Aryans, << AIR ee uhnz, >> is a term used both for a group of Asian languages and for certain Asian peoples. Indo-Aryan is a group of languages spoken mainly on the Indian subcontinent. Some of these languages date back to as long ago as about 1500 B.C. Indo-Aryan includes the ancient Sanskrit language and the modern Hindi. In Sanskrit, the term arya referred to a group of people in ancient India. These Aryans were Brahmans, members of the highest Hindu caste, who followed the traditionally accepted religious practices and used Sanskrit. In Sanskrit, arya means kinsmen or nobles.
Other peoples that referred to themselves as Aryans were the Iranians, including the Persian family of rulers known as the Achaemenids. The Indo-Iranians settled about 1500 B.C. in what are now Afghanistan, northern India, Iran, and Pakistan. The Achaemenid family ruled what is now Iran from about 550 B.C. to 331 B.C. The name Iran comes from the word Aryan.
In the mid-1900’s, the rulers of Nazi Germany used the term Aryan to refer to Germans and certain other northern Europeans, whom they considered racially superior to all other peoples. This racist use of the term has continued among certain white supremacist groups in the United States.
