appears inAiryanəm Waēǰō (the 'stretch of the Aryas' or the 'Aryan plain'), which is described in theAvesta as the mythical homeland of the early Iranians, said to have been created as "the first and best of places and habitations" by the godAhura Mazdā. It was referred to inManichean Sogdian asʾryʾn wyžn (Aryān Wēžan), and inOld Persian as*Aryānām Waiǰah, which gave theMiddle PersianĒrān-wēž, said to be the region where the first cattle were created and whereZaraθuštra first revealed the Good Religion.[61][74] TheSasanian Empire, officially namedĒrān-šahr ('Kingdom of the Iranians'; from Old Persian*Aryānām Xšaθram),[75] could also be referred to by the abbreviated formĒrān, as distinguished from the Roman West known asAnērān. The western variantĪrān, abbreviated fromĪrān-šahr, is at the origin of the English country nameIran.[22][61][76]
Alania, the name of the medieval kingdom of theAlans, derives from a dialectal variant of the Old Iranian stem*Aryāna-, which is also linked to the mythicalAiryanem Waēǰō.[77][8][66] Besides theala- development,*air-y- may have turned into the stemir-y- via ani-mutation in modernOssetian languages, as in the place nameIryston (Ossetia), here attached to the Iranian suffix*-stān.[61][78]
Otherplace names mentioned in theAvesta includeairyō 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 withƎrəxša, andvīspe aire razuraya, the forest where Kavi Haosravō slew the godVāyu.[61][74]
The word Arianus was used to designateAriana,[79] the area comprising Afghanistan, Iran, North-western India and Pakistan.[80] 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 formArian verbatim in the English language.[81][82][1]
In the lateQajar era, modern ideas about the Aryan identity were introduced to Iran and significantly influenced its nationalistic movement. Iranian intellectuals, reflecting on their pre-Islamic, Indo-European past, embraced a version of the Aryan myth that contrasted their heritage with the Arab (or Semitic) influence introduced after theArab conquest (7th century AD). In the 19th century, thinkers likeMirza Fatali Akhundov (1812–1878) andMirza Aqa Khan Kermani (1854–1896) promoted the idea of a grand, ancient Persian civilization. This narrative, which depicted Arab influence as destructive to Iranian culture while emphasizing shared roots with admired European civilizations, was widely disseminated through nationalist publications and became a cornerstone of 20th-century Iranian nationalist discourse.[83]
InPahlavi Iran (1925–1979), nationalism was used to popularize the Aryan myth and promote Iranian antiquity, bolstering both national identity and the legitimacy of the ruling dynasty. This "Aryan and Neo-Achaemenid nationalism" emerged prominently in the 1930s and remained influential throughout the Pahlavi period.[84] In 1935,Reza Shah mandated that the country be known internationally as 'Iran' (a name linked to the term 'Aryan') rather than 'Persia', which was seen as a European label derived from the southern province ofFars. His son,Mohammad Reza, later adopted the title "King of the Kings, Light of the Aryans" (ShahanshahAryamehr), and in the 1970s, he even proposed an 'Aryan brotherhood' among Iran, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan as a means to foster regional peace and celebrate a shared legacy of a distinguished civilization.[84]
The wordārya 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 leaderJawaharlal Nehru, the religions ofIndia may be called collectivelyārya dharma, a term that includes the religions that originated in theIndian subcontinent (e.g.Hinduism,Buddhism,Jainism andSikhism).[85]
The word ārya is also often used inJainism, in Jain texts such as the Pannavanasutta. In Avaśyakaniryukti, an early Jaina text, a character namedĀrya Mangu is mentioned twice.[86]
The nameAryan (including derivatives such asAaryan,Arya, Ariyan orAria) is still used as a given name or surname in modern South Asia and Iran. There has also been a rise in names associated withAryan 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.[87] The name entered the top 200 most commonly used names for baby girls born in England and Wales in 2017.[88]
The term 'Aryan' was initially introduced into the English language through works of comparative philology, as a modern rendering of the Sanskrit wordā́rya. First translated as 'noble' inWilliam Jones' 1794 translation of theLaws of Manu, early-19th-century scholars later noticed that the term was used in the earliestVedas as an ethnocultural self-designation "comprising the worshipers of the gods of the Brahmans".[1][19] This interpretation was simultaneously influenced by the presence of the wordἈριάνης (Ancient Greek) ~Arianes (Latin) in classical texts, which had been rightly compared byAnquetil-Duperron in 1771 to the Iranianairya (Avestan) ~ariya (Old Persian), a self-identifier used by the speakers ofIranian languages since ancient times. Accordingly, the term 'Aryan' came to refer in scholarship to theIndo-Iranian languages, and, by extension, to the native speakers of theProto-Indo-Iranian language, the prehistoricIndo-Iranian peoples.[89]
During the 19th century, through the works ofFriedrich Schlegel (1772–1829),Christian Lassen (1800–1876),Adolphe Pictet (1799–1875), andMax Müller (1823–1900), the termsAryans,Arier, andAryens came to be adopted by a number of Western scholars as a synonym of '(Proto-)Indo-Europeans'.[21] Many of them indeed believed thatAryan was also the original self-designation used by the prehistoric speakers of theProto-Indo-European language, based on the erroneous assumptions thatSanskrit was the oldestIndo-European language and on the linguistically untenable position thatÉriu (Ireland) was related toArya.[90] This hypothesis has since been abandoned in scholarship due to the lack of evidence for the use ofarya as an ethnocultural self-designation outside the Indo-Iranian world.[31]
In contemporary scholarship, the terms 'Aryan' and 'Proto-Aryan' are still sometimes used to designate the prehistoric Indo-Iranian peoples and theirproto-language. However, the use of 'Aryan' to mean 'Proto-Indo-European' is now regarded as an "aberration to be avoided".[91] The 'Indo-Iranian' subfamily of languages – which encompasses theIndo-Aryan,Iranian, andNuristani branches – may also be referred to as the 'Aryan languages'.[92][45][31]
However, the atrocities committed in the name ofAryanist 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'.[93][94][17] The name 'Iranian', which stems from theOld Persian*Aryānām, also continues to be used to refer to specificethnolinguistic groups.[22]
Some authors writing for popular consumption have kept on using the word 'Aryan' for all Indo-Europeans in the tradition ofH. G. Wells,[98][99] such as the science fiction authorPoul Anderson,[100] and scientists writing for the popular media, such asColin Renfrew.[101] According toF. 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."[102]
During theRomantic era, thinkers such asJohann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) and, later,Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814) developed the idea of a nation (Volk) as an organic cultural community rooted in shared history, folklore, myths, poetry, and especially a common language. They saw linguistic ties as natural evidence of tribal connections, linking a Volk's ancestry to the origins of its language.[103] In this context, some European scholars began to interpret the newly established Indo-European linguistic connection as evidence of shared a cultural and ethnic heritage, at times drawing parallels between modern Europeans and ancient Persians. In 1808,Friedrich Schlegel, inÜber die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier, proposed that the Indo-European languages (including Germanic) originated from a common ancestral tongue in ancient India or Persia. His work popularized the idea of a primordial "Indo-European people" (Urvolk) that had migrated westward from their 'original homeland' (Urheimat) in Asia.[103]
In the second half of the 19th century, the idea that Indo-European languages had originated from Asia gradually lost ground in Western European scholarship. From the late 1860s onward, alternative models ofIndo-European migrations began to emerge, some of them locating theancestral homeland in Northern Europe.[104][105] In 1868, Theodor Bensen proposed that the Aryans originated in Europe, and that some migrated to Asia to establish ancient Eastern civilisations, which he claimed had later "degenerated" through racial mixing on the periphery. This 'northern thesis' found growing support among German anthropologists and linguists such asLazarus Geiger,Theodor Poesche,Ludwig Wilser,Karl Penka, andGustaf Kossinna, and contributed to the emerging tendency to use the wordAryan as a synonym forNordic orGermanic.[106]
Karl Penka, credited as "a transitional figure between Aryanism and Nordicism",[107] argued in 1868 that the Aryans originated in southernScandinavia.[108] In 1878,German-born anthropologist Theodor Poesche proposed locating the original Aryan homeland in Lithuania.[106] In the early-20th century, German archaeologist Gustaf Kossinna (1858-1931), seeking to link prehistoricmaterial cultures to the reconstructedProto-Indo-European language, argued on archaeological grounds that the 'Indo-Germanic' (Indogermanische) migrations had originated from a homeland in northern Europe.[13] Until the end ofWorld War II, research on the Indo-EuropeanUrheimat broadly fell into two camps: Kossinna's followers, who favoured a northern European homeland, and those, initially led byOtto Schrader (1855–1919), who supported a Eurasiansteppe homeland, the view that would later become dominant among scholars.[109]
While Schlegel and early 19th-century proponents of Aryan migrations defined the Aryans in linguistic and cultural rather than biological terms, reflecting the influence of early national thinkers such as Herder, later scholars, includingJulius Klaproth (1783–1835) andFrédéric Eichhoff (1799–1875), helped shift the concept of the ancient Aryans toward racial and biological interpretations.[110] Racially-oriented interpretations of the VedicĀryas as 'fair-skinned foreign invaders' coming from the North gradually paved the way for the adoption of the termAryan as aracial category connected to a supremacist ideology known asAryanism, which portrayed theAryan race as a so-called 'superior race' responsible for most of the achievements of ancient civilizations.[10]
Arthur de Gobineau, author of the influentialEssay on the Inequality of the Human Races (1853–1855), viewed the white race (and particularly its Aryan branch) as the only trulycivilized one, conceivingcultural decline andmiscegenation as intimately intertwined. Relocating the Aryans' origins from Asia to northern Europe, Gobineau argued that the ancient Aryans (an offshoot of the 'white race') had spread across the world and founded the great civilizations of antiquity, before degenerating through intermixture with the 'inferior' indigenous populations, which he saw as the primary cause of civilizational decay.[111][112] The last 'pure' Aryans, he believed, were the Germanics.[112] Gobineau divided humanity into three 'primary races' (white, yellow, and black) classifying both Aryans and Semites within the white race. In the decades following his work, however, the termAryan increasingly came to be used in racialist discourse as a synonym fornon-Jewish, a development that marked the transition from Gobineau's theory of racial hierarchy to the explicitly antisemitic Aryan ideology of the late 19th century.[113]
Christian Lassen (1800–1876), a student of Schlegel, glorified the ancient Aryans as "the most gifted" and "perfect in talent", attributing to them an unparalleled cultural and intellectual refinement. He contrasted the Aryans with the Semites, helping establish an intellectual dichotomy between the two groups that would later take on racial overtones.[110] In this tradition, French orientalistErnest Renan (1823–1892) portrayed the Semites as 'non-Aryans' and the Aryans as a creative and progressive race destined to lead human civilization. Similarly, Swiss linguistAdolphe Pictet (1799–1875) described the Aryans as the providential race and direct ancestors of Europeans. Influenced by Lassen and Renan, he depicted a fundamental moral and spiritual opposition between the Semitic and the superior Aryan peoples.[112]
The first recorded instance of the GermanArier to mean 'non-Jewish' appears to date from 1887, when a Viennese gymnastic society decided to admit only "Germans of Aryan descent" (Deutsche arischer Abkunft) as members.[21] InThe Foundations of the Nineteenth Century (1899), whichStefan Arvidsson notes is identified as "one of the most important proto-Nazi texts",[114]British-German writerHouston Chamberlain envisioned an existential struggle between a superior German-Aryan race and a destructive Jewish-Semitic race, echoing Renan's antagonistic division between Aryans and Semites.[115][113] Chamberlain's work was highly influential; German EmperorWilhelm II personally praised it and recommended it as required reading for trainee teachers.[113] The best-sellerThe Passing of the Great Race (1916), by American authorMadison Grant in 1916, warned against miscegenation with the supposedly 'inferior' immigrant races – including speakers of Indo-European languages (such as Slavs, Italians, and Yiddish-speaking Jews) – which he believed threatened the 'racially superior' GermanicAryans (that is: Americans ofEnglish,German, andScandinavian descent).[13]
Racial mysticists likePaul de Lagarde (1827–1891) andJulius Langbehn (1851–1907) idealized the Aryans as nature-bound, unspoilt Germanics (Urgermanen), opposed to the materialism, liberalism, and cosmopolitanism of modern society.[106] Led byGuido von List (1848–1919) andJörg Lanz von Liebenfels (1874–1954), theAriosophists developed an ideological synthesis combiningVölkisch nationalism withesoterism. Prophesying a coming era of German (Aryan) world domination, they maintained that a vast conspiracy against Germans – allegedly instigated by non-Aryan races, by the Jews, or by theearly Church – had "sought to ruin this ideal Germanic world by emancipating the non-German inferiors in the name of a spurious egalitarianism".[116]
Anintertitle from thesilent film blockbusterThe Birth of a Nation (1915). "Aryan birthright" is here "white birthright", the "defense" of which unites "whites" in the Northern and Southern U.S. against "coloreds". In another film of the same year,The Aryan,William S. Hart's "Aryan" identity is defined in distinction from other peoples.
Von Liebenfels and Houston Stewart Chamberlain — together with wider currents ofsocial-Darwinist thought and late-19th-century racial anthropology — contributed important elements toNazi racial ideology, especially notions of Aryan supremacy, racial struggle, and the imperative of racial purity.[13][106][117] InMein Kampf (1925),Adolf Hitler ideologically equated the ideal of the Aryan with the German people ('Volk'), presenting it as part of a non-Jewish, so-called 'master race', and framed a mythic history in which a Nordic Aryan people supposedly conquered foreign lands, founded great civilisations, and later declined through racial dilution.[118][119] He cast strengthening the Aryan race as both a political and moral imperative, hereby legitimizing measures that suspended humanitarian and legal protections for groups labelled as inferior (Untermenschen). Such policies were defended as necessary for the 'survival' and advancement of the 'Aryans'.[119] Jews were racialized as morally and biologically inferior people that needed to be eliminated, one way or another, from German society. Under the Nazi regime this translated into exclusionary laws, economic and social marginalisation, mass deportations and, ultimately, state-organised plans for systematic extermination.[120]
Alfred Rosenberg, the chief racial ideologue of the Nazi Party, expanded on the idea of an ancient Nordic migration inThe Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930), portraying the ancient Persians as "Aryans with northern blood" who had eventually degenerated due to intermixing with so-called 'lower races'. He cited Persian history as a cautionary example of racial miscegenation (Bastardierung). This view was shared by many Nazi ideologues, who attributed the decline of the Aryan race to 'foreign infiltration' (Überfremdung) by so-called 'Semitic races'.[121] In 1935, the Nazis founded theAhnenerbe to research 'Aryan prehistory' through archaeological, anthropological, and linguistic studies.[122] Its president,Walther Wüst, maintained that the Germans were directly descended from the Aryan 'Nordic race', which had spread into Asia until racial mixing caused 'degeneration' (Entartung) and 'de-Nordicization' (Entnordnung).[123]
By the late 19th century, German and Austrian student fraternities (along with some professional associations) had already introduced 'Aryan clauses' excluding Jews. TheThird Reich was the first to formalize the termAryan in national legislation. On 7 April 1933, the Nazi government enacted the 'Aryan Paragraph' (Arierparagraph); expressions such as 'Proof of Aryan Ancestry' (Ariernachweis) and 'Aryanisation' (Arisierung) subsequently entered official legal language, used to implement racial laws primarily targeting Jews.[118] In September 1935, the Nazis enacted theNuremberg Laws, which required proof of 'Aryan descent' as a prerequisite for Reich citizenship. Applicants could demonstrate this by obtaining anAhnenpass ('ancestor passport'), providing documentary proof—typically baptismal or parish records—that all four grandparents were of 'Aryan' descent.[124] In December of the same year, the SS establishedLebensborn ('Fount of Life') to increase births among racially 'valuable' Germans and to promote population policy based onNazi eugenic principles.[125]
Arno Breker's sculptureDie Partei (The Party), depicting a Nazi-era ideal of the "Nordic Aryan" racial type
In 1888Max Müller, whose early effort to trace physical differences between Aryans and Dāsas in theRigveda had inadvertently launched racial interpretations of Vedic texts,[128] 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".[109] Nevertheless, an increasing number of Western writers, particularly anthropologists and popularizers influenced byDarwinian theories, came to conceive theĀryas of theRigveda as a 'physical-genetic species' distinct from other human groups – rather than as an ethnolinguistic category.[129][130]
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, noted anthropologistsTheodor Poesche andThomas Huxley quoted from theRigveda to suggest that the Aryans were blond and tall, with blue eyes anddolichocephalic skulls.[131][132] Throughout the 20th century, physical anthropologists continued to debate these racial interpretations — some associating Indo-European speakers with light physical traits, others rejecting any biological basis for such claims.[133] According to archeologistElena Kuzmina (1931–2013), both theAvesta and theRig Veda support the view that the Aryans did possessed light eyes, light skin, and light hair,[134] whereas linguistHans Henrich Hock has argued that most Vedic passages traditionally cited for this interpretation may refer instead to contrasts between dark and light worlds rather than to human pigmentation.[135]
The racial interpretation ofAryans stems from the now-discreditedculture-historical archaeology theory ofGustaf Kossinna, who asserted a one-to-one correspondence betweenarchaeological culture andarchaeological race.[136][137] According to Kossinna, the continuity of a "culture" exposits the continuity of a "race" which lived continuously in the same area, and the resemblance of a culture in a younger layer to a culture from an older layer indicates that the autochthonoustribe from the homeland had migrated.[138] Kossinna developed an ethnic paradigm in archaeology calledsettlement archaeology and practiced the nationalistic interpretation of German archaeology for theThird Reich.[139] The obsolete North European hypothesis was endorsed by Kossinna andKarl Penka, including German nationalists, which was later used by the Nazis to condone their genocidal and racist state policies.[140][141]
Modern Scholars state that the historical Aryans, theVedic periodBronze Age tribes who composed the Rigveda and the Avesta, and who were the ancestors of contemporary Indo-Aryan and Iranian peoples, were highly unlikely to have been blond or blue-eyed, contrary to the proponents of Aryanism and Nordicism.[94][142] They further assert that even in ancient times, the Aryan identity as asserted in theRig Veda wascultural,religious, andlinguistic, not racial; nor do theVedas contemplateracial purity.[10][58][143] The Rig Veda affirms aritualistic barrier: an individual is considered Aryan if theysacrifice to the right gods, which requires performing traditional prayer in the traditional language, and does not connote a racial barrier.[58]Michael Witzel states that term Aryan "does not mean a particularpeople or even a particular 'racial' group but all those who had joined the tribes speakingVedic Sanskrit and adhering to their cultural norms (such as ritual, poetry, etc.)".[143]
In India, theBritish colonial government had followed de Gobineau's arguments along another line, and had fostered the idea of a superior 'Aryan race' that co-opted theIndian caste system in favor of imperial interests.[144][145] 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.[144][145]
Translating the sacred Indian texts of theRig Veda in the 1840s, German linguistFriedrich 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 throughSouth Asia and theIndian Ocean. In 1885, the New Zealand polymathEdward Tregear 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 asJohn Batchelor,Armand de Quatrefages, andDaniel Brinton extended this invasion theory to the Philippines, Hawaii, and Japan, identifying indigenous peoples who they believed were the descendants of early Aryan conquerors.[146] With the discovery of theIndus Valley civilisation, mid-20th century archeologistMortimer Wheeler argued that the large urban civilisation had been destroyed by the Aryans.[147] This position was later discredited, with climate aridification becoming the likely cause of the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilisation.[148] 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.[149] The term "invasion" does not any longer reflect the scholarly understanding of the Indo-Aryan migrations,[149] 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 alternateIndigenous Aryans scenarios contrary to establishedKurgan model. However, these alternate scenarios are rooted in traditional and religious views on Indian history and identity and are universally rejected in mainstream scholarship.[150][note 1] According to Michael Witzel, the "indigenous Aryans" position is not scholarship in the usual sense, but an "apologetic, ultimately religious undertaking".[153] A number of other alternative theories have been proposed includingAnatolian hypothesis,Armenian hypothesis, thePaleolithic continuity theory but these are not widely accepted and have received little or no interest in mainstream scholarship.[154][155]
Romila Thapar (2006): "there is no scholar at this time seriously arguing for the indigenous origin of Aryans".[151]
Wendy Doniger (2017): "The opposing argument, that speakers of Indo-European languages were indigenous to the Indian subcontinent, is not supported by any reliable scholarship. It is now championed primarily by Hindu nationalists, whose religious sentiments have led them to regard the theory of Aryan migration with some asperity."[web 1]
Girish Shahane (September 14, 2019), in response to Narasimhan et al. (2019): "Hindutva activists, however, have kept the Aryan Invasion Theory alive, because it offers them the perfect strawman, 'an intentionally misrepresented proposition that is set up because it is easier to defeat than an opponent's real argument' ... The Out of India hypothesis is a desperate attempt to reconcile linguistic, archaeological and genetic evidence with Hindutva sentiment and nationalistic pride, but it cannot reverse time's arrow ... The evidence keeps crushing Hindutva ideas of history."[web 2]
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."[152]
Web
^Wendy Doniger (2017),"Another Great Story"", review of Asko Parpola'sThe Roots of Hinduism; in:Inference, International Review of Science, Volume 3, Issue 2
^abBenveniste 1973, p. 295: "Arya [...] is the common ancient designation of the 'Indo-Iranians'."
^Witzel 2001, p. 2: "At the outset, it has to be underlined that the termĀrya (whence, Aryan) is theself-designation of the ancient Iranians and of those Indian groups speaking Vedic Sanskrit and other Old Indo-Aryan (OIA) languages and dialects. Both peoples called themselves and their languageārya orarya: [...]"
^abSchmitt 1987: "The name “Aryan” (OInd.āˊrya-, Ir. *arya- [with shorta-], in Old Pers.ariya-, Av.airiia-, etc.) 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 [...]"
^abBailey 1987: "It is used in theAvesta of members of an ethnic group and contrasts with other named groups (Tūirya, Sairima, Dāha, Sāinu or Sāini) and with the outer world of theAn-airya 'non-Arya'."
^abGnoli 2006: "Mid. Pers.ēr (plur.ērān), just like Old Pers.ariya and Av.airya, has an evident ethnic value, which is also present in the abstract termērīh, 'Iranian character, Iranianness'."
^abcMallory & Adams 1997, p. 213: "IranAlani (< *aryana) (the name of an Iranian group whose descendants are the Ossetes, one of whose subdivisions is theIron [< *aryana-)), *aryanam (pl.) 'of the Aryans' (> MPersIran)."
^abWitzel 2001, p. 24: "Arya/ārya does not mean a particularpeople 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.)"
^Anthony 2007, p. 408: "TheRigveda andAvesta 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."
^abGordon, Sarah Ann (1984).Hitler, Germans, and the "Jewish Question". Mazal Holocaust Collection. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. p. 96.ISBN0-691-05412-6.OCLC9946459.
^Longerich, Peter (2010).Holocaust : the Nazi persecution and murder of the Jews. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 83, 241.ISBN978-0-19-280436-5.OCLC610166248.
^abWitzel 2001, p. 3: "Linguists have used the termĀrya 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)."
^cf.Gershevitch, Ilya (1968). "Old Iranian Literature".Handbuch der Orientalistik, Literatur I. Leiden: Brill. pp. 1–31., p. 2.
^abDelamarre 2003, p. 55: "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 celtiqueario- de *pṛrio- [*pṛhio-, racine *per(h)- 'devant, en avant', d'où le sens dérivé 'qui est en avant, éminent'; on pourrait expliquer alors le NPArio-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. (grecari-,eri-, hitt.arawa, runiquearjosteR etc.) rend l'équation incertaine. Un fait d'ordre mythologique, la comparaison entre l'IrlandaisEremon et l'IndienAryaman, figures dotées de fonctions sociales similaires, renforcerait cependant la validité de la comparaison (*Ario-men-), cf. G. DumézilLe troisième souverain et J. PuhvelAnalecta 322–330."
^abMatasović 2009, p. 43: "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-)."
^Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 213: "OIraire 'freeman (whether commoner or noble), noble (as distinct from commoner)' (the latter meaning may be rather from *pṛios, a derivative of 'first')."
^Koivulehto, Jorma (2001). "The earliest contacts between Indo-European and Uralic speakers". In Carpelan, Christian (ed.).Early contacts between Uralic and Indo-European. Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne. p. 248.ISBN978-9525150599.
^Grenet, Frantz (2005). "An Archaeologist's Approach to Avestan Geography". In Curtis, Vesta Sarkhosh; Stewart, Sarah (eds.).Birth of the Persian Empire Volume I. I.B.Tauris. p. 44.ISBN978-0-7556-2459-1.It is difficult to imagine that the text was composed anywhere other than in South Afghanistan and later than the middle of the 6th century BC.
^Vogelsang, Willem (2000). "The sixteen lands of Videvdat - Airyanem Vaejah and the homeland of the Iranians".Persica.16: 62.doi:10.2143/PERS.16.0.511.All of the above observations would indicate a date for the composition of the Videvdat list which would antedate, for a considerable time, the arrival in Eastern Iran of the Persian Acheamenids (ca. 550 B.C.)
^abBailey 1987, : "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. Armenianeran eut aneran) comprises the inhabitants of all the known lands ... In the singular Parth.ʾry, Mid. Pers.ʾyly, Greekarian occurs in a title:ʾry mzdyzn nrysḥw MLKʾ, *ary mazdēzn Narēsahv šāh (Parth. ŠKZ 19);ʾyly mzdysn nrsḥy MLKʾ (Mid. Pers. version 24), Greekarian masdaasnou ... New Persian hasērān (western,īrān),ērān-šahr. In the Caucasus, Ossetic has Digoronerä,irä, Ironir, with Dig.iriston, Ironiryston (the i-umlaut modifying the vowela-, but leaving the -r- untouched), [and] the ancestralAlān."
^abAlemany 2000, pp. 3–4, 8: "Nowadays, however, only two possibilities are admitted as regards [the etymology ofAlān], both closely related: (a) the adjective *aryāna- and (b) the pl. *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'."
^Brunner, C. J. (1986)."Arizantoi".Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. 2. Routledge & Kegan Paul.
^Cook, Michael (2016).Ancient Religions, Modern Politics: The Islamic Case in Comparative Perspective. Princeton University Press.ISBN978-0-691-17334-4.Aryavarta ... is defined by Manu as extending from the Himalayas in the north to theVindhyas of Central India in the south and from the sea in the west to the sea in the east.
^Siegert, Hans (1941–1942), "Zur Geschichte der Begriffe 'Arier' und 'Arisch'",Wörter und Sachen, New Series,4:84–99
^Schmitt 1987, : "The use of the name 'Aryan', in vogue especially in the 19th century, as a designation of the entire Indo-European language family was based on the erroneous assumption that Sanskrit was the oldest IE. language, and the untenable view (primarily propagated by Adolphe Pictet) that the names of Ireland and the Irishmen were etymologically related to 'Aryan'."
^Schmitt 1987, : "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."
^Wells, H.G.The Outline of History New York:1920 Doubleday & Co. Chapter 19 The Aryan Speaking Peoples in Pre-Historic Times [Meaning the Proto-Indo-Europeans] Pages 271–285
^See the Poul Anderson short stories in the 1964 collectionTime and Stars and thePolesotechnic League stories featuringNicholas van Rijn
^Renfrew, Colin. (1989). The Origins of Indo-European Languages. /Scientific American/, 261(4), 82–90. In explaining theAnatolian hypothesis, the term "Aryan" is used to denote "all Indo-Europeans"
^Hutton, Christopher M. (2005).Race and the Third Reich: Linguistics, Racial Anthropology and Genetics in the Dialectic of Volk. Polity. p. 108.ISBN978-0-7456-3177-6.
^Mallory 1989, p. 268: "An Aryan homeland in the unhealthy environment of a swamp was hardly conducive to the development of the 'powerful, energetic blond race' or so Karl Penka argued in 1868. Rather, Penka pressed into service all the disciplines he could - archaeology, linguistics, anthropology and mythology - to demonstrate that the Aryans originated in Southern Scandinavia."
^Kuzmina 2007, pp. 171-172: "The Aryans in theAvesta are tall, light-skinned people with light hair; their women were light-eyed, with long, light tresses... In theRigveda light skin alongside language is the main feature of the Aryans, differentiating them from the aboriginalDáśa-Dasyu population who were a dark-skinned, small people speaking another language and who did not believe in the Vedic gods... Skin color was the basis of social division of the Vedic Aryans; their society was divided into social groupsvarṇa, literally 'color'. The varṇas of Aryan priests (brāhmaṇa) and warriors (kṣatriyaḥ orrājanya) were opposed to the varṇas of the aboriginal Dáśa, called 'black-skinned'...".
^Robinson, Michael (2016).The Lost White Tribe: Explorers, Scientists, and the Theory that Changed a Continent. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 147–161.ISBN9780199978489.
^Gregory L. Possehl (2002),The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective, Rowman Altamira, p. 238,ISBN9780759101722
^Alinei, Mario (2002). "Towards a generalised continuity model for Uralic and Indo European languages". In Julku, Kyösti (ed.).The Roots of Peoples and Languages of Northern Eurasia IV, Oulu 18.8–20.8.2000. Oulu, Finland: Societas Historiae Fenno-Ugricae.CiteSeerX10.1.1.370.8351.
^David W. Anthony.The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. pp. 300–400.
Kellens, Jean (2005). "Les Airiia - ne sont plus des Āryas: ce sont déjà des Iraniens".Āryas, Aryens et Iraniens en Asie centrale. Association de Boccard.
Motadel, David (2013). "Iran and the Aryan myth".Perceptions of Iran: History, Myths and Nationalism from Medieval Persia to the Islamic Republic. I.B. Tauris.ISBN978-0-7556-1162-1.
Singh, Upinder (2008).A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Education India.ISBN978-81-317-1677-9.
Weikart, R. (2009).Hitler's Ethic: The Nazi Pursuit of Evolutionary Progress. Springer.ISBN978-0-230-62398-9.
Witzel, Michael (2000). "The Home of the Aryans". In Hinze, A.; Tichy, E. (eds.).Festschrift fuer Johanna Narten zum 70. Geburtstag. J. H. Roell.
Witzel, Michael (2001). "Autochthonous Aryans? The Evidence from Old Indian and Iranian Texts".Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies.7 (3):1–115.doi:10.11588/ejvs.2001.3.830.
Arvidsson, Stefan. ”Aryan: conceptual history”, Wenda Trevathan (ed.), The International encyclopedia of biological anthropology. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2018. ISBN: 9781118584422
Bronkhorst, J.; Deshpande, M.M., eds. (1999).Aryan and Non-Aryan in South Asia: Evidence, Interpretation, and Ideology. Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University.ISBN1-888789-04-2.
Edelman, Dzoj (Joy) I. (1999).On the history of non-decimal systems and their elements in numerals of Aryan languages. In: Jadranka Gvozdanović (ed.), "Numeral Types and Changes Worldwide". Walter de Gruyter.
Fussmann, G.; Francfort, H.P.; Kellens, J.; Tremblay, X. (2005).Aryas, Aryens et Iraniens en Asie Centrale. Institut Civilisation Indienne.ISBN2-86803-072-6.
Ivanov, Vyacheslav V.; Gamkrelidze, Thomas (1990). "The Early History of Indo-European Languages".Scientific American.262 (3):110–116.doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0390-110.
Lincoln, Bruce (1999).Theorizing Myth: Narrative, Ideology, and Scholarship. University of Chicago Press.
Tickell, A (2005). "The Discovery of Aryavarta: Hindu Nationalism and Early Indian Fiction in English". In Peter Morey; Alex Tickell (eds.).Alternative Indias: Writing, Nation and Communalism. pp. 25–53.
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