Indo-Aryan peoples

History

Proto-Indo-Iranians

Main article: Indo-Iranians, Proto-Indo-Europeans, Aryan, Indo-European migrations, 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). Another group of Indo-Aryans migrated further westward and founded the Mitanni kingdom in northern Syria (c. 1500–1300 BC); the other group was the Vedic people. According to Christopher I. Beckwith, the Wusun people of Inner Asia in antiquity could have been of Indo-Aryan origin.

The Proto-Indo-Iranians, from which the Indo-Aryans developed, are identified with the Sintashta culture (2100–1800 BCE), and the Andronovo culture, 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, 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. 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. 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. 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. Additionally, Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burmese speaking people contributed to the genetic make-up of South Asia.

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.

List of historical Indo-Aryan peoples

• Anga
• Bahlikas
• Bharatas
• Buli
• Caidyas
• Dewa
• Gāndhārīs
• Gangaridai
• Gupta
• Kambojas
• Kalinga
• Kasmira
• Kekaya
• Khasas
• Kikata
• Koliya
• Kosala
• Kurus
• Licchavis
• Madra
• Magadhis
• Malavas
• Mallakas
• Mātsyeyas
• Mitanni
• Moriya
• Nāya
• Nishadhas
• Odra
• Pakthas
• Pala
• Panchala
• Paundra
• Puru
• Salva
• Salwa
• Saraswata
• Sauvira
• Shakya
• Shunga
• Sindhu
• Sudra
• Surasena
• Trigarta
• Utkala
• Vanga
• Vatsa
• Vidarbha
• Videha
• Vrishni
• Yadavas
• Yadu
• Yaudheya

Contemporary Indo-Aryan people

• Angika people
• Assamese people
• Awadhi people
• Banjara people
• Barua people
• Bede people
• Bengali people
• Bhil people
• Bhojpuri people
• Bishnupriya Manipuri people
• Brokpa people
• Chakma people
• Chittagonian people
• Daingnet people
• Deccani people
• Deshi people
• Dhakaiya people
• Dhivehi people
• Dogra people
• Dom people
• Garhwali people
• Ghorbati people
• Goalpariya people
• Gujarati people
• Halba people
• Haryanvi people
• Hindki people
• Jaunsari people
• Kalash people
• Kashmiri people
• Khas people
• Kho people
• Kohistani people
• Konkani people
• Kumauni people
• Kutchi people
• Koch Rajbongshi people
• Lom people
• Lhotshampa people
• Magahi people
• Maithil people
• Marathi people
• Marwari people
• Memon people
• Muhajir people
• Nagpuria people
• Nashya Shaikh people
• Odia people
• Palula people
• Pashayi people
• Pahari people
• Punjabi people
• Rajasthani people
• Romani people
• Rohingya people
• Sadan people
• Saraiki people
• Sarak people
• Saurashtra people
• Shina people
• Sindhi people
• Sinhalese people
• Sylheti people
• Tanchangya people
• Thari people
• Tharu people
• Tirahi people
• Torwali people
• Warli people

References

Sources

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

References

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