Real Meaning of the Word "Aarya",
River Narmada starts in central India and River Godaavaree starts in western India, while River Kaaveree winds its way through the South to move into the southern sea. More than a 1,000 years ago, Aadi Shankaraachaarya, who was born in Kerala, established several Math (religious and spiritual centers) at Badreenaath in the North (UP), Puree in the East (Orissa), Dwaarakaa in the West (Gujaraat), and Shringeri and Kaanchee in the South. That is India, that is Bharat, and that is Hinduism.

In 1853, Max Muller introduced the word "Aarya" into the English and European usage as applying to a racial and linguistic group when propounding the Aaryan racial theory. However, in 1888, he himself refuted his own theory and wrote: "I have declared again and again that if I say Aaryas, I mean neither blood nor bones, nor hair, nor skull; I mean simply those who speak an Aaryan language... to me an ethnologist who speaks of Aaryan race, Aaryan blood, Aaryan eyes and hair, is as great a sinner as a linguist who speaks of a dolichocephalic dictionary or a brachycephalic grammar." (Biographies of Words and the Home of the Aryas by Max Muller, 1888, 120 pp)

In Vaidik literature the word Aarya is nowhere defined in connection with either race or language. Instead it refers to: a gentleman, good-natured, righteous person, nobleman, and is often used like "Sir" or "Shree" before the name of a person like Aarya-putra, Arya-kanya, etc. In Vaalmeeki Raamaayan, Raam is described as an Aarya in the following words: Aarya - who cared for equality for all and was dear to everyone.

Etymologically, according to Max Muller, the word Aarya was derived from ar, meaning "to plough, to cultivate". Therefore, Aarya means "cultivator", agriculturer (civilized and sedentary, as opposed to nomads and hunter-gatherers), landlord. VS Apte's Sanskrit-English dictionary relates the word Arya to the root r, to which a prefix a has been appended to give a negating meaning. And therefore the meaning of Aarya is given as excellent, best, followed by respectable and as a noun, master, lord, worthy, honorable, excellent', upholder of Aarya values, and further, teacher, employer, master, father-in-law, friend, Buddha.

So nowhere, either in the religious scriptures or by tradition, the word Aarya denotes a race or language. To impose such a meaning on this epithet is an absolute intellectual dishonesty, deliberate falsification of the facts, and deceptive scholarship. There are only four primary races, namely, Caucasian, the Mongolian, the Australians and the Negroid. Both the Aaryans and Dravidians are related branches of the Caucasian race generally placed in the same Mediterranean sub-branch. The difference between the so-called Aaryans of the North and the Dravidians of the South or other communities of Indian subcontinent is not a racial type. Biologically all are the same Caucasian type, only when closer to the equator, the skin gets darker, and under the influence of constant heat the bodily frame tends to get a little smaller. And these differences cannot be the basis of two altogether different races. One can observe the similar differences even more distinctly among the people of pure Caucasian white race of Europe. Caucasians can be of any color ranging from pure white to almost pure black, with every shade of brown in between. Similarly, the Mongolian race is not yellow. Many Chinese have skin whiter than many so-called Caucasians.