Aryan is not a racial term.

Over the years there have been many discussions of the term Aryan. Due to Nazism people believe this term relates to a racial group. This is not the true definition of ARYAN.

• --- In Ta_Seti@yahoogroups.com, "ulagankmy" wrote:
  Dear Dr Winters
  
  As you are aware, the word 'aariyan' is a Tamil word, an ancient one at
  that and which has been borrowed by many tribes in deep past. Probably the root is Su. a and Ta. aal, to spread out, powerful, strong etc.
  
  
  Sumerian a-ri-a and Tamil aariyan
  
  The noun aal-al ( >aaRRal) which means strength, capacity and so forth is still in use in Tamil . The following note may help out to destroy the myth that Europeans were the Aryans.
  
  Related to this is that the whole of Rig Veda and related literature in
  Rigkrit is another variant of SumeroTamil. As such it has nothing to
  do with any "Aryan' family of languages - it is a pure fiction
  
  
  
  
  
  The word "aryan " that has acquired a racial connation has become one of
  the most important words to divide of Indian into Aryan and Dravidian with vrious antagonisms along racial lines. The growth of 19th century
  Dravidian movements in Tamil Nadu which has become political in the 20th
  cent. and the cultural movements to purify Tamil by cleaning it of the so-called Sanskrit terms are related to this. The replacemnt of Tamil as the language of Temple Worship among the tamils however has a different
  historical basis. It was something introduced by Ramanuja and on
  philosophical grounds. The Sanskrit literature , under the impact of
  Sankara became predominantly Advaitic Vedantic and hence was seen as
  detrimental to the growth of Bakthi and for which reason Ramaunuja
  installed the recitation of Thruvaymozi in the temples in place of Vedic
  mantras. One can see the present movement of the Saivites to give the
  place of honour to Tamil particularly the Thevaram corpus as something like that of Ramanuja, who incidently was a Brahamin and who wrote only in Sanskrit despite being a brilliant Tamil scholar.
  
  At the moment and perhaps mainly due to IndoEuropean scholarship the
  excitment and arrogance with which the Brahmins in Tamil Nadu received
  this, which is mainly a hypothesis , and who started to call themseves the scions of these Aryans is that which unnderlies the Brahmin-bashing that continues to this day. I have a colletion of litwrature in Tamil towards the end of 19th ,where the Smartha brahmins called themselves Aryans and went on to criticise severely Saiva Sidddhanta and many other philosophies of the Tamils. The Dravidian identity was fostered by Bihop Caldwell with his epoch making "Comparative study of Dravidian Languages" which was well received by the Tamil scholars but vehemently challenged by the Smartha Brahmins.
  
  This association of Tamil Brahmins with Aryanism and also Sanskrit along
  with it, still continues and will continue perhaps for a long time. It is certainly unfortunate for such a hatred for the TERM aryan is NOT to be met with in traditional India where the primary meaning of Aryan as used in Thevaram corpus Kamba Ramayan and so forth and perhaps also as Dhammapada did not have the racial sense at all rather that of "exceptional or brilliant individual" as in Tamil " ariyan'
  
  In Sangam classics there are several uses of it .
  
  1. aariyar tuvanRiya peerisai imayam: the famed Himalayas where dwell the Aryas. Here it certainly means a group of people bordering the Himalayas and in sense a generic term for all those who dwelt in the North of India
  
  2. aariyak kuuttu: here it means a noisy kind of dance especially those
  like walking on ropes to the accopaniment of loud and boisterous music.
  
  3. ariyamum tamizum: This phrase used by Appar and so forth applies to the Languages and here aariyam means certainly Sanskrit. Here we see the
  beginnings of the use of Aryan and Dravidian (=Tamil) in linguistic terms but without any anatogonistic emotional undertones. For both are recognised as languages founded by Siva.
  
  Ariyan as the Brilliant , Resplendent Principle and hence another variant for Siva
  
  We see the use of Aryan in this sense in the following verse of Tirumular
  
  Tirumantiram 134.
  
  puraiyaRRa paalinuL ney kalataaR pool
  tirai aRra cintaiyil aariyan ceppum
  uraiyaR RuNarvoor udambing kozitaaR
  karaiyaRRa cooti kalawthasat taame
  Meaning
  
  BEING emerges but stands as the Unconscious in the mind that
  becomes unruffled by any earthly desires just like ghee
  being present invisibly in the pure milk. Those who transcend
  speech ( by transcending temporality) and LISTEN in
  DEEP SILENCE to the instructions on Absolute Illumination that
  BEING-the -Radiant instructs on (through the language of Cin
  Muttirai) will untie themselves from all attachments to the
  physical body and becoming FREE from it, plunge into
  Boundless Radiance and through that also become a Sat, an
  absolute (just like BEING)
  
  Here Ariyan is used as anohter name for Civa, the Immensely Radiant BEING who illuminates all and helps the attainment of genuine freedom through the severances to all the bondages.
  The use of Aryan in the sense 'divine" that the above suggests is also
  available in Kampan's description of Rama as "aariya maintan". Here it may also mean the "royal, the kingly" etc.
  
  Su. a -ri-a
  
  The Tamil 'aariyan' that has has so many different meanings and hence
  possibly with different etymological roots also occurs in Sumerian in the sense "divine, royal " etc as the following line from Sulgis MutarIbuyam (Hymn B) would indicate.
  
  11. lugal-e lugal-a-ri-a nin-e -tu-da -me-en
  I, the king of Royal descent, who a princess bore.
  Ta. uLukaLee uLugak aariya(ariya) ninnee todda maan
  
  lu> uLu> aaLu, aaL: person. gal> kaL: great -e: -ee: the suffix that
  isolates that which is named ; the teeRRa eekaaram. a-ri-a> ariya (the
  rare) ; aariya: the royal , divine etc. nin> Nin, nan: the lofty: tu-da>
  todda; to bear , to give birth; me-en> maan: the person as in ceeramaan,
  atikaimaan etc The term" lugal-aria" is almost identical with the Tamil usage of Arya maintain such as that of Kamban. And this may be the sense in the use of Arya by Buddha in Dhammapada.
  
  It is also interesting that in the long history of Tamil literature nowhere we come across the Brahmins being called or call themselves as Aryas. Even in Sangam epoch we have kapilar, known as a Brahamana calling himself AntaN and NOT Aryan. This term has been more in use with the royalties and as an alternative term for Siva , the Brilliant Principle, the supremely radiant BEING that illuminates all minds arising as the inner sun.