By Jit Majumdar
Sometimes transliterated as: Arya, Arya, AArya
- any adherent of a Moksha-aligned dharma
- noble; honorable; respectable
- master; auspicious; excellent; worthy; wise; eminent
- a positive/ edifying adjective/ honorific used in the moral sense to refer to noble qualities and behaviour and/or as a way of respectful addressing or praise, in later Sanskrit literature;
- a kind of marriage in Ārya society where the giving of a few cows along with giving away the daughter as bride is the norm, not as dowry, but as a part of the wedding ritual (M. Sańhitā).
NOTE: The word Ārya is often conflated with Āryā, both of which mean noble but the prior is spiritual (Ārya Samudāy) and the latter is linguistic (Āryan) in context
- self-designator that originates in the ancient religious literature of the Indians and Iranians; speakers of Indo-Iranian languages that were designated as ‘Āryā’ languages like Sanskrit, Avestan, etc.; a self-referential adjective of the ethnic groups of Indians and Iranians with the effective meaning "pertaining to ourselves."