The stranger in Ṛgveda

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The foreigner in Ṛgveda is a treatise published in 1938 in which the Indologist Paul Thieme examines, among other things, the etymology of the so-called Aryan name, i.e. the meaning of the word ā́rya- in the Rigvedasamhita RgS (1750–1200 BC), the probably the oldest ancient Indian text handed down in India .

According to Thieme , the Vedic term arya- in its earliest records means “stranger”, but “stranger” in the sense of “potential guest” as opposed to “barbaric” ( mleccha , dasa ). This suggests that arya originally functioned as the ethnic self-designation of the Indo-Iranians, as a collective name for tribes and clans that belonged to the same cultural community in early India.

The derivation chain

In his work, Thieme presented in detail the entire family of words to which ā́rya- belongs. According to him, the word is a second generation derivation from the nominal stem arí- . The derivation chain consists of the following links:

arí-

The root word arí- occurs frequently in the RgS. The word can have a friendly as well as a hostile meaning. Finally, Thieme translates arí- as “stranger, stranger”. “The stranger is now the hostis , now the guest .” The development towards ari = “enemy” in younger Sanskrit is also understandable.

aryá-

The nominal stem aryá- is a derivation of arí- by means of the suffix -ya-, which forms adjectives (with a wide variety of meanings such as affiliation or relationship). A whole range of meanings in the RgS can be traced back to: "related to the foreign" :

  1. Thieme translates e.g. B. the tiráś cid aryám in 8,33,14, in that it starts with an aspect of belonging and relationship, namely possession: “beyond what belongs to the stranger. "
  2. Gods sometimes have an attribute aryá- , and Thieme translates this in a broader sense as: “protecting the stranger”, e.g. B. the váruṇo devó aryáḥ in 7,64,3 with: " Varuna , the heavenly one protecting strangers."
  3. aryá- in relation to historical figures can be translated in the sense of "hospitable", e.g. B. in 8,51,9: aryé rúśame párīravi - "with the stranger-protecting (hospitable) Ruśama Parīru ." In 10,68,3 it is sung of the holy cows as milk-givers that they are sādhvaryā́ . Thieme translates: "in a good way (most beautifully)friendly to strangers(hospitable)".
  4. The expression aryayā́ in 5,75,7 probably has the meaning "in the desire for a stranger protector", Thieme translates from the verse somewhat more freely with: "search for a hospitable master".
  5. Finally, Thieme translates the vocative arya as: “Herr!” This vocative is a respectful salutation regardless of whether the person addressed is actually hospitable or not.

According to Thieme, the (pre-stressed) árya- developed from this vocative , which the grammarian Panini (5th century BC) later used the meaning of Swami (master, master) or Vaishya (farmer, merchant, 3rd caste) ) ascribing. This lexeme then occurs again and again in connection with Shudra (servant, farmer, 4th caste), and Thieme translates it as: "landlord". But none of this has much to do with the Āryas in the RgS.

ā́rya-

Thieme understands the nominal stem ā́rya- finally as a so-called Vriddhi -Derivation (expansion stage) of aryá- . Thieme translates ā́rya- as “belonging to the hospitable , economic” and states that this is “a term that can be thought of as the basis of ethnic self-designation”. He explains:

“Those who, in the midst of their peoples, foreign to their language and religion, were proud of their pious morality and noble way of thinking and who felt their custom as a characteristic of their humanity in relation to the brutality of their neighbors, the defenseless To provide help and shelter. "

In contrast to Thiemes derivation chain, the traditional grammarians put a necessitatis (past participle passive) from the root √ ṛ - (to fall behind), which could then mean something like: "The one who has to be sought." There is an alternating form -iya- also with the Necessitatis, so that this connection cannot be ruled out in this way. In 8,51,9, arí- , aryá- and ā́rya- are used side by side in one and the same verse . After defining a meaning of arí- , the meanings of the derivatives are almost mechanical. The debate about the meaning of arí- has certainly continued in response to the stranger , especially with regard to the 'Aryan name'.

Thieme's investigation plays an important role in contemporary Indian discourse on history, particularly in connection with the debate about Āryas migration .

Sources and further information

Main literature

  • Paul Thieme: The stranger in Ṛgveda . A study of the meanings of the words ari, arya, aryaman and ārya . In: Treatises for the customer of the Orient, Vol. 23.2 (1938). Brockhaus, Leipzig 1938. doi: 10.11588 / xarep.00004085

References and comments

  1. ↑ "... a series of loose, constantly dissolving and newly reuniting tribal associations, which constantly fought with each other and against the previous population. The best known are probably the ritually organized 'five peoples' ( pancha jana etc.) of the Panjab : the Anu-Druhyu, Yadu-Turvasha and the Puru, to which the Bharata later join ”. Witzel, Old India , p. 32.
  2. ↑ "In fact, the ancient Persians, East Iranians (in the Avesta ) and the Vedic-speaking Indians called themselves ... ārya ... All other tribes that did not belong to the Aryan cultural community were called an-ārya ...". Witzel, op. Cit, p. 31. The latter, however, not documented in the RgS, see Rgc.
  3. ↑ 'Consonantic' secondary type of the i-declension: (Nom.Sgl.) Aríḥ , (Acc.) Arím , (Dat.) Aryáḥ ( aráye after the 'agni-declension' in 6,13,5 probably because of the following jásuraye , see: AiGr III, §69a). Also in arigūrtá- , arídhāyas- , ariprá- and ariṣṭutá- , followed by perhaps also in riśā́das- and sūrí- , see EWAia.
  4. ↑ “I translate arí as 'stranger', as a word without an emotional factor; on the other hand with 'Fremdling', as an emotional word in the good as well as in the bad sense " Fremdling , p. 11.
  5. ↑ Thieme, op.cit., P. 10.
  6. ↑ Thieme, op.cit., P. 78.
  7. ↑ Thieme, op.cit., P. 80.
  8. ↑ Thieme, op.cit., P. 84.
  9. ↑ See: Thieme, op.cit., P. 85 f.
  10. ↑ For example in 8,1,34: śáśvatī nāryabhicákṣyāha súbhadramarya bhójanaṃ bibharṣi - "One woman after the other says, when she (it) has seen: you wear a very nice stimulant [on (or: you wear on yourself)], o Hospitable (or: Mr.). “Thieme, op.cit., p. 87.
  11. ↑ [[International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration | Aṣṭhādhyāyī ]] (Böhtlingk) 3,1,103: aryaḥ svāmivaiśyayoḥ .
  12. ↑ Cf. Thieme, op.cit., P. 89 ff. In secondary literature one finds again and again the misunderstanding that arya would function as an 'Aryan name'.
  13. ↑ Actually: denominal suffix -a- with Vriddhierung (extension of the stem vowel) of the initial word, see: AiGr II / 2, §35a. The -a of the base is replaced by the suffix, the derivative differs through the expansion stage (as in: mṛḍīká- : mārḍīká- ), see §38g. Here often * ā́r-iya- can be reconstructed, e.g. B. in 5,34,6.
  14. ↑ Thieme, op.cit., P. 145.
  15. ↑ See Meier-Brügger's review by Rubio Orecilla.
  • Rgveda Hymns - a hymn to the nectar of the gods 9.1 (by Madhucchandas)
  • (especially creation songs from the 10th mandala)
  • (a retouching, freer translation by Hans Zimmermann, Görlitz 1998, 2000)

Literature cited

  • [AiGr] Jacob Wackernagel : Old Indian grammar . II / 2: Albert Debrunner : The nominal suffixes . Göttingen 1954. III: Albert Debrunner: Nominalflexion, numeral, pronouns . Goettingen 1930
  • [EWAia] Manfred Mayrhofer : Etymological dictionary of the ancient Indian . Heidelberg 1992–2001 (Indo-European Library, Series 2: Dictionaries)
  • [PW] Otto Böhtlingk / Rudolph von Roth : Sanskrit dictionary. Published by the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Reprint of the St. Petersburg edition 1855–1875 . Osnabrück, Wiesbaden 1966
  • [Rgc] Alexander Lubotsky : A Ṛgvedic word concordance . 2 vols. New Haven 1997 ( American Oriental Series 82, 83), ISBN 0-940490-12-9
  • Otto Böhtlingk (Red.): Pāṇini's grammar. Edited, translated, explained and provided with various indices . Delhi 2001 [reprint of: Leipzig 1887], ISBN 81-208-1025-2
  • Albert Debrunner: [Review by:] Thieme, P .: The stranger in the Rigveda [!]. Leipzig 1938. In: Indo-European Research 57 (1940), pp. 145-148
  • Friedrich Max Müller (Red.): Rig-Veda-Samhitā . The sacred hymns of the Brāhmans. Together with the commentary of [[International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration | Sāyanāchārya ]] . Krishnada's Sanskrit Series 37, Varanasi 1983 [2nd edition reprinted, London 1890]
  • Michael Meier-Brügger: [Review by:] Rubio Orecilla, FJ: El sufijo de derivación nominal * -i̯o - / * - ii̯o- en los gerundios y gerundivos del Ṛg-Veda y el Avesta. Zaragoza 1995. In: Indo-Iranian Journal 47 (2004), pp. 49-51
  • Stefan Niederreiter: Morphological variance and semantic competition. Verbal abstracts in the Rig Veda . Graz 2001 (works from the department “Comparative Linguistics” Graz 16), ISBN 3-7011-0030-6
  • Barend A. van Nooten, Gary B. Holland (ed.): Rig Veda. A metrically restored text with an introduction and notes. Harvard Oriental Series 50, Cambridge, Mass. [ua] 1994, ISBN 0-674-76971-6
  • Michael Witzel : Ancient India . Beck Wissen, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-48004-7

See also