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ARYAN
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ARYAN , a See also:term which has been used in a confusing variety of significations by different philologists. By Max See also: The See also:blue-eyed and See also:fair-haired Scandinavians may have been conquerors or conquered, they may have adopted the language of their darker lords or their subjects, or See also:vice versa. I assert nothing beyond their language when I See also:call them Hindus, Greeks, Romans, Germans, Celts and Slaves; and in that sense, and in that sense only, do I say that even the blackest Hindus represent an earlier See also:stage of Aryan speech and thought than the fairest Scandinavians . . . To me an ethnologist who speaks of Aryan See also:race, Aryan blood, Aryan eyes and hair, is as See also:great a sinner as a linguist who speaks of a See also:dolichocephalic See also:dictionary or a See also:brachycephalic grammar." From the popularity of Max Muller's See also:works on See also:comparative See also:philology this is the use of the word which is most See also:familiar to the general public. The arguments in support of this use are set forth by him in the latter See also:part of lecture vi. of the Lectures on the See also:Science of Language (first See also:series) and as an appendix to See also:chap. vii. of the final edition (i. pp. 291 ff.). The See also:Sanskrit usage of the word is fully illustrated by him from the See also:early Sanskrit writings in the See also:article " Aryan " in the ninth edition of this See also:encyclopaedia. From the earliest occurrences of the word it is clear that it was used as a See also:national name not only in See also:India but also in See also:Bactria and See also:Persia (in Sanskrit drya- and arya-, in Zend airya-, in Old See also:Persian ariya-). That it is in any way connected with a Sanskrit word for See also:earth, ira, as Max Muller asserts, is far from certain. As Spiegel remarks (See also:Die arische Periode, p. ro5), though it is easy enough to connect the word with a See also:root ar-, there are several roots of that See also:form which have different meanings, and there is no certain criterion whereby to decide to which of them it is related. Nor are the other connexions for the word outside this See also:group See also:free from doubt. It is, however, certain that the ,connexion with See also:Erin (See also:Ireland), which Pictet in his article " Iren and Arier " (See also:Kuhn and See also:Schleicher's Beitrage, i. x858, pp. 81 ff.) sought to establish, is impossible (Whitley See also:Stokes in Max Muller's Lectures, 1891, i. pp. 299 f.), though the word may have the same origin as the Ario- of names like Ariovistus, which is found in both See also:Celtic and Germanic words (Uhlenbeck, Kurzgefasstes etymologisches Worterbuch der altindischen Sprache, s.v.). The name of See also:Armenia (Old Persian Armina-), which has often been connected, is of uncertain origin. Within Sanskrit itself probably two words have to be distinguished: (t) drya, the origin of Aryan, from which the usual term drya is a derivative; (2) aryl, which frequently appears in the Rig Veda as an epithet of deities. In many passages, however, aryls may equally well be the genitive of See also:ari, which is explained as " active, devoted, pious." Even in this word probably two originally See also:separate words have to be distinguished, for the further meanings which Grassmann in his dictionary to the Rig Veda attaches to it, viz. " greedy " (for treasure and for See also:battle), " godless," " enemy," seem more appropriately to be derived from the same source as the See also:Greek i'pi-s, " strife." The word drya- is not found as a national name in the Rig Veda, but appears in the Vdjasaneyi-sainhita, where it is explained by Mahidhara as Vaisya-, a See also:cultivator or a See also:man of the third among the See also:original four classes of the See also:population. So in the Atharva Veda (iv. 20. 4; xix. 62. 1) it is contrasted with the Sudra or See also:fourth class (Spiegel, Arische Periode, p. 102). 
In the Avesta, airya- is found both as See also:adjective and substantive in the sense of Aryan, but no See also:light is thrown upon the See also:history of the word. See also:Darius describes himself in an inscription as of Aryan stock, Darayahvahus ariyahbiz9''ah In the Avesta the derivative airyana- is also found in the sense of Aryan. In both India and Persia a word is found (Skt. aryaman-; Zend airya3nan-)which is apparently of the same origin. In both Sanskrit and Zend it means something like " comrade " or " bosom friend," but in Zend is used of the priestly or highest class. In Sanskrit, besides this use in which it is contrasted with the Dasa or Ddsyu, the enemies, the earlier inhabitants, the word is often used for the bridegroom's spokesman, and in both languages is also employed as the name of a divine being. In the Rig Veda, Aryaman- as a deity is most frequently coupled with See also:Mitra and See also:Varuna (Grassmann, Worterbuch, s.v.); in Zend, according to Bartholomae (Altiranisches Worterbuch, s.v.), from the earliest literature, the Gathas, there is nothing definite to be learnt regarding Airyaman. Whatever the origin of arya-, however, it is clear that it is a word with dignified associations, by which the peoples belonging to the Eastern See also:section of the Indo-Europeans were proud to call themselves. It is now used uniformly by scholars to indicate the Eastern See also:branch as a whole, a See also:compound, Indo-Aryan, being employed for that part of the Eastern branch which settled in India to distinguish them from the Iranians (See also:Iran is of the same origin), who remained in Bactria and Persia, while Aryo-See also:Indian is sometimes employed to distinguish the Indian See also:people of this stock from the See also:Dravidian and other See also:stocks which also inhabit parts of the Indian See also:peninsula. Of the stages in the occupation of the Iranian table-See also:land by the Aryan people nothing is known, the people themselves having apparently no tradition of a See also:time when they did not hold these territories (Spiegel, Arische Periode, p. 319). Though the Hindus have no tradition of their invasion of India, it is certain that they are not an indigenous people, and, if they are not, it is dear that they could have come in no other direction See also:save from the other See also:side of the See also:Hindu Kush. At the See also:period of their earliest literature, which may be assigned roughly to about x000 B.C., they were still settled in the valley of the See also:Indus, and at this time the separation probably had not See also:long taken See also:place, the Eastern portion of the stock having pushed their way along the See also:Kabul valley into the open See also:country of the Indus. According to Prp E. W. See also:Hopkins (India Old and New, root, p. 31) the Rig Mawas composed in the See also:district about See also:Umballa. He argues that the people must have been then to the See also:west of the great See also:rivers, otherwise the See also:dawn could not be addressed as one who " in shining light, before the See also:wind arises, comes gleaming over the See also:waters, making See also:good paths." The vocabulary is still largely the same; whole sentences can be transliterated from one language to the other merely by making See also:regular phonetic changes and without the variation of a single word (for examples see Bartholomae, Handbuch der altiranischen Dialekte, 1883, p. v.; See also:Williams See also:Jackson, Avesta Grammar, 1892,pp. xxxi. f.; Grundriss der iranischen Philologie, 1895, i. P. I). It is noteworthy that it is those who remain behind whose language has undergone most See also:change. By four well-marked characteristics the Aryan group is easily distinguishable from the other Indo-European languages. (1) By the confusion of original e and o, both long and short, with the original long and short a See also:sound; (2) the short schwa-sound a is represented here, and in this group only, by i (pita, " See also:father," as compared with irarjjp, &c.); (3) original s after i, u and some consonants becomes s; (4) the genitive plural of stems ending in a vowel has a suffix-ndm borrowed by See also:analogy from the stems ending in -n (Skt. dsvdneim, " of horses "; Zend aspanam; Old Persian aspdnam). The distinctions between Sanskrit and Iranian are also clear. (x) The Aryan voiced aspirates gh, dh, bh, which survive in Sanskrit, are confused in Iranian with original g, d, b, and further changes take place in the language of the later parts of the Avesta; (2) the Aryan breathed aspirates kh, th, ph, except in See also:combination with certain consonants, become spirants in Iranian; (3) Aryan s becomes h initially before vowels in Iranian and also in certain cases medially, Iranian in these respects resembling Greek (cf. Skt. sapid; Zend hapta; Gr. E7rra, " seven 'p); (4) in Zend there are many vowel changes which it does not See also:share with Old Persian. Some of these arise from the umlaut or epenthesis which is so prevalent, and which we have already seen in airya- as compared with the Skt. drya. In other respects the languages are remarkably alike, the only striking difference being in the See also:numeral " one "—Skt. eka-; Zend aeva-; Old Persian aiva-, where the Iranian group has the same See also:stem as that seen in the Greek ot(F)o-s, " alone."
For the subdivisions of the two See also:groups see the articles on PERSIA: Language, and INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES. Dr Grierson has shown in his monograph on " The Pisaca Languages of See also:North-Western India " (Royal See also:Asiatic Society, 1906) that there is good See also:reason for regarding various dialects of the north-western frontier (See also:Kafiristan, See also:Chitral, See also:Gilgit, See also:Dardistan) as a separate group descended from Aryan but See also:independent of either Sanskrit or Iranian.
The history of the separation of the Aryan from the other Indo-European languages is not yet clear (see INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES). Various attempts have been made, with little success, to identify fragments of unknown languages in See also:cuneiform See also:inscriptions with members of this group. The investigation has entered a new and more favourable stage as the result of the discoveries made by See also:German excavators at Boghaz Keui (said to be identical with See also:Herodotus' See also:Pteria in See also:Cappadocia), where See also:treaties between the See also: 24 ff.). Still further light is to be expected when the vast collections of the German expedition to Turfan (See also:Turkestan) have been sifted. Up to 1909 only a preliminary See also:account had been given of Tocharish, a hitherto unknown Indo-European language, which is reported to be in some respects more akin to the Western groups than to Aryan. But further investigation is still required (see E. Sieg and W. Siegling, " Tocharisch, die Sprache der Indoskythen," in Sitzungsberichte der Berl. Akad. (See also:July 19(38, pp. 915 ff.). (P. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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