Many European and Oriental languages are close to each other. All of them belong to a single "Aryan" or Indo-European language family. However, historians are still arguing whether the "Aryans" actually existed.
Aryan etymology
The Aryans are the ancient peoples of India and Iran who spoke the Aryan languages that are part of the Indo-European language family. The etymology of their self-name is very mysterious. In the 19th century, a hypothesis was put forward that the ethnonym "Aryan" came from the words "nomad" or "farmer". Already in the 20th century, scientists believed that the Indo-European ar-i̯-o- means “one who is hospitable to ari”, and “ari” can be translated from ancient Indian as “friend” or, conversely, “enemy” (the opposite meaning of the same same words or related words characteristic of ancient languages).
The unifying meaning can also be "a tribesman from a foreign clan", since he could be both a friend and an enemy. Thus, the concept of "Aryan" denoted a person who is part of the ethnic totality of the various tribes of the Aryans. The hypothesis is confirmed by the presence in the Vedic pantheon of the god Aryaman, who is responsible for friendship and hospitality.
Another vector of etymological research leads us to a different meaning of the word "Aryan" - "freeborn" and "noble", which came from the Semitic languages. It is possible that the rudiments of this word were preserved in the Old Irish language, in which "aire" is translated as "noble" or "free", as well as in some others.
Where did the arias come from
Recent studies show that the ancient pra-Aryans were originally united people, and only in the second millennium BC they were divided into two branches - Iranian and Indo-Aryan. The very word "Iran" has a connection with the word "Aryan", and means "land of the Aryans". At the same time, it is important to take into account that modern Iran is only a small area on the map of those vast territories that were occupied by ancient Iranian peoples: Iranian plateau, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, steppes north of the Caucasus and the Black Sea and others. In addition, the commonality of the Indo-Aryan and Iranian branches proves the similarity of the sacred texts - the Iranian Avesta and the Indian Vedas. To date, there are several versions of where the arias came from.
According to the linguistic hypothesis, the Aryans migrated to India and settled there around 1700-1300. BC. The version is based on the study of ancient languages and customs reflected in historical sources. Linguistics shows that India was not the homeland of the Aryans - as a rule, in the region of origin of some language family there are many various languages and dialects of the same family, and in India there is only one Indo-Aryan branch of languages. In Central and Eastern Europe, by contrast, there are hundreds of varieties of Indo. European languages. It is logical to assume that it was here that the Indo-European family of languages \u200b\u200band peoples originated. In addition, having come to India, the Aryans encountered its indigenous population, speaking the languages of another family, for example, Munda (Austroasiatic family) or Dravidian - languages from which archaic borrowings in Sanskrit were taken.
Most recognized in this moment- the barrow hypothesis. According to her, the ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans was the Volga and Black Sea lands, where archaeologists recorded the Yamnaya culture. Its representatives were the first to build war chariots, which allowed them to capture everything large territories and extend its influence to the entire Eurasian continent.
Pseudo-scientific speculation
In addition to academic versions, there are dozens of fantastic ones: that the Aryans, in fact, are inhabitants of the mythical Hyperborea, who came from the Arctic; that they are the immediate ancestors of the Germans, Russians or someone else. As a rule, such theories are in demand among nationalist-minded communities to build a pseudo-history of a certain people. The main goal is to "prolong" the history of their country.
Aryan culture
The Aryans or Indo-Iranians left a rich cultural legacy. In addition to the most important written heritage, such as the Vedas and Avesta, the later Mahabharata and Ramayana, the Aryans also left monuments of material culture. Originally a semi-nomadic people, they focused primarily on raising cows and horses. The main weapon of the Aryans were arrows. These peoples were familiar with irrigation systems, forging copper and gold products.
The Aryan family was patriarchal, in each family there were other members, slaves and cattle in addition to the head of the family. Families united into clans, communities and tribes, sometimes at war with each other. That three-class social system, which became widespread in ancient Iranian and Indian societies, was not as strongly developed among the Aryans, however, its main features were present. At the top of the hierarchy were priests, future Brahmins, and kshatriya aristocrats who commanded common people. Arias were warlike people mining land in search of new lands and pastures.
Origin of the "Aryan race"
The origin of races before the 19th century was a historical mystery. However, at the beginning of the century, scientists discovered the commonality of many European languages with the languages \u200b\u200bof India and Iran. All these languages were called the Aryan language family - later it will be called Indo-European. The self-name of the peoples of ancient India and Iran - the Aryans, was mistakenly understood as common name all Indo-European tribes, and archaeologists soon found the so-called Pit culture, which, thanks to the construction of war chariots, quickly expanded its linguistic, cultural and political influence from a small area within the boundaries of some lands modern Poland, Ukraine and southern Russia to the scale of an entire empire - from Portugal to Sri Lanka.
Despite the fact that no separate race of Aryans existed, and the mixing of physiological characteristics with linguistic ones was pseudoscientific (the peoples of Tajikistan, Persia, the gypsies, and even the Veddas, who are Australoids), were among the speakers of Indo-European languages), scientists began to believe that the community of languages is equal to the community of race. The well-known mistake of the German philologist Max Muller, who accidentally referred to the non-existent "Aryan race", led to the spread in the scientific world of the opinion about the existence of the Aryan race, and later the emergence of Nazi race theories.
As you know, the leaders of the "Third Reich" seriously believed that the true Aryans were Germans. Or at least they pretended to believe it. And in 1939, Himmler sent a large-scale scientific expedition to Tibet.
What were the Germans looking for there? Gold? Emeralds? No, they measured the width of the Tibetans' cheekbones, the facial angle, took off their plaster masks, calculated the coefficient of cephalization... They hoped to find in Tibet those same mythical "Nordic" Aryans who, in their opinion, once left Germany and went to the East. But they didn't find it. For the most part they dealt with native Tibetans - representatives of the Mongoloid population group.
Who are the derds?
The French explorer Michel Pessel was more fortunate. In 1975, he nevertheless found in the snowy Himalayas a small people, the Min-Ro, who possessed all the features of a European anthropological group. Some of its representatives even looked like "Nordic" Aryans.
This mysterious people and to this day lives in the Western Himalayas, in Ladakh - a kind of threshold of Tibet. The region is located where the borders of three countries meet: India, Pakistan and China. Of course, Pessel discovered in Tibet not the “Nordic” Aryans at all, but the descendants of the Indo-Europeans, who in 1400 BC new era came to India from Central Asia and later became Indo-Aryans.
The Minaros are by no means the only Europeans who have lived in the Himalayas since time immemorial. People with a European appearance are conditionally called dards by the inhabitants of Tibet.
Europeans from time immemorial
In the province of Nuristan in Afghanistan, as well as in the mountains of Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan, one of the amazing peoples Dard group - Kalash. Its population is about 6 thousand people.
The villages are located at an altitude of 1900-2200 meters above sea level. Kalash inhabit three side valleys formed by the right (western) tributaries of the Chitral (Kunar) River: Bumboret (in Kalash Mumret), Rumbur (Rukmu) and Birir (Biriu), at a distance of approximately 20 km south of the city of Chitral.
Their wooden houses are piled one above the other along the steep mountain slopes and are somewhat reminiscent of Georgian sakli with a flat roof. Bridges and steep ladders are laid between the dwellings, along which the children jump with pleasure. Nearby are the ruins of ancient stone fortresses - possibly built by the ancestors of the current inhabitants.
Neighbors consider Kalash natives - and scientists confirm this. In joint research by the Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, the University of Southern California and Stanford University, a separate paragraph is devoted to the Kalash, which says that their genes are indeed unique and belong to an ancient European group.
Like in the Russian North
The Kalash, despite all the oppression, managed to preserve their pagan faith. Interestingly, the neighbors, who have the same European appearance as they do, profess Islam. The rites of the Kalash are very similar to the ancient Slavic and Baltic ones. They worship the sacred fire in three forms: the sun, lightning and hearth fire.
They have preserved remnants of the twin cult, typical of all ancient Indo-Europeans. In the temple premises for ritual dances on wooden pillars, you can see carved figures of twins embracing and a stylized image of the sun. In the middle of the temple room, blown by all the winds, there is a sacred pillar with solar signs carved on it.
Some signs symbolizing the sun are similar to those that are still found in the Arkhangelsk wooden carving! Not far from the ritual pillar is an altar: two horse heads carved from wood.
horned deity
On holidays on a special altar in front of a pagan idol from a solid trunk big tree set on a mountainside in the open air, a goat is sacrificed. Their grazing on mountain pastures is done by unmarried shepherds.
Local folklore is replete with tales associated with totemic ideas about this animal. On major holidays, the fair sex wears colorful dresses reminiscent of the traditional costumes of Slavic and Baltic women, draws the silhouette of a mountain goat with curled horns over their eyebrows with soot.
Often during the holiday they play a scene where a horned goat is portrayed by an unmarried girl, and a shepherd is an unmarried boy. This action is very reminiscent of the rite of buffoon disguise under New Year. Harvest festivals and love festivals are arranged, similar to Ivan Kupala: then they dance round dances, sing songs.
Wooden horned idols have also been preserved - a female deity on a throne with a massive carved staff in her left hand. Involuntarily, you will remember the Russian devil with a poker.
As in native Provence
Kalash cultivate wheat, millet and barley in irrigated fields. Harvest with sickles. They grow walnuts and mulberries. Now they have an exotic crop for these places - corn.
Pessel was at one time struck by the fact that representatives of the Minaro people, outwardly so similar to the French, just like the Tyroleans or the inhabitants of Provence, grow grapes on the mountain slopes of the Western Himalayas and make wine from it. When in his book "The Gold of the Ants", published in 1984 (published in Russian in 1989), Pessel published a photograph of a smiling minaro man, outwardly looking like a Frenchman, and even with a bunch of grapes in one hand and a cup of wine in the other Not everyone believed him. Some even accused the scientist of a brawl.
Nevertheless, today it is already a proven fact: people who live in the Himalayas are indistinguishable from Europeans; and they lead a way of life that makes them related to European peasants.
Combat past
Kalash women at their leisure make beaded jewelry reminiscent of Russian and Baltic ones. On the breastplate, for example, there is symbolism in the form of two horse heads looking in different directions, and solar signs. Even in the 19th century, similar ones could be found in the Russian North in carvings on huts, spinning wheels and gates. Among the Balts, these plots are still preserved in village life.
The Pakistan Museum of National Antiquities has wooden statues horse riders in helmets and armor. At one time, they were "expropriated" by the Pakistani authorities from the Kalash. They were probably a very warlike people in the past: legends about aggressive campaigns to neighboring lands have been preserved in their folklore. During military sorties, foreigners were taken prisoner. From the slaves, a caste of artisans was formed, infringed on their rights - later it was they who converted to Islam. In their composition, there are much fewer blondes and a Mongoloid and Australoid admixture is noticeable.
In pristine purity
In the cemetery, on the graves of Kalash, wooden boards with solar signs carved on them are installed vertically. The center of the tribal cult is a carved board, personifying the goddess Dzheshtak, the patroness of family ties, or the "temple" ("the house of Dzheshtak") - a room for dancing and meetings.
The symbolic plots on the gravestones are somewhat similar to the South Ossetian gravestones of the 18th century. Let me remind you that the Ossetians are the descendants of the nomadic Alans who took refuge in the mountains of the Caucasus from the Hun invasion.
All this suggests that the Alans, Slavs and Kalash had common ancestors. However, the Kalash, perhaps the only one in the world, preserved in pristine purity not only the appearance of typical Caucasians, but also the culture of pagan ancestors, Proto-Indo-Europeans. They believe in the transmigration of souls in the same way as the ancestors of all Indo-Europeans believed in it, including the Slavs, not excluding the Russians. Many features of everyday life and rituals are explained precisely by this.
And yet the cultural impact of non-Christian neighbors is undoubtedly being felt. The men adopted the typical Muslim clothing and headgear. The names of tribal deities are gradually forgotten. The Holiday of Merits - honoring respected people - is becoming a thing of the past. But those who have passed away from this life and who are to be born again in a new body are not forgotten.
Shard of antiquity
In the social structure, the Kalash, like the inhabitants of neighboring Nuristan related to them, are divided into ranks. The head of the family clan, who wants to increase his prestige, slaughters a few goats and treats his fellow tribesmen. Anyone has the right to come to the feast.
Thanks to a warm welcome and a feast all over the world, the head of the clan receives one vote in the council of elders and the right to install a personal carved wooden statue in the family cemetery after his death. Of course, this is not a Greek or Roman statue, but still a distant resemblance to antique images you can see in these masks and figures.
Relatives of towels
The Kalash have the highest holiness in the mountains and mountain pastures, where the gods live and "their cattle" - wild goats - graze. Holy are the altars and the goat-sheds. Sanctuaries are located, as a rule, in the open air. These are mostly altars built of juniper or oak. They are furnished with ritual carved boards and idols of higher deities.
Indoor wooden halls are specially erected for religious mysteries and dances.
The ritual life of the Kalash takes place in collective festivities, feasts and games, to which the gods are invited as full participants. At the matchmaking ceremony preceding the wedding, you can see matchmakers with tied wedding towels, decorated with embroidery and very reminiscent of towels!
At the feet of the gods
Kalash, like all Dardian peoples, live in close proximity to the greatest peak in the world, called K2 by climbers, and Chogori by the local population.
It is located in Kashmir, in northern Pakistan, near the border with China and looks like a giant snow-covered pyramid. Second in the world after Everest. Its height is 8611 meters above sea level.
There is reason to believe that it is Chogori who appears in the Hindu Vedas as sacred mountain Meru, and in the main book of Zoroastrianism Avesta - as the Great Hara. According to ancient Aryan beliefs, the Sun, Moon, stars and planets revolve around this mountain.
Perhaps the ancient Aryans or their descendants - Caucasoid nomadic Scythians - because of religious beliefs climbed so high into the mountains and chose these highlands as their residence? According to the Vedas, great gods live on Mount Meru. And to live at the foot of the abode of the gods - is not it the greatest honor?
Alexander Belov, paleoanthropologist
Many European and Oriental languages are close to each other. All of them belong to a single "Aryan" or Indo-European language family. However, historians are still arguing whether the "Aryans" actually existed.
Aryan etymology
The Aryans are the ancient peoples of India and Iran who spoke the Aryan languages that are part of the Indo-European language family. The etymology of their self-name is very mysterious. In the 19th century, a hypothesis was put forward that the ethnonym "Aryan" came from the words "nomad" or "farmer". Already in the 20th century, scientists believed that the Indo-European ar-i̯-o- means “one who is hospitable to ari”, and “ari” can be translated from ancient Indian as “friend” or, conversely, “enemy” (the opposite meaning of the same the same word or related words is characteristic of ancient languages).
The unifying meaning can also be "a tribesman from a foreign clan", since he could be both a friend and an enemy. Thus, the concept of "Aryan" denoted a person who is part of the ethnic totality of the various tribes of the Aryans. The hypothesis is confirmed by the presence in the Vedic pantheon of the god Aryaman, who is responsible for friendship and hospitality.
Another vector of etymological research leads us to a different meaning of the word "Aryan" - "freeborn" and "noble", which came from the Semitic languages. It is possible that the rudiments of this word were preserved in the Old Irish language, in which "aire" is translated as "noble" or "free", as well as in some others.
Where did the arias come from
Recent studies show that the ancient pra-Aryans were originally a single people, and only in the second millennium BC they were divided into two branches - Iranian and Indo-Aryan. The very word "Iran" has a connection with the word "Aryan", and means "land of the Aryans". At the same time, it is important to take into account that modern Iran is only a small area on the map of those vast territories that the ancient Iranian peoples occupied: the Iranian plateau, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, the steppes north of the Caucasus and the Black Sea, and others. In addition, the commonality of the Indo-Aryan and Iranian branches proves the similarity of the sacred texts - the Iranian Avesta and the Indian Vedas. To date, there are several versions of where the arias came from.
According to the linguistic hypothesis, the Aryans migrated to India and settled there around 1700-1300. BC. The version is based on the study of ancient languages and customs reflected in historical sources. Linguistics shows that India was not the homeland of the Aryans - as a rule, in the region of origin of any language family there are many different languages \u200b\u200band dialects of the same family, and in India there is only one Indo-Aryan branch of languages. In Central and Eastern Europe, by contrast, there are hundreds of varieties of Indo-European languages. It is logical to assume that it was here that the Indo-European family of languages \u200b\u200band peoples originated. In addition, having come to India, the Aryans encountered its indigenous population, speaking the languages of another family, for example, Munda (Austroasiatic family) or Dravidian - languages from which archaic borrowings in Sanskrit were taken.
The most recognized at the moment is the kurgan hypothesis. According to her, the ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans was the Volga and Black Sea lands, where archaeologists recorded the Yamnaya culture. Its representatives were the first to build war chariots, which allowed them to capture more and more territories and spread their influence over the entire Eurasian continent.
Pseudo-scientific speculation
In addition to academic versions, there are dozens of fantastic ones: that the Aryans, in fact, are inhabitants of the mythical Hyperborea, who came from the Arctic; that they are the immediate ancestors of the Germans, Russians or someone else. As a rule, such theories are in demand among nationalist-minded communities to build a pseudo-history of a certain people. The main goal is to "prolong" the history of their country.
Aryan culture
The Aryans or Indo-Iranians left a rich cultural legacy. In addition to the most important written heritage, such as the Vedas and Avesta, the later Mahabharata and Ramayana, the Aryans also left monuments of material culture. Originally a semi-nomadic people, they focused primarily on raising cows and horses. The main weapon of the Aryans were arrows. These peoples were familiar with irrigation systems, forging copper and gold products.
The Aryan family was patriarchal, in each family there were other members, slaves and cattle in addition to the head of the family. Families united into clans, communities and tribes, sometimes at war with each other. That three-class social system that became widespread in ancient Iranian and Indian societies was not as strongly developed among the Aryans, however, its main features were present. The top of the hierarchy were priests, future brahmins, and kshatriya aristocrats who commanded the common people. The Aryans were a warlike people, extracting land in search of new lands and pastures.
Origin of the "Aryan race"
The origin of races before the 19th century was a historical mystery. However, at the beginning of the century, scientists discovered the commonality of many European languages with the languages \u200b\u200bof India and Iran. All these languages were called the Aryan language family - later it will be called Indo-European. The self-name of the peoples of ancient India and Iran - the Aryans, was mistakenly understood as the common name of all Indo-European tribes, and archaeologists soon found the so-called Yamnaya culture, which, thanks to the construction of war chariots, quickly expanded its linguistic, cultural and political influence from a small area within the borders of some the lands of modern Poland, Ukraine and southern Russia to the scale of an entire empire - from Portugal to Sri Lanka.
Despite the fact that no separate race of Aryans existed, and the mixing of physiological characteristics with linguistic ones was pseudoscientific (the peoples of Tajikistan, Persia, the gypsies, and even the Veddas, who are Australoids), were among the speakers of Indo-European languages), scientists began to believe that the community of languages is equal to the community of race. The well-known mistake of the German philologist Max Muller, who accidentally referred to the non-existent "Aryan race", led to the spread in the scientific world of the opinion about the existence of the Aryan race, and later the emergence of Nazi racial theories.
In his Essay on Inequality human races» (1855). Gobineau defined this term as fair-haired and blue-eyed representatives of the white race, whom he considered as the highest level of this race and, consequently, of all mankind.
IN scientific literature the term fell into disuse in the first half of the 20th century and is no longer used. The pseudoscientific nature of the term is derived from a mixture of linguistic and anthropological characteristics, since in linguistics Aryan languages are now called Indo-Iranian, and at the time of the emergence of the term - Indo-European languages in general; but carriers of both those and others do not have common physical properties and do not form any race. So, the carriers of the Aryan languages are such anthropologically different peoples as Ossetians, Persians, Tajiks, Gypsies, Indians and Veddas (the latter are generally Australoids). Anthropological diversity among speakers of all Indo-European languages is much higher.
According to fashion turn of XIX-XX For centuries, the theories that later formed the basis of the Nazi ideology, the ancestral home of the "Aryans" (Indo-Europeans) is Northern Europe, and it was there that the most "pure Aryan racial type" was preserved, while the inhabitants of other countries are the result of a mixture of "Aryans" with natives. This led to the conclusion that racial superiority residents Northern Europe, allegedly being the purest and most perfect carriers of the "Aryan spirit" (which, in turn, was credited with all the achievements European culture). Thus, Adolf Hitler said:
The "Aryan race" was opposed to the "Semitic race" represented primarily by the Jews, hence the term anti-Semitism. At the same time, purely negative qualities were attributed to the "Semitic race", which made it, in the view of the racists, the direct opposite of the "Aryan race".
see also
Links
Notes
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- Aric B.
- Aric Benado
See what the "Aryan race" is in other dictionaries:
ARYAN RACE- a term used in racist concepts to refer to the highest racial type of blond Aryans (Aryans), the founders great civilization(see Racism) ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
Aryan race- a term used in racist concepts to refer to the "higher" racial type of blond Aryans (Aryans), the founders of a great civilization (Racism). Political Science: Dictionary Reference. comp. Prof. floor of sciences Sanzharevsky I.I.. 2010 ... Political science. Dictionary.
Aryan race- a term used in racist concepts to refer to the "higher" racial type of Aryans (Aryans) (see Racism). * * * THE ARYAN RACE The ARYAN RACE, a term used in racist concepts to refer to the "superior" racial type of blonds ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
Aryan race- Pseudo-scientific term put forward in mid-nineteenth century by the authors of reactionary racial theories. The falsity of the term lies in the confusion of the concepts of linguistic and racial classification. In linguistics, the Indo-Iranian languages were called Aryan. But their carriers are not ... ... Encyclopedia of the Third Reich
Aryan race- a pseudoscientific term put forward in the middle of the 19th century. authors of reactionary racial "theories". The falsity of the term lies in the confusion of the concepts of linguistic and racial classification. In linguistics, Indo-Iranian languages are called Aryan. But their carriers ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
root race- This article needs to be completely rewritten. There may be explanations on the talk page ... Wikipedia
mediterranean race- the currently accepted designation of those tribes that, according to Blumenbach's terminology, belonged to the Caucasian race (see). All Europeans belong to the S. race, insofar as they are not Mongol-like, all North Africans, insofar as they are not included in ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron
RACIAL-ANTHROPOLOGICAL SCHOOL- (or anthroposociology) one of the influential schools in sociology and anthropology vt.pol. 19 N. 20th century; main the idea of the decisive influence of the racial factor on history. and cultural development of peoples. R. a. sh. formed in the conditions of growth ... ... Encyclopedia of cultural studies
Vril Society- Check neutrality. The talk page should have details... Wikipedia
mein kampf- (Mein Kampf My Struggle), Hitler's book in which he detailed his political program. IN Nazi Germany Mein Kampf was considered the bible of National Socialism, it gained fame even before it was published, and many Germans believed ... Encyclopedia of the Third Reich
Books
- Aryan Hyperborea. Cradle of the Russian World, Pavlishcheva Natalya Pavlovna. A new book from the author of the bestsellers "10 thousand years of Russian history. Forbidden Rus'" and "Veles Rus'. Chronicle of Ice and Fire" . New evidence of the antiquity and primogeniture of our Fatherland.…
Aryans (Avest. airya-, other Ind. ārya-, other Persian ariya- or Aryans (also Indo-Iranians) - the name of the peoples who speak the languages of the Aryan (Indo-Iranian) group Indo-European family, originating from the self-name of the historical peoples of Ancient Iran and Ancient India (II-I millennium BC). The linguistic and cultural closeness of these peoples makes researchers assume the existence of an original pra-Aryan community (the ancient Aryans), whose descendants are the historical and modern Iranian and Indo-Aryan peoples.
Etymology
For the ethnonym *a/āri̯a-, it is supposed to be raised to the Indo-European form *ar-i̯-o-, reflected, in all likelihood, also in Old Irl. aire "noble", "free", etc.-Scand. (runic) arjōstēR "most noble". Last words, however, were never used as an ethnonym, while in the languages of the Indo-Iranian (Aryan) peoples, in addition to the meaning "noble", the word had a pronounced ethnic connotation that opposed the Aryans ("their own people") to the surrounding foreign peoples - other Ind. anārya-, Avest. anairya- "non-Aryan", "outsider".
Various versions of the origin of *ar-i̯-o- have been proposed, starting from the 19th century versions already left in academic circles: from the verb “to move” (that is, “nomad”) or from the verb “plow” (that is, “farmer”). In 1938, Paul Thieme put forward the etymology *ar-i̯-o-, which was widely used and critically rethought by E. Benveniste, as “showing hospitality” in relation to *ari (Old Ind. arí “friend”, “enemy ", "foreigner"). This hypothesis is confirmed by the presence of other ind. aryá- (←*ari̯a-) "lord", "master of the house", directly corresponding to the Iranian variants of the ethnonym (with a short a-). At the same time, the ancient Indian version with a long ā- (ā́rya-) can be interpreted as a vriddhi form from aryá-, that is, “a member of the union of householders-aryá, in which mutual hospitality is manifested.” This also correlates with such an important general Aryan deified concept as *ari̯aman- (Old Ind. aryaman-, Avest. airyaman-) – Aryaman, lit. "Aryan", the deity of friendship, hospitality and marriage.
Other Ind. arí "friend" (but also "enemy" as "foreigner") seems to have parallels in the Hittite. ara- (“comrade”) and from Arm. ari ("ari" - "courageous"). For this word, Semereni assumed a Middle Eastern source (cf. fumes ′arj “relative”, “comrade”).
"Aryan" problem
This problem of origin and ancestral home, cultural role and historical heritage of the Aryan tribes has occupied world science for more than two centuries. Who are the Aryans-Aryans?
Aryans are peoples who speak the languages of the Iranian and Indian groups of the Indo-European language family, as well as the Kafirs (Nuristanis) and Dards. Their ancestors had a common name - "Arya", "Aryan", similar culture and way of life, lived on the same territory, but several millennia ago they left their cradle and began to move to lands far from each other; gradually Aryan unity disintegrated. At present, the peoples of the Iranian group live in Ossetia, Tajikistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Pakistan, as well as in the border regions.
countries. Representatives of the Indo-Aryan ethnic groups inhabit India - mainly its central and northern regions, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives, east and south of Pakistan. Migrants, descendants of the Indo-Aryans, formed large colonies in Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, the islands of Mauritius in the Indian and Fiji in the Pacific Ocean, in the West Indies (Caribbean Sea) and Guiana, in South Africa and on the coast of East Africa. A considerable number of them settled in North America and Europe. Dards and Nuristanis live in Kashmir and in the provinces adjacent to Kashmir in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The total number of Aryan-speaking peoples is about 1 billion people, they make up about a seventh of the entire population of the Earth. Of this billion Indo-Aryans, there are approximately 900 million, Iranians - more than 90 million, Dards and Nuristanis - 5-6 million people.
3 civilizations
The ancient Aryans created three highly developed and peculiar civilizations - Persian, Indo-Gangetic and Turano-Scythian, had a significant impact on the cultures of the Front and South-East Asia, Caucasus, China, Turkic, Mongolian, Slavic and Finno-Ugric peoples. Their contribution to the treasury of the spiritual values of mankind is unusually weighty. Aryans-Indo-Iranians broke into world history at the beginning of the II millennium BC. - in an era when the great civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Harappa (Indus Valley) and the islands of the Eastern Mediterranean (Crete-Mycenaean world) experienced a deep internal crisis. The tribes of the Aryan root contributed to the renewal of ancient societies, gave a powerful impetus to the world cultural and historical process. For two millennia - up to the III-IV centuries AD. - they were in charge actors world history - until they grew old and gave way to younger peoples.
Among the Indo-Europeans, the "Aryans" were not an isolated group devoid of family ties. Slavic, Baltic (Letto-Lithuanian), as well as Armenian and ancient Greek languages are close to their dialects. The speakers of these languages had with the Indo-Iranians many common ethnographic features, cult-mythological representations, dating back to a single source, psychological traits. This indicates that the ancestors of the Greeks and Armenians, the Balto-Slavs and the Indo-Iranians constituted one cultural-historical block in ancient times. However, the proto-Greeks and proto-Armenians separated from this bloc very early and did not maintain such close family ties with the Indo-Iranians as the ancestors of the Balto-Slavs. Much further than the listed peoples, the carriers of other Indo-European dialects, in particular, the Germans and the Celts, are separated from the Aryans. Therefore, the Slavs and Balts (Lithuanians and Latvians) have much more reason to be called Aryans than the Germans, Scandinavians, French and other European peoples.
Society organization
What was the ancient Aryan society like? The study of various sources suggests that long before the start of large-scale migrations, the Indo-Iranians were pastoral tribes. Their cornerstone public life was a big patriarchal family, typical for the pastoral peoples of Eurasia. The basis of the economy was the breeding of cattle and horses. The number of cows and bulls was the main measure material well-being and wealth, the cow was considered the best sacrifice that the gods could wish for. The foundation of the military power of the Aryans was the war cavalry, magnificent chariots. A thoroughbred horse was worth a whole herd of ordinary ones. All other animals were inferior in their importance to cows and horses, and in addition to them, the Indo-Iranians bred goats, sheep, and two-humped camels. Pig breeding was almost unknown to them, it was considered a matter of little honor, pigs were not sacrificed to the gods. The Aryans were also engaged in agriculture, but it was a secondary occupation for them.
The tribes of the Indo-Iranians were semi-sedentary; every few years they moved their villages to a new place, which, as a rule, was not far from the former camp. The Aryans did not know the potter's wheel, sculpted ceramics "by hand" and fired it not in a furnace, but in special pits or on a fire. Their ritual utensils were wooden.
The Indo-Iranians lived in large houses dug into the ground, they also used dwellings on wheels - like wagons or wagons, they knew many metals and alloys - copper, gold, silver, bronze, they made weapons and utensils from them. The Aryans were well versed in the art of woodworking, it was they who perfected the technique of building chariots.
The Indo-Iranians were warlike people, military booty - cattle, pastures, captives - was one of the most important sources of their well-being. Wars were fought almost constantly - both between the Indo-Iranians themselves, and between them and other peoples.
The Aryans were expert gatherers of wild honey, and it was an essential element of their diet. The main food for them was fresh cow's milk and products obtained from it: sour milk and butter, as well as cereal dishes like porridge and boiled meat. For various rituals and religious celebrations, the Indo-Iranians made "sauma" - a drink that led to a state of sacred ecstasy. At secular holidays, public and family, drunken "sura" was used. These holidays opened with equestrian competitions, followed by a collective feast.
Social groups
In their midst, three social groups called "flowers". The most numerous of the "flowers" were community herders. The second group was represented by warriors, the third - by priests. They were the most revered social class. Warrior-priests were considered kings, "sons of the Sun", who crowned the entire system social organization Aryans and led individual tribes and tribal unions.
Various branches of the Aryans created great monuments of ancient religious thought, the Indo-Aryans - the Vedas, the southern Iranians - the Avesta. Judging by these monuments, they worshiped a host of gods, believing, at the same time, that behind all the diversity of life phenomena lies a single and eternal Primal Foundation, a spiritual and creative principle that created this world, God the Absolute. In each of their many gods embodied different aspects this Absolute.
Religion
There were very few female deities in the Indo-Iranian pantheon, and a severe patriarchy reigned in it. The Aryan gods were shepherd gods. Their most frequent epithets are “lord of vast pastures”, “sending beautiful wealth”, etc. The gods were asked to irrigate pastures, give herds of horses and bulls. In Indo-Iranian hymns, the gods were depicted riding horse-drawn chariots, their most important function was to protect livestock from demons or their servants in the earthly world.
Sacrifices were the main element of the religious practice of the Aryans. Sacrifices were made not only to the gods, but also to the ancestors. In addition to animals, ghee, saumu and milk were donated to the gods. In honor of the ancestors, mounds were built with stone altars.
The cult of the horse was extremely developed among the Indo-Iranians, along with it, probably, the cult of the beaver, less common among them, also existed. An essential component of the religion of the Aryans was also the veneration of fire and the worship of the Sun. It is possible that the very name "Arya" goes back to the ancient name of the Sun - Svar, Svara.
In the Indo-Iranian environment, a sacred mythopoetic language developed, which was used when performing rituals and addressing the gods. The poetics of the Aryans was based on pastoral terms. The images of a cow, a bull and a horse permeate the Indian "Vedas", the Iranian "Zend-Avesta". On their basis, the entire symbolic system of religious texts is built, flickering with alliterations and hidden meanings using a large number of epithets and synonyms. Only in the Rig Veda, the main of the Vedas, at least 10-15 different synonyms are used to designate key images - a horse, a bull and a cow.
Birthplace of an ancient civilization
At the moment, you can find several dozen theories that one way or another explain the origin of the Indo-Iranians. It is still not known exactly where they came from:
| Europe | The rest of the world |
| Geneticists claim that traces of the Aryans were found in the Balkans. It is quite possible that this people has come a long way to India and Iran. | There is a theory according to which the Aryans came from the polar regions, this is indicated by the presence of a description of the polar night and a long winter. |
| Our Caucasus is also one of the possible ancestral homes of the Aryans. | According to other theories, the Aryans appeared in Central Asia and from there went to "colonize" the whole world. |
| Some scientists logically state that such numerous tribes could settle only in the mouths of the rivers. There are three most likely options to choose from: Volga, Dnieper, Don. | Indo-Iranians could have come from the Middle East as well. But only the Turkic dialects differ significantly from the Indo-European languages. |
| Central Europe is still one of the most likely options, thanks to archaeological finds. | It is unlikely that the Aryans originated from North Africa, but that might explain the migration routes. |
- First, it is known that mountains lay near the center of the formation of the Indo-Iranian peoples. On that segment of the Eurasian steppe belt, where the ancestors of the Aryans theoretically could live, such mountains could only be the ridges of the Urals, other regions with mountainous terrain there isn't.
- Second. The Indo-Iranians were familiar with phenomena occurring at high latitudes: snowy cold winters, the phenomena of the polar day, polar night and polar dawn, northern lights. Their information was very accurate. If they lived in Southern Russia, which is located too far from the regions of the Arctic, they could not have such information. On the contrary, if the ancestors of the Aryans lived in the Urals and beyond the Urals, they should have been well aware of the nature of the North, since there the border of the forest-steppe is not far from the latitudes where polar phenomena are regularly observed.
- Third. The Indo-Iranians had very early and very close contacts with the ancestors of the Finno-Ugric peoples. Their connections with speakers of other non-Indo-European dialects were later and less representative. The maximum similarity in the sphere of language and culture, sometimes reaching complete identity, is found among the Aryans with Ugric tribes who lived in the Trans-Ural taiga from ancient times, and who did not exist in Eastern Europe during the era of the existence of the Indo-Iranian community.
Finally, archaeological research in recent decades has revealed a large cultural and historical community in the steppe and forest-steppe Trans-Urals, which could belong to the ancient Aryans, since its creators, like the Indo-Iranians, belonged to the Paleo-European race, led a household based on breeding horses and cattle, and the time of existence of this archaeological community and the time of existence of a single array of Indo-Iranians practically coincide. Horse breeding among the Trans-Ural tribes was more ancient and more developed than that of the inhabitants of Eastern Europe, among them the cult of the horse, so characteristic of the Aryans, spread very early. These tribes maintained lively ties with the inhabitants of the Siberian taiga, in which various scientists see Paleo-Ugrians. In addition, the territory on which the monuments of this archaeological community were located became the core of the formation of the cultures of the Andronovo circle, which undoubtedly belonged to the Indo-Iranians; at the same time, the complexes created by the Asian predecessors of the Andronovites were an important component in the composition of their culture.
The totality of all these and many other facts makes us assume that the homeland Aryan peoples lay in the Asian steppes, on Southern Urals and in the Urals.
Migration route
About 3000 years ago, for reasons unknown to us, the process of migration of the Aryan peoples began. The first group reaches the Iranian plateau. The second passes through the Karakum desert, mountain system Kopetdag, northern Afghanistan and, having crossed the Hindu Kush ranges, it turns out to be on the Indian subcontinent.
If the path of the second, Indo-Aryan, group seems more or less clear, then the route of the first group on the way to the Iranian Plateau remains a mystery. There are two main assumptions:
- The Aryans bypassed the Caspian Sea from the north, and then crossed the Caucasus Mountains
- They headed through the steppes north of Iran and crossed the Deshte-Kavir desert.
The influence of the Aryans on culture
But after all, in the entire history of the existence of mankind there were thousands of different tribes and nationalities, why exactly the Aryans are of such interest? And it's all about the language. There is an opinion that most modern languages are based on one ancient language, which gave rise to all the others.
This idea was prompted by historians and linguists similar features , which are easy to find in most languages of the peoples of Europe and Asia. It turns out that we are all descendants of a once-expanded tribe, from which small groups separated over the centuries, settled new territories, assimilated with the local population and subsequently formed peoples and states.
And although for thousands of years too many differences have appeared even between “neighbors”, it is still pleasant to think that we once came from the same people. Fertile ground for cosmopolitanism, internationalism and tolerance. But the most famous example"use" and distortion of historical data showed the Germans in the thirties of the last century.
Hitler actively used the idea of the Aryans as a chosen race in his propaganda speeches. At the same time, there is no clear evidence that the Aryans considered themselves to be some kind of special people and treated everyone else with disdain. Any society so aggressive could not exist for so long and contribute to the world culture, the united neighbors are always ready to “put in their place” too intolerant people.
Persians and Medes were the first
The scant historical evidence at our disposal indicates that the Aryan migration to the territory of modern Iran was carried out by relatively small groups (tribes), each of which spoke its own dialect of the Iranian language. It is believed that the first Aryan tribes to penetrate the Iranian plateau were the Medes and Persians. They migrated to this territory around the 10th-11th centuries. BC.
The earliest mention of the Medes is in 836 BC. during the reign of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III. At that moment they inhabited the central part of Iran. archaeological finds indicate a high concentration of representatives of this people in the area of \u200b\u200bpresent Hamadan.
The first mention of the Persians occurs a little earlier - in 843 BC. This people is found under the name Parsuaš. At that time, the Persians, apparently, inhabited the territory to the south and west of Lake Urmia. Then there is their gradual movement to the south, which is reflected in the sources. Under the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III (745 - 727 BC), the settlement area of Parsuaš was already the central Zagros. When, in 639, Ashurbanapal destroys the kingdom of the Elamites and goes against the Persian leader Cyrus I, he, according to sources, ruled the regions of Parsumaš and Anšan. The latter is identified as a place around the current locality of Malyan in the province of Fars. In other words, by that time the Persians had almost reached the region, which in the future will be considered the historical center of the Persian state.
Who really were the ancient Aryans?
Aria is:
- The general name for a whole group of peoples who inhabited the territory of modern India and Iran 4-5 thousand years ago.
- Common ancestor for most European and Asian peoples.
- Initially - nomadic tribes who were able to move thousands of kilometers.
- Excellent farmers and excellent warriors. With the help of a sword alone, it is impossible to gain a foothold in new territories.
- The progenitors of most pagan religions that professed polytheism.
We will not know exactly how the Indo-Iranians called themselves, but we can try to find out where they came from:
- From Europe, from the Balkans.
- From the territory modern Russia- from the Caucasus.
- From the mouths of the Don, Volga or Dnieper.
- from the polar regions.
- From Central Asia.
And these are just the most common theories. When migration takes half a millennium and moves in all directions, it is very difficult to calculate the initial point from which the people spread. Especially when it comes to thousands of years BC, there are practically no written sources about that time.
Hitler and the Aryan race
Aryan legend
The legend says. There were once two races on earth. Some had dark color skin, and were endowed with extraordinary power. They had a highly developed culture and science. All their cities were predominantly located in the south. In the north lived people of the "white race". Their development in comparison with the "black race" was not great, so they were obliged to obey the "black masters". But one day everything changed. Among the white people appeared the brave and wise Aryan Ram, who no longer wanted to obey the "black masters". He was able to convince representatives of his race to raise uprisings in northern lands. It happened about eight thousand years before the birth of Christ.
The people of the "white race" under the leadership of Ram were able to defeat the "black masters" and overthrow them. This circumstance subsequently affected the representatives of the "black race" in that they lagged far behind the white people in development. Ram, on the other hand, managed to create an empire of extraordinary strength, uniting many peoples of the world. But everything is not forever.
After the death of Ram, his heirs could not agree among themselves and on long years unleashed a bloody feud. As a result, small uprisings turned into riots, and then into a civil war started by Prince Irshu. Moreover, the struggle for power and the legacy of Ram had not only political significance, but also determined the further paths of development of all mankind.
In this struggle, the Aryans were defeated, and all subsequent revolutions, socialist utopian teachings and the loss of spirituality by people are a consequence of this.
After these events, another legend remained. As if somewhere in Asia, high in the mountains, on the border of Afghanistan, Tibet and India, there is the country of Agharti-Shambhala, which is inhabited by sage mediums who managed to survive after the Irshu uprising, who hid secret laboratories, libraries, warehouses in inaccessible caves that store all scientific experience of many ancient civilizations. Whoever can negotiate with the inhabitants of Shambhala and take possession of the key to secret knowledge - he will take over the world and reveal all the secrets of the Universe!
Hitler in search of Shambhala
After hearing this legend and reading Blavatsky's book, Hitler becomes simply obsessed with the idea of finding these secret knowledge. In his search, he relies on the locations indicated by Helena Blavatsky. The first place to look for is the city of Agadi, located underground on the site of the former Babylonia, and the second is the legendary Shambhala, where there is a key to all the secrets of the Universe.
After Adolf Hitler officially re-established his National Socialist Party in 1925, Heinrich Himmler joined it in August of the same year, with whom Hitler had already known since the days of the Beer Putsch. It was Himmler who in 1923 carried the "battle banner of the Reich." As soon as the devoted Heinrich Himmler becomes a member of the party, Hitler immediately appoints him Gauleiter of Bavaria. After some time, Adolf tells Heinrich ancient legend and asks a friend to help in the search for valuable knowledge.
In 1926, first in Munich, and then in Berlin, quite numerous colonies of Tibetans and Hindus began to appear, with whom specialists from the SS were working, trying to get at least some information about Shambhala and the black faith of the Bonpo. The Near and Middle East were not forgotten either. "Archaeological" expeditions are sent there, consisting of Nazi-sympathetic scientists and SS officers who are trying with all their might to find the underground city of Agadi.
Heinrich Himmler is trying his best to complete the task entrusted to him by Hitler to search for ancient knowledge and the origins of the Aryans as quickly and as best as possible. In other respects, his efforts were soon appreciated. On January 6, 1929, Heinrich Himmler was appointed to the post of Reichsführer-SS. Thus, Hitler not only thanked Himmler for his efforts, but also acquired a true friend and "right hand".
Since the beginning of 1931, Himmler has been creating his own independent secret service called the SD. At the beginning of the same 30s, Himmler begins to show interest in the retired sailor Reinhard Heydrich. A well-educated, musically gifted, fair-haired, athletically built young man, recreated, according to Himmler, the image true Aryan. But not only this in Heydrich interested the Reichsfuehrer SS.
First of all, Himmler drew attention to his education and deep knowledge culture: not every Nazi functionary or SS officer could boast of this. And Reinhard was born and raised in the family of the director of the conservatory, where the cult of culture reigned. Reinhard was such a virtuoso on the violin that he could easily do musical career, but he chose the path of a naval officer, but could not stay there for a long time because of his weakness for women. He had to leave the fleet after the trial of officer honor because of the scandalous love story with the daughter of one of the senior officers.
Project "Heritage of Ancestors"
As a result, Heydrich was invited to Himmler's office, where he was offered to head the secret service of the SD, the goal, which was new program on the search for ancient knowledge called the "Heritage of the Ancestors".
Himmler believed that only Reinhard Heydrich, possessing enviable erudition and deep knowledge of world culture, would be able to get off the ground, thoroughly deadlocked searches. Reinhard gladly accepted the proposals of the Reichsführer SS and left the office.
Some time after the appointment of Reinhard Heydrich, a secret structure was organized as part of the SS, called the "Ancestral Heritage". The main task of this organization is to be in the culture, science, and history of the whole world, to confirm God's chosenness and claims to world domination of the Aryan race represented by the Germans.
This secret structure united under its roof more than fifty scientific institutes and closed laboratories. different profile where highly qualified specialists studied:
- Symbolism
- Runic writings
- Applied Linguistics
- The history of the Aryans
- Knowledge of ancient peoples with translations from Sanskrit
Origin of the Aryan Race
Experts and the "Heritage of the Ancestors" managed to find out where the Aryan race originated. According to them, these places should have been located somewhere in Central Asia in the Gobi Desert, in the Pamirs and Eastern Europe.
It is also known that the SS believed that the Gobi desert was not always lifeless, but turned into one as a result of the use of powerful weapons not yet known to people 30s of the last century. And it happened, according to their calculations, about four thousand years ago.
Around the same time, the tribes of the Aryans, after an ecological catastrophe, dispersed in different directions around the world. The Nordic Aryans led by Thor (later to become the main deity of the ancient Scandinavians and Germans) went to the northwest, where the rest went remains unknown. Many scientists are still eager to find out what information the Ancestral Heritage organization kept.
