The territories of present-day Ukraine and the south of Russia were inhabited by the Aryan tribes for thousands of years before and after their division into Indo-Aryans and Iranians. The Aryan population is believed to have been the population of Arkaim in the Southern Urals almost two thousand years BC. The Iranian peoples were Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans (the descendants of the latter are the Ossetians). It is absolutely certain that the Proto-Slavs and Sarmatians / Alans were part of a large cultural and historical community on the territory of modern Ukraine in the II-IV centuries, known as the Chernyakhov culture. Some scholars believe that the contacts of the Slavs and the Iranians go back to ancient times - to the time of Arkaim and the Fatyanovo culture that was synchronous to him (among the creators of which were the ancestors of the Slavs) in the present Central Region of Russia. Many linguists believethat the Proto-Slavic language was formed within the ancient Indo-European community in the immediate vicinity of the Aryan (Indo-Iranian) languages. In this regard, it is not always possible to accurately separate the words left over by the Slavs from the Proto-Indo-European times from the words borrowed from the already formed Iranian languages.
Words from ancient times
First of all, the very name of our people - Russians - as some scholars suggest, has an Iranian basis, Russian, meaning "bright, bright". According to one of the hypotheses, the Iranian tribe was originally called Rus. Iranian in origin are the names of the Slavic peoples of the Serbs and Croats. In ancient times, part of the Slavs who lived on the Lower Dnieper were called Antas. This word is also derived from the Iranian languages in the meaning of "living on the edge." Academician V. V. Sedov believed that semantically it was identical to the later concept of "Ukrainians" as living on the edge of the Slavic lands.
Linguists believe that the aspirated "g" characteristic of the pronunciation of Ukrainians and southern Russians comes directly from the speech of the ancient Iranians.
Most of the place names in the south of the Russian Plain are of Iranian origin. These are, first of all, the names of large rivers: Don, Dnieper, Danube, Dniester. In all of them there is one and the same root dn-, meaning water flow. In the Slavic language there is the same root (left, obviously, from the Proto-Indo-European times) in the word "bottom", but here it has acquired the meaning not of the water stream itself, but the bed of a reservoir, and any - both flowing and standing.
The Iranisms preserved in the Russian language usually include the words: God, ax, dog, bowl, grave, lizard, lead, company (in the meaning of "oath" in Old Russian), equal, preposition "for the sake of". In other Slavic languages, Iranisms are still preserved: pan, khata, cat (in the meaning of a corral for cattle), grub, etc.
The Iranian origin of such Russian words as wise, honor, good, evil, obvious, paradise, heaven, hearing, word is assumed, but disputed.
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As you can see, most of the borrowings from the Iranian languages into the Slavic ones concern not material, but spiritual culture. If we compare the Aryan (Indo-Iranian) pantheon with the Old Slavic, then even more unexpected parallels are found here.
Common gods and familiar concepts
In ancient Russian Christian teachings, evil pagan spirits - divas are repeatedly mentioned. This word is of Iranian origin, it leads directly to the concept of evil spirits in Zoroastrianism - devas. Interestingly, when the Indo-Aryans and Iranians were separated, the functions of their deities were also divided. It was the devas who began to play the role of good, bright deities among the Indo-Aryans, and the asuras turned into evil spirits. Among the Iranians, on the contrary, the Ahurs (the same as the Indian Asuras or the Scandinavian Ases) turned into good deities, and Ahura Mazda (God the Wise) headed the ancient Iranian pantheon.
In the religion of the ancient Slavs, a connection with both branches of the Aryans is found. So, it is known that Svarog was the supreme god of the Slavs. He, unlike Perun, etc., did not put idols. Svarog was revered as a god without a specific image. Svarog, not only in name, but also in essence, obviously corresponds to the ancient Indian personification of the firmament - Svarga. And the famous Perun the Thunderer has a clear parallel with the Vedic god Parjania. He, however, shed more rain and was the assistant to the thunderer Indra. Most linguists believe that the names Perun and Pardzhanya, as well as the Lithuanian Perkunas, which is similar in function, have a common Indo-European basis and go back to the ancient word for the sacred tree oak.
Such names of gods as Khors and Semargl, mentioned in connection with the religious pagan reform of the Kiev prince Vladimir (983), have, in the opinion of most researchers, an Iranian basis. The name Semargl (whose functions or which, however, are not very clear in the ancient Russian pantheon) goes back to the mythical bird Senmurv. The name Khors has a transparent Iranian base. It is associated with the roots of Khur-, Hor-, Khrs- in various Iranian languages, meaning “sun”. "Shining sun", "blinding disc", etc. Khors is mentioned, along with other pagan gods, even in "The Lay of Igor's Host" (end of the 12th century), where he is likened to the Polotsk prince Vseslav, endowed with sorcery abilities, who lived in the second half of the 11th century.
Academician B. A. Rybakov, in his studies of paganism of the ancient Slavs and ancient Russia, devoted a lot of space to Khors and concepts derived from his cult. We do not hesitate to pronounce the word "good", but it is directly connected with the cult of Khors. “Good” means that it pleases Khors; means something that does not violate the divine world order, which is expressed, first of all, in the daily and annual cycles of the sun across the sky. The word "loaf", meaning round bread, comes from the ritual round breads dedicated to the sun god Khors and imitating the shape of the sun disk (or maybe its visible cyclical path through the sky) - "khorovai" originally, in fact.
The etymology of our familiar word "cheesecake" is curious. It is traced back to the ancient Iranian word "vatra" - fire. Initially, probably, it could also be a ritual loaf of cheese / cottage cheese, dedicated to the deity of fire (Agni among the Indo-Aryans). By the way, the word “cheese” itself, according to some researchers, is associated with the name of the Vedic Indo-Aryan sun god Surya. The custom of keeping cheeses in round shapes can also come from sacred rites of antiquity.
This is how, perhaps, many familiar concepts that we constantly and without hesitation use in everyday life may have an exotic, in our present view, origin and an ancient sacred basis.
