ABSTRACT
TI-IE wain industry of the ancient Hindus, as of the modern Hindus, was agriculture; and as might be expected, we have frequent allusions to it in the Rig Veda. The very name Arya, by which-the Aryan conquerors of India have distinguished themselves from the aborigines or Dasas, is said to come from a root which means to cultivate. Professor Max Muller believes that traces of this root are to be found in the nantes of nInny Aryan countries, from Iran or Persia, to Erin or Ireland, and argues that the word wasInvented in th-primeval horne of the Aryans, to indicate their partiality to cultivation, as distinguished from the nomadic habits of the Turanians, whose name is supposed to indicate their rapid journeys or the fleetness of their horse. Certain it is that the word Arya is the one word in the Rig Veda which distinguishes the. conquerors as a class, or even as a caste.
.from the aborigines of the country. And there arc remarkable passages also which show that the new settlers, in calling, themselves Arya, had not altogether forgotten the originalsignification of. the word, One instance will suffice :-
