The Arrival of Aryans (lectured by Mr. Udita Garusingha, given by ven. Suriya-Mon) 2011
The word ‘Aryan’ comes from India. It is from Indian language called Sanskrit, where “Arya” means “noble one”. In 1500 BC, handful of people arrived to India. These people who entered India can be introduced as Indo-European people. A part from Indo-Europeans migrated to Italy. Their language was Italian. Another part migrated to Greece. Their language was Greek. The third part migrated to Iran. It is believed that these Iranian people migrated to India as Aryans.
As far as the arrival of Aryans is concerned, there were four reasons for it, namelynatural disasters, scarcity of food,making a suitable environment for rearing animals and search for good land.Further, due to the situations such as change of climate and conflicts with tribal groups,they were able to get different experiences and accumulate knowledge and develop their beliefs. Moreover, people who migrated to Iran entered India through regions of Kashmir and Gandhāra of North Western India. Firstly, they settled around Punjab near five rives. Four reasons for migration to Punjab area can be mentioned: 1. searching for suitable land, 2. establishing of settlements, 3. making environment suitable for rearing animals and 4. arising of natives (aborigines).
Aryans were foreign people who settled around the village of Punjab. Their complexion of skin was white, male people were handsome and females were beautiful. They liked war more than natives. These newcomers were able to excite natives and introduced themselves as Aryans. They were shepherds and led agriculture. These agricultural settlements led to a civilization. They spent time in a free atmosphere and had enough time because of their free way of living. Therefore, there arose new ideas and attitudes among them.
In connection to the arrival of Aryans, there are various unique characteristics, such as:
(1) They possessed originality.
(2) Nomadic way of life led them to travel from one place to another.
(3) A little barbarian but curious.
(4) Their main way of living was farming and agriculture.
(5) They were clever at war and there were tribe conflicts.
(6) They had a slow but stable development.
(7) They had small wattle(?) houses and small villages.
(8) They had a background as invaders, therefore they drew away the natives.
(9) They developed new towns.
(10) As a result of inter-mixing with Aryans and non-Aryans, there arose a new thinking, a culture and a emergence of dialects.
(11) In the early period of Aryans, there arose fundamental knowledge about Veda.
(12) After the settlement of Aryans, their cultural way of thinking, rites and rituals, etc. were developing slowly but in a stable way.
(13) After passing of more than 5000 years, there arose literature of ‘Veda’, the basic knowledge for development of Veda.
Thus the Aryans arose many centuries ago.
