The Gospel for Asia by Kenneth Saunders

Chapter IV “The Eternal Order:” Logos, Brahman, Dharma—pg. 83

It is reasonable to believe that in the dim dawn of history some concept of an Eternal Order was common to the Indo-Aryans before they separated. We know that one of their great subdivisions, the Indo-Iranian group, developed a concept Arta, which appears as the Rita or Vedic India and as the Asha of the Zend Avesta.

Commentary

The original root for Universal Law in the Aryan language was evidently ŖT or RT from which could be derived such forms as Arta, Rita, etc. These words also means a Wheel. It is significant that we have the universal symbol of Wheel as Law. In Latin it appears as Rota. In Persian we have Asha, but it may also have been Arsha. Where the root RSh is substituted for Rt. From the first of these two latter roots we have the Master of Law, or Rishi; from the second Arhat.

In the Semitic languages reading from right to left, we have the symmetrically opposite roots: instead of RT and RSh, we have TR and ShR, or Torah in Hebrew and Shar or Shariat in Arabic. These words likewise mean Wheel.

A similar relation is seen in the root for head. Opposite to ShR, we have RSh, giving Arsh or Resh, meaning head, but also first principle, highest heaven, first emanation, leader. Reversed, or symmetrically opposite is the world Shar os Sar, the first principle, the leader in Persian. The roots RSh and RT in the Semitic languages indicate a sphere; while ShR or TR indicate a circle.

By the same principle RSh and RT indicate a circle in the Aryan language and ShR and TR a sphere. Some examples have been given above. Another is Terra, the Latin word for Earth. The word Earth is derived originally from the Semitic.