Handbook of History of Religions

SR No.: 007634
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Edward Washburn
Publisher: Sanmati Tirth Prakashan Pune
Total Pages: 678
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 2 MB

Page 32

stood ... the waters' covered cave he opened wide, what time he Vritra slew.")
[Footnote 28: Aryan, Sanskrit aryà, árya, Avestan airya, appears to mean the loyal or the good, and may be the original national designation, just as the Medes were long called [Greek: Ario]. In late Sanskrit (=alrya is simply 'noble.' The word survives, perhaps, in [Greek: aristos], and is found in proper names, Persian Ariobarzanes, Teutonic Ariovistus; as well as in the names of people and countries, Vedic (=A]ryas, (=I]ran, Iranian; (doubtful) Airem, Erin, Ireland. Compare Zimmer, BB. iii. p. 137; Kaegi, Der Rig Veda, p. 144 (Arrowsmith's translation, p. 109). In the Rig Veda there is a god Aryaman, 'the true,' who forms with Mitra and Varuna a triad (see below). Windisch questions the propriety of identifying (=l]ran with Erin, and Schrader (p. 584^2) doubts whether the Indo-Europeans as a body ever called themselves Aryans. We employ the latter name because it is short.]
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CHAPTER II. PEOPLE AND LAND.
The Aryan Hindus, whose religions we describe in this volume[1], formed one of the Aryan or so-called Indo-European peoples. To the other peoples of this stock, Persians, Armenians, Greeks, Italians, Kelts, Teutons, Slavs, the Hindus were related closely by language, but very remotely from the point of view of their primitive religion. Into India the Aryans brought little that was retained in their religious systems. A few waning gods, the worship of ancestors, and some simple rites are common to them and their western relations; but with the exception of the Iranians (Persians), their religious connection with cis-Indic peoples is of the slightest. With the Iranians, the Hindus (that were to be) appear to have lived longest in common after the other members of the Aryan host were dispersed to west and south[2]. They stand in closer religious touch with these, their