Āryāvarta Reimagined: Theosophy, Spiritual Cosmopolitanism, and the Future of Humanity

What futures can be conjured from an ancient mythical place? This paper examines the Theosophical Society's use of the Sanskrit concept of Āryāvarta — the ancient Vedic "land of the noble ones" — as a vehicle for a distinctive vision of global spiritual futurity. Rather than treating Theosophy as a nostalgic movement, it argues that the Society's reimagining of Āryāvarta functioned as a forward-looking cosmopolitan project and a blueprint for a coming Universal Brotherhood of Humanity. Drawing on primary sources including Blavatsky, Judge, and Olcott’s writings, the paper traces three phases of the concept's evolution, from its Orientalist origins, through the Society's tumultuous alliance with Dayananda Saraswati and the Arya Samaj, to its gradual transformation into a model of transnational spiritual cosmopolitanism. The Theosophical Āryāvarta, this paper contends, was always oriented toward a future not yet arrived.