The Bistun Inscription of Darius the Great describes itself to have
been composed in Arya [language or script].
In the Iranian languages, the gentilic is attested as a self-identifier included in ancient inscriptions
and the literature of Avesta.[24][a] The earliest epigraphically attested reference to the
word arya- occurs in the Bistun Inscription of the 6th century BC. The inscription of Bistun
(or Behistun; Old Persian: Bagastana) describes itself to have been composed in Arya [language or
script]. As is also the case for all other Old Iranian language usage, the arya of the inscription does
not signify anything but Iranian.[25]
In royal Old Persian inscriptions, the term arya- appears in three different contexts:[20][21]
As the name of the language of the Old Persian version of the inscription of Darius I in the
Bistun Inscription.
As the ethnic background of Darius the Great in inscriptions at Rustam Relief and Susa (Dna,
Dse) and the ethnic background of Xerxes I in the inscription from Persepolis (Xph).
As the definition of the God of Iranians, Ohrmazd, in the Elamite version of the Bistun
Inscription.In the Dna and Dse, Darius and Xerxes describe themselves as "an Achaemenid, a Persian, son of
a Persian, and an Aryan, of Aryan stock".[26] Although Darius the Great called his
language arya- ("Iranian"),[26] modern scholars refer to it as Old Persian[26] because it is the ancestor
of the modern Persian language.[27]
The trilingual inscription erected by the command of Shapur I gives a more clear description. The
languages used are Parthian, Middle Persian, and Greek. In Greek inscription says "ego ... tou
Arianon ethnous despotes eimi", which translates to "I am the king of the kingdom (nation) of the
Iranians". In Middle Persian, Shapur says "ērānšahr xwadāy hēm" and in Parthian he
says "aryānšahr xwadāy ahēm" .[20][28]
The Avesta clearly uses airiia- as an ethnic name (Videvdat 1; Yasht 13.143–44, etc.), where it
appears in expressions such as ai ryāfi daiŋˊhāvō ("Iranian lands"), airyō šayanəm ("land inhabited
by Iranians"), and airyanəm vaējō vaŋhuyāfi dāityayāfi ("Iranian stretch of the good Dāityā").[20] In the
late part of the Avesta (Videvdat 1), one of the mentioned homelands was referred to as Airyan'əm
Vaē jah which approximately means "expanse of the Iranians". The homeland varied in its
geographic range, the area around Herat (Pliny's view) and even the entire expanse of the Iranian
Plateau (Strabo's designation).[29]
The Old Persian and Avestan evidence is confirmed by the Greek sources.[20] Herodotus, in
his Histories, remarks about the Iranian Medes that "Medes were called anciently by all
people Arians" (7.62).[20][21] In Armenian sources, the Parthians, Medes and Persians are collectively
referred to as Iranians.[30] Eudemus of Rhodes (Dubitationes et Solutiones de Primis Principiis, in
Platonis Parmenidem) refers to "the Magi and all those of Iranian (áreion) lineage". Diodorus
Siculus (1.94.2) considers Zoroaster ( Zathraustēs ) as one of the Arianoi.[20]
Strabo, in his Geographica (1st century AD), mentions of the Medes,
Persians, Bactrians and Sogdians of the Iranian Plateau and Transoxiana of antiquity:[31]