The Aryans (again); 19th century discourse.

[Ashish Chandra]

Edwin Bryant wrote :

The question I have, accordingly, is why did Dayananda use the word 'Arya'
for his Samaj?  Was it a term that came spontaneously to him from his own
reading of Sanskrit texts, or was he picking up on the Aryan debates
raging in Europe (to which I can find no reference in his works)?



My grandfather is an Arya Samajist and to the best of my formation on this
topic, Arya Samaj was founded to rid Hinduism from its "ritualistic and
dogmatic" practices that Swami Dayananda had criticized. It was meant to be
of people committed to the authority of the Vedas alone. Such people were
deemed to be acting towards, and were proponents of, an Arya Samaj, a
society of decent people.


I have never heard that he used the word Arya to either support a foreign
homeland theory, or conversely, to debunk one.

Can anyone tell me why were there "raging Aryan debates" in Europe, i.e.
their locus standi.


Thanks
Ashish