Sunday, August 31, 2014

Aryan is not a racial term.



Over the years there have been many discussions of the term Aryan. Due to Nazism people believe this term relates to a racial group. This is not the true definition of ARYAN.
  • --- In Ta_Seti@yahoogroups.com, "ulagankmy" wrote:
    Dear Dr Winters

    As you are aware, the word 'aariyan' is a Tamil word, an ancient one at
    that and which has been borrowed by many tribes in deep past. Probably the root is Su. a and Ta. aal, to spread out, powerful, strong etc.


    Sumerian a-ri-a and Tamil aariyan

    The noun aal-al ( >aaRRal) which means strength, capacity and so forth is still in use in Tamil . The following note may help out to destroy the myth that Europeans were the Aryans.

    Related to this is that the whole of Rig Veda and related literature in
    Rigkrit is another variant of SumeroTamil. As such it has nothing to
    do with any "Aryan' family of languages - it is a pure fiction





    The word "aryan " that has acquired a racial connation has become one of
    the most important words to divide of Indian into Aryan and Dravidian with vrious antagonisms along racial lines. The growth of 19th century
    Dravidian movements in Tamil Nadu which has become political in the 20th
    cent. and the cultural movements to purify Tamil by cleaning it of the so-called Sanskrit terms are related to this. The replacemnt of Tamil as the language of Temple Worship among the tamils however has a different
    historical basis. It was something introduced by Ramanuja and on
    philosophical grounds. The Sanskrit literature , under the impact of
    Sankara became predominantly Advaitic Vedantic and hence was seen as
    detrimental to the growth of Bakthi and for which reason Ramaunuja
    installed the recitation of Thruvaymozi in the temples in place of Vedic
    mantras. One can see the present movement of the Saivites to give the
    place of honour to Tamil particularly the Thevaram corpus as something like that of Ramanuja, who incidently was a Brahamin and who wrote only in Sanskrit despite being a brilliant Tamil scholar.

    At the moment and perhaps mainly due to IndoEuropean scholarship the
    excitment and arrogance with which the Brahmins in Tamil Nadu received
    this, which is mainly a hypothesis , and who started to call themseves the scions of these Aryans is that which unnderlies the Brahmin-bashing that continues to this day. I have a colletion of litwrature in Tamil towards the end of 19th ,where the Smartha brahmins called themselves Aryans and went on to criticise severely Saiva Sidddhanta and many other philosophies of the Tamils. The Dravidian identity was fostered by Bihop Caldwell with his epoch making "Comparative study of Dravidian Languages" which was well received by the Tamil scholars but vehemently challenged by the Smartha Brahmins.

    This association of Tamil Brahmins with Aryanism and also Sanskrit along
    with it, still continues and will continue perhaps for a long time. It is certainly unfortunate for such a hatred for the TERM aryan is NOT to be met with in traditional India where the primary meaning of Aryan as used in Thevaram corpus Kamba Ramayan and so forth and perhaps also as Dhammapada did not have the racial sense at all rather that of "exceptional or brilliant individual" as in Tamil " ariyan'

    In Sangam classics there are several uses of it .

    1. aariyar tuvanRiya peerisai imayam: the famed Himalayas where dwell the Aryas. Here it certainly means a group of people bordering the Himalayas and in sense a generic term for all those who dwelt in the North of India

    2. aariyak kuuttu: here it means a noisy kind of dance especially those
    like walking on ropes to the accopaniment of loud and boisterous music.

    3. ariyamum tamizum: This phrase used by Appar and so forth applies to the Languages and here aariyam means certainly Sanskrit. Here we see the
    beginnings of the use of Aryan and Dravidian (=Tamil) in linguistic terms but without any anatogonistic emotional undertones. For both are recognised as languages founded by Siva.

    Ariyan as the Brilliant , Resplendent Principle and hence another variant for Siva

    We see the use of Aryan in this sense in the following verse of Tirumular

    Tirumantiram 134.

    puraiyaRRa paalinuL ney kalataaR pool
    tirai aRra cintaiyil aariyan ceppum
    uraiyaR RuNarvoor udambing kozitaaR
    karaiyaRRa cooti kalawthasat taame
    Meaning

    BEING emerges but stands as the Unconscious in the mind that
    becomes unruffled by any earthly desires just like ghee
    being present invisibly in the pure milk. Those who transcend
    speech ( by transcending temporality) and LISTEN in
    DEEP SILENCE to the instructions on Absolute Illumination that
    BEING-the -Radiant instructs on (through the language of Cin
    Muttirai) will untie themselves from all attachments to the
    physical body and becoming FREE from it, plunge into
    Boundless Radiance and through that also become a Sat, an
    absolute (just like BEING)

    Here Ariyan is used as anohter name for Civa, the Immensely Radiant BEING who illuminates all and helps the attainment of genuine freedom through the severances to all the bondages.
    The use of Aryan in the sense 'divine" that the above suggests is also
    available in Kampan's description of Rama as "aariya maintan". Here it may also mean the "royal, the kingly" etc.

    Su. a -ri-a

    The Tamil 'aariyan' that has has so many different meanings and hence
    possibly with different etymological roots also occurs in Sumerian in the sense "divine, royal " etc as the following line from Sulgis MutarIbuyam (Hymn B) would indicate.

    11. lugal-e lugal-a-ri-a nin-e -tu-da -me-en
    I, the king of Royal descent, who a princess bore.
    Ta. uLukaLee uLugak aariya(ariya) ninnee todda maan

    lu> uLu> aaLu, aaL: person. gal> kaL: great -e: -ee: the suffix that
    isolates that which is named ; the teeRRa eekaaram. a-ri-a> ariya (the
    rare) ; aariya: the royal , divine etc. nin> Nin, nan: the lofty: tu-da>
    todda; to bear , to give birth; me-en> maan: the person as in ceeramaan,
    atikaimaan etc The term" lugal-aria" is almost identical with the Tamil usage of Arya maintain such as that of Kamban. And this may be the sense in the use of Arya by Buddha in Dhammapada.

    It is also interesting that in the long history of Tamil literature nowhere we come across the Brahmins being called or call themselves as Aryas. Even in Sangam epoch we have kapilar, known as a Brahamana calling himself AntaN and NOT Aryan. This term has been more in use with the royalties and as an alternative term for Siva , the Brilliant Principle, the supremely radiant BEING that illuminates all minds arising as the inner sun.

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