If Arya Samaj is Vedas only then why is it called 'Aryan'

This is 5 years late but a South Indian Restauranteur said he wants to open a temple with each pillar of the temple representing the Vedas. I asked him if he meant Arya Samaj but my sister said he wouldn't know because he's a Dravidian.

Is it true that the Dravidians followed a different religion and that the Aryan's brought the Vedas? I always thought Indian culture came from South India- especially as Kanchipuram and Rameshwaram are down South?

ronki23 said:

This is 5 years late but a South Indian Restauranteur said he wants to open a temple with each pillar of the temple representing the Vedas. I asked him if he meant Arya Samaj but my sister said he wouldn't know because he's a Dravidian.

Is it true that the Dravidians followed a different religion and that the Aryan's brought the Vedas? I always thought Indian culture came from South India- especially as Kanchipuram and Rameshwaram are down South?

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Just like you, your sister also is quite ill-informed (otherwise, you would not have been making these silly comments). After the assimilation of Aryans, Vedas are holy for all Hindus, whether in East, West, North or South. I would not term the original inhabitants of India as Dravidians in contrast to Aryans. There were many more people in India before the coming of Aryans than just the Dravidas. And yes, the beliefs of the indigenous people of India differed from those of Aryans. RigVeda does not mention Rama, Krishna, Shiva or Mother Goddess Durga.

ronki23 said:

This is 5 years late but a South Indian Restauranteur said he wants to open a temple with each pillar of the temple representing the Vedas. I asked him if he meant Arya Samaj but my sister said he wouldn't know because he's a Dravidian.

Is it true that the Dravidians followed a different religion and that the Aryan's brought the Vedas? I always thought Indian culture came from South India- especially as Kanchipuram and Rameshwaram are down South?

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The Arya Samaj is open to all human beings irrespective of caste, religion, creed, nationality, race, gender or sexual orientation unlike the casteist Hindu smritis which have no basis in the Vedas or shrutis and are obsolete manmade structures..

The Arya as per the Dharmic religious philosophies means the noble one or who does noble deeds.


' Arya is not a race; Arya means a noble-minded person. The word Arya is often confused with a race. In the beginning, western historians propounded this theory of the Aryan race. That developed into Hitler's Aryan superiority. And when Hitler died, the Aryan race theory also died ! But the word Arya is used in sanskrit always for the noble-minded person. Take any sanskrit drama. The person will address another character as 'My dear Arya,noble-minded person'. And Buddha spoke of his teachings as Arya-satyani, Noble Truths. Noble is the word for Arya there. The four Noble truths, Arya Satyani. So, the word Arya was used by Buddha, as also by earlier Vedic literature. And this word, Arya is, therefore, a very great word in Sanskrit. Be an Aryan means, be noble-minded. Don't be petty, don't be small. 'Swami Ranganathananda, commentary of the Bhagavad gita ( Volume 1,Chapter 2.88)



You can see that the greatest vedic philosophers like Gaudapada, Adi Shankaracharya, RAmanuja and Madhava emerged from south India which gave the vedic philosophies of Advaita, Vishistadvaita and Dvaita respectively.

Adi Shankacharya consolidated the Advaitan doctrine and established centers of Advaita in north, south, east ,west and central India in the seventh century A.D, defeating all other religious scholars and their philosophical doctrines in debate.

ajay0 said:

The Arya Samaj is open to all human beings irrespective of caste, religion, creed, nationality, race, gender or sexual orientation unlike the casteist Hindu smritis which have no basis in the Vedas or shrutis and are obsolete manmade structures..

The Arya as per the Dharmic religious philosophies means the noble one or who does noble deeds.


' Arya is not a race; Arya means a noble-minded person. The word Arya is often confused with a race. In the beginning, western historians propounded this theory of the Aryan race. That developed into Hitler's Aryan superiority. And when Hitler died, the Aryan race theory also died ! But the word Arya is used in sanskrit always for the noble-minded person. Take any sanskrit drama. The person will address another character as 'My dear Arya,noble-minded person'. And Buddha spoke of his teachings as Arya-satyani, Noble Truths. Noble is the word for Arya there. The four Noble truths, Arya Satyani. So, the word Arya was used by Buddha, as also by earlier Vedic literature. And this word, Arya is, therefore, a very great word in Sanskrit. Be an Aryan means, be noble-minded. Don't be petty, don't be small. 'Swami Ranganathananda, commentary of the Bhagavad gita ( Volume 1,Chapter 2.88)



You can see that the greatest vedic philosophers like Gaudapada, Adi Shankaracharya, RAmanuja and Madhava emerged from south India which gave the vedic philosophies of Advaita, Vishistadvaita and Dvaita respectively.

Adi Shankacharya consolidated the Advaitan doctrine and established centers of Advaita in north, south, east ,west and central India in the seventh century A.D, defeating all other religious scholars and their philosophical doctrines in debate.

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Sounds like Sikhism but Arya Samaj and Sikhism don't get along. Why?

Aupmanyav said:

Just like you, your sister also is quite ill-informed (otherwise, you would not have been making these silly comments). After the assimilation of Aryans, Vedas are holy for all Hindus, whether in East, West, North or South. I would not term the original inhabitants of India as Dravidians in contrast to Aryans. There were many more people in India before the coming of Aryans than just the Dravidas. And yes, the beliefs of the indigenous people of India differed from those of Aryans. RigVeda does not mention Rama, Krishna, Shiva or Mother Goddess Durga.

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Why doesn't the South Indian guy know what Arya Samaj is? I think he's Keralan

ronki23 said:

This is 5 years late but a South Indian Restauranteur said he wants to open a temple with each pillar of the temple representing the Vedas. I asked him if he meant Arya Samaj but my sister said he wouldn't know because he's a Dravidian.

Click to expand...

That is a bizarre statement to make. I am from Bangalore, which makes me a Dravidian.

Is it true that the Dravidians followed a different religion and that the Aryan's brought the Vedas? I always thought Indian culture came from South India- especially as Kanchipuram and Rameshwaram are down South?

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What is Indian culture, exactly? There is no such thing. India is highly diverse and contrary to popular opinion, there is very little that is common to all Indians.

The Indo Aryans (they called themselves Arya/Aryan and hence, their land became Iran) moved into the Indian sub continent in waves before 500 BC. They bought the Veda into the region, which eventually merged with local beliefs to form what is today known as Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma.

Indra, Vishnu, Rudra, Mithra, Varuna, Agni, Vayu, etc., are Vedic gods. The rest are indigenous and non-Vedic (Shiva, Ganesha, Muruga, Perumal, Venkatesh, Amman, Ambaal, Kali, Durga, Ayyanaar, etc.,). Over time, Rudra was mapped to Shiva and Rama, Krishna, Perumal and Venkatesh were mapped to Vishnu.

ronki23 said:

Why doesn't the South Indian guy know what Arya Samaj is? I think he's Keralan

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Tons of people from all over India don't know what happens in other parts of India. Here in Canada I've spoken to many Indian emigrant/immigrants, and rarely has anyone traveled throughout India. Usually it's just their home state and perhaps one or two bordering states from that. If you ask most people in north India who Murugan or Ayappan is, they don't know, and the opposite is true. In my city we have 13 Hindu temples now, and most folks don't even know the others exist, let alone anything about what might go on there.

So it's really very ethnocentric, and that's natural, given the vastness of it.

ronki23 said:

Sounds like Sikhism but Arya Samaj and Sikhism don't get along. Why?

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Sikhs have their own book. They have nothing to do with Vedas. Though what Sikhism believes can be traced directly to Upanishads.

ronki23 said:

Sounds like Sikhism but Arya Samaj and Sikhism don't get along. Why?

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They have similar religious philosophy, but probably don't get along due to some petty issues.

Sikhism, Arya Samaj and the Prajapita Brahmakumaris all share the same philosophy.

They are monotheistic, believe in the equality and fraternity of all human beings, does not hold degenerate casteist views, and hold reincarnation and Moksha as their beliefs.

Sikhism and Arya Samaj use the term Om for God, with the Sikh term being in the Punjabi language meaning Ik Onkar.

The Prajapita Brahmakumaris are also monotheistic and they perceive and worship God as a point of light.

Aupmanyav said:

Just like you, your sister also is quite ill-informed (otherwise, you would not have been making these silly comments). After the assimilation of Aryans, Vedas are holy for all Hindus, whether in East, West, North or South. I would not term the original inhabitants of India as Dravidians in contrast to Aryans. There were many more people in India before the coming of Aryans than just the Dravidas. And yes, the beliefs of the indigenous people of India differed from those of Aryans. RigVeda does not mention Rama, Krishna, Shiva or Mother Goddess Durga.

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What did the Dravidians believe in before the Aryans brought the Vedas?

All the Gods that Hindus worship now except Vishnu and Saraswati. These two have been adopted from the Vedic deities. Other Vedic deities including Indra, now occupy secondary positions.

The dark complexion of Rama, Bharata, Krishna, Vishnu, Arjuna, Abhimanyu, Draupadi, Drona, Nakula mentioned in the scriptures itself is enough to show that the Aryan -Dravidian divide is manmade without a factual basis.

The swastika has been found in the Harappan excavation sites as well which are supposed to be dravidian. However people keep on adhering to old historical narratives of western historians designed to ensure the people is divided . This tactic was also employed in the religious field so as to weaken the Indian independence movement by creating a rift between Hindus and Muslims and upper castes and lower castes .