In this article we will discuss about the origin and social organization of the Aryans.
Origin of the Aryans:
The question of the original home of this people has been debated upon for the past hundred years. This subject is a complicated one and owing to the lack of evidence with regard to chronology, has given rise to the widest possible divergence of opinion among philologists, antiquarians and anthropologists. Affinity in language, mythology, or religion, resemblances of racial types, supposed or real, have all been exploited to form bases for theories as to the original location of the Vedic Aryans, along with their supposed Kinsmen, the ancestors of the European nations.
At one time Central Asia was supposed to be the original home of the Aryan stock and this opinion was favoured by a large number of scholars. First propounded by J.G. Rhode (in 1820), the theory of Central Asian home received countenance from Pott, Lassen, and Grimm and received strong support from Max Muller in 1859.
Divergences of opinion however soon arose and Adolph Pictet in his ‘Origines Indo-Europeennes’ tried to place them in the region of the Caspian. He was followed by Justi, the author of the ‘Primeval Indo-Germanic Period’ and he in his turn was also strongly, supported by Schleicher. Later on, some tried to prove Southern Russia as the original home in view of the supposed analogy between Sanskrit and Lithuanian.