It might be asked, however, very properly, how did itself, or the Anglo-Saxon dide, was formed, and how it received the meaning of a preterite. In dide the final de is not termination, but it is the root, and the first syllable di is a reduplication of the root, the fact being that all preterites of old, or, as they are called, strong verbs, were formed as in Greek and Sanskrit by means of reduplication, reduplication being one of the principal means by which roots were invested with a verbal character.[217] The root do in Anglo-Saxon is the same [pg 234] as the root thē in tithēmi in Greek, and the Sanskrit root dhâ in dadâdmi. Anglo-Saxon dide would therefore correspond to Sanskrit dadhau, I placed.
Now, in this manner, the whole, or nearly the whole, grammatical framework of the Aryan or Indo-European languages has been traced back to original independent words, and even the slightest changes which at first sight seem so mysterious, such as foot into feet, or I find into I found, have been fully accounted for. This is what is called comparative grammar, or a scientific analysis of all the formal elements of a language preceded by a comparison of all the varieties which one and the same form has assumed in the numerous dialects of the Aryan family. The most important dialects for this purpose are Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and Gothic; but in many cases Zend, or Celtic, or Slavonic dialects come in to throw an unexpected light on forms unintelligible in any of the four principal dialects. The result of such a work as Bopp's “Comparative Grammar” of the Aryan languages may be summed up in a few words. The whole framework of grammar—the elements of derivation, declension, and conjugation—had become settled before the separation of the Aryan family. Hence the broad outlines of grammar, in Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Gothic, and the rest, are in reality the same; and the apparent differences can be explained by phonetic corruption, which is determined by the phonetic peculiarities of each nation. On the whole, the history of all the Aryan languages is nothing but a gradual process of decay. After the grammatical terminations of all these languages have been traced back to their most primitive form, it is possible, in many instances, to determine their original meaning. This, [pg 235] however, can be done by means of induction only; and the period during which, as in the Provençal dir vos ai, the component elements of the old Aryan grammar maintained a separate existence in the language and the mind of the Aryans had closed, before Sanskrit was Sanskrit or Greek Greek. That there was such a period we can doubt as little as we can doubt the real existence of fern forests previous to the formation of our coal fields. We can do even more. Suppose we had no remnants of Latin; suppose the very existence of Rome and of Latin were unknown to us; we might still prove, on the evidence of the six Romance dialects, that there must have been a time when these dialects formed the language of a small settlement; nay, by collecting the words which all these dialects share in common, we might, to a certain extent, reconstruct the original language, and draw a sketch of the state of civilization, as reflected by these common words. The same can be done if we compare Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Gothic, Celtic, and Slavonic. The words which have as nearly as possible the same form and meaning in all the languages must have existed before the people, who afterwards formed the prominent nationalities of the Aryan family, separated; and, if carefully interpreted, they, too, will serve as evidence as to the state of civilization attained by the Aryans before they left their common home. It can be proved, by the evidence of language, that before their separation the Aryans led the life of agricultural nomads,—a life such as Tacitus describes that of the ancient Germans. They knew the arts of ploughing, of making roads, of building ships, of weaving and sewing, of erecting houses; they had counted at least as far as one hundred. They had domesticated [pg 236] the most important animals, the cow, the horse, the sheep, the dog; they were acquainted with the most useful metals, and armed with iron hatchets, whether for peaceful or warlike purposes. They had recognized the bonds of blood and the bonds of marriage; they followed their leaders and kings, and the distinction between right and wrong was fixed by laws and customs. They were impressed with the idea of a divine Being, and they invoked it by various names. All this, as I said, can be proved by the evidence of language. For if you find that languages like Greek, Latin, Gothic, Celtic, or Slavonic, which, after their first separation, have had but little contact with Sanskrit, have the same word, for instance, for iron which exists in Sanskrit, this is proof absolute that iron was known previous to the Aryan separation. Now, iron is ais in Gothic, and ayas in Sanskrit, a word which, as it could not have been borrowed by the Indians from the Germans or by the Germans from the Indians, must have existed previous to their separation. We could not find the same name for house in Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Slavonic, and Celtic,[218] unless houses had been known before the separation of these dialects. In this manner a history of Aryan civilization has been written from the archives of language, stretching back to times far beyond the reach of any documentary history.[219]
The very name of Arya belongs to this history, and I shall devote the rest of this lecture to tracing the origin and gradual spreading of this old word. I had intended to include, in to-day's lecture, a short account [pg 237] of comparative mythology, a branch of our science which restores the original form and meaning of decayed words by the same means by which comparative grammar recovers the original form and meaning of terminations. But my time is too limited; and, as I have been asked repeatedly why I applied the name of Aryan to that family of language which we have just examined, I feel that I am bound to give an answer.
Ârya is a Sanskrit word, and in the later Sanskrit it means noble, of a good family. It was, however, originally a national name, and we see traces of it as late as the Law-book of the Mânavas, where India is still called Ârya-âvarta, the abode of the Âryas.[220] In the old Sanskrit, in the hymns of the Veda, ârya occurs frequently as a national name and as a name of honor, comprising the worshippers of the gods of the Brahmans, as opposed to their enemies, who are called in the Veda Dasyus. Thus one of the gods, Indra, who, in some respects, answers to the Greek Zeus, is invoked in the following words (Rigveda, i. 57, 8): “Know thou the Âryas, O Indra, and they who are Dasyus; punish the lawless, and deliver them unto thy servant! Be thou the mighty helper of the worshippers, and I will praise all these thy deeds at the festivals.”
In the later dogmatic literature of the Vedic age, the name of Ârya is distinctly appropriated to the three first castes—the Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaiśyas—as opposed to the fourth, or the Śûdras. In the Śatapatha-Brâhmaņa it is laid down distinctly: “Âryas are only the Brahmans, the Kshatriyas, and Vaiśyas, for they are admitted to the sacrifices. They shall not speak with everybody, but only with the Brahman, the [pg 238] Kshatriya, and the Vaiśya. If they should fall into a conversation with a Śûdra, let them say to another man, ‘Tell this Śûdra so.’ This is the law.”
In the Atharva-veda (iv. 20, 4; xix. 62, 1) expressions occur such as, “seeing all things, whether Śûdra or Ârya,” where Śûdra and Ârya are meant to express the whole of mankind.
This word ârya with a long â is derived from arya with a short a, and this name arya is applied in the later Sanskrit to a Vaiśya, or a member of the third caste.[221] What is called the third class must originally have constituted the large majority of the Brahmanic society, for all who were not soldiers or priests, were Vaiśyas. We may well understand, therefore, how a name, originally applied to the cultivators of the soil and householders, should in time have become a general name for all Aryans.[222] Why the householders were called arya is a question which would carry us too far at present. I can only state that the etymological signification of Arya seems to be “one who ploughs or tills,” and that it is connected with the root of arare. The Aryans would seem to have chosen this name for themselves as opposed to the nomadic races, the Turanians, whose original name Tura implies the swiftness of the horseman.
In India, as we saw, the name of Ârya, as a national name, fell into oblivion in later times, and was preserved only in the term Âryâvarta, the abode of the Aryans. But it was more faithfully preserved [pg 239] by the Zoroastrians who migrated from India to the north-west, and whose religion has been preserved to us in the Zend-avesta, though in fragments only. Now Airya in Zend means venerable, and is at the same time the name of the people.[223] In the first chapter of the Vendidád, where Ahuramazda explains to Zarathustra the order in which he created the earth, sixteen countries are mentioned, each, when created by Ahuramazda, being pure and perfect; but each being tainted in turn by Angro mainyus or Ahriman. Now the first of these countries is called Airyanem vaêjô, Arianum semen, the Aryan seed, and its position must have been as far east as the western slopes of the Belurtag and Mustag, near the sources of the Oxus and Yaxartes, the highest elevation of Central Asia.[224] From this country, which is called their seed, the Aryans advanced towards the south and west, and in the Zend-avesta the whole extent of country occupied by the Aryans is likewise called Airyâ. A line drawn from India along the Paropamisus and Caucasus Indicus in the east, following in the north the direction between the Oxus and Yaxartes,[225] then running along the Caspian Sea, so as to include Hyrcania and Râgha, then turning south-east on the borders of Nisaea, Aria (i.e. Haria), and the countries washed by the Etymandrus and Arachotus, would indicate the general horizon of the Zoroastrian world. It would be what is called in the fourth cardé of the Yasht of Mithra, “the whole space of Aria,” vîśpem airyô-śayanem (totum Ariæ situm).[226] Opposed to the Aryan we find in [pg 240] the Zend-avesta the non-Aryan countries (anairyâo dainhâvô),[227] and traces of this name are found in the Ἀναριάκαι, a people and town on the frontiers of Hyrcania.[228] Greek geographers use the name of Ariana in a wider sense even than the Zend-avesta. All the country between the Indian Ocean in the south and the Indus in the east, the Hindu-kush and Paropamisus in the north, the Caspian gates, Karamania, and the mouth of the Persian gulf in the west, is included by Strabo (xv. 2) under the name of Ariana; and Bactria is thus called[229] by him “the ornament of the whole of Ariana.” As the Zoroastrian religion spread westward, Persia, Elymais, and Media all claimed for themselves the Aryan title. Hellanicus, who wrote before Herodotus, knows of Aria as a name of Persia.[230] Herodotus (vii. 62) attests that the Medians called themselves Arii; and even for Atropatene, the northernmost part of Media, the name of Ariania (not Aria) has been preserved by Stephanus Byzantinus. As to Elymais its name has been derived from Ailama, a supposed corruption of Airyama.[231] The Persians, Medians, Bactrians, and Sogdians all spoke, as late as the [pg 241] time of Strabo,[232] nearly the same language, and we may well understand, therefore, that they should have claimed for themselves one common name, in opposition to the hostile tribes of Turan.
That Aryan was used as a title of honor in the Persian empire is clearly shown by the cuneiform inscriptions of Darius. He calls himself Ariya and Ariya-chitra, an Aryan and of Aryan descent; and Ahuramazda, or, as he is called by Darius, Auramazda, is rendered in the Turanian translation of the inscription of Behistun, “the god of the Aryans.” Many historical names of the Persians contain the same element. The great-grandfather of Darius is called in the inscriptions Ariyârâmna, the Greek Ariaramnēs (Herod, vii. 90). Ariobarzanēs (i.e. Euergetēs), Ariomanes (i.e. Eumenēs), Ariomardos, all show the same origin.[233]
About the same time as these inscriptions, Eudemos, a pupil of Aristotle, as quoted by Damascius, speaks of “the Magi and the whole Aryan race,”[234] evidently using Aryan in the same sense in which the Zend-avesta spoke of “the whole country of Aria.”