When it comes to the Aryans and Aryans, most of us involuntarily remember Adolf Hitler with his myth of "purity of blood", which formed the basis of the ideology of the Third Reich. But the problem is that the National Socialists relied on a completely false idea. The term "Aryans" was introduced into the scientific circulation by linguists: this is how they named a whole group of peoples speaking the languages of the Indo-Iranian group. However, historians are still pondering: did the Aryans really exist?
Land of the Aryans
The history of human origins is one of the most exciting topics in science. Who are we and where are we from? This question is equally occupied by physicists and anthropologists, historians and archaeologists, philosophers and linguists. The latter at one point drew attention to the proximity of many European and Eastern languages. It was logical to assume that they all "grew" from one "root". But which one? Further linguistic research forced scientists to look closely at the languages of the Indo-European group and brought them to Ancient India and Ancient Iran, that is, to the "land of the Aryans", because this is how the word "Iran" is translated. These lands, by the way, extended very widely. The ancient Indo-Iranian peoples occupied the Iranian highlands, the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, the steppes north of the Caucasus and the Black Sea … In a word, the Indo-Iranians, or Aryans, as they called themselves,there was where to roam.
It turns out that the ancestral home of humanity has been found? No matter how it is! Pretty soon, linguists were able to understand that India and Iran were not at all the homeland for the Aryans. Most likely, they came to these territories around 1700-1300 BC. But where did they come from? Alas, not a single serious scientist in the world will undertake to poke a pointer into a map and specifically show the place where this people was born a long time ago. The same linguists, for example, having analyzed hundreds of varieties of Indo-European languages, eventually came to the conclusion that the native speakers of the proto-language lived in Central and Eastern Europe. Quite a wide habitat, you see.
Pit and DNA
To date, the overwhelming majority of scientists - both our domestic and American and European ones - adhere to the version according to which the Volga and Black Sea lands are the ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans. It was there that archaeologists discovered traces of the pit, or kurgan, culture. It existed in 3600-2300 BC. in the territory between the Lower Don, the Lower Volga and the North Caucasus. It is believed that its representatives (in the world - simple nomads) invented war chariots, with the help of which they managed to seize vast territories and significantly extend their influence over the entire Eurasian continent. So it was from the Yamnaya culture that the future speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language, the Aryans, supposedly emerged.
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Historians and archaeologists have made a similar conclusion by comparing the burials of two cultures. In both cases, the dead were buried in pits - in a supine position with bent knees - and a mound was erected above the body. The proof is, of course, rather flimsy. Therefore, there have always been many questions to the defenders of this theory, but now they skillfully redirect them to geneticists. And these scientists claim that some 10,000 years ago all people were brothers: they all belonged to the same haplogroup R1a. A haplogroup is a set of DNA that is inherited unchanged, and therefore it is possible to calculate a single common ancestor of a person from it. For some unknown reason, 5000 years ago, this haplogroup mutated, resulting in a man with a new modification R1a1. And the remains of just such a person are found under the mounds and on the Lower Volga,and in the north of the Indian subcontinent. The only difference is in age: Indian burials are 1500 years younger. Apparently, this is exactly how much time it took for the “pitmen” to migrate to Ancient India and Iran …
Who is the head in this house?
But they did not come to an empty place. These were the conquerors who took over the local original population and became the masters of the situation. Actually, translated from ancient Indian arya means "lord", "leader", "master of the house". In those distant times, this word had no racial or ethnic connotation. It just denoted a noble, noble person, for every conqueror usurps a monopoly on intelligence, birth and strength. Therefore, any aggressor considers himself entitled to dictate conditions to the conquered people. And in this respect, the history of India is especially indicative. When did the castes appear there? That's right: 3,500 years ago, when conquerors from the north came there. Indian society was divided into four classes - varnas, which means "color". According to the Rig Veda, Brahma himself took part in the creation of varnas. From his lips he created brahmanas. Initially, only these clergymen spoke the Aryan dialects, therefore they became the upper class. Brahma's hands went to create the second most important varna: kshtaria, that is, warriors. From the thighs of the god, vaisyas turned out - merchants, herders and farmers, who took the third place on the podium. And finally, from the feet of Brahma emerged the sudras - the servants, the lowest representatives of the Indian community.
That is, the division into castes is a divine providence? Yes, but we know about it from the Rig Veda, which is considered the oldest Sanskrit text, compiled (attention!) Around 1700-1100 BC. True, it was recorded only in the early Middle Ages, and before that it was preserved in the oral tradition, passed from mouth to mouth. Here it will be useful to remember a child's game known as a broken phone. It seems that everyone remembers its essence. Agree, the difference between the words uttered by the first and the last participants is always amusing …
Most likely, Brahma did not take part in the separation of his own people: it was done by alien tribes, about which the following is known for certain. They were nomads who lived off the conquest of new territories. They spoke Aryan, that is, the Indo-European dialect. And they were aggressive. Coming to new lands, they set their own rules. And in the case of India we see almost the first practical application of the principle: "Divide and conquer."
Where are we and where are the French
Therefore, one should not read the Rig Veda, or Mahabharata, or even the Zoroastrian Avesta, which mention the Aryans as historical reference books. These are ancient literary monuments, in which religion, philosophy and the history of ancient peoples were so closely intertwined that any unambiguous interpretation of them is now simply impossible. They provide a vast field for assumptions of the most varied kinds. Go figure it out, where is the colorful metaphor, and where is the mention of a specific event or geographical object? It all depends on the cultural baggage, philosophical views and imagination of the interpreter himself.
It is important for us now not to step on the same rake that our predecessors, the researchers of the 19th century, so imprudently stepped on. After all, how did the mysterious "Aryan people," bringing the light of civilization to the backward population, were born? We have already found out that it was "calculated" by linguists. And then big trouble happened. Anthropologists and archaeologists mechanically (!) Associated the linguistic family with a separate people and set off in search of it. The temptation was too great! However, one must understand: "ethnos", "language family", "genetic population" and "archaeological culture" are concepts that intersect, but not identical. Commonality of languages is not equal to racial commonality!
Imagine that another apocalypse happened on Earth and everything was lost. And now, after many millennia, new archaeologists are excavating and discovering two ashes. Let's say this is all that remains of Moscow and Paris. They find similar structures of houses, car remains, the same graves. Geneticists confirm that people with related DNA lived in both cities. Will these signs be enough to declare the Russians and the French as one people? It is possible that scientists of the future will do so. But we can clearly see from today where we are and where the French are …
Burp of a drunken shoemaker
However, back to linguistics. This lady defines in the Aryan family of languages a whole lot of dialects that, in the eyes of an inexperienced person, seem completely alien to each other: this is Hindi, and Urdu, and Bengali with Persian, and also Tajik and Gypsy! Imagine: the gypsies whom Hitler so furiously tried to destroy are also Aryans!
So where did this story with the "true Aryans" come from? The road to hell is paved with good intentions. In the 19th century, the views of many scientists turned to India, in which they began to see the cradle of humanity. Among them was the linguist-Indologist Friedrich Max Müller. An open-minded man, he originally wrote about the "Aryan brotherhood", interpreting that the mixing - racial and cultural - went to the Indians and Aryans for the benefit. Having existed side by side for more than one century, they became a single organism - the “Aryan race”. Mueller was only talking about the cooperation of the two peoples and their mutual influence on each other. But the phrase was taken out of context and, as they say, went to the people.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the question of the origin of races was still open, so studies on this topic came out one after another. "An Essay on the Inequality of Human Races" by Count Gobineau was just one of many. In the author's homeland, France, the book had no success. But in Germany it was read with great enthusiasm. The fact is that Count Gobineau not only "discovered" the connection between the Aryan and Nordic races, but also put an equal sign between them and lifted them to the top of the podium.
Well, this Aryan porridge cooked up a certain Houston Chamberlain, whom Joseph Goebbels called "the father of our spirit." And for good reason. The English-born aristocrat Chamberlain was imbued with great sympathy for Germany, where he moved, having married Eve Wagner. She was the daughter of a famous composer who glorified the Teutonic spirit. And the son-in-law and the father-in-law sang wonderfully well. But if Wagner left behind recognized musical masterpieces, then Chamberlain - "Foundations of the XIX century". In Europe, this opus was called “the burp of a drunken shoemaker,” because Chamberlain carried only two thoughts through the entire composition: the Aryans are the creators and carriers of civilization, and the Jews are a negative racial force leading mankind to degeneration. And therefore, for example, Chamberlain refused to recognize a Jew in Christ: no, he was an Aryan! Michelangelo, Dante, Leonardo da Vinci were called Aryans - in a word,all the outstanding figures ever recorded in human history. In Germany, the speculative "Foundations of the XIX century" were received with a bang! A well-known fact: it was from Chamberlain's work that Hitler drew ideas for Mein Kampf. The Fuhrer even visited a writer - already old and sick.
Further horror was, in fact, a matter of technique. And so it happened that the Aryans, whom the scientists had been looking for for so long, were eventually "discovered" by the National Socialists of fascist Germany. But it was clearly a completely different people …
Journal: Steps of the Oracle # 6. Author: Vladimir Stroganov
