re stop putting down white het males from baba tymnet com duane hentrich btw i m a walc white aryan lapsed catholic d baba duane m hentrich baba tymnet com i would like to go on record as objecting to mr hentrich calling himself an aryan the word aryan is of sanskrit origin and occurs first in the hindu scripture the rigveda it seems to have been a tribal term but may have had connotations of good character such connotations are quite explicit in the sayings of the buddha who called his religion the eightfold aryan path the word was borrowed by the german scholar max mueller who used it as a synonym for indo european but then the nazis proceeded to steal it and started pretending that aryan is synonymous with nordic which seems highly unlikely the people who originally called themselves aryas the iranians noprth indians the afghans and possibly the kurds are none of them nordic so the use of the word by westerners though meant with apparent good humor in this case is nontheless inappropriate the only westerners who may have some claim to call themselves aryans by descent are the celts who seem to have wor shipped a god called aryaman who is mentioned in the rigveda if you want to check what i am saying look at mallory s book in search of the indo europeans or just look at the encyclopedia britannica the reason this usage is offensive is that most of ancient indian literature as well as religion is directly or inderectly due to the aryans and for westerners to butt in is really not nice not to mention the horrible things done by germans to jews using a word to which the germans have no clear claim rohit parikh
