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The Aryans
A Forgotten People

Many People have heard of the Aryans, yet relatively few people know who the Aryans actually

are. The term "Aryan" originates with the ancient Indo-Iranians, a subgroup of the Indo-Europeans,

who used the word "Arya" to designate themselves (“Who were the Aryans”). There are only two

ancient texts composed prior to 1,000 BC which give a detailed account to the existence of the Aryans.

They are the Hindu Rig Veda's and the Zoroastrian Avesta. The significance of the history recorded in

these texts is not suppose to be a record of time, but rather a record of progressive human developments

which correlate to archaeological ages such as the Stone Age, Metal Age, etc.

(A 1507 map by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemuller. This is also the first known map with recorded use

of the word “America”, by the way.)

The pre-history of the Aryans is recorded in the Zamyad Yasht of the Avesta, which begins in
the Stone Age, referred to as the Age of Gaya Maretan. According to the Avesta, Gaya Maretan was the

first Aryan king under whose reign the Aryans lived in mountainside caves, wearing animal skins and

leaves. They were hunters and gatherers who collected wild fruits, intoxicating hemps, and other

supplementary plant stuffs to maintain their diet. It was also during this period that the Aryans began to

domesticate animals and herd cattle. The establishment of national governance based on hereditary

kingship was also developed during this age.

It wasn't until the Aryans discovered how to make fire that they were able to extract metal from

ore, ushering in the Metal Age. Known in the Avesta as the Pishdadian Era, It was during this age that

the Aryans began to build some of the world's earliest civilizations. The Aryans began to develop

governance and agriculture. They even furthered the domestication of animals to include animal

husbandry and the domestication of horse, ass, and sheep. The domesticated animals were used for

ploughing fields, transporting goods (which led to increased trade), and for the production of dairy

products; such as milk, cheese and yoghurt. The animals, crops and dairy products were used to pay

taxes; thus taxation was born. To support their ancient agriculture, the Aryans even dug irrigation

canals and ducts to bring water to their crops.

Within the greater Metal Age, there are smaller era's contained within that mention specific

developments under the reign of certain kings, such as the Age of Tahmuras, named after the Aryan

king under whose reign the arts of shearing sheep, weaving clothes and draperies, and the taming of

falconry and hawks were developed. During his reign he instituted a prime minister who was

responsible for the administration of justice within the kingdom. Tahmuras even instituted the first

animal humane laws that required all animals to be reared with care and kindness.

Following the Age of Tahmuras, but still within the greater Metal Age, came the Age of Yima,

named after the legendary king Jamshed (who is referred to as Yama in the Hindu Rig Veda's). During

this age, the Aryan nation increased up to four times in size, expanding Southward into modern-day

Afghanistan and the upper Indus Valley (“Who were the Aryans”). According to the Avesta, Jamshed
established laws which were grounded in grace and justice, bringing the Aryan nation into an

unprecedented golden age in which his subjects enjoyed heaven on earth. It was also during this age

that iron was used to produce helmets, breastplates, and even coats of armor for both men and horse.

Society of this period was composed of four main professions, which were the priests and learned

scholars, the nobles and the warriors, farmers, and the artisans; all of whom were dignified and worked

in freedom, as there was no slavery, or any type corvee system in ancient Aryan society. The most

important development of this age was the Iranian calender, with its New Year set on the Spring

Equinox of March 21st. More ancient than the Mayan calender and more accurate than the Gregorian,

the Indo-Iranian calender is still used in many Middle-Eastern and Central Asian countries today, such

as Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan just to name a few.

However, It is recorded in the Avesta that Shahenshah Jamshed became arrogant and lost his

grace. Dissension grew strong within and soon his vassal of kings, generals, chieftans, tribal leaders

and lords withdrew from his courts. Without support from his court, Jamshed lost all control over his

kingdom. Knowing this, an Arab king named Zahak, with his Mesopotamian army, invaded and

conquered the Aryan nation. Not only did Zahak bring death and destruction to the Aryan homeland, he

also introduced a variety of Babylonian gods and idols to the Aryan people. The Aryans lost faith in the

Supreme Creator, and were forced to pay tribute to false idols. The foreign domination of the Aryan

homeland lasted for over a thousand years, until a valiant young farm boy warrior named Feridoon led

a revolt which resulted in the liberation of the Aryan nation.

According to the Avesta, Feridoon's victory over the foreign invaders marked the end of the first

Epic Aryan Cycle, in which it is said that this tragic cycle begins with the rise and fall of golden ages

followed by an age of despair brought by a loss of sacred trust in the ruler and the loss of an ethical

compact devised to benefit the subjects under rule. It seems that the Aryan nation today (known in

Middle Persian as Airan, and in modern Farsi as Iran) is currently coming towards the end of the

second Epic Cycle, which will give rise to a golden age, liberating modern-day Iran from the darkness
of an Islamic plague which was brought by Arabs to the Iranian plateau more than a thousand years

ago.

Though this is not the history that is taught in Western history books, Raphael Pumpelly, a 19th

century geologist from New York, proposed that it was actually Central Asia where civilization began,

with the Indo-Aryans, rather than in the Middle-East with the Mesopotamian's. However, bias amongst

Western historians in maintaining Biblical lands like Sumer as the cradle of civilization left Raphael

and his theories largely ignored by the already established camp of Western scholars – even after

Raphael conducted numerous archaeological excavations in what is today Turkmenistan and produced

massive amounts of evidence which prove the existence of not just one, but a vast collection of ancient

and forgotten civilizations spread throughout thousands of kilometers, where he uncovered ruins dating

back to the fifth millennium BCE (“Who were the Aryans”).

In 1993, following Turkmenistan's independence from the Soviet Union, an archaeologist

named Hiebert returned to the same sites which Raphael had dug at almost a hundred years prior. In

Hiebert's journal, he notes: “We dug further down than Pumpelly had been able to do, and what we

found was a confirmation of everything he believed.”

Just near Anau, where Raphael Pumpelly first discovered these ancient ruins, Hiebert

discovered another ancient settlement at Djeitun, which modern dating methods tell us prospered some

time around 6500 BCE, making it the earliest known agricultural settlement as of yet.

Around the 18th Century BCE, in the late bronze age, a new religion emerged, founded by an

Aryan man who was disgusted by the ritualistic animal sacrifices and the worship of false idols, which

he refers to as Devas in the Gathas. The emergence of this new religion caused a schism among the

Aryan people. Prior to the advent of Zarathushtra, the Aryans were primarily Devayasni, a form of

polytheistic Proto-Hinduism. However, at age 40, Zarathushtra successfully proclaimed his message to

the patron King Vishtaspa, who was then king of Bactria, located in the North of modern-day

Afghanistan. With Vishtaspa's adoption of the new faith, Mazdayasna spread throughout his kingdom
like wild-fire.

However, Vishtaspa's Kingdom during his reign was a tributary state of Turan, in modern-day

Uzbekistan, which was then ruled by a Devayasni king named Arjasp. It seems that when King

Vishtaspa decided to embrace the Mazdayasni faith, he also decided to quit paying tribute to the

Devayasni king. Arjasp was furious, and he gave King Vishtaspa a choice. Either Vishtaspa can

denounce the Mazdayasni faith and resume paying tributes, or he can face a devastating invasion

(“Who were the Aryans”).

King Vishtaspa refuses to denounce his newly adopted faith. Arjasp and his forces soon invade,

and what ensued would be the War of Religion, an internal struggle among the Aryan people between

the polytheistic Devayasni's and the monotheistic Mazdayasni's. This war, and its many battles were

recorded in both Zoroastrian and Hindu Scriptures. In fact, the ongoing war between the early

Zoroastrian's and Proto-Hindu's forms one of the central themes among the Hindu Rig Veda's, which

record the many battles between the Deva's and the Asura's (worshipers of Ahura Mazda).

Miraculously, King Vishtaspa and his Mazdayasni forces overcame the invasion and eventually

defeated the Deva's. The defeated Devayasni's were forced to migrate south across the Hindu Kush

mountains and into India, whereupon they conquered the indigenous Dravidians, spreading Hinduism

and setting up the famous caste system which is still prevalent in some parts of rural India today. This

is also around the time that the Devayasni's began composing the Hindu Rig Veda's, though they would

be passed down orally for more than a thousand years before being committed to text (RigVedic Tribes

– Indo-Europeans in India”).

While the Hindu religion was rapidly spreading South into India, the Zoroastrian religion was

just as rapidly spreading West across the Iranian plateau, laying the foundations of Monotheism in the

Middle-East.

By 500 BCE, the Aryans had achieved World-Domination, with the Great Aryan king Darius the

Great, whose empire stretched from the Hindu Kush mountains in the East, all the way into Greece and
Macedonia in Europe, and as far Southwest as Egypt and Libya in Africa. In fact, it is Darius the Great

who proudly proclaims himself an Aryan on his tombstone at Naqsh-e-Rustam in the mountainsides of

Persepolis. Still there today, written in cuneiform, the monument reads; “I am Darius the Great King,

King of Kings, King of countries containing all kinds of men, King in this great earth far and wide, son

of Hystaspes, an Achaemenian, a Persian, son of a Persian, an Aryan, having Aryan lineage.”

(The Mountain-face at Naqsh-e-Rustam, where Darius the Great's cuneiform inscription still exists today.)

By the 18th century AD, the earliest known languages of Indo-European descent were Sanskrit

and Avestan, both which are of Indo-Aryan origin. Philologists adopted the word Aryan to refer not

only to Indo-Iranian's, but to the speakers of Indo-European languages as a whole. Indians, Iranians,

Albanians, Greeks, Latins, Germans, Balts, Slavs and Celts all belong to the Indo-European family of

languages, which are believed by philologists to have descended down to us from their common

ancestors, the Proto-Indo-Europeans (“Rigvedic Tribes – Indo-Europeans in India”, Part 2/2). However,

prior to the 18th Century, not a single European ever used the word “Aryan” to designate themselves,

yet we have solid, physical proof of the ancient Indo-Iranians using the word to identify themselves

over 2,500 years ago.

 Works Cited:

Eduljee, K. “Who were the Aryans?” HeritageInstitute.com. 2007-2010

<http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/aryans/index.htm >

“Rigvedic Tribes – Indo-Europeans in India” Youtube.com. March 8th, 2010

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMcqEz0Ar2Q >

The Kordeh Avesta transliterated and translated into English with explanatory notes by Prof.

Kanga, Ervad. Bombay: Parsi Panchayat, 1993. Print.