Arvindus

Contemplations

An Etymosophy of 'Aryan'

  • Title: Contemplations, An Etymosophy of 'Aryan'.
  • Author: Arvindus.
  • Publisher: Arvindus.
  • Copyright: Arvindus, 2020, all rights reserved.
  • Index: 202009011.
  • Edition: html, first edition.

Content

§

In 'Ageless Wisdom, Sub-Races' it was sketched how the Aryan race settled in the north of India as the first sub-race, moved to Egypt as the second sub-race, settled in the Arabian countries from eastern Turkey to Iran as the third sub-race, after which Europe was colonized, in the south as the fourth sub-race and more north as the fifth sub-race.1

This course of events can remarkably be reconstructed by an etymosophy (a contemplative etymology) of the word 'Aryan'. 'Aryan', in English also 'Arian', is originally a Sanskrit word.2 As 'ārya' it denotes in Sanskrit a noble person, as also a race-own person, which would be someone belonging to the Sanskrit speaking race, and thus an early North-Indian.3 'Ārya' is thought to stem from the root 'ṛi',4 which indicates in general a movement,5 and as 'āṛī' a flow of water. This is interesting to mention because the Aryan root race is thought to have emerged from the great flood that sank Atlantis,6 and also because there are semantic relations with some of its considered sprouts, as we shall see later on.

The word was passed on to the Zend-Avestan language as 'airya', meaning 'venerable', and to Old-Persian as 'ariya' as a national name, which in later Persian became the name of Persia, being 'Irân' (or 'Iran').7 So as the first sub-race Aryans of northern India evolved into the third sub-race Middle-Easterns of Iran (and beyond in the western direction) so did the original Sanskrit word too evolve westward.

Here it is interesting to mention that when after the pronunciation of 'arya' the mouth is closed without keeping the nasal passage open the (rudimentary) plosive bilabal 'b' is added at the end, forming the word 'aryab', which is phonetically extremely close to the word 'arab'. So the step from 'arya' to 'arab' is only very small. Now 'arab' was a word which in the Middle-East was used to refer to the people of Arabia,8 who in the ageless wisdom are also considered as a sub-division of the Aryan race.9

Now from the pronunciation of 'arab' it is only a small step to come to the pronunciation of 'europ', as it is a small step to go from 'arya' and the later 'airya' to 'euro'. We are positing here the possibility that the Greek 'Európe' (being the root of the English 'Europe')10 itself stems from 'arya', in line with the Europeans belonging to the fourth Aryan sub-race in the south and the fifth northwards. This Greek 'Európe' is the name of a mythological princess (in English known as 'Europa') who was abducted by Zeus to the island of Crete, after which she begot him three children.11 The Greek stem of her name can possibly considered to be 'Euros', which refers to the eastern wind.12 This is beautifully symbolical when it is considered that the direction where this wind comes from is the direction where the Greek Aryan ancestors came from, after which that wind is thus possibly named. Also interesting to mention here is that the similar Greek word 'euroos' means 'well flowing'.13 This is interesting in the context of the earlier mentioned Sanskrit 'āṛī' referring to a flowing too.

When we travel from Mediterranean Europe towards the northwest we eventually arrive in Ireland. The name of this county is derived from the Irish name 'Éire',14 which is also a name form of the goddess 'Ériu'.15 In phonetics 'Ériu' is of course again very similar to 'arya', as 'Éire' is to 'airya' and 'euro', and the name form 'Erin' to 'Irân' and 'aryan'. In mythology there are some general similarities between Europa and Ériu which may strengthen their etymosophical relation. Both are island goddesses (the former of Crete and the latter of the Irish island) and both are related to a sun related god (the former to Zeus and the latter to Mac Gréine or Cethor). A more in depth comparison could be conducted elsewhere. Still interesting to mention is that academic etymology traces 'Ériu' back to the Proto-Indo-European word 'huer',16 which would refer to flowing water. And this then lays an additional semantic relation with the earlier mentioned Sanskrit 'āṛī', which refers to the same.

With the Nazis in the twentieth century the German word 'Arier' then came to refer exclusively to the German race.17 But this of course is a distorted conception.18 Germans, as all Europeans, do belong to the Aryan race,19 but not exclusively, and even the Jews are considered Aryan in the ageless wisdom.20 The word 'arya' in its different forms travelled with its people from India to Iran, to the Arabian world, to the Greeks and to Ireland and to the whole of Europe, including Germany but not excluding any of the aforementioned.

Notes
  1. 'Ageless Wisdom, Sub-Races', Index: 202008281.
  2. Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0), Oxford University Press, 2009, Aryan, Arian, a. and n.
  3. Monier Williams, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Etymologically and Philologically Arranged, With Special Reference to Greek, Latin, Gothic, German, Anglo-Saxon, and Other Cognate Indo-European Languages, The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1862, p. 129.
  4. Ibidem.
  5. Ibidem, p. 178.
  6. 'Ageless Wisdom, The Root Races', Index: 202008161.
  7. Note 2.
  8. Jan Retsö, The Arabs in Antiquity: Their History from the Assyrians to the Umayyads, RoutledgeCurzon, London / New York, 2003, p. 119.
  9. Helena P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Volume II, in: Theosophical Classics, (CD-ROM), Theosophical Publishing House, Manilla, 2002, p. 200. "At any rate, the "Semitic" languages are the bastard descendants of the first phonetic corruptions of the eldest children of the early Sanskrit. The occult doctrine admits of no such divisions as the Aryan and the Semite, accepting even the Turanian with ample reservations. The Semites, especially the Arabs, are later Aryans—degenerate in spirituality and perfected in materiality. To these belong all the Jews and the Arabs."
  10. Oxford English Dictionary, European, a. and n.
  11. Mike Dixon-Kennedy, Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology, ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, 1998, p. 128.
  12. Henry George Liddell / Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996, p. 730.
  13. Ibidem.
  14. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite, (CD-ROM), Encyclopædia Britannica, Chicago, 2015, Ireland.
  15. Patricia Monaghan, Celtic Mythology and Folklore, Facts on File, New York, 2004, p. 160.
  16. Sian Echard and Robert Rouse, The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain, 4 Volume Set, Wiley-Blackwell, 2017, Eriu.
  17. Van Dale Groot Woordenboek Nederlands-Duits, zoeksoftware versie 2.0, Utrecht / Antwerpen, 2002, Ariër.
  18. Alice A. Bailey, Esoteric Astrology, A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Volume III, in: Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophy, (CD-ROM, Release 3), Lucis Trust, London / New York, 2001, p. 521. "As this is the Aryan or fifth root-race (and I do not use this term in the German, materialistic and untrue sense) [...]."
  19. Alice A. Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, in: Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophy, (CD-ROM, Release 3), Lucis Trust, London / New York, 2001, p. 605.
    "The 5th root-race. The Aryan. Mental development.
    The 5th sub-race. The Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon."
  20. Note 9.
Bibliography
  • 'Ageless Wisdom, The Root Races', Index: 202008161.
  • 'Ageless Wisdom, Sub-Races', Index: 202008281.
  • Alice A. Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, in: Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophy, (CD-ROM, Release 3), Lucis Trust, London / New York, 2001.
  • Alice A. Bailey, Esoteric Astrology, A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Volume III, in: Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophy, (CD-ROM, Release 3), Lucis Trust, London / New York, 2001.
  • Helena P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Volume II, in: Theosophical Classics, (CD-ROM), Theosophical Publishing House, Manilla, 2002.
  • Mike Dixon-Kennedy, Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology, ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, 1998.
  • Sian Echard and Robert Rouse, The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain, 4 Volume Set, Wiley-Blackwell, 2017.
  • Henry George Liddell / Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996.
  • Patricia Monaghan, Celtic Mythology and Folklore, Facts on File, New York, 2004
  • Jan Retsö, The Arabs in Antiquity: Their History from the Assyrians to the Umayyads, RoutledgeCurzon, London / New York, 2003, p. 119.
  • Monier Williams, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Etymologically and Philologically Arranged, With Special Reference to Greek, Latin, Gothic, German, Anglo-Saxon, and Other Cognate Indo-European Languages, The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1862.
  • Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite, (CD-ROM), Encyclopædia Britannica, Chicago, 2015.
  • Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0), Oxford University Press, 2009.
  • Van Dale Groot Woordenboek Nederlands-Duits, zoeksoftware versie 2.0, Utrecht / Antwerpen, 2002.