outsider, or an-ā́rya ('non-Arya').[20][4] By the time of the Buddha (5th–
4th century BCE), it took the meaning of 'noble'.[21] In Old Iranian
languages, the Avestan term airya (Old Persian ariya ) was likewise used
as an ethnocultural self-designation by ancient Iranian peoples, in
contrast to an an-airya ('non-Arya'). It designated those who belonged
to the 'Aryan' (Iranian) ethnic stock, spoke the language and followed
the religion of the 'Aryas'.[5][6]
These two terms derive from the reconstructed Proto-Indo-
Iranian stem arya - or āryo - ,[22] which was probably the name used by
the prehistoric Indo-Iranian peoples to designate themselves as an
ethnocultural group.[2][23][24] The term did not have
any racial connotation, which only emerged later in the works of 19th-
century Western writers.[9][10][25] According to David W. Anthony,
"the Rigveda and Avesta agreed that the essence of their shared
parental Indo-Iranian identity was linguistic and ritual, not racial. If a
person sacrificed to the right gods in the right way using the correct
forms of the traditional hymns and poems, that person was an
Aryan."[25]
Proto-Indo-European
Since Adolphe Pictet (1799–1875), a number of scholars have proposed
to derive the Indo-Iranian stem arya - from the reconstructed Proto-
Indo-European (PIE) term h₂erós or h₂eryós , variously translated as
'member of one's own group, peer, freeman'; as 'host, guest; kinsman';
or as 'lord, ruler'.[8] However, the proposed Anatolian, Celtic and
Germanic cognates are not universally accepted.[26][27] In any case, the
Indo-Iranian ethnic connotation is absent from the other Indo-
European languages, which rather conceived the possible cognates
of * arya - as a social status, and there is no evidence that Proto-Indo-