Were Aryans and Pagans Connected?

I am trying to understand how the world has evolved. Pagan is a Roman word meaning rustic and was used in the fourth century against indigenous religious practices and beliefs. This was quite natural as a reaction to a new emerging religion that comes in conflict with the past which prevailed in the region.

I must say very little is known about Paganism. I fingerprinted on some of the most trusted sources of information to understand what it is about, though I knew something about them earlier. Now, I started connecting the dots.

The more I deep dive into the past, the more it becomes interesting. Aryans who landed in India in 2000 BC spoke Vedic Sanskrit. Before Vedic Sanskrit, Aryans used to speak the Indo-Iranian language and before Indo-Iranian, they spoke something called the Indo-European language. It was not a religious community but a connected linguistic community. There is undeniable evidence of the same. For example, Matr (Sanskrit)-Matr(Greek), Aksha (S) - Axis(G), Sarpa (S) - Serpentum (G), Pitr(S) - Pater(G), Loka(S) - Locus(G), Sarkara (S) - Saccrum (G), Mithya (S) -Mithos (G), Pratishat(S) - Per Centum(G) and my list can go up to more than hundreds of words and even may be more.

The history I am referring to is from 5000 BC onwards. I still don't know what was before 5000 BC. Let me start with our forefathers who were Proto-Indo-Europeans between 5500 -4500 BC. They lived near the Urals of Ukraine today. They practiced sacrifices and had a culture very similar to Indian Aryans(Rigvedic tradition). That civilization was SInthastha Civilization.

Between 2500 - 2000 BC, descendants of the Proto-Indo-Europeans started migrating from Ukraine and had reached far and wide across Eurasia, including Anatolia (Hittites), the Aegean (the linguistic ancestors of Mycenaean Greece), the north of Europe (Corded Ware culture), the edges of Central Asia (Yamnaya culture), and southern Siberia (Afanasievo culture)

The term Aryan was used to refer to the Proto-Indo-Europeans and their descendants. However, Aryan more properly applies to the Indo-Iranians, the Indo-European branch that settled parts of the Middle East and South Asia, as only Indic and Iranian languages explicitly affirm the term as a self-designation referring to the entirety of their people, whereas the same Proto-Indo-European root is the basis for Greek and Germanic word forms which seem only to denote the ruling elite of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) society.

I have pulled out something around migrations from various sources which happened as per the established research, out of which the Kurgan Hypothesis answers most questions.

Scheme of Indo-European language dispersals from c. 5000 to 1000 BC according to the widely held Kurgan hypothesis. –

Center: Steppe cultures

1 (black): Anatolian languages (archaic PIE)

2 (black): Afanasievo culture (early PIE)

3 (black) Yamnaya culture expansion (Pontic-Caspian steppe, Danube Valley) (late PIE)

4A (black): Western Corded Ware

4B-C (blue & dark blue): Bell Beaker; adopted by Indo-European speakers

5A-B (red): Eastern Corded ware

5C (red): Sintashta (proto-Indo-Iranian)

6 (magenta): Andronovo

7A (purple): Indo-Aryans (Mittani)

7B (purple): Indo-Aryans (India) [NN] (dark yellow): proto-Balto-Slavic

8 (grey): Greek

9 (yellow): Iranians – [not drawn]: Armenian, expanding from the western steppe

The various lines indicate the various migrations happening at different periods. They carried philosophical views, though there was no concept of religion.

Aryans landed in India between 2000 BC and -1500 BC and the first known Aryan scripture is Rigveda which is a collection of nearly 1028 hymns across ten different books. My investigation of Rigveda and Old Persian (Avestan) Zendvesta indicates that both have a lot of similarities, that includes rituals. The differentiation was because of the changes incorporated in Avestan (old Persia) and the transition from one concept to another. Some of the deities remained the same like Mitra and Aryaman.

But what happened in Europe?

We don't know what we don't know, but there were tribes that moved to various parts and we know that there are studies about them but broadly they are called Pagans. After I studied Avestan and Aryan literature, which includes ZendAvesta, all four Vedas, and thirteen Upanishads, I started looking at the connected lineage. This prompted me to look at the wider area and I started my investigation on the pagans as they have something interesting. What I started understanding was really very exciting.

Pagans believed that nature is sacred and that the natural cycles of birth, growth, and death observed in the world around us carry profoundly spiritual meanings. Human beings are seen as part of nature, along with other animals, trees, stones, plants, and everything else that is on this earth. This is not different from Aryans. Aryans believed in the divinity of nature and worshipped land, water, air, sky, fire, fury, river, etc and much of the Aryan RigVeda was the prayers of nature.

Paganism is not based on doctrine or liturgy. Many pagans believe 'if it harms none, do what you will'. Following this code, Pagan theology is based primarily on experience, with the aim of Pagan ritual being to make contact with the divine in the world that surrounds them. The ancient Aryan concept was not based on hardcoded religion. It was a practice and there was no the book or the prophet. Many variations were there including hedonism. I would say Paganism was more flexible and liberal as Aryans believed in sacrifices and rituals, and those who did not do it were considered different from them.

Pagans were polytheistic belief and had many deities and belief systems similar to Aryans. Pagans like Aryans had several deities. Pagans believed in Gender diversity and equality of women, which was also not very different as Pagans had women goddesses and Aryans also had many as we see in Rigveda. Both Pagans and Aryans followed liberalism. Both had spiritualism at their core.

Most pagans strongly preferred foods derived from organic farming and free-range livestock rearing, while many are vegetarian or vegan. I cannot see any remote example of Aryans practicing vegetarianism. They both preferred foods derived from organic farming and free-range livestock rearing.

Most pagans believed in some form of reincarnation, viewing death as a transition within a continuing process of existence. Pagans accept death as a natural part of life and will wish to know when they are dying so that they may consciously prepare for it. The concept is no different from the Aryan way of life which considers life and death as a continuous cycle.

Pagans created Temples where gods/goddesses reside. Vedic people never had shape and form and did not build temples. Here Pagans were different from Aryans but the later period saw contemporary Aryans built temples. Is this not interesting?

Pagans believed in the female divine principle, a concept of "Devi" in Aryans. Pagans believed in a balance between nature and themselves, which is very similar to the Aryan system. Most Pagan gods were celestial bodies and for Aryans also it was the same. They both worshipped the celestial bodies. Greek Zeus is widely believed as Aryan Indra.

Besides, Pagans used a swastika which was common for Aryan cultures. The swastika is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures. In India, it is considered a symbol of good luck and blessings.

Unfortunately, there are not many sources available. However, I would prefer the book “A History of Pagan Europe”, which I found interesting. The author has done a lot of hard work to reverse engineered what he sees now and tried to discover the past. Looking at Paganism, I wonder whether Upanishads came from Pagans. Though the Upanishads were the philosophical summary of Aryan Vedas, I always thought that there was something more that contributed. I may be wrong as well.

My understanding revolves around the migration from 5000 BC onwards, Were Pagans the lost tribes of Aryans or vice versa? We don't know what we don't know but there it is certainly hiding more than it is revealing. I will try to answer this question at some point.

Disclaimer: This content is not connected with Author's profession and employer. The author has a deep interest in history and mythology and is a blogger, researcher, and explorer of the past. This study may generate controversies and constructive criticism is welcome.