Ancient Indian Civilization Aryans

Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 12

THE CONUNDRUM OF ANCIENT INDIAN

CIVILIZATION
Part 2 — The Aryans and the Vedic Civilization
Dhruba Mukhopadhyay*

(The following is the second part of a 3-part Pontic-Caspian Steppe, a part of the larger
article on Ancient Indian Civilization. The Eurasian Steppe. This language is the an-
first part was published in the Vol.22, No.4 cestor of a reconstructed Indo-Iranian lan-
issue of Breakthrough.) guage which belongs to the Indo-European
family of languages, and was spoken by
Who were the Aryans? people who lived in the late 3rd millennium
BCE. A number of undifferentiated Indo-
A civilization, according to some scholars, Iranian speaking groups, mainly pastoral-
is characterized by urban development. In ists with their cattle, had migrated south-
this sense, strictly speaking, the society at wards from the Eurasian steppe lands at
the time of the Rigveda cannot be called about 2000 BCE and spread over Northern
Vedic civilization because the Vedic people Afghanistan and adjoining parts of Turk-
did not establish towns or cities, though menistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Iran
there is certainly a Vedic culture. How- and built up the BMAC (Bactria Margiana
ever the term is so deeply entrenched in Archeological Complex) culture (Figure 6).
literature, that we shall use this term in
this article. The Vedic civilization (VC) During 1800-1600 BCE the Indo-Iranian
was built by the Aryans. Who were the split into two branches, Old Iranian and
Aryans? In the Rigveda the word Arya Indo-Aryan. Common ties of language,
is used for a group of people speaking culture, mythology and rituals developed
Old Indo-Aryan language and dialects or between them before they ultimately sepa-
Vedic Sanskrit, following Vedic rituals and rated. The latter group might have reached
carrying Vedic culture. Almost all lin- as far the River Indus by ca. 1700 BCE
guists accept that all the Indo-European (Avari, 2005) and later built the Vedic
languages descended from a pre-historic re- culture. The Old Iranian and Indo-Aryan
constructed Proto-Indo-European language people had a common archaic poetry, like
spoken in the Neolithic era (Bryant and the Rigveda and the Avesta, with many
Patton, 2005, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, common expressions, like yajna in Sanskrit
2022, Masica 1991). The homeland of the and yasna in Avestan, mitra in Sanskrit
language, according to general consensus, and Avestan, arya in Sanskrit and arija
and based on archeological evidence, is the in Avestan, soma in Sanskrit, haoma in
* Prof Mukhopadhyay is an eminent geologist, for-
Avestan, and there are many more such
mer Professor of Calcutta University, and the President examples. The two peoples had the same
of Breakthrough Science Society type of priests and rituals. “Taking into

4 Breakthrough, Vol.23, No. 1, March 2023


Series Article

Figure 6: Migration routes from the Eurasian Steppes of the different branches of the Indo-
European family.

account the similarities in mythology, lan- immigrants to NW India might have looked
guage, religious practice and beliefs, we more like Kashmiris or Afghanis than the
may safely conclude that the traditions typical North or South Indians.
of the Avesta and that of the Rig-Veda The Indo-Aryan migrants carried with
have emerged from a single common source them their collection of sacred hymns and
(Dange, 2002). Among all the Indo-Iranian chants that they had been composing for
speakers only the Avestan and Rigvedic centuries during their Iranian and Afghan
people called themselves Aryans. sojourn (Avaris, 2005). The oldest pre-
It must be emphasized that the term served literature of the Indo-Aryan people
Aryan does not connote a race; it is a is the Rigveda. It has been suggested
linguistic community, united by how they that at least parts of the Rigveda were first
lived, worshipped, thought, and particu- composed in the Afghanistan area as the
larly what kind of poetic text they composed early parts of the text include references
(Witzel, 2001). The concept of Aryan race at least obliquely to places, rivers, animals,
was a much later construct particularly etc., of that land (Witzel, 1995) The other
championed by the fascist ideologues of three Vedas, Samaveda, Yajurveda and
the 20th century. The outward appear- Atharvaveda are of later composition; some
ance, that is the racial characterization, of the verses contained in them are taken
of all the people speaking the Indo-Aryan from the Rigveda. The migrants were semi-
language cannot be ascertained with any nomadic cattle herders, horse riders and
degree of certainty. The people speaking had horse-drawn chariots. Their society
this language might have been quite a was governed by strict moral principles,
diverse group with different physical fea- including adherence to truth, oaths and
tures, though it is possible that the original other oral agreements between individuals

Breakthrough, Vol.23, No. 1, March 2023 5


Series Article
and tribes which regulated water rights and three hundred clearly non-Indo-European
pastures. The migration pattern (Figure 6) words in Rigveda. This implies that these
inferred from linguistic studies is consis- languages had been in contact three or four
tent with the DNA studies to be discussed thousand years ago, and the Vedic peo-
later. ple interacted with the non-Aryan original
inhabitants. Peggy Mohan (2021) opined
The Rigveda is replete with descriptions that the linguistic developments were of the
of Indra destroying fortresses, but the nature of convergence and not of forcible
Harappan excavations do not show any subversion which suggests that the Indo-
evidence of such ravages. Hence, the old Aryan migrants did not suppress the native
idea of Aryan invasion exterminating the (?IVC/?Dravidian) population or force the
Harappan people is now abandoned and latter to learn their language.
is replaced by much more sophisticated
models of immigration and acculturation. Relation between the Vedic
According to the mainstream scholarly view Civilization and the Indus Valley
one branch of the Indo-Aryans migrated
Civilization
to Anatolia (Turkey) and the other branch
to Afghanistan and NW part of the Indian Some scholars, particularly a section of
subcontinent after 1800 BCE (Figure 6). Indian authors, are of the view that the
There might have been different waves of concept of Aryan migration is a colonial
immigration over the period of 1800-1400 construct and has racial overtones. They
BCE. Archeological evidence suggest that hold that the question has to be revisited
the migration followed two routes, one and they champion a contrary idea that
from the area of modern Kabul through the Aryans were indigenous to India (au-
the Khyber Pass towards the Swat valley tochthonous hypothesis). According to the
(Figure 7), the other through the modern autochthonist viewpoint, the Indus Valley
Kandahar through the Bolan Pass towards Civilization (IVC) and the Vedic Civilization
the Punjab and the Swat valley (Avari, (VC) are one and the same and are con-
2006). This was the third major migration temporaneous or the latter is older (Frawley
to India (Joseph, 2018). After its arrival in and Rajaram, 1995).
the Greater Punjab area the Old Indo-Aryan The River Saraswati plays a pivotal role
language was Indianized and grammatically in this narrative and the term Sindhu-
innovated to become the Vedic Sanskrit Saraswati Civilization or Saraswati Civiliza-
(Witzel, 2001). Later, from Greater Punjab tion has been coined for this civilization.
the language moved to the north Indian Though most of the historical linguists
plains and by the time of Buddha (about accept the migration model of the Indo-
6th century BCE), the Indo-Aryan language Aryans, the advocates of the autochthonous
had spread all over the northern half of hypothesis summarily dismiss the evidence
the Indian subcontinent and had displaced for immigration that have been marshalled
almost completely the previously spoken by the linguistic researchers. They are of
languages of the indigenous people. Lin- the view that the Indo-European languages,
guists have detected in the linguistic sub- at least the Indo-Aryan language, originated
strate of the Rigveda words which are not in India. Some go to the extent of asserting
typical of Indo-European languages, but that Iranians and even all Indo-Europeans
are borrowed from ancient Dravidian and emigrated from the Punjab region (Out-
Austroasiatic languages. There are about of-India hypothesis). However, no rigor-

6 Breakthrough, Vol.23, No. 1, March 2023


Series Article

Figure 7: Migration routes of the Aryans (after Avari, 2005)

ous linguistic evidence is put forward for pastoral and forest dwellers. The Rigveda
the development of Indo-European, Indo- does not know of large cities such as those
Iranian or Old-Indo-Aryan/Vedic languages of the IVC; it mentions only ruins and
inside the subcontinent. On the contrary, small forts. The IV Civilization is urban
the Iranian and Mitanni (Northern Syria whereas the Indo-Aryans were nomadic
and Southeast Anatolia) linguistic evidence pastoral people with limited agriculture. If
contradicts this idea. the IVC and VC are contemporaneous, then
why is there no mention of the IVC cities
The autochthonist view is linked to the in the Vedic texts. The linguistic study
current of Hindu revivalism which was indicates that the Indo-Aryan/Vedic branch
present even during our freedom movement of the Indo-Iranian has been Indianized and
and has gained momentum in recent years grammatically innovated after its arrival in
with BJP’s coming to power in the Central the Punjab while the Iranian branch es-
Government. Contrary to the autochthon- caped this influence as it did not enter the
ist view, many scholars have presented subcontinent (Witzel, 2005). This supports
strong linguistic and cultural arguments in the idea that the Old Indo-Iranian split into
support of the idea of immigration of the two branches, one moving to Iran the other
Aryans into India. Michael Witzel (2001) migrating to India.
and Romilla Thapar (2002) have summa-
rized the arguments against the idea of au- The aurochthonists claim a continuous
tochthonist Aryans. The Harappan people cultural evolution in India denying any dis-
were urban while the Vedic people were continuity in archeological remains during

Breakthrough, Vol.23, No. 1, March 2023 7


Series Article
the period from 4500 to 800 BCE, and commerce, which existed in the IVC. The
according to them an influx of foreign pop- IVC staple food is wheat, though barley and
ulations is not visible in the archeological rice were also cultivated. In the Rigvedic
record. However, though there is no arche- period the principal cereal was barley and
ological record of the early Vedic people, in the later Vedic period rice. It is to be
there is a clear discontinuity in material remembered that the major cities of the
and spiritual cultures, in linguistics and ge- IVC started to decline by about 1900 BCE,
netics. Kenoyer (2005) had pointed out that before or nearly at the same time as the
there is evidence for significant cultural inferred Aryan migration. Kenoyer (2005)
changes, like changes in burial practices mentioned that the time frame of the Late
and new decorative motif on potteries and Harappans overlaps with the early Vedic
discontinuation of the use of seals, weights period and it is ‘not improbable’ that some
and writing in the Late Harappan period communities referred to in the Vedas were
(1900-1700 BCE); this may have some passing through or living in the regions
correlation with Vedic burial traditions and inhabited by the Late Harappan people.
decorative arts but there is no evidence for
the use of horse by the occupants of the Vedic Society and Culture
Late Harappan cities and towns.
In the absence of any archaeological re-
There are no early Vedic temples, monu- mains, the socio-cultural state of the Vedic
ments or distinctive sculpture. While the people can only be inferred from the lin-
IVC people had a written script, the early guistic and cultural data contained in their
Vedic people did not use a system of writing; literary works, which were orally transmit-
there are no written records or inscriptions ted for many generations and were writ-
belonging to the Vedic era. However, it is to ten down many centuries later. They
be noted the Harappan script disappeared were probably first written down in the
during the Late Harappan phase (Kenoyer, 3rd century BCE. The earliest surviving
2020). The Aryans as described in the manuscript is from 1040 AD. It is diffi-
Rigveda represent something definitely new cult to differentiate mythical and historical
in the subcontinent, distinct from the events in the Vedas , and naturally there
Harappan people. The spiritual and much is a lot of controversy about many aspects
of their material culture is new. The Vedic of the Vedic civilization. The early Aryans
people’s culture and their language link produced a large volume of orally composed
the Indo-Aryans to the areas west and and orally transmitted literature, which in-
northwest of the subcontinent. The Aryans clude the four Vedas which are divided into
were horse riders and cultivated advanced Samhita, Brahmana, Aranyaka and Upan-
philosophical thoughts. On the other hand, ishada. The oldest decoded scripts recorded
the horse was not known to the IVC people, from India are Brahmi and Kharosthi (de-
and there is no evidence regarding the veloped in the Gandhara region) in the 3rd
philosophical thoughts of the Indus Valley century BCE.
people. In 2002 the Hindutva ideologue The Vedic Aryans were half-nomadic
Dr. N S Rajaram made the sensational cattle-herders with domesticated cows,
announcement of the finding of a Harappan sheep, goats and horses, with a little
seal with the image of horse on it. Later this agriculture on the side (principally ‘yava’
turned out to be a classic example of fraud. or barley). Cattle were the most valued
Rigveda does not mention international possession; protection of cattle was an im-

8 Breakthrough, Vol.23, No. 1, March 2023


Series Article
portant duty, and cattle raiders and thieves organized in exogamic clans (‘gotra’), tribes
were described as evil people who needed and occasional tribal unions. The Early
to be destroyed. They used horse-drawn Vedic people or the Rigvedic Aryans had
chariots for travel, warfare and sport. The a three-class society inherited from the
geographic domain of the Rigveda or the Indo-Iranians, namely nobility (rulers), po-
Early Vedic period is the Greater Punjab ets/priests and the common people (pro-
area. There is no evidence that the Vedic ducers). The aboriginal people belonged
people had large urban settlements. There to the third categorey Distinct hierarchy of
is reference to many different types of socio-economic classes were absent, and
artisans and craftsmen like cartwrights, the Rigvedic verses suggest some degree
potters, weavers, makers of bows and bow- of social mobility. The caste system (Var-
strings. Agriculture became more preva- nashram), if at all present, was in an
lent after the migrants came to have a embryonic form; the rigid caste structure
more settled life, and after the invention of evolved much later. The priests and rulers
iron-making around 1200-1000 BCE iron consolidated their position and the pro-
ploughs became common. It has been sug- ducers came to be split into two groups;
gested that the artisans principally came free peasants and traders became the third
from the indigenous non-Aryan population group, Vaishya, and the slaves, labourers
(Kulke and Rothermund, 2004). and artisans were degraded into the fourth
The Vedic Aryans celebrated gods and group, Shudra. In the Purusha sukta of
chieftains in the poems of the Rigveda, and the Rigveda it is stated about the origin of
subsequently they spread their language, the varna that from the primal Purusha the
religion, rituals and social organization mouth became the Brahman, the arms the
throughout the subcontinent. Their religion Kshatriya, the thighs the Vaishya and the
had a diverse pantheon: some were gods of feet the Shudra. Manu Smriti describes
nature, like, ‘vayu’ (wind god), ‘agni’ (god of their occupations as follows: Brahmans —
fire), ‘apah’ (goddess of water), ‘ushas’ (god- Vedic scholars, priests or teachers; Ksha-
dess of dawn); others were moral gods, like, triyas — rulers, administrators, warriors;
‘varuna’ (guardian of moral law), ‘mitra’ Vaishyas — agriculturists, farmers, mer-
(protector of truth, order), ‘bhaga’ (bestower chants; Shudras — artisans, labourers or
of wealth), ‘indra’ (supreme warrior, killer of servants. Those outside the pale of the
‘asura’). The gods fought their adversaries, varna system are the tribals and Dalits or
the ‘asuras’. There were elaborate rituals untouchables or outcastes. There is some
for the worship of the gods. In contrast, as evidence that in the early Vedic society
mentioned earlier, the Indus Valley people there was mobility between the Varnas. A
did not seem to have any organized religion person may move from one varna to an-
or temples. The Rigveda also contains spec- other through personal choice and conduct.
ulations about the origin of the universe, The society employed some sections of the
the gods and the humans, and about the local population (lower class, dasa/shudra)
forces that keep the world moving. The for agriculture, for washing, for pottery
Vedic religion developed into Brahmanical making and similar crafts.
orthodoxy much later. Many tribes are named in the Vedas;
The Vedic people formed a patriarchal two important tribes were the Puru and
patrilinear society (Singh, 2009) with an the Bharata. The tribes fought between
incipient class or caste structure (‘varna’), themselves over land rights and cattle and

Breakthrough, Vol.23, No. 1, March 2023 9


Series Article
water rights and also against Dasa and of pottery appeared, Painted Grey Ware
Dasyu. One important battle described in (PGW). It is possible that pottery was pro-
the Rigveda is ‘The Battle of Ten Kings’ duced not by the Aryans, but by the indige-
which may be based on a historical event. nous non-Aryan population who occupied
There were no monarchical systems, but the bottom rung of the social ladder (Avaris,
the Vedic tribes were led by chieftains 2005).
(‘rajan’) and occasional Great Chieftains. The early Vedic people could not move
The chieftains came from the high nobility, into the Gangetic plains because of the
often from the same family. The auton- thick forest cover. Only after 1200-1000
omy of the chieftains was moderated by BCE, when they acquired iron tools, did
the tribal councils. Some tribes had no the Vedic people extend their settlements to
hereditary chiefs and were directly ruled by the east into the western part of the Ganga
tribal councils. Some scholars argue that basin. Towards the end of the Vedic period
the words dasa and dasyu refer to aborig- at about 1000-600 BCE most of the settle-
inal slaves and suggest enslavement of the ments were small farming villages, though a
aboriginal prisoners of war. Others contest few emerged as relatively large settlements
this interpretation and suggest that they that can be characterised as towns. After
may represent early Indo-Aryan immigrants the Vedic period, at 600-300 BCE, we
who arrived in the subcontinent before the witness the rise of Mahajanapadas, that is,
Vedic Aryans (Singh, 2008). Later texts large kingdoms and republics. This was the
like Arthashastra, Smriti literature and period of second major urbanization in the
Mahavarata confirm the existence of slave subcontinent, the first being the IVC urban
system. However, most agree that the slave settlements.
system in India was milder than in ancient No skeleton of the Rigvedic people has
Greece. There were no slave markets and been found. Nothing is documented about
the production system was not geared to their genetic make up, but geneticists have
slave-slave master relation. It has also been made some inferences from a study of the
suggested that the Shudras in the Varna modern Indian populations.
system are akin to slaves.
After 1200 BCE the Indo-Aryan people Vedic Chronology
transitioned from semi-nomadic life to set- In view of the total absence of archeological
tled agriculture in northwestern India. The records or human fossil remains, dating
small tribal units and chieftains started the events of the Vedic period must, of
to coalesce into monarchical states or necessity, be based on indirect evidence.
Janapadas, e.g., Kuru, Panchala, Kosala, Linguistic researchers have estimated that
Videha. In this period the well-defined the Indo-Aryan language split from the
‘varna’, system emerged and the society got reconstructed Indo-Iranian root at about
stratified into four classes based on division 1800-1600 BCE. It is believed that groups
of labour, Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya of nomadic people started migrating to
and Shudra castes or social groups. Swat Valley at 1700 BCE, because in the
Archeological records show that pre-900 archeological record a change is noticed in
BCE the most common form of pottery is burial rites and ceramics (Avaris, 2005).
Ochre-Coloured Pottery (OCP). After 900 Linguists place the date of the composition
BCE when the Aryan settlements had ex- of the Rigvedic hymns at about 1500 BCE
tended into the Ganga basin, a new type and the Rigveda took its final form by about

10 Breakthrough, Vol.23, No. 1, March 2023


Series Article
1200 BCE. Many of the modern scholars 624 BCE to 400 BCE. Based on the above
are of the opinion that in the archeological considerations the general consensus on
record the gap between the late Harappan is the range in age of the Vedic period, that
not very clearly defined. On the one hand, is of the Vedic literature as a whole, is
in some regions the Late Harappan traits ca.1500-ca.600 BCE.
continue right up to the Early Vedic period,
and on the other hand ‘intrusive elements’ The other school of scholars who believe
which are ascribed to Early Indo-Aryan that the Aryans developed indigenously (au-
migration into South Asia are seen in some tochthonists) assign a much older age to
Harappan sites (Kulke and Rothermund, the Rigveda, 4000 BCE, or even 8000 BCE.
2004). Such ‘intrusive elements’ comprise However, instead of relying on scientific
new burial rites and offerings of precious methods, their conclusions are based on
items and treasure, and also the presence their belief in religious texts like the Pu-
of a new type of pottery. The Mittani doc- ranas, Mahabharata and Ramayana as his-
uments of Syria/North Iraq that mention torical documents, though the texts were
Rigvedic gods and some Old Indo-Aryan written down many centuries later. The
words are about 1400 BCE old, which fixes religious texts give the lists of kings and
the age of the Vedic civilization at about ca. genealogies and they base their time frame
1500 BCE. on the basis of number of generations
described. The autochthonists ignore the
The early Vedic period belongs to the Late linguistic data and they argue on the basis
Bronze age and corresponds to the Ochre of textual analysis of the Rigvedic texts
Coloured Pottery culture in the archeologi- and interpretation of astronomical data in
cal time scale. In Rigveda there is no men- the Rigveda, and other scriptures, like the
tion of iron. Iron makes its appearance in position of some stellar constellations or
South Asia only in 1200-1000 BCE. Hence events of solar and lunar eclipses. However,
Rigveda is earlier than this. Atharvaveda most linguists dispute their textual ana-
mentions iron, so it must be contempo- lytical interpretations as being subjective
raneous with or slightly later than 1200- and running counter to accepted linguistic
1000 BCE. The Rigveda mentions horse and procedures. As an example of astronom-
horse-drawn chariots with spoked wheels. ical events it is argued that the Rigveda
Though there is evidence of horse riding mentions vernal equinox when the sun
in North Kazakhstan as early as 3300 is in the Mrigasiras constellation, which
BCE, horse-drawn, spoked wheel chariots happened during 4500 BCE. The date of the
were invented at about 2000 BCE in South war described in Mahabharata is regarded
Russia or Mesopotamia, and therefore the by them to be 3139/3138 BCE, based on
Rigveda cannot be older than 2000 BCE.. some astronomical events described in the
Horse was unknown to the Harappan peo- book. Combining evidence from astronomy,
ple, and the Harappan carts had solid archeology and genealogies, Guha (2022)
wheels, not the spoked type. Horse bones estimated that the Mahabharata war hap-
are not found in the subcontinent before pened in 900 BCE. However, the problem
ca. 1700 BCE. Hence the Rigveda cannot with astronomical data is that the astro-
be older than this date. Buddha’s precepts nomical conclusions are based on subjec-
show that the Upanishadas precede the tive interpretation of symbolic statements
time of Buddha. The different estimates in the Rigvedic hymns or in other texts
of the date of birth of Buddha vary from and debatable identification of the stellar

Breakthrough, Vol.23, No. 1, March 2023 11


Series Article
objects. Moreover, there was no precise tribals of India possess exclusively the U2i
instrumental observation in those days and sub-signature and that the age of the sub-
the inferred positions of the constellations signature predates the postulated time-
are likely to be imprecise and are not period (4000-6000 BP) of the beginning of
suitable for precise dating. Moreover, such entry into India of migrants from Eurasia.
old age of the Rigveda would contradict The proportions of U2i and U2e in caste
other evidences mentioned earlier, such as populations are 88% and 12% respectively,
presence of the horse and several linguistic signifying that the caste populations are
data. largely indigenous but also admixed with
Eurasians.
Genetic Evidence
David Reich (2013) and his co-workers
There is no direct evidence of the genetic showed that most of the modern ethno-
make-up of the Vedic people because no linguistic groups in India descend from a
skeletal remains of these people have so mixture of two ancestral populations, ANI
far been found. However, some inferences (Ancestral North Indian) and ASI (Ances-
can be drawn from genetic studies of the tral South Indian). They called this the
present day Indian population. Early work Indian Cline. Indians speaking languages
on the genetic make-up of the present day related to the Indo-European family have
Indian population (Thangaraj et al., 2006) more ANI ancestry than those speaking
suggested on the basis of haplogroup M Dravidian languages who have more ASI
lineages that the mitochondrial DNA, which ancestry. Groups which stand higher in the
is always passed down from mothers, was caste hierarchy, e.g. Brahmins, typically
unique to the subcontinent, suggesting that have a higher proportion of ANI ancestry
on the maternal line, the Indian ancestors than the Dalits or those who are lower
had been largely isolated within the sub- in the caste hierarchy, though there are
continent for several thousand years, with- exceptions. The finding that mitochondrial
out mixing with neighbouring populations DNA, passed down along the female line, is
from west, east or north. On the contrary, unique to India suggests that the migrants
a large proportion of Y chromosomes in were mostly males and the gene flow from
the present Indian population, passed from migrants do not show up in the mitochon-
father to son, showed closer relations to drial DNA data. The mitochondrial DNA
West Eurasians (Europeans, Central Asians may have nearly all come from the ASI even
and Near Easterners). The proportion in the north, while most of the ANI genetic
of the West Eurasian-related component input came from males. Later, Narasimhan
varies from 20% t0 80%, suggesting mix- and a team of geneticists (2019) demon-
ture. Majumder (2018) showed that a strated that ANI is a mixture of IVC and
deeper insight is obtained from a larger Yamnaya Steppe-pastoralist ancestry and
data set. The haplogroup U of the female- ASI is a mixture of IVC with southeastern
lineage mitochondrial DNA that is widely groups. These researchers have estimated
prevalent in India was initially thought to a minimum of ∼55% IVC ancestry for ANI
be brought into India by migrants from and ∼70% ancestry for ASI. Therefore it
Western Eurasia. However, more exten- can be concluded that there was genetic
sive data collected later showed that the mixing of the Harappan people and the
signature U comprised two sub-signatures, Steppe pastoralists to give rise to the ANI,
U2i and U2e. It has been shown that the but at this time there was little mixing of

12 Breakthrough, Vol.23, No. 1, March 2023


Series Article

Figure 8: Migration routes of Yamnaya Pastoralists along with the strength of this ancestry in the
migrant Population. Pie charts depict the proportion of Steppe ancestry. Dates indicate age of the
earliest available ancient DNA with Steppe ancestry (after Narasimhan et al.)

the Steppe pastoralists with the ASI (Figure some tribal groups of South India. Hence
8). it can be concluded that the population
structure of India before around 4000 years
It is also interesting that Steppe ances- ago was profoundly different from what it
try is disproportionately high in present is today. During the time frame of the
day Brahmins and Bhumihars of North collapse of the IVC and composition of the
India. From detailed studies of the ge- Rigveda there was convulsive mixture of
netic structure Moorjani et al. (2013) populations. The rigid caste system and
obtained ANI-ASI mixture dates to be be- the practice of marriage within the same
tween 4000 and 2000 years ago (2050- caste have helped to preserve the genetic
50 BCE). Narasimhan and his team have signature of populations for thousands of
argued that it is plausible that formation years.
of both ANI and ASI was after the decline Therefore, the genetic evidence lends cre-
of IVC, that is between 1900-1500 BCE. dence to the view that the IVC preceded
About 17.5% of the Indian male lineage the VC and the VC is related to Aryan
belongs to haplogroup R1a; Pontic-Caspian migration. It belies the hypothesis that the
steppe is regarded to be the point of origin VC is older than or contemporaneous with
of R1a from which it spread east, west and the IVC.
south. What is significant is that neither
the 11 IVC-related outliers in the BMAC Conclusions
nor the Rakhigarhi IVC individual had any
Steppe-pastoralist derived ancestry.. There The Vedic Civilization was set up by
is very little or no Steppe ancestry in ASI. the Indo-Aryan migrants entering from
The direct descendants of ASI now live as Afghanistan and Iran. The term Indo-Aryan

Breakthrough, Vol.23, No. 1, March 2023 13


Series Article
connotes a linguistic group belonging to the sistent with the hypothesis that after the
Indo-European family which split off from peak of the Indus Valley Civilization, the
the Indo-Iranian (itself a branch off from Indo-Aryan people (with Eurasian Steppe
Proto-Indo-European) early in the second ancestry) migrated through Northwest India
millennium BCE. and intermixed with the indigenous people.
The Rigveda is the oldest surviving liter- The admixture took place between 2050
ature composed by the Aryans who had no and 50 BCE. There is no linguistic, arche-
written script. The date of composition of ological or genetic evidence in support of
the earliest part of the Rigveda is ca. 1500 the autochthonist hypothesis, or the Out-
BCE and it took its final form by about 1200 Of-India hypothesis or the hypothesis of
BCE. The range in age of the total corpus contemporaneity of the IVC and the VC.
of the Vedic literature is ca.1500-ca.600
BCE, which can be considered as the time-
span of the Vedic Age. The Vedic people References
did not build any cities which markedly 1. Avari, B. 2005. India: The Ancient Past. Rout-
differentiates it from the urban Indus Valley ledge, London
Civilization. 2. Bryant, E. F. and Patton, L. L. 2005. The Indo-
Aryan controversy. Routledge, London
There were probably several waves of
migration of the Indo-Aryan people and the 3. Dange, S.S. 2002. Zoroastrianism and Hinduism:
The RigVeda and the Avesta. In, P. Godrej and F.P.
time of the earliest migration (ca. 1700
Mistree (eds), A Zoroastrian Tapestry: Art, Religion
BCE) overlaps with the time of the Late and Culture, pp. 185—191. Mapin, Ahmedabad.
Harappan Phase of IVC. It is possible that 4. Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 2022. Indo-Aryan Lan-
the Early Vedic people and the Late Harap- guages. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Indo-
pan people interacted, but definite evidence Aryan- languages.
is lacking. A fair idea about the Vedic 5. Frawley, D. and Rajaram, N.S. 1995. Vedic
society and culture and its development Aryans and the Origins of Civilization: A Literary
may be obtained from a critical study of and Scientific Perspective, World Heritage Press,
Quebec.
the Vedic literature, but it is difficult to
assess how much the events described are 6. Guha, B. 2022. Dating the Mahabharata war —
A tale of eclipses, archaeology, and genealogies.
historical and how much mythological and https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/dating-
imaginative. the-mahabharata-war-a-tale-of-
eclipses- archaeology-and-genealogies-
There is no genetic information on the 101666958664189.html
Vedic population because of the absence of
7. Joseph, T. 2018. Early Indians: The Story of Our
skeletal material. The significant genetic Ancestors and Where We Came From. Juggernaut,
information is that in the IVC popula- New Delhi.
tion (Mature Harappan) there is no admix- 8. Kenoyer, J. M. 2005. Culture change during the
ture with Steppe Pastoralist component in Late Harappan period at Harappa: new insights
the genetic make-up, whereas the recon- on Vedic Aryan issues. In, Bryant, E. F.and Patton,
structed Ancestral North Indian component L. L., The Indo-Aryan controversy. Routledge, pp.
21-49.
of the present day Indian population has
a genetic make-up which is essentially an 9. Kenoyer, J.M., 2020. The Indus Script: Origins,
Use and Disappearance, in: Zhao, H., (Ed.), Dia-
admixture of IVC component and Steppe logue of Civilisation: Comparing Multiple Centers,
Pastoralist component; the Ancestral South Shanghai Guji Press, Shanghai, pp. 220-255.
Indian component has no Steppe Pastoral- 10. Kochhar, R. 2000. The Vedic People: Their History
ist component. The genetic data are con- and Geography. Orient Longman, Hyderabad.

14 Breakthrough, Vol.23, No. 1, March 2023


Series Article
11. Kulke, H. and Rothermund, D. 2004. A History of 18. Singh, U. 2009. A History of Ancient and Early
India, 4th Edittion. Routledge, London. Medieval India. Pearson Education India, New
12. Majumdar, P.P. 2018. Understanding the Aryan Delhi
debate : Population genetics concepts and frame- 19. Thangaraj, K. et al..2006. Origin of deep rooting
works. Current Science, Vol. 114, pp. 971-975. lineages of Mitochondrial Macrohaplo group ‘M’ in
13. Masica, C. P. 1991. The Indo-Aryan languages. India. BMC Genomics, 7 : 151
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 20. Thapar, R. 2002. Early India: From the Origins to
14. Mohan, Peggy. 2021. Wanderers, Kings, Mer- AD 1300. Allen Lane, London.
chants: The Story of India Through its Languages. 21. Witzel, M. (1995). RigVedic history: Poets, Chief-
Penguin Books, New Delhi tains and Polities. In,
15. Moorjani, P. et al. 2013. Genetic evidence for 22. G. Erdosy (ed.), The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South
recent population mixture in India. American Asia: Language, Material Culture and Ethnicity,
Journal of Human Genetics. Vol. 93, pp. 422-438. pp. 307–352. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin.
16. Narasimhan, V. M. et al. 2019. The formation 23. Witzel, M. 2001. Autochthonous Aryans. Elec-
of human populations in South and Central Asia. tronic Journal of Vedic Studies, 7-3, 1-118.
Science, 365, eaat 7487. doi: 10.11126/sci- http://www.nautilus.shore.net/∼india/ejvs
ence.aat7487. 24. Witzel, M. 2005. Indocentrism: autochthonous
17. Reich, D. 2018. Who We Are and How We Got Here. visions of ancient India, In, E. F. Bryant and L.
Oxford University Press, Oxford. L. Paton, (Ed.), The Indo-Aryan Controversy, 341-
404. Routledge, London.

Read books published by


Breakthrough Science Society

1. A BRIEF HISTORY OF SCIENCE, And its Relationship with the Development of


Productive Forces, Production Relations, and Philosophy – Rs.350/-

2. Integrating Science with Society (Proceedings of the National Conference held in


Jadavpur University, Kolkata, 15-16 December 2018) – Rs. 250/-

3. Science in Ancient India: Reality versus Myth – Rs. 60/-

4. Seminal Thoughts (A collection of historic articles by leading scientists and public


figures) – Rs. 150/-

5. Science and Society (by Prof. Sushil Kumar Mukherjee) – Rs. 125/-

6. Bibartan Juge Juge (in Bengali) – Rs. 150/-

Buy online: Visit our webpage www.breakthroughindia.org −→ ‘Publications’


−→ ‘Books’, and click on ‘Buy from BSS’.

Breakthrough, Vol.23, No. 1, March 2023 15

You might also like