"
Aryan" is a term meaning "noble" which was used as a self-designation by ancient
Indo-Iranian people. The word was used by the
Indic people of the
Vedic period in India to refer to the noble class and geographic location known as
Aryavarta where
Indo-Aryan culture was based. The closely related
Iranian people used the term as an ethnic label for themselves in the
Avesta scriptures, and the word forms the
etymological source of the country
Iran. It was believed in the 19th century that it was also a self-designation used by all
Proto-Indo-Europeans, a theory that has now been abandoned. Scholars point out that, even in ancient times, the idea of being an "Aryan" was religious, cultural and linguistic, not racial.