A Study of the Function and Meaning of the Four Words Transmitter the Socio-Political Concept of "People" in Old Persian Inscriptions

The present article aims to study the words that can be applied to the socio-political concept of "people" in the Old Persian version of the Achaemenid royal inscriptions and according to the evidence equivalent to all or part of this concept. The present study with the approach of conceptual history based on linguistic analysis of Old Persian inscriptions has tried to examine these words and their relation to the concept of "people", as socio-political activists, from the perspective of social and political functions and meanings. Hence, it seeks an answer to the question of what is the equivalent or conveying words of the concept of people in the Old Persian version of these inscriptions and how can their function and social meaning be explained in the political context? In response, it is assumed that each of the stems martiya-, zana-, bandaka- and kāra- reflect a part of the socio-political concept of "people" in Old Persian inscriptions. The findings of the study examined the function and meaning of each of the four stems mentioned as "man", "soldier", "subjects and followers of the government", "inhabitants of the land", and "people/army" in Old Persian inscriptions.