I like Sheela Bhatt's writing. however it is dismaying to see words like "Aryans from Iran" & "Perseopolis" creep into her writing. "Arya" is a vedic sanskrit word for "noble" with probably a Persian counterpart, and has nothing to do with "Race", contrary to what 19th century Western Imperialist ideology (Max Mueller, etc) would have us believe. And why call the Persian empire by what the Greeks, a foreign culture called them? Is'nt the word "Persian" good enough without the Greek endorsement?
RE:Perseopolis & Aryans..
by Raj Maliger on Aug 25, 2005 03:41 PM Permalink
Hi Shankar,
There was no race called Aryans. If you look into Sanskrit dictionary 'Arya' means noble. All countries including Persia and Greece were influenced by Vedic sanatana dharma, which is the oldest religion on earth. British, the most cunning race on earth, devised this Aryan-invasion theory just to prove their superiority over our religion. Now Aryan invasion theory is proven false and the date of vedas takes us to eternity. I think it is time for us to boldly declare to the world, including Sheela Bhatt (the author of this article) that Sanatana Dharma is the oldest and the most peaceful religion on earth.
RE:Perseopolis & Aryans..
by Shankar on Aug 24, 2005 10:15 PM Permalink
Hi, it was not my intention to wrte anything, but i think the quote Aryans from persia is fairly accurate. Most studies into the aryan race concludes that Indians(aryans in specific) and iranians are from the same basic race. In fact there are large similiarities between the zoroastrian relegious philosophy and our own Hindu philosophy. In fact give that in later days there seems to have been some antagonism between the indian aryans and their persian cousins, apparently it explains the close phonetic relation between the zoroastrian word Ahura (i think it meant god/divine) and our sanskrit word asura (obviously meant evil ppl of our mythology)....
RE:Perseopolis & Aryans..
by bharatvarsha on Aug 24, 2005 12:51 AM Permalink
It is surprising that the author finds the remnant existence of parsis and their culture in ancient persia to be \"amusing\". It is like saying that the continuing existence of Hindus in Pukistan (down to 2% today) is \"very interesting\". Of course, it may to much for the authpr to ask herself \"why so\". Thoroughly vacuous article, even from the standpoint of a travel log.
