01-12-2006, 11:18 AM
Ashok Kumar,
not meaning to contradict you, but Persian king Darius the ?th left an edict where he spoke of himself as: "Parshya, Parshya Putra; Arya, Arya Chitra". (Persian, son of Persian/of Persian dynasty; Noble, of noble family).
At least as per this edict the Iranians had and did use the word Arya. However, if you were right, then perhaps they never used the word 'Airya' in their countryname, only in the descriptions of their families? It is possible, but I still find "Airyana" as Iran's name a possibility too.
Interesting that Darius used Arya and not Airya as was usual in Iran. And I'm inclined to think that the ancestors of present-day Iranians used it not as a racial or even ethnic term (Parshya is their ethnic/dynastic/tribal affinity, Parshu in Rg Vedic Samskrt - Darius had already mentioned his ethnicity in the edict), but in the same spirit as we used it. This would make Airyana mean land of noble people. Since the Persian Zoroastrians, like ancient Indians, valued speaking only the truth, 'noble' does seem appropriate. Another indication that Airyana was the name of their country comes from the fact that the "Airyanam Vaejo" mentioned in the Avesta was the original homeland of the Iranians before they came to Iran.
Interestingly, it seems that the Persians refused to apply the title "Airya" to the Scythians (Shakas) who were people who spoke Iranian languages too - by all accounts an "Indo-European" people. Probably the Persians thought of them as barbarians, as Indians likewise did when the Shakas first invaded India. So race had nothing to do with it, neither for the Persians nor for us.
not meaning to contradict you, but Persian king Darius the ?th left an edict where he spoke of himself as: "Parshya, Parshya Putra; Arya, Arya Chitra". (Persian, son of Persian/of Persian dynasty; Noble, of noble family).
At least as per this edict the Iranians had and did use the word Arya. However, if you were right, then perhaps they never used the word 'Airya' in their countryname, only in the descriptions of their families? It is possible, but I still find "Airyana" as Iran's name a possibility too.
Interesting that Darius used Arya and not Airya as was usual in Iran. And I'm inclined to think that the ancestors of present-day Iranians used it not as a racial or even ethnic term (Parshya is their ethnic/dynastic/tribal affinity, Parshu in Rg Vedic Samskrt - Darius had already mentioned his ethnicity in the edict), but in the same spirit as we used it. This would make Airyana mean land of noble people. Since the Persian Zoroastrians, like ancient Indians, valued speaking only the truth, 'noble' does seem appropriate. Another indication that Airyana was the name of their country comes from the fact that the "Airyanam Vaejo" mentioned in the Avesta was the original homeland of the Iranians before they came to Iran.
Interestingly, it seems that the Persians refused to apply the title "Airya" to the Scythians (Shakas) who were people who spoke Iranian languages too - by all accounts an "Indo-European" people. Probably the Persians thought of them as barbarians, as Indians likewise did when the Shakas first invaded India. So race had nothing to do with it, neither for the Persians nor for us.