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Indo-Aryan peoples#History

{{Short description|Indo-European ethnolinguistic groups primarily concentrated in South Asia}}

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{{Original research|date=January 2021}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}

{{Use Indian English|date=June 2016}}

{{Infobox ethnic group

| group = Indo-Aryan peoples

| image = 240px

| caption = 1978 map showing geographical distribution of the major Indo-Aryan languages. (Urdu is included under Hindi. Romani, Domari, and Lomavren are outside the scope of the map.) Dotted/striped areas indicate where multilingualism is common.{{hidden| |

{{div col|colwidth=30em}}

{{legend|#fe933c|Central}}

{{legend|#fd15ac|Dardic}}

{{legend|#effe27|Eastern}}

{{legend|#ad27fe|Northern}}

{{legend|#274ffe|Northwestern}}

{{legend|#3bed69|Western}}

{{legend|#fe1e1e|Southern}}

{{div col end}}

}}

| population = ~1.4 billion{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}

| popplace =

| region1 = {{flagcountry|India}}

| pop1 = Over 911 million

| ref1 = {{cite web |url = https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/india/ |title=India |work=The World Factbook |date=16 November 2021}}

| region2 = {{flagcountry|Pakistan}}

| pop2 = Over 180 million

| ref2 = {{cite web |url = https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/pakistan/ |title=Pakistan |work=The World Factbook |date=4 February 2022}}

| region3 = {{flagcountry|Bangladesh}}

| pop3 = Over 170 million

| ref3 = {{cite web |url= https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/bangladesh/ |title=Bangladesh |work=The World Factbook |date=4 February 2022}}

| region4 = {{flagcountry|Nepal}}

| pop4 = Over 26 million

| region5 = {{flagcountry|Sri Lanka}}

| pop5 = Over 14 million

| region6 = {{flagcountry|Afghanistan}}

| pop6 = Over 2 million

| region7 = {{flagcountry|Mauritius}}

| pop7 = Over 725,400

| region8 = {{flagcountry|Maldives}}

| pop8 = Over 300,000

| region9 = {{flagcountry|Bhutan}}

| pop9 = Over 240,000

| ref8 = {{cite web |url =http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,MARP,,BTN,,469f386a1e,0.html |title=Population of Lhotshampas in Bhutan |year=2004 |publisher=UNHCR |access-date=23 March 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121016143502/http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country%2C%2CMARP%2C%2CBTN%2C%2C469f386a1e%2C0.html |archive-date=16 October 2012 }}

| langs = Indo-Aryan languages

| rels = Indian religions (Mostly Hindu; with Buddhist, Sikh and Jain minorities) and Islam, Christians and some non-religious atheist/agnostic

| related = |||||||

}}

{{Indo-European topics}}

Indo-Aryan peoples are a diverse collection of peoples predominantly found in South Asia, who (traditionally) speak Indo-Aryan languages. Historically, Aryans were the Indo-Iranian speaking pastoralists who migrated from Central Asia into South Asia and introduced the Proto-Indo-Aryan language.{{sfn|Anthony|2007}}{{sfn|Erdosy|2012}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-46616574|title=How ancient DNA may rewrite prehistory in India|publisher=bbc|date=23 December 2018|access-date=23 November 2022}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/society/history-and-culture/theres-no-confusion-the-new-reports-clearly-confirm-arya-migration-into-india/article61986135.ece|title=New reports clearly confirm 'Arya' migration into India|publisher=thehindu|date=13 September 2019|access-date=23 November 2022}}{{Cite news|url=https://theprint.in/pageturner/excerpt/aryans-or-harappans-who-drove-the-creation-of-caste-system-dna-holds-a-clue/686393/|title=Aryans or Harappans—Who drove the creation of caste system? DNA holds a clue|publisher=theprint|date=29 June 2021|access-date=23 November 2022}} The early Indo-Aryan peoples were known to be closely related to the Indo-Iranian group that have resided north of the Indus River; an evident connection in cultural, linguistic, and historical ties. Today, Indo-Aryan speakers are found south of the Indus, across the modern-day regions of Bangladesh, Nepal, eastern-Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and northern-India.{{cite book |url= |title=The Indo-Aryan Languages |page=2 |year=2007 |author=Danesh Jain, George Cardona|publisher=Routledge}}

History

= Proto-Indo-Iranians =

{{main|Indo-Iranians|Proto-Indo-Europeans|Aryan|Indo-European migrations|Indo-Aryan migrations}}

{{Further|Genetics and archaeogenetics of South Asia|Peopling of India}}

File:Indo-Iranian origins.png (after EIEC). The Andronovo, BMAC and Yaz cultures have often been associated with Indo-Iranian migrations. The GGC, Cemetery H, Copper Hoard, OCP, and PGW cultures are candidates for cultures associated with Indo-Aryan migrations.]]

The introduction of the Indo-Aryan languages in the Indian subcontinent was the outcome of a migration of Indo-Aryan people from Central Asia into the northern Indian subcontinent (modern-day Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka). These migrations started approximately 1,800 BCE, after the invention of the war chariot, and also brought Indo-Aryan languages into the Levant and possibly Inner Asia.{{CN|date=August 2023}} Another group of Indo-Aryans migrated further westward and founded the Mitanni kingdom in northern Syria{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=454}} (c. 1500–1300 BC); the other group was the Vedic people.{{sfn|Beckwith|2009|p=33 note 20}} Christopher I. Beckwith suggests that the Wusun, an Indo-European Caucasoid people of Inner Asia in antiquity, were also of Indo-Aryan origin.{{sfn|Beckwith|2009|p=376-7}}

The Proto-Indo-Iranians, from which the Indo-Aryans developed, are identified with the Sintashta culture (2100–1800 BCE),{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=390 (fig. 15.9), 405–411}}{{sfn|Kuz'mina|2007|p=222}} and the Andronovo culture,{{CN|date=August 2023}} which flourished ca. 1800–1400 BCE in the steppes around the Aral Sea, present-day Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The Proto-Indo-Aryan split off around 1800–1600 BCE from the Iranians,{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=408}} moved south through the Bactria-Margiana Culture, south of the Andronovo culture, borrowing some of their distinctive religious beliefs and practices from the BMAC, and then migrated further south into the Levant and north-western India.George Erdosy (1995). "The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia: Language, Material Culture and Ethnicity", p. 279{{sfn|Anthony|2007}} The migration of the Indo-Aryans was part of the larger diffusion of Indo-European languages from the Proto-Indo-European homeland at the Pontic–Caspian steppe which started in the 4th millennium BCE.{{sfn|Anthony|2007}}Johannes Krause mit Thomas Trappe: Die Reise unserer Gene. Eine Geschichte über uns und unsere Vorfahren. Propyläen Verlag, Berlin 2019, p. 148 ff.{{Cite web |url=https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/all-indoeuropean-languages-may-have-originated-from-this-one-place/ |title=All Indo-European Languages May Have Originated From This One Place |website=IFLScience |date=24 May 2018 |access-date=26 December 2019}} The GGC, Cemetery H, Copper Hoard, OCP, and PGW cultures are candidates for cultures associated with Indo-Aryans.

The Indo-Aryans were united by shared cultural norms and language, referred to as aryā 'noble'. Over the last four millennia, the Indo-Aryan culture has evolved particularly inside India itself, but its origins are in the conflation of values and heritage of the Indo-Aryan and indigenous people groups of India.{{Cite book |last=Avari |first=Burjor |url= |title=India: The Ancient Past: A History of the Indian Sub-Continent from c. 7000 BC to AD 1200 |date=2007-06-11 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-25161-2 |pages=xvii |language=en}} Diffusion of this culture and language took place by patron-client systems, which allowed for the absorption and acculturation of other groups into this culture, and explains the strong influence on other cultures with which it interacted.

Genetically, most Indo-Aryan-speaking populations are descendants of a mix of Central Asian steppe pastoralists, Iranian hunter-gatherers, and, to a lesser extent, South Asian hunter-gatherers—commonly known as Ancient Ancestral South Indians (AASI). Dravidians are descendants of a mix of South Asian hunter-gatherers and Iranian hunter-gatherers, and to a lesser extent, Central Asian steppe pastoralists. South Indian Tribal Dravidians descend majorly from South Asian hunter-gatherers, and to a lesser extent Iranian hunter-gatherers.{{sfn|Reich et al.|2009}}{{sfn|Narasimhan et al.|2019}}{{Cite journal |last1=Yelmen |first1=Burak |last2=Mondal |first2=Mayukh |last3=Marnetto |first3=Davide |last4=Pathak |first4=Ajai K |last5=Montinaro |first5=Francesco |last6=Gallego Romero |first6=Irene |last7=Kivisild |first7=Toomas |last8=Metspalu |first8=Mait |last9=Pagani |first9=Luca |date=5 April 2019 |title=Ancestry-Specific Analyses Reveal Differential Demographic Histories and Opposite Selective Pressures in Modern South Asian Populations |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msz037 |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |volume=36 |issue=8 |pages=1628–1642 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msz037 |issn=0737-4038 |pmc=6657728 |pmid=30952160}} Additionally, Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burmese speaking people contributed to the genetic make-up of South Asia.{{sfn|Basu et al.|2016}}

Indigenous Aryanism propagates the idea that the Indo-Aryans were indigenous to the Indian subcontinent, and that the Indo-European languages spread from there to central Asia and Europe. Contemporary support for this idea is ideologically driven, and has no basis in objective data and mainstream scholarship.{{sfn|Witzel|2001|p=95}}{{sfn|Jamison|2006}}{{sfn|Guha|2007|p=341}}{{sfn|Fosse|2005|p=438}}{{snf|Olson|2016|p=136}}

List of historical Indo-Aryan peoples

{{See also|List of ancient Indo-Aryan peoples and tribes}}

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Contemporary Indo-Aryan people

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See also

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References

{{Reflist}}

Sources

{{refbegin|40em}}

  • {{cite book |last = Anthony | first = David W. |year = 2007 |title = The Horse The Wheel And Language. How Bronze-Age Riders From the Eurasian Steppes Shaped The Modern World | publisher = Princeton University Press }}

  • {{cite journal |vauthors = Basu A, Sarkar-Roy N, Majumder PP |title = Genomic reconstruction of the history of extant populations of India reveals five distinct ancestral components and a complex structure |journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=113|issue=6|pages=1594–9|date=February 2016 |pmid=26811443|pmc=4760789 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1513197113 |ref={{sfnref|Basu et al.|2016}} |bibcode=2016PNAS..113.1594B |doi-access = free }}
  • {{cite book |last=Beckwith |first=Christopher I. |author-link = Christopher I. Beckwith |title= Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-Ue8BxLEMt4C |date=16 March 2009 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1400829941 |access-date=30 December 2014 }}
  • {{Cite book| last=Bryant | first=Edwin | author-link=Edwin Bryant (author) | title=The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2001 | isbn=0-19-513777-9}}

  • {{Citation | editor-last =Erdosy | editor-first =George | year =2012 | title = The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia: Language, Material Culture and Ethnicity | publisher =Walter de Gruyter}}

  • {{Citation | last =Fosse | first =Lars Martin | year =2005 | chapter =ARYAN PAST AND POST-COLONIAL PRESENT. The polemics and politics of indigenous Aryanism | editor-last1 =Bryant | editor-first1 =Edwin | editor-last2 =Patton | editor-first2 = Laurie L. | title =The Indo-Aryan Controversy. Evidence and inference in Indian history | publisher =Routledge }}

  • {{Citation | last =Guha | first =Sudeshna | year =2007 | title =Review. Reviewed Work: The Indo-Aryan Controversy: Evidence and Inference in Indian History by Edwin F. Bryant, Laurie Patton | journal = Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |series=Third Series |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=340–343 | doi =10.1017/S135618630700733X | s2cid =163092658 }}

  • {{cite journal | last =Jamison | first =Stephanie W. | title =The Indo-Aryan controversy: Evidence and inference in Indian history (Book review) |url=http://www.safarmer.com/Indo-Eurasian/Bryant_Patton.review.pdf |journal=Journal of Indo-European Studies | volume =34 | year=2006 |pages=255–261 }}

  • {{citation |last=Kuz'mina |first=Elena Efimovna |author-link=Elena Efimovna Kuzmina |editor=J. P. Mallory |editor-link=J. P. Mallory |title = The Origin of the Indo-Iranians |publisher=Brill |year=2007 |isbn=978-9004160545 }}

  • {{cite book |last1=Loewe |first1=Michael |last2=Shaughnessy |first2=Edward L. |author-link1=Michael Loewe |author-link2=Edward L. Shaughnessy |title=The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 BC |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=cHA7Ey0-pbEC |year=1999 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-5214-7030-7 |pages=87–88 |access-date=1 November 2013 }}

  • Mallory, JP. 1998. "A European Perspective on Indo-Europeans in Asia". In The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Peoples of Eastern and Central Asia. Ed. Mair. Washington DC: Institute for the Study of Man.

  • {{Citation | last1 =Narasimhan | first1 =Vagheesh M. | last2 =Patterson | first2 = N.J. |last3=Moorjani|first3=Priya|last4=Rohland|first4=Nadin| display-authors =etal | year =2019 | title = The Formation of Human Populations in South and Central Asia | journal =Science | volume =365 | issue =6457 | page = 7487 | url = https://scholar.harvard.edu/vagheesh/centralsouthasia| doi =10.1126/science.aat7487 | pmid =31488661 | pmc =6822619 | ref={{sfnref|Narasimhan et al.|2019}}}}

  • {{cite book |title=Religious Ways of Experiencing Life: A Global and Narrative Approach |first=Carl |last=Olson |publisher=Routledge |year=2016}}

  • {{citation | last1=Reich | first1=David | year=2009 | last2=Thangaraj | first2=Kumarasamy | last3=Patterson| first3=Nick | last4=Price| first4=Alkes L.| last5=Singh| first5=Lalji | title = Reconstructing Indian population history | journal=Nature | volume=461 | issue=7263| pages=489–494 | issn=0028-0836 | doi=10.1038/nature08365 | pmid=19779445 | pmc=2842210 | bibcode= 2009Natur.461..489R | ref={{sfnref|Reich et al.|2009}} }}

  • Trubachov, Oleg N., 1999: Indoarica, Nauka, Moscow.

  • {{Citation | last = Witzel | first = Michael | title = Autochthonous Aryans? The Evidence from Old Indian and Iranian Texts | journal = Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=1–115 |year=2001 | url = http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/EJVS-7-3.pdf }}
  • {{Citation | last = Witzel | first = Michael | year =2005 | chapter = Indocentrism | editor1-last = Bryant | editor1-first = Edwin | editor2-last = Patton | editor2-first = Laurie L. | title = The Indo-Aryan Controversy. Evidence and inference in Indian history | publisher = Routledge | url = https://archive.org/details/EdwinBryantLauriePattonIndoAryanControversyEvidenceAndInferenceInIndianHistoryRoutledge2005 }}

{{refend}}

External links

  • [http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/RAJARAM/Har1.pdf Horseplay at Harappa – People Fas Harvard – Harvard University] (PDF)
  • [http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl1723/17231220.htm A tale of two horses] – Frontline

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Indo-Aryan Peoples}}

Category:Indo-Iranian peoples

Category:Ancient peoples of India

Category:Ancient peoples of Pakistan

Category:Ancient peoples of Nepal