The Aryans

Aryan Theory

• In 1786, Sir William Jones observed that Sanskrit, Persian, Greek, Roman, Celtic, and Germanic languages were closely connected and likely came from a common source language that no longer existed.

• This idea became the foundation of Comparative Philology, which was later given a scientific basis by Franz Bopp in his work Comparative Grammar about fifty years later.

• From these linguistic similarities, scholars proposed that the speakers of these languages once belonged to a single stock, lived in one region, and originally spoke one parent language.

• Max Müller strongly supported this theory in 1861 through his Lectures on the Science of Language. He claimed that the ancestors of Indians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Slavs, Celts, and Germans once lived together as one community.

• According to Max Müller, this original homeland was Central Asia, from where Indians and Persians moved southward, while Greeks, Romans, Celts, Teutons, and Slavs migrated toward Europe.

• Later, critics challenged these views with the help of Comparative Ethnology and Archaeology, arguing that similarity of language does not necessarily prove racial or blood relationship.

• One major critic was Julius Oppert, who stated that there may be Aryan languages, but there is no Aryan race.

• During the late nineteenth century, debate over the Aryan Theory shifted repeatedly between extreme opinions.

• By the time of this passage, the intense conflict had reduced, confusion had cleared, and scholars were able to examine the issue more calmly and objectively.

Comparative Philology

• Since the time of Sir William Jones and Franz Bopp, scholars noticed a strong affinity among Sanskrit, Iranian, Armenian, Slavonic, Lettic, Greek, Latin, Celtic, and Teutonic languages, which was not due to accident, borrowing, or temporary contact.

• These languages share common-root words for family relations (father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter), animals and objects (cow, horse, dog, wagon, yoke, door, copper), numerals up to hundred, pronouns (me, thou, he), verbs (to be, eat, sew), and particles like inter, pra, pari.

• John Muir stated that the most primitive, fundamental, and essential parts of these languages are common to all of them.

• Similarity is found not only in vocabulary but also in grammar, such as noun declensions and verb conjugations, showing deep linguistic relationship.

• Fritz Hommel and Friedrich Delitzsch tried to connect Aryan and Semitic languages through some similar roots, but Isaac Taylor argued that a few words are insufficient proof, as similarities may be accidental or borrowed through trade.

• Even if some words matched, Semitic and Aryan languages differ fundamentally in grammatical structure, so no basic relationship was accepted.

• Philologists found no major resemblance between this language group and unrelated languages such as Chinese, Arabic, Negro, or Australian languages.

• Therefore, they concluded that the ancestors of most modern Europeans, Persians, and non-Dravidian Indians once lived together, spoke one original language, and later developed separate modern languages.

• The term Aryan was used because ancient Persians called themselves by that name, and Rigvedic people are believed to have used it against aborigines; however, since Europeans did not use it, broader terms like Indo-European and Indo-German were coined for the whole family.

• Linguistic evidence alone cannot prove racial identity. Paul Broca noted that races often changed languages without changing physical type, as seen in Belgium where people spoke a neo-Latin language though Romans left little racial trace.

• A similar case occurred in South America, where neo-Latin dialects were imposed on large indigenous populations. Thus, language spread can occur through conquest rather than race replacement.

• Comparative philology has value only when supported by other evidence. Civilized conquerors often impose their language on conquered peoples.

• By this logic, migrating Aryan groups may have entered Europe and India, mixed with natives, and spread their language and culture. Hence, finding a pure Aryan race in the modern world is impossible.