became the primary "Other" – the Aniran – and the antithesis of
everything Iranian (i.e. Aryan) and Zoroastrian. But "the antecedents of
[present-day] Iranian ultra-nationalism can be traced back to the
writings of late nineteenth-century figures such as Mirza Fatali
Akhundov and Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani. Demonstrating affinity with
Orientalist views of the supremacy of the Aryan peoples and the
mediocrity of the Semitic peoples , Iranian nationalist discourse
idealized pre-Islamic Achaemenid and Sassanid empires, whilst
negating the 'Islamization' of Persia by Muslim forces."[80] In the 20th
century, different aspects of this idealization of a distant past would be
instrumentalized by both the Pahlavi monarchy (In 1967,
Iran's Pahlavi dynasty [overthrown in the 1979 Iranian Revolution]
added the title Āryāmehr Light of the Aryans to the other styles of
the Iranian monarch, the Shah of Iran being already known at that time
as the Shahanshah ( King of Kings )), and by the Islamic republic that
followed it; the Pahlavis used it as a foundation for anticlerical
monarchism, and the clerics used it to exalt Iranian values vis-á-vis
westernization.[81]
Modern religious use
The word ārya is often found in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain texts. In the
Indian spiritual context, it can be applied to Rishis or to someone who
has mastered the four noble truths and entered upon the spiritual path.
According to Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru, the religions of India may
be called collectively ārya dharma, a term that includes the religions
that originated in the Indian
subcontinent (e.g. Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism).[82]
The word ārya is also often used in Jainism, in Jain texts such as the
Pannavanasutta. In Avaśyakaniryukti, an early Jaina text, a character
named Ārya Mangu is mentioned twice.[83]