Indo-Iranian peoples

Aryan (), or Arya (borrowed from Sanskrit ārya), is a term originating from the ethno-cultural self-designation of the Indo-Iranians. It stood in contrast to nearby outsiders, whom they designated as non-Aryan (). In ancient India, the term was used by the Indo-Aryan peoples of the Vedic period, both as an endonym and in reference to a region called Aryavarta (), where their culture emerged. Similarly, according to the Avesta, the Iranian peoples used the term to designate themselves as an ethnic group and to refer to a region called Airyanem Vaejah (), which was their mythical homeland. The w

ethno-linguistic group of the branch of the Indo-Iranian languages

ethnic group

thumb|Kautiak villagers in Nuristan province with U.S. Navy commander (right) The Nuristanis are an Indo-Iranian ethnic group native to the Nuristan Province (formerly Kafiristan) of northeastern Afghanistan and Chitral District of northwestern Pakistan. Their languages comprise the Nuristani branch of Indo-Iranian languages.

thumb|Map displaying the origins of the Proto-Indo-Iranian (Ā́rya/Aryan) Sintashta culture as a migration of peoples from the Bronze Age European [[Corded Ware culture through the Fatyanovo-Balanovo culture]] thumb|The Sintashta-Petrovka culture (red) expanded into the [[Andronovo culture (orange) in the 2nd millennium BC, overlapping the Oxus civilization (green) in the south; it includes the area of the earliest chariots (pink).]]

The Issedones () were an ancient people of Central Asia at the end of the trade route leading north-east from Scythia, described in the lost Arimaspeia of Aristeas, by Herodotus in his History (IV.16-25) and by Ptolemy in his Geography. Like the Massagetae to the south, the Issedones are described by Herodotus as similar to, yet distinct from, the Scythians. __TOC__

The Asii, Osii, Ossii, Asoi, Asioi, Asini or Aseni were an ancient Indo-European people of Central Asia, during the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE. Known only from Classical Greek and Roman sources, they were one of the peoples held to be responsible for the downfall of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. In Greek Mythology they were the children of Iapetus and Asia.

Religion of the Indo-Iranian peoples