I. 117, 21. "The two Asvins have made the light wide for the Arya " (uni yyotik Xrakrathu/t aryaya).
That light itself, the light of the day or the daily light and life, are called the Aryan light, X. 43, 4, and some of the gods too are addressed by the name oi_Arya. In V. 34, G, we read of Indra, " that he, the Arya, leads the Ddsa, according to his will " (yathavasdm nayati dsam fi rya/i). In X. 138, 3, too, Indra seems to be called by that name.
Most frequently, no doubt, the Arya is conceived as the worshipper of the gods. He was called so in I. 130, 8; again in I. 15G, 5, Arya and Yagamana, sacrificer, are mentioned together.
In IX. G3, 5, the Arya is opposed to the drdvdn, the enemy, the man who offers no sacrifices ; and I. 51, 8, the same distinction is drawn between the barhishmat, the sacrificer or Arya, and the avratd, the lawless, the Dasyu.
But the enemies of the poets and their frie_nds are not only among the Dasyus, but also among the Aryas, and in their tribal feuds one Arya speaks of the other as adeva, godless, in the original sense of the word. Thus we read:—
X. 102, 3. " Turn away the weapon of the Ddsa or the Arya " (d&sasya va maghavan a ryasya va sanutd/i yavaya vadhdm).
X. 83, 1. "Let us withstand the Ddsa, the Arya, with thee as helper " (sahy&ma da"sam SCryam tvdya yuya 1 ).
VI. 33, 3. "Thou, O hero, struckest these two enemies, the Ddsa fiends and the A rya " (tvam t&n indra ubhayan amitran dUsil vritrfOa a rya k& sura vddhl/i).
VI. 60, G. " They (Indra and Agni) kill the Arya fiends, they kill the Dam fiends, they strike off all haters fern.)" (hata/t v?itra i arya hata/t dffsani sdtpatl hatd/t visvfi/i dpa dvisha//).
Similar passages, mentioning Arya and Ddsa enemies, occur, VI. 22, 10; VII. 83, 1 ; X. G9, G, <tc. In VIII. 24, 27, the Arya enemy is contrasted with the riksha, lite rally, the bear.
The Arya enemy is called godless in X. 38, 3, "What ever Ddsa or godless Arya means to fight us" (yd/i uah dSisa/i aryaA_va purustuta adcvaA indra yudhaya Aiketati). Lastly, Arya means in some passages what befits or belongs to an Arya, what is proper and right.
X. Go, 11. "The gods spread all over the earth the Aryan laws" (sudanavaA, arya vrat# vi sriydnta/i adhi kshami).
In IX. G3, 14, the sacred receptacles of the Soma are called arya (et6 dhu inani arya sukra /i ritdsya dharaya vayam g6mantam aksharan).
It is clear from these passages that Arya is one of the oldest names by which people belonging to this great family of speech called themselves in distinct opposition to their enemies. It is admitted also that the Veda, in which this name occurs, surpasses in antiquity every other literary docu ment belonging to the same race, and it would be difficult, therefore, to find another name better adapted to serve as a technical term for the whole Aryan family of lan guages.
As Arya had become a proper name as early as the poems of the Veda, its original and etymological meaning would be of little consequence, had it not been used as an additional argument both in favour of and against the technical use of Arya. Professor Bopp derived ftrya from the root ar, to go, or even from ark, to venerate. The former etymology would give no adequate sense, the latter is impossible. Lassen explains ftrya as adeundus, like aarya, teacher. But in explaining a rya, it must be remembered that it cannot be separated from drya with a short a, and that in consequence no etymology of a rya can be entertained which does not at the same time account for drya. This word is used in the Yayurvcda in exactly the same sense as a rya in the Rig-veda. Thus we read, Vayasaneyi-Sanhita, 20, 17, " Whatever sin we have com mitted against an Arya, or against a /Sudra " (yd& Audre" ydd drye ydd enas &akrim# vaydm).
Here Arya is used in opposition to /Siidra, as Arya was used in the Rig-veda in opposition to Dasa. In the Rig- veda, too, we find at least some traces of arya, used in the sense of arya, and in opposition to dasa, viz., in the com pound aryd-patnl, having an Arya as husband, as opposed to dasd-patnl, having a Dasa as husband.
There can be no doubt, therefore, that a rya, the word which, as soon as the system of the four castes became more firmly established, took the technical meaning of " belonging to the three upper castes," viz., the Brahmarzas, Kshatriyas, and Vaisyas, came from arya, and that in arya must be discovered the original etymological mean ing of the word.
Here it is of great importance to observe, that arya is not only used as a comprehensive title of the three upper castes, but also as the special name of one of them, viz., the third caste, the householders or cultivators of the soil.
In VFiy</-Sa??i/ata, XXVI. 2, itcan mean nothing but Vaisya, a man of the third class, for it is used together with Brahman, Rfiyanya, and /Sfadra. It is therefore not the commentator only, as Dr Roth says, who here gives the meaning of Vaisya to the word drya, but, from the context itself, it can have no other meaning in that passage. This meaning is still clearer in a passage from the Liityayana Sutras, IV. 3, 6. Here it is said that some sacrificial^ act should be performed, primarily byjm Arya, but if no Arya is forthcoming, then by any Arya, i.e., either by a Brahma?za or Kshatriya (Aryabhave yah kas aryo van;aA. Comment, yadi vaisyo na labhyate yah kas ytaryo va?-naA syiit, brfihmano va kshatriyo va).
Pamni (III. 1, 103) distinctly ascribes to drya the meaning of Vaisya and master; in IV. 1, 49, the 7th Varttika distinguishes between Arya and Kshatriya ; and what is still more important, both the author of a Varttika to Pa?z., III. 1,103, and the author of the Phi^-sutras, state that when drya means Vaisya, it has the accent on the first syllable, like a rya.
Having thus traced the connection of a rya and drya, both in form and meaning, we have now to consider how drya came to mean Vaisya. Vaisya, is formed from vis, house, settlement, like a rya and drya, from ar. We have also vesyam in the Veda, meaning, as it seems, family or clan. Vaisya, meant a householder, and vis also, plural visa/i, is frequently used in the Veda as a name for people. Other old names for people in the Veda are kshiti, a dwelling and a dweller, from kshi, to dwell ; Greek, KTL in d/x^>t- KTioves ; or k?ishri ploughing or ploughers.
If, therefore, there was a Sanskrit word ar, meaning earth, then drya, in the sense of landholder, or country man, would have been formed regularly like Kshdmya, X<9oVios, from kshdm, x^wv, earth ; like gdvya, from go, cow, narya, from ndr, man. Now ar, in the sense of earth, docs not occur in Sanskrit ; but that such a word existed is proved by its derivatives. The Greek tpa in pae would correspond to a Sanskrit ira, which irfi again stands to ir, like kshudhfi, hunger, to kshudh. Finally, ir must be traced back to a radical ar, the change of a to i being analogous to that of Sk. pitar, father, as compared with Trari jp, pater, Goth, fadar.
Sanskrit as a name of earth. The native dictionaries, such as the Amarakosha, assign that meaning to ira, and to ila, and the latter form occurs in the famous name of Ilavrita (explained as ila prithivl vrita yena), the district of lid,
the centre of yambudvlpa or India, <7ambudvlpa itself