Aryanism emerged from a long intellectual development.

The word Aryan existed long before modern European scholarship. Related forms appeared in ancient Indian and Iranian traditions.

Its European history began much later.

During the 18th century, European scholars increasingly encountered Sanskrit literature and began comparing Sanskrit with the classical languages of Europe.

The resulting discoveries transformed European ideas about language.

Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Persian and numerous European languages could be studied as members of a larger historical family.

This new field eventually became known as Indo-European comparative linguistics.

The word Aryan entered this discussion because related forms existed in ancient Indian and Iranian languages.

During the 19th century, however, the meaning of Aryan expanded.

It could refer to languages.

It could refer to ancient peoples.

It could refer to ancestry.

It could appear in anthropology.

It could appear in theories of civilization.

And eventually it became part of the vocabulary of European esoteric movements.

This book follows those developments chronologically.

It does not attempt to establish a modern political interpretation of Aryanism.

It simply records the development of the concept and the people, scholars and movements that used it.