Anarya

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

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Anarya (अनार्य) is a term primarily used for the people in the moral sense in the Hindu Epics who were not followers of vedic traditions or Brahmanism.

Variants

• Aryettara (आर्येतर)
• Non Arya (अनार्य)
• Nonarya (अनार्य)
• Non-arya (अनार्य)
• Non-Aryan/Non aryan (अनार्य)
• Anaryas (अनार्य)
• Anārya (अनार्य)
• Anarya Desha/Anaryadesha (अनार्य देश)

Arya and Anarya

Arya and Anarya are primarily used in the moral sense in the Hindu Epics. People are usually called Arya or Anarya based on their behaviour. Arya is typically one who follows the Dharma. This is historically applicable for any person living anywhere in Bharata Varsha or vast India. According to the Mahabharata, a person's behaviour (not wealth or learning) determines if he can be called an Arya.

Āryan means advanced in knowledge. He's called Āryan. And anārya means uncivilized. Anārya means one who does not know what is progress of life. They think there is no life after death.

General definition (in Jainism): Anārya (अनार्य, “ignoble”).—In earlier ancient times, the word ārya (noble) and (ignoble) were used for ethnically different groups of people. In the time of Lord Mahāvīra, these words acquired technical meaning. Ārya stood for the ethically superior people and anārya for the ethically inferior ones.

In Scythian History

Shortly after Madyes's assassination, some time between 623 and 616 BC, the Scythians took advantage of the power vacuum created by the crumbling of the power of their former Assyrian allies and overran the Levant. This Scythian raid into the Levant reached as far south as Palestine, and was foretold by the Judahite prophets Jeremiah and Zephaniah as a pending "disaster from the north," which they believed would result in the destruction of Jerusalem, but Jeremiah was discredited and in consequence temporarily stopped prophesying and lost favour with the Judahite king Josiah when the Scythian raid did not affect Jerusalem and or Judah. The Scythian expedition instead reached up to the borders of Egypt, where their advance was stopped by the marshes of the Nile Delta, after which the pharaoh Psamtik I met them and convinced them to turn back by offering them gifts.

The Scythians retreated by passing through the Philistine city of Ascalon largely without any incident, although some stragglers looted the temple of ʿAštart in the city, which was considered to be the most ancient of all temples to that goddess, as a result of which the perpetrators of this sacrilege and their descendants were allegedly cursed by ʿAštart with a “female disease,” due to which they became a class of transvestite diviners called the Anarya (meaning “unmanly” in Scythian).

List of Anaryas

Here is partial list of people and places listed in Anarya category.

• Anaryas
• Angas
• Apaga River
• Arattas
• Atavis
• Bhaumas
• Gandharas
• Jarttikas
• Kalingas
• Karaskaras
• Karkotakas
• Keralas
• Khasas
• Kikata
• Kikatas
• Kurulas
• Kundivisha
• Madras
• Madrakas
• Magadhas
• Mahishakas
• Mlecchas
• Murundas
• Nishadas
• Paundras
• Pishachas
• Prasthalas
• Rakshasas;
• Sakala town
• Sauviras
• Sindhus
• Sivis
• Skandagupta
• Suras
• Vahikas
• Vasatis
• Virakas
• Yavanas
• Yugandhara town

Brahmans and Anaryas

Hukum Singh Panwar writes that five races descended from Yayati dominated the whole earth. The Panchavratah of the Rig Veda or the five races of Wilson and Pargiter were undoubtedly, as also corroborated by Zimmer, and A.C. Das, the Yadus, Turvtsus, Druhvus, Anus and Purus. They were known as the Aila race of the Aryans.

We know from Pargiter, "Brahmanism originally was not an Aila or Aryan institution. The Brahmans were connected with and were established among the non-Aryan. The Ailas, who were their own sacrificers, actually opposed the Brahmans." The victorious expansion of the Ailas over the non-Aryans in the east and south seriously affected the position and prestige of the Brahmmans. The Brahmans, with a view to share the benefits of the victory of Ailas, as the Rajputs did under the Mughals, tried to gain access to Aila chiefs through matrimonial alliances with them, which ultimately influenced the religious beliefs and practices of the Brahmans. Thus Brahmanism appears to have developed in accordance with Aila ideas and to have owed much of its advancement to the influence of the Kshatriyas. "The Ailas", in fact, "Aryanised the Brahmans as they did the other people". As for the condemnation of the descendents of the north-westerly Vahikadesh.

Niṣādapati

According to Hiraṇyakeśisutra by Yajñavalkya, a son begotten to a Niṣāda lady by a Brahmin was called as Niṣāda Rathakāra and was considered as Anārya or non aryan. If daughter of this Rathakāra is again married to a Brahmin and their daughter is married to a Brahmin,and a daughter born to them again married to a Brahmin, and so on till seven generations,then the son of the seventh Niṣāda Rathakāra's daughter attains brahminhood. The uplifted Niṣādapati and his progeny were entitled to perform the sacrifices and even the Brahmayāgādi. This Rathakāra's ways of earning a livelihood are stated as comprising chariots,carts and the like.

अनार्य

अनार्य का प्रयोग प्रजातीय और नैतिक दोनों अर्थो में होता है अर्थात वह व्यक्ति जो आर्य प्रजाति का न हो, अनार्य कहलाता है। आर्येतर अर्थात्‌ किरात (मंगोल), हब्शी (नीग्रो), सामी, हामी, आग्नेय (ऑस्ट्रिक) आदि किसी मानव प्रजाति का व्यक्ति। ऐसे प्रदेश को भी अनार्य कहते हैं जहाँ आर्य न बसते हों, इसलिए म्लेच्छ को भी कभी-कभी अनार्य कहा जाता है। अनार्य प्रजाति की भाँति अनार्य भाषा, अनार्य धर्म अथवा अनार्य संस्कृति का प्रयोग भी मिलता है। नैतिक अर्थ में अनार्य का प्रयोग असामान्य, ग्राम्य, नीच, आर्य के लिए अयोग्य, अनार्य के लिए ही अनुरूप आदि के अर्थ में होता है।

कीकट

विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर ने लेख किया है ...कीकट (AS, p.192) गया (बिहार) का परिवर्ती प्रदेश था. पुराणों के अनुसार बुद्धावतार कीकट देश में ही हुआ था. कीकट का सर्वप्रथम उल्लेख ऋग्वेद में है-- ' किंते कृण्वंति कीकटेषु गावो नाशिरं दुहे न तपन्ति धर्मं आनोभरप्रमगंदस्य वेदो नैचाशाखं के मधवत्रन्ध्यान:' 3,53, 14. इस उद्धरण में कीकट के शासक है प्रमगंद का उल्लेख है. यास्क के अनुसार (निरुक्त 6,32) कीकट अनार्य देश था. पुराण काल में कीकट मगध ही का एक नाम था तथा इससे सामन्यत: अपवित्र समझा जाता था; केवल गया और राजगृह तीर्थ रूप में पूजित थे-- 'कीकटेषु गया पुण्या पुण्यं राजगृहं वनम्' वायु पुराण 108,73. बृहद्धर्मपुराण में भी कीकट अनिष्ट देश माना गया है किन्तु कर्णदा और गया को अपवाद कहा गया है-- 'तत्र देशे गया नाम पुण्यदेशोस्ति वुश्रुत:, नदी च कर्णदा नाम पितृणां स्वर्गदायिनी' 26,47. श्रीमद्भागवत में कतिपय अपवित्र अथवा अनार्य लोगों के देशों में कीकट या मगध की गणना की गई है. महाभारत काल में भी ऐसी ही मान्यता थी. पांडवों की तीर्थ यात्रा के प्रसंग में वर्णन है कि वे जब मगध की [p.193] सीमा के अंदर प्रवेश करने जा रहे थे तो उनके सहयात्री ब्राह्मण वहां से लौट आए. संभव है कि इस मान्यता का आधार वैदिक सभ्यता का मगध या पूर्वोत्तर भारत में देर से पहुंचना हो. अथर्ववेद 5,22,14 से भी अंग और मगध का वैदिक सभ्यता के प्रसार के बाहर होना सिद्ध होता है. पुराण काल में शायद बौद्ध धर्म का केंद्र होने के कारण ही मगध को अपुण्य देश समझा जाता था.

खसमंडल

विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर ने लेख किया है ...खसमंडल (AS, p.255) कुमायूं उत्तराखंड का एक भाग है। खस-जाति के लोग मध्य हिमालय प्रदेश के प्राचीन निवासी हैं। नेपाल में भी इनकी संख्या काफ़ी है। 10वीं शती से 13वीं शती ई. तक भारत के कई राजपूत - वंशों ने इस प्रदेश में आकर शरण ली थी और छोटी-छोटी रियासतें स्थापित कर ली थीं। पुराणों में खस जाति की अनार्य या असंस्कृत जातियों में गणना की गई है। बरनौफ (burnouf) के अनुसार, दिव्यावदान पृष्ठ 372 में खस राज्य का उल्लेख है। तिब्बत के इतिहास लेखक तारानाथ ने भी खसप्रदेश का उल्लेख किया है। (इण्डियन हिस्टॉरिकल क्वार्टरली, 1930, पृष्ठ 334)

भौम

भौम (AS, p.682) विष्णु पुराण 4,24,65 में उल्लिखित देश-- 'कलिंग माहिषमहेंद्रभौमान् गुहा भोक्ष्यन्ति'. प्रसंग अनुसार इसकी स्थिति उड़ीसा में जान पड़ती है. विष्णु पुराण ने इस प्रदेश में गुप्त या पूर्वगुप्त काल में जो विष्णु पुराण का निर्माण काल है, अनार्य गुहों का शासन बतलाया है.

वीरक

वीरक (AS, p.866): एक प्राचीन स्थान जिसका उल्लेख महाभारत, कर्णपर्व में हुआ है- 'कारस्करान्माहिष्कान् कुरंडान् केरलांस्तया, ककाटकान् वीरकांश्च दुधर्मांश्च विवर्जयेत।'- महाभारत, कर्णपर्व 44,43. इस उल्लेख में वर्णित जनपदों के निवासियों को महाभारत के समय दूषित समझा जाता था, क्योंकि संभवतः ये लोग अनार्य जातयों से संबंधित थे। प्रसंगानुसार 'वीरक' दक्षिण भारत का कोई जनपद जान पड़ता है।

In Mahabharata

Mahabharata Book VIII Chapter 30 - mentions the tribes who are not followers of Vedas and Brahmanism, who are out of the pale of virtue, and that live away from the Himavat and the Ganga River and Sarasvati and Yamuna and Kurukshetra and the Sindhu and its five tributary rivers. The sisters' sons of the Arattas, and not their own sons, become their heirs. They are said to be Anaryas. These include:

Vahikas, Madrakas; town Sakala, a river Apaga, and a clan of the Vahikas known by the name of the Jarttikas; Rakshasas; town called Yugandhara; Pishachas named Vahi and Hika in the river Vipasha; tribes Karaskaras, Mahishakas, Kalingas, Kikatas, Atavis, Keralas, Karkotakas, Virakas, Prasthalas, Madras, Gandharas, Arattas, Khasas, Vasatis, Sindhus, Sauviras and the regions called as Arattas; Angas, Magadhas, Sivis, Yavanas, Suras, mlecchas, Madrakas

Further reading

• Chatterji, S. K. : Bharata Mein Arya Aura Anarya,