Lassen, Wilson, Weber, Max Müller, Pictet, Kuhn, etc.
The central region of Baktria was in all probability the cradle of the Aryas, the common progenitors of all the races and nations which now cover Europe. In times anterior to the great pre-historic division and separation of the Aryan races, they probably occupied the whole of the vast region stretching from the Hindu-Kush, the Belourtagh, to the river Oxus and the Caspian Sea. This, too, at a period of which it can only be said that time existed.
The antique Aryas led a pastoral life. The original signification of the words in the European languages denoting family and social relations, as well as the names of domestic and other animals, of grains and plants, of implements of husbandry and handicraft and the like, is elucidated by roots found in Sanscrit, which is supposed to have been the original language of the Aryas, or, at any rate, the one which most completely preserved the primitive impress of the Aryan character.
"Father" (in Sanscrit, pitri), signifies "the protecting one, or the protector;" "mother" (Sanscrit, matri), "she who regulates or sets in order;" "daughter"[Pg 82] (duhitri), "the milking one;" "son" (sunu), "the begotten;" "sister" (vastri), "she who takes care,"—subauditur, of household matters—also, "the bearer of a new family;" "brother" (brhatri), "the helper, or carrier;" "youth" (yavan) "the defender." So also, "horse" (a?va), signifies "swift, rapid;"[11] the name for the "bovine" genus, bull and cow (Sc., go, gaus), "to sound inarticulately," likewise (ukshan) "fecundating," besides other names with other significations; the "ovine" genus, or sheep kind (avi), implies "the loved, protected," etc.; the "dog" (\'cvan, kvan), means "the yelper, barker;" but he has also other names denoting his qualities, as sucaka, "spy, informer," krtagna, the "recognizing," or "grateful one," etc.; "goose," (hansa, from Sc. has), "to laugh." So the roots for the general names of grains and fruits are to be found in the Sanscrit; thus, ad, "to eat;" adas, "nourishment;" gr, "to devour," whence garitra, "grain," "rice," etc. It may be noticed that derivatives from these and other roots became applied, in branch languages, to various special kinds of grain; thus, "oats," both in form and signification, is easily traced to a Sanscrit root. So, too, the names of many metals, trees, plants and wild animals, have their roots and descriptive meaning in the Aryan or Sanscrit language; and comparative[Pg 83] philology gives us the method of seizing the affiliations of form and of meaning.
Words of the character pointed one and their primitive significations—constituting the foundation of man\'s family and social existence—followed the various ethnic branches issuing from the Aryan and expanding over the ancient world. But no root, no name, no signification is to be found for a "servant" bearing the meaning of "slave" or "chattel," or expressive of a deprivation of the rights of manhood or of human dignity. The primitive Aryan mode of life was naturally patriarchal or clan-like, and the above-mentioned words show that household and rural functions were performed by the members of the family. What has been already said in another division (see "Hebrews"), applies even more forcibly to the Aryas. The Sanscrit word ibha, signified "family," "household," "servants," but never slaves or chattels. Both its sound and sense are still perfectly preserved in the Irish ibh, which signifies "country," or "clan;" not enslaved men! The names of weapons, and other words relating to warfare, which may be traced back to the Aryan speech, prove that the Aryas warred with other tribes—perhaps with the Tartars; and all such foreign enemies were comprehended under the collective Sanscrit denomination of barbara, varvara, or "barbarians." But even here, where we should most look for it, no hint or trace of slavery can be found.
The attempt, historically, to endow certain human[Pg 84] families or races with special fitness or capacity for freedom or slavery—or with a fatality toward the one or the other, or toward certain fixed social and political conditions—as well as the effort to divide the human family into distinct physiological or psychological races—all manifests a narrow appreciation of the course of human events; it evidences a very limited knowledge of positive history, and perhaps a still more limited philosophical comprehension of its spirit. If, however, such classifications had any scientific basis, assuredly the Aryas and the nations issuing from them had no natural, special propensity either to be slaves or slave-makers.
It win be hereafter pointed out, that among the various branches of the Aryas, or what are called Indo-Europeans, slavery was not a feature of their primitive life, but was the result of a long subsequent epoch of moral decay and degradation. It was at a comparatively late period of their history and under precisely the same conditions, that the Romans and Greeks began to enslave their own fellows. So was it with the Gaels or Celts, and so also with the Slavi. The Poles were free from serfdom till the thirteenth Christian century; the Russians only introduced it toward the close of the sixteenth—and in both cases after dissension, war, and desolation. The Teutons alone (Anglo-Saxons included), seen in the light of primitive history, had slavery in their household and in their national organism, and the slaves, too, of their own race and kin.
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