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"Aryan" in Buddhism is used figuratively to refer to "nobles." Nobles has two meanings, "warriors" (
kshatriyas) and the "enlightened" (
aryas).
In its literal sense, it may mean Iranian (prehistoric people of proto-Persia). This is based on the popular and sometimes debunked Indian myth that great invaders came from the north to found the Indus Valley Civilization by mixing with Dravidian peoples. They brought the Vedas ("Knowledge Books") and Laws of Manu.
This is a popular history the Buddha used skillfully -- as he did many things -- to further a message. While he did not say it actually happened, he did use the myth to further promote the Dharma.
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| The origins of the swastika (pardos) and the Nazi abuse of it as a corporate logo |
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Recent findings suggest that not only was the Buddha was a noble, "enlightened," he may have been a literal Aryan (Iranian arya), born in Central Asia, in the north of future "India," in the sprawling Hellenistic Greek empire.
The Myth of the Aryan Invasion
Salagram.net
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| Hitler tilted it and added color scheme. |
The theory of the Aryan invasion of India has been a matter of debate, and at times, incisive arguments have been presented for and against it.
According to this theory, the light-skinned Aryan people wandered into India in the 2nd millennium B.C. from Central Asia.
The barbaric Aryan race then destroyed an already existing and advanced Harappan civilization, conquered it, and laid the foundations of a foreign imposition of language and culture on India.
This supposedly marked the beginning of the development of a Vedic culture, or what is called Hinduism today.
The hypothesis of an Aryan invasion is apparently based on the conflicts between light-skinned Aryans and dark race of dasyus described in Vedic literature. This aspect is said to have been strengthened by the skeletal findings in the excavated sites in the Indus Valley.
When the Rig Veda (2:20:10) refers to "Indra, the slayer of Vritra, destroying the Krishna Yoni Dasyus," it is held as a proof that the "invading aryans" exterminating the "dark aboriginals."
However, other references in the Rig Veda (10:1:11., 8:85:3., 2:3:9) suggest that the Indians were a mixed race and also, no stigma was attached to any non-white complexion. Therefore, to imagine the invading Aryans to be a white race is suspicious.
According to Saayana, the word dasyu derives from the word das, that is, "one who harms." The Rig Veda (6:22:10) prays to Indra [Sakka] to give glory by which the dasyus can become Aryas, that is, changing the dasyus to ideal and cultured human beings.
Many a scholar and historian have acknowledged the discrepancies, raised objections, and rejected the theory of Aryan invasion since its inception in the early 19th century.
According to historian Wheeler (in his Civilization of Indus Valley and Beyond), "...the [Aryan invasion] cannot be proved and may be quite incorrect."
Also, Murrow in his book The Sanskrit Language comments, "For the Indo-Aryan invasion of India no direct evidence is available... In the text of the Rig Veda itself, although historical allusions are not uncommon, there is no reference anywhere to the fact of the migration, nor any definite indication that it was still remembered."
Indian Vedic scholars like Dayanand Saraswati, B.G. Tilak, and Sri Arvind had already rejected the Aryan invasion theory based mostly on literary analysis.
In spite of having no evidence to support this doctrine, it is amusing to know how academics held on to this dogma.
The unobservant reading of the Rig Veda and its subsequent misinterpretation led to the doctrines of "class" and "color" struggles among the ancient Indians -- an appropriate tool to justify Marxist ideals and European racial theories.
This doctrine of Aryan invasion has been used as a perfect tool to divide the Hindu society and the Indian state:
The north-Indian Aryans were then pit against the south-Indian Dravidians, high-castes against low-castes, mainstream Hindus against the tribals, Vedic orthodoxy against the "native" heterodox sects and later, to neutralize Hindu criticism of forced Islamic occupation as "Hindus themselves have entered the same way as Muslims have."
Till today, the Marxist and "secularist" forces continue to promote this theory and extract propagandist capital out of it.
Recent advances in archeological, linguistic, and astronomical research have also compelled the abandoning of the current view of the Aryan invasion and the falsely speculated antiquity of the Vedic civilization.
The excavated ruins of the submerged city of Dwaraka [where Krishna is said to have lived] by Dr. S.R. Rao and his team in 1985 (Marine Archaeological Unit), along the coast of Gujarat, provides authenticity for the existence of the Mahabharata civilization (3000 B.C.)
Satellite data combined with field archeological studies have discovered the now disappeared river Saraswati, which appears extensively in the Vedic literature. The study also showed that the river flow discontinued much earlier than 3000 B.C.
The deciphering of the Indus script by S.R. Rao shows an amazing affinity with the Sanskrit family, and analysis of the seals have put forth numerous words and names from the Vedic age.
It indeed becomes evident that the Harappan culture was a part and parcel and continuation of an earlier Vedic age: an age that existed much prior to 3000 B.C.
As opposed to any racial connotation, the word "Aryan" is an honorific title and was used for people who were cultivated in mind and character, a person whose way of life aims at elevating the individual soul through a disciplined life to godhood (mukhti).
Sri Arvind in his celebrated book The Supramental Manifestation and Other Writings explains:
- "...the word Arya expressed a particular ethical and social ideal, an ideal of well-governed life, candor, courtesy, nobility, straight dealing, courage, gentleness, purity, humanity, compassion, protection of the weak, liberality, observance of social duty, eagerness of knowledge, respect for the wise and learned, the social accomplishments. It was the combined ideal of the Brahmana (Brahmin priest) and the Kshatriya (noble warrior). Everything that departed from this ideal, everything that tended towards the ignoble, mean, obscure, rude, cruel or false, was termed un-Aryan or Anarya (colloquial, anari). There is no word in human speech that has a nobler history..." [which is why Nazis appropriated the mythology to their own malevolent ends].
Rama and Krishna have been addressed as Aryan, as are many other people in the
Rig Vedic era, the antiquity of which is considered in the next section.
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