Most Ancient Aryan Society

Author(s): Ram Chandra Jain
Publisher: Institute of Bharatalogical Research Sriganganagar Rajasthan

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( 273 ) with the new regime. The original inhabitants of Italy, reinforced by their neighbouring compatriots, established their power over the Romanāryans Circa 700 B. C. or a little earlier. They were the Etruscans of history. The consensus of opinions of the various scholars now veers round the view that the Etruscans were the pre-Aryan original inhabitants of Etruria who were strongly and materially reinforced by their pre-Aryan, Ægean and Asiatic neighbours to power and hegemony over the Romanāryans. Their language was pre-Aryan (Pre-Indo European). The twelve great cities of Etruria formed a league. The people elected a lictor for the fasces (a city) and a sacerdos on the occasion of the meeting of Etruscan states. The magistrature was also elected. The Etruscan states were small regional states similar to those of the self-sufficient, self-governed republican villages and towns of the Śramaņic region. The Etrurian republics had displaced the Aryan system of tribal dictatorship. The Etruscan society had no great differences of social levels. They followed matriarchal social system. Women were free, took part in public banquets and enjoyed social equality. They believed in the terrestrial, the celestial and the underworld. The belief in the transmigration of souls became progressively more established and definite under Minoan influences. They upheld the consoling doctrine of salvation. The Etruscan eschatological beliefs owe to the diffusion of orphic doctrines. They had certain traits of the Greek gentile life and belief in, what is miscalled, Anthropomorphism. This description of the Etruscans clearly signifies that they were the original people of the land having Śranmaņic traditions, beliefs and institutions. The Aryan tribal beliefs and institutions also penetrated them as they did in the original republican institutions and beliefs of Bhārata. The Etruscan social system had some similarities with Vajjian
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