Name of Iran their country "Arya", "Iran", "Iranshahr", "Iranzamin" (Land of Iran), "Aryānām" (the equivalent of "Iran" in the proto-Iranian language) or its equivalents. The term "Arya" has been used by the Iranian people, as well as by the rulers and emperors of Iran, from the time of the Avesta. Evidently from the time of the Sassanids (226–651 CE) Iranians have called it "Iran", meaning "the land of Aryans" and "Iranshahr". In Middle Persian sources, the name "Arya" and "Iran" is used for the pre-Sassanid Iranian empires as well as the Sassanid empire. As an example, the use of the name "Iran" for
Indigenous Aryans and linguistic data, and on literary interpretations of the Rigveda. Standard arguments, both in support of the "Indigenous Aryans" theory, and in opposition the mainstream Indo-Aryan Migration theory, are: For Aurobindo, an "Aryan" was not a person who belonged to a particular race, but a person who "accepted a particular type of self-culture, of inward and outward practice, of ideality, of aspiration." He wanted to revive India's strength by reviving the Aryan strength and character. Aurobindo denied the historicity of a racial division in India between "Aryan invaders" and a native dark-skinned population. Nevertheless, he did accept two kinds of