The 4th edition of Meyers Konversationslexikon (Leipzig, 1885-1890) shows the Caucasian race (in blue) as being made up of Aryans, Semites and Hamites. Aryans are further split into European Aryans and Indo-Aryans. The people called "Indo-Aryans" on this 1890 map are today known as Indo-Iranians, and "Indo-Aryan" is only used today for those Indo-Iranians from northern India.

The Aryan race is an idea that was formed in the 19th and 20th centuries. The term "Aryan" comes from the Rig Veda and is the name of an ancient group of people in ancient Persia and India, who spoke an Indo-European language. It has been used to describe people of Iranian and Indian descent, but there was no record of Aryans in European history. Later it was used for Germanic peoples because of new ideas about the Aryans.