Aryan

**Aryan** is the name referring to an ancient people speaking Indo-Iranic languages. Descendants of the Aryans include speakers of Sanskrit and Avestan, languages related to the Indo-European language family. Ancient Persians and Vedic peoples used the name _Aryan_ to mean nobles. The name "Iran" itself means the _Land of the Aryans_.

The Avestan name _Airiianəm vaēǰō_ "Aryan expanse" is a reference in the Zoroastrian Avesta (Vendidad, Fargard 1) to the Aryans’ mother country and one of Ahura Mazda's "sixteen perfect lands". Other Avestan names are _airyō.šayana_, the “Aryan people”, and _airyā daiŋˊhāvā_, “the Aryan lands”. These names were known to old Greek writers as _Ariana_. Also the Sanskrit name _Aryavarta_ "Land of the Aryans", was a region in north of today's India. The Middle Persian name of the Sassanian Empire, an empire that ruled Persia from the 3rd century to the 7th century, was _Eran-shar_ meaning the _Aryan Empire_.  Today, the name _Iran_ is simply the Persian word for _Aryan_.

Sanskrit is the oldest written language of the Indo-European family of languages.  The Vedas are composed in this language. Some portions of the Rigveda are thought to be the oldest writing in any Indo-European language.

## Aryan equated with Indo-European

In the late 18th century, Europeans began using the term _Aryan_ to refer to both the original prehistoric Proto-Indo-Europeans and the modern Indo-European peoples (Caucasians who speak Indo-European languages). This was the most common definition of _Aryan_ in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

## Nazism

In the late 19th century, some Europeans began to use the name _Aryan_ for only the Nordic peoples of Europe (one branch of the Indo-European peoples), as a "pure," "noble" and "superior" race they claimed were descended from the original Aryans.

The theory that the Aryans first came from Europe became especially accepted in Germany. It was widely believed that the "Vedic Aryans" were the same people as the Goths, Vandals and other ancient Germanic peoples who brought the Western Roman Empire to an end. This idea was often mixed with anti-Semitic ideas. The Master Race theory became a main idea for Nazis. After the Nazis took power in Germany in 1933, these ideas led to horrible persecutions of the Jews which culminated in the Holocaust.

## Modern view

Modern scientists have discredited the race conceptions of Nazi theory, some of whom also disagree with the claim that the original Aryans ever lived in Europe. Most other scientists maintain that the original Proto-Indo-Europeans lived in the area east of Ukraine and north of the Caucasus Mountains about 5,000 years ago and that the original Aryans (_Indo-Iranians,_ or eastern branch of the Indo-European peoples) migrated east to Iran and India from there, and the original ancestors of the modern _European peoples_ (the western branch of the Indo-European peoples) migrated west from there. This is called the Kurgan hypothesis.

## Related pages

- Indo-European languages
- Indo-Iranian people
- Race (sociology)
- Apartheid
- Nazis
- Discrimination
- Celts

## Further reading

- Aryans, Harvesters and Nomads  (Thursday July 6 2.00 –5.00) Convenor: Prof. Asko Parpola: Department of Asian & African Studies University of Helsinki

## Other websites

- Who Were the Aryans?