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{{Short description|Self-designation used by ancient Indo-Iranian peoples}}
{{italic title}}
{{redirect |Arya |other uses}}
{{About|the cultural and historical concept}}
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{{Indo-European topics}}
{{Hinduism}}
'''''Aryan''''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɛər|i|ə|n}}), or '''''Arya''''' in [[Proto-Indo-Iranian language|Proto-Indo-Iranian]],<ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/aryan "Aryan"]. ''[[Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary]].''</ref> is a term originating from the ethno-cultural self-designation of the [[Indo-Iranians]], and later [[Iranian peoples|Iranians]] and [[Indo-Aryan peoples|Indo-Aryans]].<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Harvnb|Witzel|2001|p=2}}: "At the outset, it has to be underlined that the term ''Ārya'' (whence, Aryan) is the ''self''-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 language ''ārya'' or ''arya'': [...]"</ref> It stood in contrast to nearby outsiders, whom they designated as [[Aneran|non-Aryan]] ({{lang|iir-x-proto|an-āryā}}).<ref name=":4" /> In [[ancient India]], the term was used by the [[Indo-Aryan peoples]] of the [[Vedic period]], both as an [[Endonym and exonym|endonym]] and in reference to a region called [[Āryāvarta|''Aryavarta'']] ({{Langx|sa|आर्यावर्त}}, {{Literal translation|Land of the Aryans}}), where their culture emerged.{{Sfn|Witzel|2001|pp=4, 24}} Similarly, according to the [[Avesta]], the [[Ancient Iranian peoples|Iranian peoples]] used the term to designate themselves as an ethnic group and to refer to a region called ''[[Airyanem Vaejah]]'' ({{Langx|ae|𐬀𐬫𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀𐬥𐬆𐬨 𐬬𐬀𐬉𐬘𐬀𐬵}}, {{Literal translation|Expanse of the [[Arya (Iran)|Arya]]}}), which was their mythical homeland.<ref name=":5" /><ref name="Gnoli" /> The word stem also forms the etymological source of place names like ''[[Alania]]'' ({{lang|iir-x-proto|Aryāna-}}) and ''[[Iran (word)|Iran]]'' ({{lang|iir-x-proto|Aryānām}}).<ref name="Mallory" />
Although the stem {{lang|iir-x-proto|arya}} may originate from the [[Proto-Indo-European language]],<ref name=":2" /> 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 the [[Proto-Indo-Europeans]]. In any case, many modern scholars believe that the ethos of the ancient Aryan identity, as it is described in the Avesta and the [[Rigveda]], was religious, cultural, and linguistic, and was not tied to the concept of race.{{Sfn|Bryant|2001|pp=60–63}}<ref name=":0">{{harvnb|Witzel|2001|loc=p. 24: "''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|loc=p. 408: "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 French diplomat and writer [[Arthur 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 a [[Historical race concepts|distinct racial group]] or a distinct sub-group of the hypothetical [[Caucasian race]]. Through the work of his later followers, such as the British-German philosopher [[Houston Stewart Chamberlain]], this specific theory by Gobineau proved to be particularly popular among the [[Fascism in Europe|European far-right]] and ultimately laid the foundation for [[Nazi racial theories]], which also co-opted the concept of [[scientific racism]].{{sfn|Anthony|2007|pp=9–11}} In [[Nazi Germany]], and also in [[German-occupied Europe]] during [[World 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 were [[Racial policy of Nazi Germany|legally discriminated against]], including [[Jews]], [[Romani people|Roma]], and [[Slavs]] (mostly [[Slovaks]], [[Czechs]], [[Polish people|Poles]], and [[Russians]]).<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> Jews, who were seen as part of the hypothetical [[Semitic race]],<ref>{{cite web|date=2020|title=Aryan {{!}} Arian, adj. and n.|url=https://oed.com/view/Entry/11296 |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 especially targeted by the [[Nazi Party]], culminating in [[the Holocaust]].<ref name=":7" /> The Roma, who are of Indo-Aryan origin, were also targeted, culminating in the [[Porajmos]]. The genocides and other large-scale atrocities that have been committed by [[Aryanism|Aryanists]] have led academic figures to generally avoid using "Aryan" as a stand-alone ethno-linguistic term, particularly in the [[Western world]], where "Indo-Iranian" is the preferred alternative, although the term "Indo-Aryan" is still used to denote the [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indic branch]].<ref name=":6" />
== Etymology ==
=== English and European languages ===
[[File:Darius_I_the_Great's_inscription.jpg|thumb|One of the earliest epigraphically attested reference to the word ''arya'' occurs in the 6th-century BC [[Behistun inscription]], which describes itself as having been composed "in ''arya'' [language or script]" (§ 70). As is also the case for all other Old Iranian language usage, the ''arya'' of the inscription does not signify anything but "[[Arya (Iran)|Iranian]]".<ref name="Gershevitch2"><sup>''cf.''</sup> {{Cite book|last=Gershevitch|first=Ilya|title=Handbuch der Orientalistik, Literatur I|publisher=Brill|year=1968|location=Leiden|pages=1–31|chapter=Old Iranian Literature}}, p. 2.</ref>]]
The term ''Arya'' was first rendered into a modern European language in 1771 as ''Aryens'' by French Indologist [[Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron|Abraham-Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron]], who rightly compared the Greek ''arioi'' with the [[Avestan]] ''airya'' and the country name ''[[Name of Iran|Iran]].'' A German translation of Anquetil-Duperron's work led to the introduction of the term ''Arier'' in 1776.{{Sfn|Arvidsson|2006|p=20}} The [[Sanskrit]] word ''ā́rya'' is rendered as 'noble' in [[William Jones (philologist)|William Jones]]' 1794 translation of the Indian ''[[Laws of Manu]]'',{{Sfn|Arvidsson|2006|p=20}} and the English ''Aryan'' (originally spelt ''Arian'') appeared a few decades later, first as an adjective in 1839, then as a noun in 1851.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Definition of Aryan|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Aryan|website=Merriam-Webster|date=12 September 2023 }}</ref>
=== Indo-Iranian ===
The [[Sanskrit language|Sanskrit]] word ''ā́rya'' ([[wikt:आर्य|आर्य]]) was originally an ethnocultural term designating those who spoke [[Vedic Sanskrit]] and adhered to Vedic cultural norms (including religious rituals and poetry), in contrast to an outsider, or ''an-ā́rya'' ('non-Arya').{{sfn|Schmitt|1987}}{{Sfn|Witzel|2001|pp=4, 24}}  By the time of the [[Buddha]] (5th–4th century BCE), it took the meaning of 'noble'.{{Sfn|Witzel|2001|p=4}} In [[Old Iranian languages]], the [[Avestan]] term ''airya'' ([[Old Persian]] ''ariya'') was likewise used as an ethnocultural self-designation by ancient [[Iranian peoples]], in contrast to an ''[[Aneran|an-airya]]'' ('non-Arya'). It designated those who belonged to the 'Aryan' (Iranian) ethnic stock, spoke the language and followed the religion of the 'Aryas'.<ref name=":5">{{harvnb|Bailey|1987|loc=}}: "It is used in the ''Avesta'' of members of an ethnic group and contrasts with other named groups (Tūirya, Sairima, Dāha, Sāinu or Sāini) and with the outer world of the ''An-airya'' 'non-Arya'."</ref><ref name="Gnoli">{{harvnb|Gnoli|2006|loc=}}: "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 term ''ērīh'', 'Iranian character, Iranianness'."</ref>
These two terms derive from the reconstructed [[Proto-Indo-Iranian language|Proto-Indo-Iranian]] stem {{lang|iir-x-proto|arya}}- or {{lang|iir-x-proto|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|loc=p. 295: "''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}}
=== Proto-Indo-European ===
The [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] (PIE) origin of the Indo-Iranian stem ''arya''- remains debated. A number of scholars, starting with [[Adolphe Pictet]] (1799–1875), have proposed to derive ''arya''- from the reconstructed PIE term {{lang|ine-x-proto|h₂erós}} or {{lang|ine-x-proto|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|loc=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 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|loc=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''-)."}}</ref> In any case, the Indo-Iranian ethnic connotation is absent from the other Indo-European languages, which rather conceived the possible cognates of {{lang|iir-x-proto|arya}}- as a social status (a freeman or noble), 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: {{lang|ine-x-proto|h₂erós}},{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|2006|page=266}}
** [[Proto-Anatolian language|Anatolian]]: *''ʔor-o-'', 'peer, freeman',{{sfn|Kloekhorst|2008|p=198}} [[Hittite language|Hittite]]: ''arā-'', 'comrade, peer, companion, friend'; ''**** [[arāwa]]-'', 'free from'; ''arawan(n)i-'', 'free, freeman (not being slave)'; ''natta ara'', 'not proper to the community',{{Sfn|Gamkrelidze|Ivanov|1995|pp=657–658}}{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|1997|page=213}}{{sfn|Kloekhorst|2008|p=198}}
*** [[Lycian language|Lycian]]: ''arus-'', 'citizens'; ''arawa''-, 'freedom',{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=213}}{{sfn|Kloekhorst|2008|p=198}}
** Late PIE: {{lang|ine-x-proto|h₂eryós}},{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|2006|page=266}}
*** [[Proto-Indo-Iranian language|Indo-Iranian]]: {{lang|iir-x-proto|arya-}}, 'Aryan, [[Indo-Iranians|Indo-Iranian']],{{sfn|Schmitt|1987}}{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|2006|page=266}}
**** [[Old Indo-Aryan]]: ''árya-'', 'Aryan, faithful to the Vedic religion'; ''aryá-'', 'kind, favourable, true, devoted'; ''arí-'', 'faithful; devoted person, ± kinsman';{{sfn|Schmitt|1987}}{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|2006|page=266}}
**** [[Proto-Iranian language|Iranian]]: {{lang|iir-x-proto|arya-}}, 'Aryan, Iranian',{{Sfn|Mayrhofer|1992|pp=174–175}}
***** [[Avestan]]: ''airya''- (<small>pl.</small> ''aire''), 'Aryan, Iranian',{{sfn|Schmitt|1987}}{{Sfn|Gnoli|2006|p=}}{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|2006|page=266}}
***** [[Old Persian]]: ''ariya-'', 'Aryan, Iranian',{{sfn|Schmitt|1987}}{{Sfn|Mayrhofer|1992|pp=174–175}}''{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=213}}''
*** [[Proto-Celtic language|Celtic]]: {{lang|cel-x-proto|aryo-}}, 'freeman; noble'; or perhaps from {{lang|cel-x-proto|prio-}} ('first > prominent, eminent'),<ref>{{harvnb|Mallory|Adams|1997|loc=p. 213: "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"/>
**** [[Gaulish language|Gaulish]]: ''ario-'', 'freeman, lord; foremost',{{Sfn|Delamarre|2003|p=55}}{{Sfn|Matasović|2009|p=43}}
**** [[Old Irish]]: ''aire,'' 'freeman, chief; noble';{{Sfn|Delamarre|2003|p=55}}{{Sfn|Matasović|2009|p=43}}
*** [[Proto-Germanic language|Germanic]] {{lang|gem-x-proto|arjaz}}, 'noble, distinguished, esteemed',{{sfn|Orel|2003|p=23}}
**** Old Norse: ''arjosteʀ'', 'foremost, most distinguished'.{{Sfn|Delamarre|2003|p=55}}{{sfn|Orel|2003|p=23}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Antonsen|first=Elmer H.|title=Runes and Germanic Linguistics|date=2002|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-017462-5|pages=127}}</ref>
The term {{lang|ine-x-proto|h₂er(y)ós}} may derive from the PIE verbal [[Root (linguistics)|root]] {{lang|ine-x-proto|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 ({{lang|iir-x-proto|anarya}}) who lived among them were captives from other ethnic groups.{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=213}}
== Historical usage ==
=== Proto-Indo-Iranians ===
The term {{lang|iir-x-proto|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 {{lang|iir-x-proto|Anarya}} ('non-Arya').<ref name=":4">{{harvnb|Schmitt|1987|loc=}}: "The name “Aryan” (OInd. ''āˊrya''-, Ir. *''arya''- [with short ''a''-], 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 [...]"</ref>{{Sfn|Anthony|2007|p=408}}{{Sfn|Kuzmina|2007|p=456}} Indo-Iranians (''Aryas'') are generally associated with the [[Sintashta culture]] (2100–1800 BCE), 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 [[Proto-Uralic homeland|early Uralic tribes]]; the stem {{lang|iir-x-proto|arya}}- was notably borrowed into the [[Proto-Sámi language|Pre-Sámi 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 {{lang|iir-x-proto|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 {{lang|ine-x-proto|h₂eryo-men}} may also be posited.{{Sfn|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=375}}{{Sfn|Delamarre|2003|p=55}}{{sfn|West|2007|pp=142–143}}
=== Ancient India ===
[[File:Late Vedic Culture (1100-500 BCE).png|thumb|The approximate extent of ''Āryāvarta'' during the late [[Vedic period]] (ca. 1100–500 BCE). ''Aryavarta'' was limited to northwest India and the western Ganges plain, while [[Greater Magadha]] in the east was habitated by non-Vedic Indo-Aryans, who gave rise to Jainism and Buddhism.{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2007}}{{sfn|Samuel|2010}}]]
[[Vedic Sanskrit]] speakers viewed the term ''ā́rya'' as a religious–linguistic category, referring to those who spoke the Sanskrit language and adhered to Vedic cultural norms, especially those who worshipped the Vedic gods ([[Indra]] and [[Agni]] in particular), took part in the [[yajna]] and festivals, and practiced the art of poetry.<ref>{{harvnb|Kuiper|1991|p=96}}; {{harvnb|Witzel|2001|pp=4, 24}}; {{harvnb|Bryant|2001|p=61}}; {{harvnb|Anthony|2007|p=11}}</ref>
The 'non-Aryas' designated primarily those who were not able to speak the ''āryā'' language correctly, the ''[[Mleccha]]'' or ''Mṛdhravāc.''{{Sfn|Thapar|2019|p=vii}} However, ''āryā'' is used only once in the [[Vedas]] to designate the language of the texts, the Vedic area being defined in the ''[[Aranyaka|Kauṣītaki Āraṇyaka]]'' as that where the ''āryā vāc'' ('Ārya speech') is spoken.{{Sfn|Thapar|2019|p=2}} Some 35 names of Vedic tribes, chiefs and poets mentioned in the ''[[Rigveda]]'' were of 'non-Aryan' origin, demonstrating that [[cultural assimilation]] to the ''ā́rya'' community was possible, and/or that some 'Aryan' families chose to give 'non-Aryan' names to their newborns.{{Sfn|Kuiper|1991|pp=6–8, 96|p=}}{{Sfn|Anthony|2007|p=11}}{{Sfn|Kuzmina|2007|p=453}} In the words of Indologist [[Michael Witzel]], the term ''ārya'' "does not mean a particular ''people'' or even a particular 'racial' group but all those who had joined the tribes speaking Vedic Sanskrit and adhering to their cultural norms (such as ritual, poetry, etc.)".{{Sfn|Witzel|2001|p=24}}
In later Indian texts and Buddhist sources, ''ā́rya'' took the meaning of 'noble', such as in the terms ''Āryadésa''- ('noble land') for India, ''Ārya-bhāṣā''- ('noble language') for Sanskrit, or ''āryaka''- ('honoured man'), which gave the [[Pali]] ''ayyaka''- ('grandfather').{{sfn|Bailey|1987}} The term came to incorporate the idea of a high social status, but was also used as an honorific for the [[Brahman]]a or the Buddhist monks. Parallelly, the Mleccha acquired additional meanings that referred to people of lower castes or aliens.{{Sfn|Thapar|2019|p=vii}}
=== Ancient Iran ===
{{See also|Arya (Iran)|Ariana|Iran (word)}}
[[File:Young avestan geography.png|thumb|Approximate geographical extent of regions inhabited by the [[Arya (Iran)|Arya]] of the [[Avesta]] vis-a-vis other Indo-Iranian peoples during the [[Avestan period|Young Avestan period]] ({{Circa}} 900–500 BCE)]]
In the words of scholar [[Gherardo Gnoli]], the Old Iranian ''airya'' ([[Avestan]]) and ''ariya'' ([[Old Persian]]) were collective terms denoting the "peoples who were aware of belonging to the one ethnic stock, speaking a common language, and having a religious tradition that centred on the cult of [[Ahura Mazda|Ahura Mazdā]]", in contrast to the 'non-Aryas', who are called ''anairya'' in [[Avestan]], ''anaryān'' in [[Parthian language|Parthian]], and ''[[anērān]]'' in [[Middle Persian]].{{sfn|Bailey|1987}}{{Sfn|Gnoli|2006}}
The people of the ''[[Avesta]]'', exclusively used the term airya ({{langx|ae|{{script|Avst|[[wikt:𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀|𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀]]}}}}, {{Transliteration|ae|airiia}}) to refer to themselves.{{sfn|Kellens|2005}} It can be found in a number geographical terms like the '[[Airyanem Vaejah|expanse of the airyas]]' ({{lang|ae|airiianəm vaēǰō}}), the '[[Avestan geography|dwelling place of the airyas]]' ({{lang|ae|airiio.shaiianem}}), or the 'white forest of the airyas' ({{lang|ae|vīspe.aire.razuraya}}). The term can also be found in poetic expressions such as the '[[Khvarenah|glory of the airyas]]' ({{lang|ae|airiianąm xᵛarənō}}), the '[[Arash the Archer|most swift-arrowed of the airyas]]' ({{lang|ae|xšviwi išvatəmō airiianąm}}), or the '[[Kay Khosrow|hero of the airyas]]' ({{lang|ae|arša airiianąm}}).{{sfn|Bailey|1987}} Although the Avesta does not contain any dateable events, modern scholarship assumes that the [[Avestan period]] mostly predates the [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid period]] of Iranian history.<ref>{{cite book|last=Grenet|first=Frantz |editor-last1=Curtis|editor-first1=Vesta Sarkhosh|editor-last2=Stewart|editor-first2=Sarah |title=Birth of the Persian Empire Volume I|chapter=An Archaeologist's Approach to Avestan Geography |publisher=I.B.Tauris |year=2005|isbn=978-0-7556-2459-1|page=44|quote=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.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Vogelsang|first=Willem|year=2000|author-link=Willem Vogelsang|title=The sixteen lands of Videvdat - Airyanem Vaejah and the homeland of the Iranians|journal=Persica|volume=16|doi=10.2143/PERS.16.0.511|page=62|quote=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.)}}</ref>
By the late 6th–early 5th century BCE, 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 BCE), 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}}
{{multiple image
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| header = Darius at Behistun
| image1 = Behistun_relief_Darius_and_Gaumata.jpg
| caption1 = Full figure of Darius trampling rival [[Gaumata]]
| image2 = Behistun Darius the Great.jpg
| caption2 = Head of Darius with crenellated crown
}}
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|loc=: "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 {{lang|ira-x-proto|Allān}} (from {{lang|iir-x-proto|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|loc=p. 213: "Iran ''Alani'' (< *''aryana'') (the name of an Iranian group whose descendants are the Ossetes, one of whose subdivisions is the ''Iron'' [< *''aryana''-)), *''aryanam'' (pl.) 'of the Aryans' (> MPers ''Iran'')."}}</ref><ref name="Alemany">{{harvnb|Alemany|2000|loc=pp. 3–4, 8: "Nowadays, however, only two possibilities are admitted as regards [the etymology of ''Alān''], 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'."}}</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 {{lang|ira-x-proto|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'',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Herodotus |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D7%3Achapter%3D62%3Asection%3D1 |title=Histories, Book 7, Chapter 62 |publisher=perseus.tufts.edu |pages= |chapter=}}</ref> and [[Strabo]] locates the land of ''Arianē'' between Persia and India.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Roller |first1=Duane |title=The Geography of Strabo: An English Translation, with Introduction and Notes |date=29 May 2014 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-95249-1 |page=947 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=33GFAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT947}}</ref> 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 BCE–224 CE), 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 {{lang|ira-x-proto|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}}
=== Place names ===
In ancient [[Sanskrit literature]], the term ''[[Āryāvarta]]'' (आर्यावर्त, the 'abode of the Aryas') was the name given to the cradle of the [[Indo-Aryan people|Indo-Aryan]] culture in northern India. The ''[[Manusmriti|Manusmṛiti]]'' locates ''Āryāvarta'' in "the tract between the [[Himalaya]] and the [[Vindhya]] ranges, from the Eastern ([[Bay of Bengal]]) to the Western Sea ([[Arabian Sea]])".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cook|first=Michael|title=Ancient Religions, Modern Politics: The Islamic Case in Comparative Perspective|date=2016|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-17334-4|author-link=Michael Cook (historian)|quote="Aryavarta ... is defined by Manu as extending from the Himalayas in the north to the [[Vindhyas]] of Central India in the south and from the sea in the west to the sea in the east."}}</ref>
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 {{lang|iir-x-proto|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 {{lang|ira-x-proto|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 {{lang|ira-x-proto|Aryāna-}}, which is also linked to the mythical ''[[Airyanem Vaejah|Airyanem Waēǰō]]''.<ref>{{harvnb|Benveniste|1973|loc=p. 300: "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, {{lang|ira-x-proto|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 {{lang|ira-x-proto|[[-stan|-stān]]}}.{{Sfn|Bailey|1987}}{{Sfn|Harmatta|1970|pp=78–81}}
Other [[Avestan geography|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}}
=== Personal names ===
{{Main|Arya (name)|Aryan (name)}}
Old Persian names derived the stem {{lang|iir-x-proto|arya}}- include ''Aryabignes'' ({{lang|ira-x-proto|arya-bigna}}, 'Gift of the Aryans'), ''Ariarathes'' ({{lang|ira-x-proto|Arya-wratha-}}, 'having Aryan joy'), ''Ariobarzanēs'' ({{lang|ira-x-proto|Ārya-bṛzāna}}-, 'exalting the Aryans'), [[Ariaeus|''Ariaios'']] ({{lang|ira-x-proto|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 CE.{{Sfn|Alemany|2000|p=5}}
The name [[Aryan (name)|''Aryan'']] (including derivatives such as ''Aaryan,'' ''[[Arya (name)|Arya]], Ariyan'' or ''Aria'') is still used as a given name or surname in modern South Asia and Iran. There has also been a rise in names associated with ''Aryan'' in the West, which have been popularized due to pop culture. According to the U.S. Social Security Administration in 2012, ''Arya'' was the fastest-rising girl's name in popularity in the U.S., jumping from 711th to 413th position.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Carlson|first=Adam|date=10 May 2013|title=Game of Thrones baby names on the march|publisher=Entertainment Weekly|url=https://ew.com/article/2013/05/10/arya-game-of-thrones-baby-names}}</ref> The name entered the top 200 most commonly used names for baby girls born in England and Wales in 2017.<ref>{{cite news|last=Mzimba|first=Lizo|date=20 September 2017|title=Game of Thrones Arya among 200 most popular names|publisher=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-41336738}}</ref>
=== In Latin literature ===
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>
===Modern Persian nationalism===
In the aftermath of the [[Islamic conquest of Iran|Islamic conquest]] in Iran, racialist rhetoric became a literary idiom during the 7th century, i.e., when the Arabs became the primary "[[Other (philosophy)|Other]]" – the [[Aniran]] – and the antithesis of everything Iranian (i.e. Aryan) and [[Zoroastrian]]. But "the antecedents of [present-day] Iranian ultra-nationalism can be traced back to the writings of late nineteenth-century figures such as [[Mirza Fatali Akhundov]] and [[Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani]]. Demonstrating affinity with Orientalist views of the supremacy of the ''[[Aryan race|Aryan peoples]]'' and the mediocrity of the ''[[Semitic peoples]]'', Iranian nationalist discourse idealized pre-Islamic [[Achaemenid]] and [[Sassanid]] empires, whilst negating the 'Islamization' of [[Persis|Persia]] by Muslim forces."<ref name="MRZ">{{citation|last=Adib-Moghaddam|first=Arshin|title=Reflections on Arab and Iranian Ultra-Nationalism|year=2006|journal=Monthly Review Magazine|volume=11/06|url=http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/aam201106.html}}</ref> In the 20th century, different aspects of this idealization of a distant past would be instrumentalized by both the [[Pahlavi dynasty|Pahlavi monarchy]] (In 1967, Iran's [[Pahlavi dynasty|Pahlavi]] [[dynasty]] [overthrown in the [[1979 Iranian Revolution]]] added the title [[Aryamehr|Āryāmehr]] ''Light of the Aryans'' to the other styles of the [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi|Iranian monarch]], the [[Shah of Iran]] being already known at that time as the [[Shah]]anshah (''King of Kings'')), and by the [[Iran|Islamic republic]] that followed it; the Pahlavis used it as a foundation for anticlerical monarchism, and the clerics used it to exalt Iranian values vis-á-vis westernization.<ref name="Keddie">{{citation|last1=Keddie|first1=Nikki R.|last2=Richard|first2=Yann|title=Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution|year=2006|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|isbn=0-300-12105-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/moderniranrootsr00kedd/page/178 178f.]|url=https://archive.org/details/moderniranrootsr00kedd/page/178}}</ref>
=== Modern religious use ===
The word ''ārya'' is often found in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain texts. In the Indian spiritual context, it can be applied to Rishis or to someone who has mastered the four noble truths and entered upon the spiritual path. According to Indian leader [[Jawaharlal Nehru]], 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 [[Sikhism]]).<ref>{{cite book|last=Kumar|first=Priya|chapter=Beyond tolerance and hospitality: Muslims as strangers and minor subjects in Hindu nationalist and Indian nationalist discourse|title=Living Together: Jacques Derrida's Communities of Violence and Peace|publisher=Fordham University Press|date=2012|isbn=9780823249923|editor=Elisabeth Weber|pages=95–96 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OONc4cZKMigC&pg=PA95}}</ref>
The word ārya is also often used in [[Jainism]], in Jain texts such as the Pannavanasutta. In Avaśyakaniryukti, an early Jaina text, a character named ''Ārya Mangu'' is mentioned twice.<ref>{{cite book|author1=K. L. Chanchreek|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0YgRAQAAIAAJ|title=Jainism: Rishabha Deva to Mahavira|author2=Mahesh Jain|publisher=Shree Publishers & Distributors|year=2003|isbn=978-81-88658-01-5|page=276}}</ref>
== Scholarship ==
=== 19th and early 20th century ===
The term 'Aryan' was initially introduced into the English language through works of comparative philology, as a modern rendering of the Sanskrit word ''ā́rya''. First translated as 'noble' in [[William Jones (philologist)|William Jones]]' 1794 translation of the ''[[Laws of Manu]]'', early-19th-century scholars later noticed that the term was used in the earliest [[Vedas]] as an ethnocultural self-designation "comprising the worshipers of the gods of the Brahmans".<ref name="OED" />{{Sfn|Arvidsson|2006|p=20}} This interpretation was simultaneously influenced by the presence of the word ''Ἀριάνης'' (Ancient Greek) ~ ''Arianes'' (Latin) in classical texts, which had been rightly compared by [[Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron|Anquetil-Duperron]] in 1771 to the Iranian ''airya'' ([[Avestan]]) ~ ''ariya'' ([[Old Persian]]), a self-identifier used by the speakers of [[Iranian peoples|Iranian languages]] since ancient times. Accordingly, the term 'Aryan' came to refer in scholarship to the [[Indo-Iranian languages]], and, by extension, to the native speakers of the [[Proto-Indo-Iranian language]], the prehistoric [[Indo-Iranians|Indo-Iranian peoples]].<ref>{{citation|last=Siegert|first=Hans|title=Zur Geschichte der Begriffe 'Arier' und 'Arisch'|journal=Wörter und Sachen|volume=4|pages=84–99|year=1941–1942|series=New Series}}</ref>
During the 19th century, through the works of [[Friedrich Schlegel]] (1772–1829), [[Christian Lassen]] (1800–1876), [[Adolphe Pictet]] (1799–1875), and [[Max Müller]] (1823–1900), the terms ''Aryans'', ''Arier'', and ''Aryens'' came to be adopted by a number of Western scholars as a synonym of '[[Proto-Indo-Europeans|(Proto-)Indo-Europeans]]'.{{Sfn|Arvidsson|2006|p=21}} Many of them indeed believed that ''Aryan'' was also the original self-designation used by the prehistoric speakers of the [[Proto-Indo-European language]], based on the erroneous assumptions that [[Sanskrit]] was the oldest [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European language]] and on the linguistically untenable position that ''[[Ériu]]'' (Ireland) was related to ''Arya''.<ref>{{harvnb|Schmitt|1987|loc=: "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'."}}</ref> This hypothesis has since been abandoned in scholarship due to the lack of evidence for the use of ''arya'' as an ethnocultural self-designation outside the Indo-Iranian world.{{sfn|Fortson|2011|p=209}}
=== Contemporary scholarship ===
In contemporary scholarship, the terms 'Aryan' and 'Proto-Aryan' are still sometimes used to designate the prehistoric Indo-Iranian peoples and their [[Proto-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|loc=: "''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|loc=p. 3: "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]] {{lang|ira-x-proto|Aryānām}}, also continues to be used to refer to specific [[ethnolinguistic group]]s.{{sfn|Schmitt|1987}}
* [[Indo-Aryan peoples|Indo-Aryan]] refers to the populations speaking an [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan language]] or identifying as [[Indo-Aryan peoples|Indo-Aryan]]; they form the predominant group in Northern Indian subcontinent.{{Sfn|Witzel|2001|p=3}} The largest Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic groups are [[Hindi]]–[[Urdu]], [[Bengali language|Bengali]], [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]], [[Marathi language|Marathi]], [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]], [[Rajasthani language|Rajasthani]], [[Bhojpuri language|Bhojpuri]], [[Maithili language|Maithili]], [[Odia language|Odia]], and [[Sindhi language|Sindhi]]. More than 900 million people are native speakers of an Indo-Aryan language.{{sfn|Bryant|Patton|2005|pp=246–247}}
* [[Iranian peoples|Iranian]] (or Iranic) is used to designate the speakers of [[Iranian languages]] or the peoples who identify as "Iranians", especially in [[Greater Iran]]. Modern Iranian ethnolinguistic groups include [[Persians]], [[Pashtuns]], [[Kurds]], [[Tajiks]], [[Baloch people|Balochs]], [[Lurs]], [[Pamiris]], [[Zazas]], and [[Ossetians]]. An estimated 150 to 200 million people are native speakers of an Iranian language.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Windfuhr|first=Gernot L.|title=The Iranian Languages|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-79703-4|pages=1|author-link=Gernot Ludwig Windfuhr}}</ref>
Some authors writing for popular consumption have kept on using the word "Aryan" for all Indo-Europeans in the tradition of [[H. G. Wells]],<ref>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</ref><ref>[http://www.bartleby.com/86/19.html H.G. Wells describes the origin of the Aryans (Proto-Indo Europeans):]</ref> such as the science fiction author [[Poul Anderson]],<ref>See the Poul Anderson short stories in the 1964 collection [[Time and Stars]] and the ''Polesotechnic League'' stories featuring [[Nicholas van Rijn]]</ref> and scientists writing for the popular media, such as [[Colin Renfrew]].<ref>Renfrew, Colin. (1989). The Origins of Indo-European Languages. /Scientific American/, 261(4), 82–90. In explaining the [[Anatolian hypothesis]], the term "Aryan" is used to denote "all Indo-Europeans"</ref> According to [[Franciscus Bernardus Jacobus Kuiper|F. B. J. Kuiper]], echoes of "the 19th century prejudice about 'northern' Aryans who were confronted on Indian soil with black barbarians [...] can still be heard in some modern studies."{{sfn|Kuiper|1991}}
==Aryanism and racism==
=== Invention of the "Aryan race" ===
{{main|Aryanism|Aryan race}}
==== Origin ====
Racially-oriented interpretations of the Vedic ''Aryas'' as "fair-skinned foreign invaders" coming from the North led to the adoption of the term ''Aryan'' in the West as a [[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}} In 1888 [[Max Müller]], who had himself inaugurated the racial interpretations of the ''[[Rigveda]]'',{{Sfn|Bryant|2001|p=60}} 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".{{Sfn|Mallory|1989|p=269}} But an increasing number of Western writers, especially anthropologists and non-specialists influenced by [[Darwinism|Darwinist]] theories, came to see the ''Aryans'' as a "physical-genetic species" contrasting with the other human races – rather than as an ethnolinguistic category.{{Sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|1985|p=5}}{{Sfn|Arvidsson|2006|p=61}} During the late-19th and early-20th centuries, noted anthropologists [[Theodor Poesche]] and [[Thomas Henry Huxley|Thomas Huxley]] quoted from the [[Rig Veda]] to suggest that the Aryans were blond and tall, with blue eyes and [[dolichocephalic]] skulls.{{Sfn|Mallory|1989|p= [https://archive.org/details/189942876InSearchOfTheIndoEuropeansJPMallory/page/n268/mode/1up 268-269]}}{{Sfn|Arvidsson|2006|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=idTPDI6l0mkC&pg=PA43 43]}} Western anthropologists have continued to refine this idea since the 20th century, while some have dissented.<ref>{{harvnb|Bryant|2001|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Y2jfHlinW4UC&pg=PA60 60–63]}}</ref> Hans Heinrich Hock has questioned that the Aryans were blond or light skinned, since, in his view, "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=[https://books.google.com/books?id=fHYnGde4BS4C&pg=PA8 8]}}</ref> However, according to [[Elena Efimovna Kuzmina|Elena Kuzmina]], there is ample evidence from the [[Avesta]] and the [[Rig Veda]] that the Aryans did have light eyes, light skin, and light hair.{{sfn|Kuzmina|2007|loc=pp. 171-172: "The Aryans in the [[Avesta]] are tall, light-skinned people with light hair; their women were light-eyed, with long, light tresses... In the [[Rigveda]] light skin alongside language is the main feature of the Aryans, differentiating them from the aboriginal [[Dasa|Dáśa-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 groups [[Varna (Hinduism)|varṇa]], literally 'color'. The varṇas of Aryan priests ([[brahmin|brāhmaṇa]]) and warriors ([[Kshatriya|kṣatriyaḥ]] or [[Raja|rājanya]]) were opposed to the varṇas of the aboriginal Dáśa, called 'black-skinned'..."}}
==== Theories of racial supremacy ====
[[File:Arthur_de_Gobineau.jpg|thumb|240x240px|[[Arthur de Gobineau]] (1816–1882)]]
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 [[decadence|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), which [[Stefan Arvidsson]] notes is identified as "one of the most important proto-Nazi texts",{{Sfn|Arvidsson|2006|p=153}}
British-German writer Houston Chamberlain theorized an existential struggle to the 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, by the Jews, or by the [[early Church]] – had "sought to ruin this ideal Germanic world by emancipating the non-German inferiors in the name of a spurious egalitarianism".{{Sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|1985|p=2}}
==== North European hypothesis ====
{{main|North European hypothesis}}
[[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 had originated from South Asia gradually lost support among academics. After the end of the 1860s, alternative models of [[Indo-European migrations]] began to emerge, some of them locating the [[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}}{{request quotation|date=October 2022}} In the early-20th century, German scholar [[Gustaf Kossinna]] (1858-1931), attempting to connect 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 on the Indo-European [[Urheimat]] broadly fell into two camps: Kossinna's followers and those, initially led by [[Otto Schrader (philologist)|Otto Schrader]] (1855–1919), who supported a [[Steppe hypothesis|steppe homeland]] in Eurasia, which became the most widespread hypothesis among scholars.{{Sfn|Mallory|1989|p=269}}
===British Raj===
In India, the [[British Raj|British colonial government]] had followed de Gobineau's arguments along another line, and had fostered the idea of a superior "Aryan race" that co-opted the [[Indian caste system]] in favor of imperial interests.{{sfn|Leopold|1974}}{{sfn|Thapar|1996}} 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.{{sfn|Leopold|1974}}{{sfn|Thapar|1996}}
=== Nazism and white supremacy ===
[[File:Birth of a nation Aryan quote.jpg|thumb|275px|An [[intertitle]] from the [[silent film]] blockbuster ''[[The Birth of a Nation]]'' (1915). "Aryan birthright" is here "white birthright", the "defense" of which unites "[[White race|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.]]
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|blue-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>
Many American [[White Supremacist|white supremacist]] [[Neo-Nazism|neo-Nazi]] groups and prison gangs refer to themselves as 'Aryans', including the [[Aryan Brotherhood]], the [[Aryan Nations]], the [[Aryan Republican Army]], the [[White Aryan Resistance]], or the [[Aryan Circle]].{{sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|2002|pp=232–233}}<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Blazak|first=Randy|date=2009|title=The prison hate machine|journal=Criminology & Public Policy|volume=8|issue=3|pages=633–640|doi=10.1111/j.1745-9133.2009.00579.x|issn=1745-9133}}</ref> Modern nationalist political groups and neo-Pagan movements in Russia claim a direct linkage between themselves as Slavs and the ancient 'Aryans',{{sfn|Anthony|2007|pp=9–11}} and in some Indian nationalist circles, the term 'Aryan' can also be used in reference to an alleged Aryan 'race'.{{Sfn|Witzel|2001|p=4}}
=== "Aryan invasion theory" ===
{{Main|Indo-Aryan_migrations#"Aryan_invasion"|l1="Aryan invasion"}}
Translating the sacred Indian texts of the [[Rigveda|Rig Veda]] in the 1840s, German linguist [[Max Müller|Friedrich Max Muller]] found what he believed was evidence of an ancient invasion of India by Hindu Brahmins, a group which he called "the Arya." In his later works, Muller was careful to note that he thought that Aryan was a linguistic rather than a racial category. Nevertheless, scholars used Muller's invasion theory to propose their own visions of racial conquest through [[South Asia]] and the [[Indian Ocean]]. In 1885, the New Zealand polymath [[Edward 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 as [[John Batchelor (missionary)|John Batchelor]], [[Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau|Armand de Quatrefages]], and [[Daniel Garrison Brinton|Daniel Brinton]] extended this invasion theory to the Philippines, Hawaii, and Japan, identifying indigenous peoples who they believed were the descendants of early Aryan conquerors.<ref name="Robinson2016">{{Cite book|last=Robinson|first=Michael|title=The Lost White Tribe: Explorers, Scientists, and the Theory that Changed a Continent|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2016|isbn=9780199978489|location=New York|pages=147–161}}</ref> With the discovery of the [[Indus Valley civilisation]], mid-20th century archeologist [[Mortimer Wheeler]] argued that the large urban civilisation had been destroyed by the Aryans.<ref name="GLP">{{citation|author=Gregory L. Possehl|title=The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective|page=238|year=2002|publisher=Rowman Altamira|isbn=9780759101722}}</ref> This position was later discredited, with climate aridification becoming the likely cause of the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilisation.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Malik|first1=Nishant|year=2020|title=Uncovering transitions in paleoclimate time series and the climate driven demise of an ancient civilization|url=https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0012059|journal=Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science|series=Nishant Malik, Chaos (2020)|volume=30|issue=8|page=083108|bibcode=2020Chaos..30h3108M|doi=10.1063/5.0012059|pmid=32872795|s2cid=221468124}}</ref> 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.{{sfn|Witzel|2005|p=348}} The term "invasion" does not any longer reflect the scholarly understanding of the Indo-Aryan migrations,{{sfn|Witzel|2005|p=348}} and is now generally regarded as polemical, distracting and unscholarly.
In recent decades, the idea of an Aryan migration into India has been disputed mainly by Indian scholars, who claim various alternate [[Indigenous Aryans]] scenarios contrary to established [[Kurgan model]]. However, these alternate scenarios are rooted in traditional and religious views on Indian history and identity and are universally rejected in mainstream scholarship.{{sfnm|1a1=Bryant|1y=2001|2a1=Bryant|2a2=Patton|2y=2005|3a1=Singh|3y=2008|3p=186|4a1=Witzel|4y=2001}}{{refn|group=note|name="no support"|No support in mainstream scholarship:
* Romila Thapar (2006): "there is no scholar at this time seriously arguing for the indigenous origin of Aryans".{{sfn|Thapar|2006}}
* 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."<ref group=web name="Doniger_2017">Wendy Doniger (2017), [https://inference-review.com/article/another-great-story "Another Great Story"]", review of Asko Parpola's ''The Roots of Hinduism''; in: ''Inference, International Review of Science'', Volume 3, Issue 2</ref>
* 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'&nbsp;... 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&nbsp;... The evidence keeps crushing Hindutva ideas of history."<ref group=web name="Shahane_2019">Girish Shahane (September 14, 2019), [https://scroll.in/article/937043/why-hindutva-supporters-love-to-hate-the-discredited-aryan-invasion-theory ''Why Hindutva supporters love to hate the discredited Aryan Invasion Theory''], Scroll.in</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 book |last=Alinei |first=Mario |year=2002 |chapter=Towards a generalised continuity model for Uralic and Indo European languages |editor-last=Julku |editor-first=Kyösti |title=The Roots of Peoples and Languages of Northern Eurasia IV, Oulu 18.8–20.8.2000 |citeseerx=10.1.1.370.8351<!-- Chapter link --> |location=Oulu, Finland |publisher=Societas Historiae Fenno-Ugricae}}</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>
== See also ==
* [[Aryavarta]], ancient name for the northern Indian subcontinent populated by [[Indo-Aryans]]. It means "Abode of the Aryans."
* [[Airyanem Vaejah]], mythological homeland of the early Iranians, it means expanse of the Aryans
* [[Alans]], an Iranian people and ancestors of Ossetians, their name comes from the word Aryan
* [[Aria (region)|Aria]], province of the [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid]], [[Seleucid Empire|Seleucid]], and [[Parthian Empire]]s
* [[Ariana]], Greco-Roman geographical term, synonym of ''Iran''
* [[Arya Samaj]], considered a [[monotheistic]] Indian [[Hindu reform movement]], their name means "Noble, i.e Aryan, Society"
* [[Graeco-Aryan]]
* [[Indo-Aryan peoples]], speakers of Indo-Aryan languages, they historically referred to themselves as Aryans
* [[Iran (word)|Iran]], literally means "Land of Aryans"
** [[Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr#Terms Eran and Eranshahr|Eranshahr]], official name of [[Sasanian Empire]], literally means "Land/Empire of Iranians"
* [[Iranian peoples]], speakers of Iranian languages, they historically referred to themselves as Aryans
* [[Yamnaya culture]]
== Notes ==
{{reflist|2|group=note}}
'''Web'''
{{reflist|2|group=web}}
== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}
=== Bibliography ===
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
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{{refend}}
==Further reading==
* {{Cite web|url=https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.ca/&httpsredir=1&article=2330&context=ocj|title=A word for Aryan originality|author=A. Kammpier |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book| editor-last=Bronkhorst|editor-first=J.|editor2-last=Deshpande|editor2-first=M.M.|title=Aryan and Non-Aryan in South Asia: Evidence, Interpretation, and Ideology|publisher=Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University|publication-date=1999|isbn=1-888789-04-2|year=1999}}
* {{Cite book|last =Edelman|first =Dzoj (Joy) I.|year =1999|title =On the history of non-decimal systems and their elements in numerals of Aryan languages. In: Jadranka Gvozdanović (ed.), "Numeral Types and Changes Worldwide"|publisher =Walter de Gruyter}}
* {{Cite book|last1=Fussmann|first1=G.|last2=Francfort|first2=H.P.|last3=Kellens|first3=J.|last4=Tremblay|first4=X.|title=Aryas, Aryens et Iraniens en Asie Centrale|date=2005|publisher=Institut Civilisation Indienne|isbn=2-86803-072-6 |ref=none}}
* {{Cite journal|first1 =Vyacheslav V.| last1 =Ivanov|first2 =Thomas|last2 =Gamkrelidze|title =The Early History of Indo-European Languages|journal =Scientific American|volume =262|issue =3|pages =110–116|year =<!--March--> 1990|doi =10.1038/scientificamerican0390-110 |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book|last1=Lincoln|first1=Bruce|title=Theorizing Myth: Narrative, Ideology, and Scholarship|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1999 |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book|last1=Morey|first1=Peter|last2=Tickell|first2=Alex|title=Alternative Indias: Writing, Nation and Communalism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hf0geg3kl7sC|year=2005|publisher=Rodopi|isbn=90-420-1927-1 |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book|last=Sugirtharajah|first=Sharada|title=Imagining Hinduism: A Postcolonial Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aIX4JYZHW2MC|year=2003|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-203-63411-0 |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book|last=Tickell|first=A|year=2005|chapter=The Discovery of Aryavarta: Hindu Nationalism and Early Indian Fiction in English|title=Alternative Indias: Writing, Nation and Communalism|editor1=Peter Morey|editor2=Alex Tickell|pages=25–53 |ref=none}}
{{Zoroastrianism}}
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{{Buddhism topics}}
{{Jainism topics}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Etymologies]]
[[Category:Esoteric anthropogenesis]]
[[Category:Ancient peoples]]
[[Category:Indo-Iranian peoples]]
[[Category:History of Iran]]
[[Category:Ancient India]]
[[Category:Avesta]]
[[Category:Vedas]]
[[Category:Indo-European linguistics]]