Lectures on The Science of Language 27

Lectures on The Science of Language 27

The very name of _Arya_ belongs to this history, and I shall devote the

rest of this lecture to tracing the origin and gradual spreading of this

old word. I had intended to include, in to-day’s lecture, a short account

of _comparative mythology_, a branch of our science which restores the

original form and meaning of decayed words by the same means by which

comparative grammar recovers the original form and meaning of

terminations. But my time is too limited; and, as I have been asked

repeatedly why I applied the name of _Aryan_ to that family of language

which we have just examined, I feel that I am bound to give an answer.

 

_Ârya_ is a Sanskrit word, and in the later Sanskrit it means _noble_, _of

a good family_. It was, however, originally a national name, and we see

traces of it as late as the Law-book of the Mânavas, where India is still

called _Ârya-âvarta_, the abode of the _Âryas_.(220) In the old Sanskrit,

in the hymns of the Veda, _ârya_ occurs frequently as a national name and

as a name of honor, comprising the worshippers of the gods of the

Brahmans, as opposed to their enemies, who are called in the Veda

_Dasyus_. Thus one of the gods, _Indra_, who, in some respects, answers to

the Greek Zeus, is invoked in the following words (Rigveda, i. 57, 8):

“Know thou the Âryas, O Indra, and they who are Dasyus; punish the

lawless, and deliver them unto thy servant! Be thou the mighty helper of

the worshippers, and I will praise all these thy deeds at the festivals.”

 

In the later dogmatic literature of the Vedic age, the name of Ârya is

distinctly appropriated to the three first castes—the Brahmans,

Kshatriyas, Vaiśyas—as opposed to the fourth, or the Śûdras. In the

Śatapatha-Brâhmaņa it is laid down distinctly: “Âryas are only the

Brahmans, the Kshatriyas, and Vaiśyas, for they are admitted to the

sacrifices. They shall not speak with everybody, but only with the

Brahman, the Kshatriya, and the Vaiśya. If they should fall into a

conversation with a Śûdra, let them say to another man, ‘Tell this Śûdra

so.’ This is the law.”

 

In the Atharva-veda (iv. 20, 4; xix. 62, 1) __EXPRESSION__s occur such as,

“seeing all things, whether Śûdra or Ârya,” where Śûdra and Ârya are meant

to express the whole of mankind.

 

This word _ârya_ with a long _â_ is derived from _arya_ with a short _a_,

and this name _arya_ is applied in the later Sanskrit to a Vaiśya, or a

member of the third caste.(221) What is called the third class must

originally have constituted the large majority of the Brahmanic society,

for all who were not soldiers or priests, were Vaiśyas. We may well

understand, therefore, how a name, originally applied to the cultivators

of the soil and householders, should in time have become a general name

for all Aryans.(222) Why the householders were called _arya_ is a question

which would carry us too far at present. I can only state that the

etymological signification of Arya seems to be “one who ploughs or tills,”

and that it is connected with the root of _arare_. The Aryans would seem

to have chosen this name for themselves as opposed to the nomadic races,

_the Turanians_, whose original name _Tura_ implies the swiftness of the

horseman.

 

In India, as we saw, the name of Ârya, as a national name, fell into

oblivion in later times, and was preserved only in the term Âryâvarta, the

abode of the Aryans. But it was more faithfully preserved by the

Zoroastrians who migrated from India to the north-west, and whose religion

has been preserved to us in the Zend-avesta, though in fragments only. Now

_Airya_ in Zend means venerable, and is at the same time the name of the

people.(223) In the first chapter of the Vendidád, where Ahuramazda

explains to Zarathustra the order in which he created the earth, sixteen

countries are mentioned, each, when created by Ahuramazda, being pure and

perfect; but each being tainted in turn by Angro mainyus or Ahriman. Now

the first of these countries is called _Airyanem vaêjô_, _Arianum semen_,

the Aryan seed, and its position must have been as far east as the western

slopes of the Belurtag and Mustag, near the sources of the Oxus and

Yaxartes, the highest elevation of Central Asia.(224) From this country,

which is called their seed, the Aryans advanced towards the south and

west, and in the Zend-avesta the whole extent of country occupied by the

Aryans is likewise called _Airyâ_. A line drawn from India along the

Paropamisus and Caucasus Indicus in the east, following in the north the

direction between the Oxus and Yaxartes,(225) then running along the

Caspian Sea, so as to include Hyrcania and Râgha, then turning south-east

on the borders of Nisaea, Aria (_i.e._ Haria), and the countries washed by

the Etymandrus and Arachotus, would indicate the general horizon of the

Zoroastrian world. It would be what is called in the fourth cardé of the

Yasht of Mithra, “the whole space of Aria,” _vîśpem airyô-śayanem_ (totum

Ariæ situm).(226) Opposed to the Aryan we find in the Zend-avesta the

non-Aryan countries (anairyâo dainhâvô),(227) and traces of this name are

found in the Ἀναριάκαι, a people and town on the frontiers of

Hyrcania.(228) Greek geographers use the name of Ariana in a wider sense

even than the Zend-avesta. All the country between the Indian Ocean in the

south and the Indus in the east, the Hindu-kush and Paropamisus in the

north, the Caspian gates, Karamania, and the mouth of the Persian gulf in

the west, is included by Strabo (xv. 2) under the name of Ariana; and

Bactria is thus called(229) by him “the ornament of the whole of Ariana.”

As the Zoroastrian religion spread westward, Persia, Elymais, and Media

all claimed for themselves the Aryan title. Hellanicus, who wrote before

Herodotus, knows of Aria as a name of Persia.(230) Herodotus (vii. 62)

attests that the Medians called themselves Arii; and even for Atropatene,

the northernmost part of Media, the name of Ariania (not Aria) has been

preserved by Stephanus Byzantinus. As to Elymais its name has been derived

from _Ailama_, a supposed corruption of _Airyama_.(231) The Persians,

Medians, Bactrians, and Sogdians all spoke, as late as the time of

Strabo,(232) nearly the same language, and we may well understand,

therefore, that they should have claimed for themselves one common name,

in opposition to the hostile tribes of Turan.

 

That _Aryan_ was used as a title of honor in the Persian empire is clearly

shown by the cuneiform inscriptions of Darius. He calls himself _Ariya_

and _Ariya-chitra_, an Aryan and of Aryan descent; and Ahuramazda, or, as

he is called by Darius, Auramazda, is rendered in the Turanian translation

of the inscription of Behistun, “the god of the Aryans.” Many historical

names of the Persians contain the same element. The great-grandfather of

Darius is called in the inscriptions Ariyârâmna, the Greek _Ariaramnēs_

(Herod, vii. 90). Ariobarzanēs (_i.e._ Euergetēs), Ariomanes (_i.e._

Eumenēs), Ariomardos, all show the same origin.(233)

 

About the same time as these inscriptions, Eudemos, a pupil of Aristotle,

as quoted by Damascius, speaks of “the Magi and the whole Aryan

race,”(234) evidently using Aryan in the same sense in which the

Zend-avesta spoke of “the whole country of Aria.”

 

And when, after years of foreign invasion and occupation, Persia rose

again under the sceptre of the Sassanians to be a national kingdom, we

find the new national kings the worshippers of Masdanes, calling

themselves, in the inscriptions deciphered by De Sacy,(235) “Kings of the

Aryan and un-Aryan races;” in Pehlevi, _Irân va Anirân_; in Greek, Ἀριάνων

καὶ Ἀναριάνων.

 

The modern name of Irán for Persia still keeps up the memory of this

ancient title.

 

In the name of _Armenia_ the same element of _Arya_ has been supposed to

exist.(236) The name of Armenia, however, does not occur in Zend, and the

name _Armina_, which is used for Armenia in the cuneiform inscriptions, is

of doubtful etymology.(237) In the language of Armenia, _ari_ is used in

the widest sense for Aryan or Iranian; it means also brave, and is applied

more especially to the Medians.(238) The word _arya_, therefore, though

not contained in the name of Armenia, can be proved to have existed in the

Armenian language as a national and honorable name.

 

West of Armenia, on the borders of the Caspian Sea, we find the ancient

name of _Albania_. The Armenians call the Albanians _Aghovan_, and as _gh_

in Armenian stands for _r_ or _l_, it has been conjectured by Boré, that

in _Aghovan_ also the name of Aria is contained. This seems doubtful. But

in the valleys of the Caucasus we meet with an Aryan race speaking an

Aryan language, the _Os_ of _Ossethi_, and they call themselves

_Iron_.(239)

 

Along the Caspian, and in the country washed by the Oxus and Yaxartes,

Aryan and non-Aryan tribes were mingled together for centuries. Though the

relation between Aryans and Turanians is hostile, and though there were

continual wars between them, as we learn from the great Persian epic, the

Shahnámeh, it does not follow that all the nomad races who infested the

settlements of the Aryans, were of Tatar blood and speech. Turvaśa and his

descendants, who represent the Turanians, are described in the later epic

poems of India as cursed and deprived of their inheritance in India. But

in the Vedas Turvaśa is represented as worshipping Aryan gods. Even in the

Shahnámeh, Persian heroes go over to the Turanians and lead them against

Iran, very much as Coriolanus led the Samnites against Rome. We may thus

understand why so many Turanian or Scythian names, mentioned by Greek

writers, should show evident traces of Aryan origin. _Aspa_ was the

Persian name for _horse_, and in the Scythian names _Aspabota_,

_Aspakara_, and _Asparatha_,(240) we can hardly fail to recognize the same

element. Even the name of the Aspasian mountains, placed by Ptolemy in

Scythia, indicates a similar origin. Nor is the word Arya unknown beyond

the Oxus. There is a people called _Ariacœ_,(241) another called

_Antariani_.(242) A king of the Scythians, at the time of Darius, was

called _Ariantes_. A cotemporary of Xerxes is known by the name of

_Aripithes_ (_i.e._ Sanskrit, _aryapati_; Zend, _airyapaiti_); and

_Spargapithes_ seems to have some connection with the Sanskrit

_svargapati_, lord of heaven.

 

We have thus traced the name of _Ârya_ from India to the west, from

Âryâvarta to Ariana, Persia, Media, more doubtfully to Armenia and

Albania, to the Iron in the Caucasus, and to some of the nomad tribes in

Transoxiana. As we approach Europe the traces of this name grow fainter,

yet they are not altogether lost.

 

Two roads were open to the Aryans of Asia in their westward migrations.

One through Chorasan(243) to the north, through what is now called Russia,

and thence to the shores of the Black Sea and Thrace. Another from

Armenia, across the Caucasus or across the Black Sea to Northern Greece,

and along the Danube to Germany. Now on the former road the Aryans left a

trace of their migration in the old name of Thrace which was _Aria_;(244)

on the latter we meet in the eastern part of Germany, near the Vistula,

with a German tribe called _Arii_. And as in Persia we found many proper