Anthony, "the Rigveda and Avesta agreed that the essence of their shared parental Indo-Iranian identity was linguistic and ritual, not racial. The term did not have any racial connotation, which only emerged later in the works of 19th-century Western writers. These two terms derive from the reconstructed Proto-Indo-Iranian stem * arya- or * āryo-, which was probably the name used by the prehistoric Indo-Iranian peoples to designate themselves as an ethnocultural group. ![]() It designated those who belonged to the 'Aryan' (Iranian) ethnic stock, spoke the language and followed the religion of the 'Aryas'. 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 an-airya ('non-Arya'). By the time of the Buddha (5th–4th century BCE), it took the meaning of 'noble'. The Sanskrit word ā́rya ( 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'). The Sanskrit word ā́rya is rendered as 'noble' in William Jones' 1794 translation of the Indian Laws of Manu, and the English Aryan (originally spelt Arian) appeared a few decades later, first as an adjective in 1839, then as a noun in 1851. A German translation of Anquetil-Duperron's work led to the introduction of the term Arier in 1776. The term Arya was first rendered into a modern European language in 1771 as Aryens by French Indologist Abraham-Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron, who rightly compared the Greek arioi with the Avestan airya and the country name Iran. As is also the case for all other Old Iranian language usage, the arya of the inscription does not signify anything but " Iranian". Etymology 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 " (§ 70). The atrocities committed in the name of Aryanist supremacist ideologies have led academics to generally avoid using 'Aryan' as a stand-alone ethnolinguistic term, which has been replaced in most cases by ' Indo-Iranian', although the Indic branch is still known as ' Indo-Aryan'. Those classified as 'non-Aryans,' especially Jews, were discriminated against before suffering the systematic mass killing known as the Holocaust. ![]() Under Nazi rule (1933–1945), the term officially applied to most inhabitants of Germany excluding Jews, Roma, and Slavs (mostly Czechs, Poles or Russians). In the 1850s, the term ' Aryan' was adopted as a racial category by the aristocratic French writer Arthur de Gobineau, who, through the later works of his followers such as Houston Stewart Chamberlain, influenced the Nazi racial ideology. ![]() In any case, scholars point out that, even in ancient times, the idea of being an Aryan was religious, cultural, and linguistic, not racial. Īlthough the stem * arya may be of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) origin, its use as an ethnocultural self-designation is only attested among Indo-Iranian peoples and there is no evidence of its use among 'Proto-Indo-Europeans'. The stem also forms the etymological source of place names such as Alania ( * Aryāna-) and Iran ( * Aryānām). ![]() In the Avesta scriptures, ancient Iranian peoples similarly used the term airya to designate themselves as an ethnic group, and in reference to their mythical homeland, Airyanǝm Vaēǰō ('expanse of the Aryas' or 'stretch of the Aryas'). In Ancient India, the term ā́rya was used by the Indo-Aryan speakers of the Vedic period as an endonym (self-designation) and in reference to a region known as Āryāvarta ('abode of the Aryas'), where the Indo-Aryan culture emerged. Aryan or Arya ( / ˈ ɛər i ə n/ Indo-Iranian * arya) is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' ( * an-arya).
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