page_title: Aryan
hierarchical_section_title: Aryan
caption_attribution_description: English: Medes and Persians at the eastern stairs of the Apadana in Persepolis, Iran. فارسی: مادها و پارس‌ها در پلکان شرقی آپادانای تخت جمشید Nederlands: Meden en Perzen hand in hand. Afbeelding op de oostelijke trappen van de Apadana, Persepolis, Iran.
context_page_description: "Aryan" has its roots as a term used as a self-designation by Indo-Iranian people. The term was used by the Indo-Aryan people of the Vedic period in Ancient India as a religious label for themselves and as well as the geographic region known as Āryāvarta, where Indo-Aryan culture is based. The Iranian people used the term as an ethnic label for themselves in the Avesta scriptures, and the word forms the etymological source of the country name Iran.
  Although the root *h₄erós is most likely of Proto-Indo-European origin, the use of Arya as a self-designation is only attested among Indo-Iranian peoples, and it is not known if PIE speakers had a term to designate themselves as a group. Scholars point out that, even in ancient times, the idea of being an "Aryan" was religious, cultural and linguistic, not racial.
context_section_description: "Aryan" (/ˈɛəriən/) has its roots as a term used as a self-designation by Indo-Iranian people. The term was used by the Indo-Aryan people of the Vedic period in Ancient India as a religious label for themselves and as well as the geographic region known as Āryāvarta, where Indo-Aryan culture is based (in this region). The Iranian people used the term as an ethnic label for themselves in the Avesta scriptures, and the word forms the etymological source of the country name Iran.
  Although the root *h₄erós (a "member of one’s own group, in contrast to an outsider") is most likely of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) origin, the use of Arya as a self-designation is only attested among Indo-Iranian peoples, and it is not known if PIE speakers had a term to designate themselves as a group. Scholars point out that, even in ancient times, the idea of being an "Aryan" was religious, cultural and linguistic, not racial.
  Drawing on misinterpreted references in the Rig Veda by Western scholars in the 19th century, the term "Aryan" was adopted as a racial category through the works of Arthur de Gobineau, whose ideology of race was based on an idea of blond northern European "Aryans" who had migrated across the world and founded all major civilizations, before being diluted through racial mixing with local populations.
  Through  the works of Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Gobineau's ideas later influenced the Nazi racial ideology which saw "Aryan peoples" as innately superior to other putative racial groups. The atrocities committed in the name of this racial ideology have led academics to avoid the term "Aryan", which has been replaced in some cases by "Indo-Iranian".
caption: Ancient Iranian Aryans
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