The name of Ariana is further extended to a part of Persia and of Media, as also to
the Bactrians and Sogdians on the north; for these speak approximately the same language, with but
slight variations.
— Geographica, 15.8
The Bactrian (a Middle Iranian language) inscription of Kanishka (the founder of the Kushan Empire)
at Rabatak, which was discovered in 1993 in an unexcavated site in the Afghan province of Baghlan,
clearly refers to this Eastern Iranian language as Arya.[32]
All this evidence shows that the name Arya was a collective definition, denoting peoples who were
aware of belonging to the one ethnic stock, speaking a common language, and having a religious
tradition that centered on the cult of Ohrmazd.[20]
The academic usage of the term Iranian is distinct from the state of Iran and its various citizens (who
are all Iranian by nationality), in the same way that the term Germanic peoples is distinct
from Germans. Some inhabitants of Iran are not necessarily ethnic Iranians by virtue of not being
speakers of Iranian languages.
Iranian vs. Iranic
Some scholars such as John Perry prefer the term Iranic as the anthropological name for the
linguistic family and ethnic groups of this category (many of which exist outside Iran),
while Iranian for anything about the country Iran. He uses the same analogue as in
differentiating German from Germanic or differentiating Turkish and Turkic.[33] German scholar Martin
Kummel also argues the same distinction of Iranian from Iranic.[34]^
History and settlements
Indo-European roots
Main articles: Indo-Iranians and Proto-Indo-Europeans
Early Indo-European migrations from the Pontic steppes and
across Central Asia.