Arya

:''This article is about the Sanskrit term Arya. For the English term Aryan, see Aryan. For linguistic uses, see Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Iranian languages and Indo-European languages.'' Arya (''�rya-'') is a Sanskrit term used by Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and others. It means "master, lord" or can refer to any Vaishya. In Avestan, the cognate word is an ''n''-stem, ''airyan-''. The honorific term ''-ji'' (which is used for example in Ghandhji), is derived from Arya (through the Pali aya or aja and Apabhramsa aje). The important Sanskrit lexicon Amarakosha (ca. 450 AD) defines Aryan as: "An Arya is one who hails from a noble family, of gentle behavior and demeanor, good-natured and of righteous conduct. (mahakula kulinarya sabhya sajjana sadhavah.)" Arya is also a term that has been used by Indians to refer to themselves. The Sanskrit texts use the word Arya (not Hindu) for Indians. The more common term Hindu (from Sindhu-river), on the other hand, was first used by foreigners to designate Indians. Central and North India was at one time called Aryavarta ("land of Aryas"). Vivekananda remarked: "...it is the Hindus who have all along called themselves Aryas. Whether of pure or mixed blood, the Hindus are Aryas; there it rests." (Vivekananda, Complete Works vol.5) Asanga is the name of a Buddhist philosopher and author ([http://www.kul.lublin.pl/efk/angielski/hasla/a/asanga.html]), and Aryabhata is the name of an Indian mathematician. == Religious and spiritual uses == The term Arya is often used in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Zoroastrian texts. In the spiritual context it can be applied to Rishis or to someone who has has mastered the four noble truths and entered upon the spiritual path. The religions of India are sometimes called collectively "Arya Dharma", a term that includes the religions that originated in India (e.g. Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma), Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism). The term Aryan can also be applied to an approach to religion or to religious systems that are similar to Hinduism or Buddhism (e.g. Taoism, Paganism, Zoroastrianism). Swami Dayananda founded the religious organisation Arya Samaj in 1875. In Buddhism, the four noble truths are called the Arya Satyani (catvAri-Arya-satyAni), the noble eightfold path is called the Aryamarga (Arya-ashtANgika-mArga, in Pali:Ariyamagga). The Ramayana describes Rama as: ''arya sarva samascaiva sadaiva priyadarsanah'' "Arya, who worked for the equality of all and was dear to everyone." According to Swami Vivekananda, "A child materially born is not an Aryan; the child born in spirituality is an Aryan.� He further elaborated, referring to the Manu Smriti: "Says our great law-giver, Manu, giving the definition of an Aryan, "He is the Aryan, who is born through prayer". Every child not born through prayer is illegitimate, according to the great law-giver. The child must be prayed for. Those children that come with curses, that slip into the world, just in a moment of inadvertence, because that could not be prevented - what can we expect of such progeny?..."(Swami Vivekananda, Complete Works vol.8) The term Arya is used 36 times in 34 hymns in the Rig Veda. According to Talageri (2000, The Rig Veda-A historical analysis) "the particular Vedic Aryans of the Rigveda were one section among these Purus, who called themselves Bharatas." Thus it is possible, according to Talageri, that at one point of time Arya did refer to a specific tribe. == See also == *Aryan **Aryan Race **Indo-Aryans **Indo-Aryan languages **Indo-Iranian **Aryan Invasion Theory *Dasa Concepts in Hinduism Indian history

Arya

Care is needed that this doesn't develop into a pov fork of Arya. The scope of this article should be to discuss the meaning of ''Sanskrit'' arya in Hinduism/Buddhism. Nazi stuff and ethnic interpretations belong on Arya. User:Dbachmann User_talk:Dbachmann 06:40, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC) :::Adding this article is a great idea. Do you mean a "POV fork of Aryan"? Nazi stuff should be confined to Aryan and Aryan race for sure, but I think it's reasonable to included discussion of the Vedic peoples and Iranian peoples here, as sources of the Sanskrit term "Arya", as long as it does not become the principal content of the article. Some overlap between articles is surely not a problem. User:Paul Barlow 15:26, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC) :I agree that it is unfortunately not always clear what belongs in which article. I think there is a lot of information that is specific primarly to the Sanskrit term Arya and that should be put in an "Arya" article, and not necessarly in the more general Aryan article, that also discusses linguistic and ethnical/racial uses of the word. But unfortunately there's also a lot of information that could belong to both articles (Aryan or Arya). Aryan has three main meanings, a religious/spiritual, a linguistic, and an ethnical/racial meaning), and some of these interpretaions could belong to both articles. (Probably, there should also be a section on Avestan/Iranian meanings of "Arya" in the Arya article. However, in the Avesta Aryan seems to be spelled as airyanem [airyana] or airyan�m [airya].) :Obviously, the Arya article should include information that is specifically related to the Sanskrit term Arya, especially Hindu, Buddhist and Jain uses and meanings of the word. :Maybe the Arya article should also include the information that refers specifically to the "Vedic Aryans", i.e. the Aryas of the Rig Veda and later texts. The ethnical interpretations in the Arya article refers specifically to the "Vedic Aryans" or Aryas of India, but they could also be put in the Aryan article because (more general) racial connotations (of Indo-Europeans generally) are already discussed there. Thus maybe it is better if the ethnical interpretations would be merged with the Aryan article, so they would be in only one instead of two articles. So I think it is not not easy to decide if such information (on ethnical interpretations of the Aryas) should belong to the Arya article (which already discusses the Vedic Aryans) or to the Aryan article (which already discusses racial connotations), but I wouldn't object to merge such information in one single article, if it should be necessary. --User:Machaon 12:11, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC) :If you think that the "ethnical" information should be merged into one single article, that would be ok with me. I placed it in this article, because this article concerns itself more with the Vedic Aryans and the Aryas of India. The Aryan article is, I think, generally more focussed on Indo-European topics, including IE-languages, while the AIT article is more focussed on the origin and age of Vedic culture than on "racial" interpretations of the term Arya. But I think that "Arya" should be more than just a redirect, especially information regarding Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Zorastrian uses and meanings of the word, that would be too detailed for the Aryan article, could be further elaborated in more detail in a "Sanksrit" Arya article. Regards, --User:Machaon 15:35, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC) :::Well - having now read this article, I see that the great majority of it seems to be taken up with debate about such matters as the hair-colour and skin-colour of the Vedic Aryas. Surely the whole point of this was to discuss the ''spiritual'' and ''social'' meaning of Arya, rather than the issue of race. Most of these speculations should be in the Aryan race page. I think it's reasonble to have a section on the Vedic Arya, but not all this stuff, especially when the likes of Talageri are quoted as authorities! I'm a little confused by this sentence placed in the intro "It means "master, lord" or can refer to any Vaishya." My understanding is that it refers - in this usage - to anyone who is "twice born", that is, to anyone who is a Vaishya ''or above'' in the Varna system. Is that what is meant? User:Paul Barlow 16:32, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::If it should be moved to Aryan race, it should be taken care not to suggest that the ancient aryas had a conception of "Race" that is similar to the modern usage of the word. As I noted above, if it should make more sense to include it in the article Aryan, Aryan race (or AIT), I wouldn't object to such a move, although I don't think it would be entirely wrong to have it in this article. So if someone considers that it should belong to one of these articles, please move it there. Regarding Talageri, I only cited him in this sentence: "According to Talageri (2000) "the particular Vedic Aryans of the Rigveda were one section among these Purus, who called themselves Bharatas." Thus, it is possible that at one point of time, Arya did refer to a specific tribe.", and I don't know why you consider him as a "bad" authority. I don't know his works very well, but his suggestion about the rigvedic Aryans being primarly a term that did refer in the Rigveda to one section among the Bharatas is I think noteworthy, even if others may come to different conclusions. As to the reference to Vashya, I think that Arya refers to the three upper castes, but this is only according to some Smritis, and not according to the Vedic texts (Srutis). I think the meaning of Arya as "master, lord" should be explained in more detail, because I think this meaning is much less well known than the meaning of Arya as "noble". Regards, --User:Machaon 17:52, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC) within Indian culture the meaning of arya changed over time too. In the Rigveda it still means "one of ours", and also "stranger", as in "stranger, but a possible guest, one of our tribe", as opposed to "Dasa scum". In Hinduism, it took on social tones, I don't know the details of that, but this is what the article should be about, arya as a social term in India. Today, the Indians are heavily influenced by the Western/Nazi/19th century ideas of "Aryan", and they all feel compelled to explain stuff about hair and eye colour. This should go on Aryan race. This article should focus on arya in Indian texts, in which ones does it refer to the upper castes, in which ones to the Vaishya caste etc. I.e. we need some genuine scholarship here, giving references to the differences among native texts, and not sweeping statements about hair colour. "master, lord, one of the Vaishyas" btw is Monier-William's dictionary definition. User:Dbachmann User_talk:Dbachmann 19:22, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC) :The "sweeping" statement on hair color is according to Michael Witzel, and is cited in the book "Aryan and Non-Aryan in South Asia" and in a book review by Elst on this book: "Reference to fair hair would certainly qualify, but according to Michael Witzel, there is in Sanskrit literature exactly "one 'goldhaired' (hiranyakeshin) person that is not a god, the author of HShS", i.e. the Hiranyakeshin-Shrauta-S�tra named after him. (p.390, emphasis in the original)" Cited from a book review by Koenraad Elst titled: "A review of the Aryan invasion arguments in J. Bronkhorst and M.M. Deshpande: Aryan and Non-Aryan in South Asia" [http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/reviews/hock.html]. Regards, --User:Machaon 19:55, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC) :Exactly! Witzel is not smrti, and he is talking about Aryans, and about the Aryan invasion. This article, on the other hand, is about the word ''arya'' in Sanskrit. The Aryan racea article may in part be based on things related here, but this article should ''not'' include post-smrti stuff. Let's be very clear on how we divide the material: :*Aryan: use of the term in English (PIE, Indo-Iranian, racialist theories) :*Aryan race: racialist theories and their basis (or lack of) in genetic research. :*Aryan invasion: suggested migration of a prehistoric people. Should be renamed to the more neutral and modern, and less inflammatory, Indo-Iranian migration. :*Arya: The ''Sanskrit word'', as used in Vedic texts, other shruti, smrti, and in modern Hinduism. I'm not sure if hair colour is even an issue in these texts. Discussion of references to hair colour in ancient texts should be discussed on Aryan race, or Aryan invasion, as long as it is not related to the native concept of ''arya''. :This article is ''not'' about a people or a race, it is about a concept of social stratification in Hindu culture. User:Dbachmann User_talk:Dbachmann 20:08, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC) I agree to move the relevant material to one of these articles. (see also my above comments) Unfortunately I don't think it is 100 percent correct to have it in "Aryan Race", because this could suggest that the Vedic Aryans had a concept of "race" rather than something like tribe or religious affiliation, which would be maybe at least slightly pov. However, it may be the best solution. Probably it shouldn't be moved to AIT, because this article's focus is mainly on the origin and age of vedic culture and migrations and also this article is already very long. I'm not sure if should be moved to Aryan or to Aryan Race. Since I think you and Paul suggest to move it to Aryan Race, it should be moved there. If nobody else moves the text, I will do so in about one hour. The suggestion to move the Aryan Invasion theory article to Indo-Iranian migration is a good idea. It would be less pov than AIT or IUT (Indian Urheimat Theory) and should maybe be discussed on the AIT talk page. Regards, --User:Machaon 20:38, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC) :which text exactly are we talking about here? The hair/eye colour stuff? Maybe it should be moved ''and'' verified/npoved. It is certainly alright to say that there is only that single reference to "golden hair", but to go on about what Indian tradition ''doesn't'' tell us too much may be problematic, and may just sound unnecessarily defensive and/or agenda-encumbered (of course it's silly to suggest the Aryans were blond. Nobody except some crazy Nazis even believes that, so it is misleading to use it as an argument against Indo-Iranian migration, and it is useless as an argument against Nazi race theory, too, since that was based on different assumptions altogether) User:Dbachmann User_talk:Dbachmann 20:55, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

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Words begining with Arya:

Arya
Arya
Aryabhata
Aryabhata,_Satellite
Aryabhata_(crater)
Aryabhata_crater
Aryabhata_I
Aryabhata_II
Aryabhatta
Aryabhatta
Aryaman
Aryamehr_University_of_Technology
Aryan
Aryan
Aryan1
Aryanism
AryanPower
Aryans
Aryan_Brotherhood
Aryan_Brotherhood
Aryan_Games
Aryan_Games
Aryan_god
Aryan_gods
Aryan_Invasion
Aryan_invasion
Aryan_Invasion_Theory
Aryan_invasion_theory
Aryan_invasion_theory
Aryan_invasion_theory/Archive1
Aryan_language
Aryan_languages
Aryan_mythology
Aryan_Nation
Aryan_Nations
Aryan_Nations
Aryan_Physics
Aryan_Race
Aryan_race
Aryan_race
Aryavarta
Arya_(Inheritance)
Arya_Samaj
Arya_samaj
Arya_Samargh
Arya_Sarmaj
Arya_Stark