The objection to Indo-Germanic as the technical name of the whole family is that it is too long, and yet not sufficiently extensive. If the family is to be distinguished by the names of its two extreme members, the name ought to be Indo-Celtic, rather than Indo-Germanic; if by its most important members, then, as remarked by Bopp, the name should be Indo-Glassic. Indo-European is an equally cumbersome name, and less correct even than Indo-Germanic, considering that there are many languages spoken both in India and Europe which do not belong to that family. Sanskritic would be a misleading name, as countenancing the idea that all the members of this family are derived from Sanskrit. Japhetic seems to revive the Jewish conception of the three ancestors of the human race, Shem, Ham and Japhet and would, from the strictly Hebrew point of view, comprehend many tribes in the north of Asia and Europe who speak Turanian languages. Ewald, who suggested the name of Mediterranean, distinguishes, besides the Mediterranean, three other families of speech, the Northern, commonly called North Turanian or Altaic, the Semitic, and the Copto- African. He explains the name of Mediterranean by saying, that “the races speaking these languages inhabited the large central circle, surrounded by Semitic, South-Indian, Chinese, Turko-Tataric, and Bask languages” (Lehrbuch der Hebräischen Sprache, p. 17, note). The reason why this name has not been accepted, seems to be that locality has little to do with the essential character of languages, and that the central position once occupied by the people who spoke these tongues belongs to them no longer.

Aryan, as a name for a whole family of languages, has the advantage of being short, and, being a word of foreign origin, of lending itself more easily to any technical definition that may be assigned to it. It has been accepted by many writers in England, France, and India. In Germany, too, it is used in this wide sense by Lassen and others, while some scholars have used the term in the more restricted sense of Indo-Iranian,—i.e., as comprehending the languages of India and Persia, which constitute the south-eastern as distinct from the north-western (Greek, Latin, Celtic, Teutonic, Slavonic) branch of the family.

Origin of the Word.—Aryan, as a technical term, has been borrowed from the Sanskrit arya or ärya, the Zend airy a. In the later Sanskrit ärya means, of a good family. It is used as a complimentary address. Originally, however, it was used as a national name, and even as late as the time of the Laws of Manu, India is still called Arya-aυarta, i.e., the abode of the Aryas. In the Veda, Ärya is the name by which the believers in the gods of the Veda call themselves, in opposition to their enemies, who are called Däsas or Dasyus. The distinction appears in passages such as the following :—

I. 51, 8. “Distinguish, Indra, the Aryas and those who are Dasyus ” (vi ^ânïhi âryàn yé Ära däsyavaÄ).

X. 86, 19. “I, Indra, distinguishing the Däsa and the Ärya” (viÂinvân dâsam äryam).

We frequently read of the gods protecting the Ärya and destroying his enemies.

III. 34, 9. “Indra, having killed the Dasyus, protected the Aryan colour” (hatvï dâsyün prâ ärya in vârnam ävat). This looks like an ethnological distinction of colour between Ary as and Dasyus..

X. 49, 3. “I (Indra) who do not give over the Aryan name to the Dasyu” (nâ yàh raré äryam näma dasyave).

In X. 11, 4, we read of Aryan clans, äryä/t visah.

I. 103, 3. “Indra, increase the Aryan power” (äryam sâliaA vardhaya).

VIII. 103, 1. “Agni, the increaser of the Arya” (äryasya vardhanam).

VII. 18, 7. “Indra, the companion of the Arya” (sadhamää äryasya).

I. 130, 8. “Indra protected in battles the Aryan sacrificer” (ΓndraΛ samâtsu yâ^amânam äryain prâ ävat).

The gods, it is said, bring light for the Ärya.

I. 59, 2. “Agni is made a light for the Arya” (tâm tvä deväsa/i ayanayanta devâm vaisvänara yyötiÄ it Sryäya); or, “Agni creates broad light for the Arya, driving the Dasyus from the house” (VII. 5, 6).

II. 11, 18. “He (Indra) uncovered the light for the Arya, the Dasyu was left on the left hand” (âpa avrino/i ^ry0ti7⅛ äryäya ni' savyatäÄ sädi dâsyuâ indra).

III. 26, 2. “I gave the earth to the Arya, and rain to the liberal mortal” (Ahâm bhιimim adadâm âryàya ahâm vrishrim dâsùshe mârtyâya).

I. 117, 21. “The two Asvins have made the light wide for the Arya” (uni gybtih ZrakrathuA äryäya).

That light itself, the light of the day or the daily light and life, are called the Aryan light, X. 43, 4, and some of the gods too are addressed by the name of Arya. In V. 34, 6, we read of Indra, “that he, the Arya, leads the Dosa, according to his will” (yathävasAm nayati däsam SryaΛ). In X. 138, 3, too, Indra seems to be called by that name.

Most frequently, no doubt, the Arya is conceived as the worshipper of the gods. He was called so in I. 130, 8; again in I. 156, 5, Arya and Yagamäna, sacrificer, are mentioned together.

In IX. 63, 5, the Arya is opposed to the ärävän, the enemy, the man who offers no sacrifices; and I. 51, 8, the same distinction is drawn between the barhishmat, the sacrificer or Arya, and the avratd, the lawless, the Dasyu.

But the enemies of the poets and their friends are not only among the Dasyus, but also among the Aryas, and in their tribal feuds one Arya speaks of the other as adeva, godless, in the original sense of the word. Thus we read :—

_ X. 102, 3. “Turn away the weapon of the Däsa or the Arya” (däsasya vä maghavan äryasya vä sanutAΛ yavaya vadhâm).

X. 83, 1. “Let us withstand the Däsa, the Arya, with thee as helper” (sahyäma däsam äryam tvAyä yuyä).

VI. 33, 3. “Thou, O hero, struckest these two enemies, the Däsa fiends and the Arya” (tvAm tän indra ubhAyän amiträn däsa vriträni äryä Ä-a süra vAdhlΛ).

VI. 60, 6. “They (Indra and Agni) kill the Arya fiends, they kill the Däsa fiends, they strike off all haters (fem.)” (hatA7i vriträni äryä hatA7i däsäni sAtpatï hatAÄ visväÄ Apa dvisha/ø.

Similar passages, mentioning Arya and Däsa enemies, occur, VI. 22, 10; VII. 83, 1; X. 69, 6, &c. In VIII. 24, 27, the Arya enemy is contrasted with the riksha, literally, the bear.

The Arya enemy 13 called godless in X. 38, 3, “Whatever Däsa or godless Arya means to fight us” (yA7t naλ däsaA äryaÄ vä purustuta AdevaÄ indra yudhäya Λ∙iketati).

Lastly, Arya means in some passages what befits or belongs to an Arya, what is proper and right.

X. 65, 11. “The gods spread all over the earth the Aryan laws” (sudanavaΛ, äryä vratä vi sriyAntaΛ∙ Adhi kshâmi).

In IX. 63, 14, the sacred receptacles of the Soma are called ärya (été dhämäni äryä sukräA ritâsya dhärayä väyam gômantam aksharan).

It is clear from these passages that Arya is one of the oldest names by which people belonging to this great family of speech called themselves in distinct opposition to their enemies. It is admitted also that the Veda, in which this name occurs, surpasses in antiquity every other literary document belonging to the same race, and it would be difficult, therefore, to find another name better adapted to serve as a technical term for the whole Aryan family of languages^

As Arya had become a proper name as early as the poems of the Veda, its original and etymological meaning would be of little consequence, had it not been used as an additional argument both in favour of and against the technical use of Arya. Professor Bopp derived ärya from the root ar, to go, or even from ar£, to venerate. The former etymology would give no adequate sense, the latter is impossible. Lassen explains ärya as adeundus, like âAeârya, teacher. But in explaining ärya, it must be remembered that it cannot be separated from ärya with a short a, and that in consequence no etymology of ärya can be entertained which does not at the same time account for ärya. This word is used in the Yayurvcda in exactly the same sense as ärya in the Rig-veda. Thus we read, Väyasaneyi-Sanhitä, 20, 17, “Whatever sin we have committed against an Arya, or against a xS , udra” (yhk AeÂüdré yAd Arye yAd énas Aeakrimâ vayäm).

Here Arya is used in opposition to >Sudra, as Arya was used in the Rig-veda in opposition to Däsa. In the Rig-veda, too, we find at least some traces of arya, used in the sense of arya, and in opposition to däsa, viz., in the compound aryA-patni, having an Arya as husband, as opposed to dâsâ-patnï, having a Däsa as husband.

There can be no doubt, therefore, that ärya, the word which, as soon as the system of the four castes became more firmly established, took the technical meaning of “belonging to the three upper castes,” viz., the Brähmanas, Kshatriyas, and Vaisyas, came from ärya, and that in ärya must be discovered the original etymological meaning of the word.

Here it is of great importance to observe, that ärya is not only used as a comprehensive title of the three upper castes, but also as the special name of one of them, viz., the third caste, the householders or cultivators of the soil.

InVä^-Sani/dtä, XXVI. 2, it can mean nothing but Vaisya, a man of the third class, for it is used together with Brahman, Räyanya, and >Sudra. It is therefore not the commentator only, as Dr Roth says, who here gives the meaning of Vaisya to the word ärya, but, from the context itself, it can have no other meaning in that passage. This meaning is still clearer in a passage from the Lätyäyana Sütras, IV. 3, 6. Here it is said that some sacrificial^ act should be performed, primarily by jn Arya, but if no Ärya is forthcoming, then by any Arya, i.e., either by a Brähmana or Kshatriya (Aryäbhäve yaΛ kas Ä-äryo vamaÄ. Comment, yadi vaisyo na labhyate yah kas Aeâryo varna/i syät, brähmano vä kshatriyo vä).

Päjzini (III. 1, 103) distinctly ascribes to ärya the meaning of Vaisya and master; in IV. 1, 49, the 7th Värttika distinguishes between Arya and Kshatriya; and what is still more important, both the author of a Värttika to Pän., III. 1,103, and the author of the Phii-sütras, state that when ärya means Vaisya, it has the accent on the first syllable, like ärya.

Having thus traced the connection of ärya and Arya, both in form and meaning, we have now to consider how drya came to mean Vaisya. Vaisya, is formed from vis, house, settlement, like ärya and Arya, from ar. We have also vesyàm in the Veda, meaning, as it seems, family or clan. Vaisya, meant a householder, and vis also, plural visaÄ, is frequently used in the Veda as a name for people. Other old names for people in the Veda are kshιti, a dwelling and a dweller, from kshi, to dwell; Greek, κτι in άμφι.- κτiove<s ; or krishri ploughing or ploughers.

If, therefore, there was a Sanskrit word ar, meaning earth, then Arya, in the sense of landholder, or country man, would have been formed regularly like KshAmya, χθ0vιo<s, from kshAm, χθων, earth; like gAvya, from go, cow, nArya, from nAr, man. Now ar, in the sense of earth, does not occur in Sanskrit; but that such a word existed is proved by its derivatives. The Greek epα in tpaζe would correspond to a Sanskrit irä, which irä again stands to ir, like kshudhä, hunger, to kshudh. Finally, ir must be traced back to a radical ar, the change of a to i being analogous to that of Sk. pitar, father, as compared with τraτηp, pater, Goth, fad ar.

The question now arises, whether irä or ir ever occurs in Sanskrit as a name of earth. The native dictionaries, such as the Amarakosha, assign that meaning to irä, and to ilä, and the latter form occurs in the famous name of Ilävrita (explained as ilä prithivï vritä yena), the district of Ilä, the centre of yambudvïpa or India, <7ambudvipa itself being the centre of the seven great continents of the world (Vishnu-Puräna, B. II. cap. 2).

In the Big-veda irä occurs but once, and there, V. 83, 4, it has the meaning of food springing from the earth. “Food is produced for every being, when Paryanya quickens the earth with seed” (ira visvasmai bhüvanäya yâyate yât paryânyaA prithivïm rétasâ âvati).

Here irä cannot mean simply “a liquid, a draught, feast, particularly a draught of milk;” for the simile shows that the rain is taken as seed, and that from it the food (ira) is supposed to spring (yäyate).

In another passage in the Atharva-veda, IV. 11, 10, irä may mean earth, but the sense is doubtful. If it be asked how irä, originally meaning earth, could take the meaning of food, we must remember the tendency of ancient language to mix up cause and effect, the producer and the produced. Irä, meaning originally earth, would be used in many circumstances as the food and sustenance supplied by the earth, just as gauA, cow, in the Veda is used, not only for milk, but even for leather.

The adjective irävat means possessed of nourishment, nourishing. Anira means without food, and anirä amïvâ seems to be a name for famine. In one place, Rig-veda, IX. 97,17, i/ävat stands for irävat; vrishrim na arsha divyâm yigatnùm ïZâvatîm, “Give us the heavenly, streaming, fruitful rain.”

Considering the antiquity of the name arya, we may refer its origin to a period in the history of the Aryan language, when the primitive substantive ar was still used instead of the later *arä, irä, εpα. As from χaμaζε we should be justified in postulating the former existence not only of χ<ψα, earth, but even of a more primitive substantive χα/x, which is actually preserved in χθων, so from Zpaζε, we conclude the former existence not only of ερa, but also of a substantive εp, Sk. ar.

Whether ärya means born of the earth, or holding, cultivating, possessing the earth, in either case such a name finds ample analogies in the names by which the early dwellers on the earth spoke of themselves. It is not in modern languages only that people call those of their own country, Landsmann, countryman, but in Greek, too, γψ'τyς is used in that sense, while γecτ-ωv, equally derived from γη, means neighbour. The Latin vicinus, neighbour, is derived from vicus, the Greek, dικoς, the Sanskrit, vesa; all connected with the Sanskrit vis, dwelling or dweller, the synonym of ärya in Sanskrit. In Gothic, gaujan, a countryman, is derived from gauja, land, probably connected with χaμ in χα∕x-2-ξ∈. Connected with this same χa ∣ ι (χθων, χθαμαλός) is the Gothic guma(n), man; Lithuanian, zmôn-es, plur., men; and the Latin, hemönes (ne-hemo ≈ nemo), and homines, men, not derived from humus, but from an older nominal base, ham, hem, or horn.

Mythology also supplies several instances showing that man was conceived as born of the earth, the son and then the lord of the earth, made of dust, and meant to “till the ground from whence he was taken.” Erechtheus or Erichthonios (both chtheus and chthonios point to χaμ,), the national hero of the Athenians, worshipped in the oldest shrine on the Acropolis, was represented as γηγενής or αυτόχθων (Her., VIII. 55), while Homer (il., II. 548) says of him that the Earth bore him (τεκε δέ ζείδωρος apovpd). Hellen is the son of Pyrrha, and Pyrrha, the red, was the oldest name of Thessaly. The Germans derive their race from Mannus, who was the son of Tuisco, the heavenly, who was the son of the Earth.

The root ar, which as a substantive supplied the oldest names for earth, took in its verbal application the meaning of ploughing, at least among the members of the northwestern branch, Gr., Spo-τpov, àpo -τηρ, άρό-ω ; Lat., ar-ä-re, ar-ä-trum, ar-ä-tor; Goth., ar-jan, to ear; Lith., ar-ti, to plough; Old Slav., oralo, plough; Irish, airim, I plough, arathar, plough. In the south-eastern branch it took the technical meaning of ploughing the sea, Sanskrit, ari-tram, meaning rudder, never plough (c∕. κvp,aτa τεμvειv and άρουραν τίρ-νειν). Yet the meaning of moving, stirring up, belonged to the root ar from the beginning, and though we ought not to derive *ar, *arä, irä, εpα, from a root ar, to plough, as little as homo from humus, we may well understand how ar, as the broken, reclaimed, arable land could be used, even before the Aryan separation, as one of the names of earth.

The common etymology which would assign to ârya the meaning of “belonging to the faithful” (Roth) is untenable, because arya, with the short a and accent on the last syllable, does not mean faithful or devoted, and it is extremely doubtful whether ari, from which aryâ is said to be derived, occurs anywhere in the Veda with the meaning of desirous, devoted, or faithful. But even if it did, it would be impossible to leave out of consideration the name ârya, meaning simply landholder, Vaisya, without any admixture of the meaning of faithful or devoted. The national name, ärya, comes directly from this ârya, landholder, and ârya, landholder, comes from ar, land, not from ari, which means enemy. To distinguish aryâ, as a term of honour, in the sense of lord or master, from ârya, the mere appellative, a change of accent was admitted, which is recognised by the earliest grammarians who mention aryâ, lord, as distinguished from ârya, landlord, while no native authority ever assigns to arya, still less to ari, the meaning of faithful.

Arya and Ârya, as national names, can be traced from India to Persia. In the Avesta, airya means venerable, and is at the same time the name of the people. The first country created by Ormuzd or Ahuramazda is called in the Avesta, Airyanem vaëyô, Arianum semen. The whole extent of country occupied by the worshippers of Ormuzd is also called Airyä. As opposed to the Aryan clans (airyäo dainhävo), we hear in the Avesta of the un-Aryan clans (anairyäo dainhävo), and the same name is contained in the Άναριάκαι of Strabo, a people and town on the frontiers of Hyrcania. Greek geographers use the name of Ariana in a wider sense than the Avesta. All the country between the Indian Ocean in the south and the Indus on 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 under the name of Ariana; Bactria is called by him the ornament of the whole of Ariana. As the Zoroastrian religion spread westward, Persia, Elymais, and Media, all claimed the Aryan title. Hellanicus, who wrote before Herodotus, gives Aria as a name of Persia. Herodotus attests that the Medians were called Arii; and even for the northernmost part of Media, Atropatene, the name of Ariania has been preserved by Stephanus Byzantinus. Even Elymais has been supposed to be derived from Ailama, a modification of Airyama. That airya was considered a name of honour we see from the cuneiform inscriptions. There Darius calls himself Ariya and AriyaHtra, an Aryan, and of Aryan descent. The same element enters into many historical Persian names, Ariaramnes, Ariobarzanes, &c. When after centuries of foreign invasion and occupation Persia rose again under the sceptre of the Sassanians to the rank of a national kingdom, the kings, the worshippers of Masdanes, called themselves again in their inscriptions, Kings of the Aryan and un-Aryan races, Irän va Anirän, Άριάνων καί Α,ναριάνων. Hence the modern name of Persia, Irân.

In the name of Armenia the same element of arya has been supposed to exist. The old name of the country is Armina, and its etymology is doubtful. In the language of Armenia, however, ari exists, used in the widest sense for Aryan or Iranian, and also with the meaning of brave.

More westward still traces of the name have been discovered in Aghovan, the name of the Albanians on the border of the Caspian Sea, the gh being the...