Indo-Aryan migration

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Models of the Indo-Aryan migration discusses scenarios of prehistoric migrations of the early Indo-Aryans to their historically attested areas of settlement (North India). The Indo-Aryans derive from an earlier Proto-Indo-Iranian stage, usually identified with the Bronze Age Andronovo culture at the Caspian Sea. Their migration to and within Northern India has been theorized to have taken place in the Middle to Late Bronze Age, contemporary to the Late Harappan phase in India (ca. 1700 to 1300 B.C.E.).

Background

Linguistics

The linguistic center of gravity principle states that a language family's most likely point of origin lay in the area of its greatest diversity. By that hypothesis, India, home to only a single branch of the Indo-European language family (i.e. Indo-Aryan), appears an exceedingly unlikely candidate for the Indo-European homeland. Central-Eastern Europe, on the other hand, serves as home to the Italic, Venetic, Illyrian, Germanic, Baltic, Slavic, Thracian, and Greek branches of Indo-European. Both mainstream Urheimat solutions locate the Indo-European homeland in the vicinity of the Black Sea.

Dialectical variation

A binary tree model fails to capture all linguistic alignments. Certain areal features cut across language groups and a model treating linguistic change like waves rippling out through a pond better explains the phenomena. That holds true of the Indo-European languages as well. A close relationship between the dialectical relationship of the Indo-European languages and the actual geographical arrangement of the languages in their earliest attested forms that makes an Indian origin for the family unlikely.

Movement of Indo-Aryan peoples

The vast majority of the professional archaeologists in India insist that no convincing archaeological evidence exists to support claims of external Indo-Aryan origins. The Andronovo, BMAC and Yaz cultures have often been associated with Indo-Iranian migrations. The Gandhara Grave (GGC), Cemetery H, Copper Hoard and Painted Grey Ware (PGW) cultures stand as candidates for cultures associated with Indo-Aryan movements.

The Indo-Aryan migration dates from before the Mature Harappan culture. The arrival of Indo-Aryans in the Indian subcontinent dates to the Late Harappan period. Based on linguistic data, many scholars argue that the Indo-Aryan languages arrived in India in the 2nd millennium B.C.E. The standard model for the entry of the Indo-European languages into India maintains that the first wave went over the Hindu Kush, forming the Gandhara grave (or Swat) culture, either into the headwaters of the Indus or the Ganges (probably both). The language of the Rigveda, the earliest stratum of Vedic Sanskrit falls between 1500-1200 B.C.E.

The separation of Indo-Aryans proper from Proto-Indo-Iranians has been dated to roughly 2000–1800 B.C.E. Indian Archaeologists offer that the Indo-Aryans reached Assyria in the west and the Punjab in the east before 1500 B.C.E. The Indo-Aryan Mitanni rulers appear from 1500 B.C.E. in northern Mesopotamia, and the Gandhara grave culture emerges from 1600. That suggests that Indo-Aryan tribes would have had to be present in the area of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (southern Turkmenistan/northern Afghanistan) from 1700 B.C.E. at the latest (incidentally corresponding with the decline of that culture).

The Gandhara grave culture stands as the most likely locus of the earliest Indo-European presence east of the Hindu Kush of the bearers of Rigvedic culture. Three waves of Indo-Aryan immigration occurred after the mature Harappan phase. First, the Murghamu (BMAC) related people who entered Baluchistan at Pirak, Mehrgarh south cemetery and later merged with the post-urban Harappans during the late Harappans Jhukar phase. Second, the Swat IV that co-founded the Harappan Cemetery H phase in Punjab. And third, the Rigvedic Indo-Aryans of Swat V who absorbed the Cemetery H people, giving rise to the Painted Grey Ware culture. The first two to 2000-1800 B.C.E. and the third to 1400 B.C.E.Kochhar (2000:185–186)

Andronovo

early 2nd millennium introduction of the chariot to India corresponds with the overall picture of the spread of this innovation (Mesopotamia 1700, China 1600, N Europe 1300).

The conventional identification of the Andronovo culture as Indo-Iranian has been disputed by those who point to the absence south of the Oxus River of the characteristic timber graves of the steppe. Based on its use by Indo-Aryans in Mitanni and Vedic India, its prior absence in the Near East and Harappan India, and its 16th–17th century B.C.E. attestation at the Andronovo site of Sintashta, Kuzmina (1994) argues that the chariot corroborates the identification of Andronovo as Indo-Iranian.

Indo-European isoglosses, including the centum and satem languages (blue and red, respectively), augment, PIE *-tt- > -ss-, *-tt- > -st-, and m-endings.

Archaeological cultures associated with Indo-Iranian migrations (after EIEC).

Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC)

A movement of peoples from Central Asia to the south may explain the characteristically BMAC artifacts found at burials in Mehrgarh and Baluchistan. The exclusively Central Asian BMAC material inventory of the Mehrgarh and Baluchistan burials evidence that people migrated from Central Asia at the time Indo-Aryans arrive. Bryant (2001:215)

Indus Valley Civilization

Indo-Aryan migration into the northern Punjab happened about the same time as the final phase of the decline of the Indus-Valley civilization (IVC). The historical Vedic culture may have resulted from an amalgamation of the immigrating Indo-Aryans with the remnants of the indigenous civilization, such as the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture. Some scholars have questioned the arrival of the Indo-Aryan as the cause for the end of the Indus Valley Civiliation.

Gandhara grave culture

About 1800 B.C.E., a major cultural change in the Swat Valley appeared with the emergence of the Gandhara grave culture. With its introduction of new ceramics, new burial rites, and the horse, the Gandhara grave culture became a major candidate for early Indo-Aryan presence. The two new burial rites—flexed inhumation in a pit and cremation burial in an urn—were, according to early Vedic literature, both practiced in early Indo-Aryan society. Horse-trappings indicate the importance of the horse to the economy of the Gandharan grave culture. Two horse burials indicate the importance of the horse in other respects. Horse burial is a custom that Gandharan grave culture has in common with Andronovo, though not within the distinctive timber-frame graves of the steppe.

Physical anthropology

The diversion of Haplogroup F and its descendants.

Clustering analysis from Rosenberg (2006), shows no distinctive genetic cluster compositions among Indo-Aryan populations in India, though there is a slight change in the specific Indo-Aryan populations of the Punjab, Sindh and Kashmir regions located in the north-west of South Asia.

Distribution of R1a (purple) and R1b (red)

Kenneth A.R. Kennedy, a U.S. expert who has extensively studied such skeletal remains, observes, "Biological anthropologists remain unable to lend support to any of the theories concerning an Aryan biological or demographic entity."

The spread of the Indo-European languages has been associated with Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a1, identified with genetic marker M17. conducted by the National Geographic Society states that M17 arose "in the region of present-day Ukraine or southern Russia."

Textual references

Mitanni

The earliest written evidence for an Indo-Aryan language appeared not in India but, rather, in northern Syria in Hittite records regarding one of their neighbors, the Hurrian-speaking Mitanni. In a treaty with the Hittites, the king of Mitanni, after swearing by a series of Hurrian gods, swears by the gods Mitrašil, Uruvanaššil, Indara, and Našatianna, who correspond to the Vedic gods Mitra, Varuṇa, Indra, and Nāsatya.

Contemporary equestrian terminology, as recorded in a horse-training manual, author identified as "Kikkuli the Mitannian," contains Indo-Aryan loanwords. The personal names and gods of the Mitanni aristocracy also bear traces of Indo-Aryan. Because of that association of Indo-Aryan with horsemanship and the Mitanni aristocracy, the Indo-Aryan charioteers may have been absorbed into the local population and adopted the Hurrian language.

The possibility that the Indo-Aryans of Mitanni came from the Indian subcontinent, as well as the possibility that the Indo-Aryans of the Indian subcontinent came from the territory of Mitanni, has been questioned. That leaves migration from the north the only likely scenario.

Indra in particular is described as destroyer of fortifications, e.g. RV 4.30.20ab:

satám asmanmáyinaam / purām índro ví asiyat

"Indra overthrew a hundred fortresses of stone."

However, according to Gupta (as quoted in Bryant 2001:190), "ancient civilizations had both the components, the village and the city, and numerically villages were many times more than the cities. (...) if the Vedic literature reflects primarily the village life and not the urban life, it does not at all surprise us.." Gregory Possehl (as cited in Bryant 2001:195) argued that the "extraordinary empty spaces between the Harappan settlement clusters" indicates that pastoralists may have "formed the bulk of the population during Harappan times." The Rigveda is seen by some as containing phrases referring to elements of an urban civilization, other than the mere viewpoint of an invader aiming at sacking the fortresses. For example, Indra is compared to the lord of a fortification (pūrpatis) in RV 1.173.10, while quotations such as a ship with a hundred oars in 1.116 and metal forts (puras ayasis) in 10.101.8 all occur in mythological contexts only.

Rigvedic reference to migration

There is no explicit mention of an outward or inward migration in the Rigveda. Kazanas interpretes a mythological passage, RV 7.6.3, as: Agni turned the godless and the Dasyus westward, and not southward, as would be required by some versions of the AIT. Talageri speculates that some of the tribes that fought against Sudas on the banks of the Parusni River during the Dasarajna battle have maybe migrated to western countries in later times, as they are possibly connected with some Iranian peoples (e.g. the Pakthas, Bhalanas).

Just like the Avesta does not mention an external homeland of the Zoroastrians, the Rigveda does not explicitly refer to an external homeland or to a migration. Later texts than the Rigveda (such as the Brahmanas, the Mahabharata, Ramayana and the Puranas) are more centered in the Ganges region. This shift from the Punjab to the Gangetic plain continues the Rigvedic tendency of eastward expansion, but does of course not imply an origin beyond the Indus watershed. However, the Rigveda contains names (such as Rasa/Raha, Sarayu/Haroyu) that represent memories of the Volga, as well as the Pani (Parni) tribe and the Herat Rivers in western Afghanistan.

Rigvedic Rivers and Reference of Samudra

Cluster of Indus Valley Civilization site along the possible course of Sarasvati/Ghaggar-Hakra River. See this for a more detailed map.

The geography of the Rigveda seems to be centered around the land of the seven rivers. While the geography of the Rigvedic rivers is unclear in the early mandalas, the Nadistuti hymn is an important source for the geography of late Rigvedic society.

The Sarasvati River is one of the chief Rigvedic rivers. The Nadistuti hymn in the Rigveda mentions the Sarasvati between the Yamuna in the east and the Sutlej in the west, and later texts like the Brahmanas and Mahabharata mention that the Sarasvati dried up in a desert.

Most scholars agree that at least some of the references to the Sarasvati in the Rigveda refer to the Ghaggar-Hakra River, while the Afghan river Helmand is sometimes quoted as the locus of the early Rigvedic river. Whether such a transfer of the name has taken place, either from the Helmand to the Ghaggar-Hakra, and the or conversely from the Ghaggar-Hakra to the Helmand, is a matter of dispute. Identification of the early Rigvedic Sarasvati with the Ghaggar-Hakra before its assumed drying up would place the Rigveda well before 1700 B.C.E., and thus well outside the range commonly assumed by Indo-Aryan migration theory.

A non-Indo-Aryan substratum in the river-names and place-names of the Rigvedic homeland would support an external origin of the Indo-Aryans. However, most place-names in the Rigveda and the vast majority of the river-names in the north-west of India are Indo-Aryan. They are, however, frequent in the Ghaggar and Kabul River areas, the first being a post-Harappan stronghold of Indus populations.

Iranian Avesta

The religious practices depicted in the Rgveda and those depicted in the Avesta, the central religious text of Zoroastrianism—the ancient Iranian faith founded by the prophet Zarathustra—have in common the deity Mitra, priests called hotṛ in the Rgveda and zaotar in the Avesta, and the use of a hallucinogenic compound that the Rgveda calls soma and the Avesta haoma. However, the Indo-Aryan deva 'god' is cognate with the Iranian daēva 'demon'. Similarly, the Indo-Aryan asura 'name of a particular group of gods' (later on, 'demon') is cognate with the Iranian ahura 'lord, god,' which older authors such as Burrow explained as a reflection of religious rivalry between Indo-Aryans and Iranians.

Two alternative dates for Zarathustra can be found in Greek sources: 5000 years before the Trojan War, i.e. 6000 B.C.E., or 258 years before Alexander, i.e. the 6th century B.C.E., the latter of which used to provide the conventional dating but has since been traced to a fictional Greek source. Most linguists such as Burrow argue that the strong similarity between the Avestan language of the Gāthās—the oldest part of the Avesta—and the Vedic Sanskrit of the Rgveda pushes the dating of Zarathustra or at least the Gathas closer to the conventional Rgveda dating of 1500–1200 B.C.E., i.e. 1100 B.C.E., possibly earlier. Boyce concurs with a lower date of 1100 B.C.E. and tentatively proposes an upper date of 1500 B.C.E. Gnoli dates the Gathas to around 1000 B.C.E., as does Mallory (1989), with the caveat of a 400 year leeway on either side, i.e. between 1400 and 600 B.C.E. Therefore the date of the Avesta could also indicate the date of the Rigveda.

There is mention in the Avesta of Airyanəm Vaējah, one of the '16 the lands of the Aryans' as well as Zarathustra himself. Gnoli's interpretation of geographic references in the Avesta situates the Airyanem Vaejah in the Hindu Kush. For similar reasons, Boyce excludes places north of the Syr Darya and western Iranian places. With some reservations, Skjaervo concurs that the evidence of the Avestan texts makes it impossible to avoid the conclusion that they were composed somewhere in northeastern Iran. Witzel points to the central Afghan highlands. Humbach derives Vaējah from cognates of the Vedic root "vij," suggesting the region of a fast-flowing river. Gnoli considers Choresmia (Xvairizem), the lower Oxus region, south of the Aral Sea to be an outlying area in the Avestan world. However, according to Mallory & Mair (2000), the probable homeland of Avestan is, in fact, the area south of the Aral Sea.

Other Hindu texts

Some Indologists have noted that "there is no textual evidence in the early literary traditions unambiguously showing a trace" of an Indo-Aryan migration. Texts like the Puranas and Mahabharata belong to a later period than the Rigveda, making their evidence less than sufficient to be used for or against the Indo-Aryan migration theory.

Later Vedic texts show a shift of location from the Panjab to the East: according to the Yajur Veda, Yajnavalkya (one of the Vedic Seers) lived in the eastern region of Mithila. Aitareya Brahmana 33.6.1. records that Vishvamitra's sons migrated to the north, and in Shatapatha Brahmana 1:2:4:10 the Asuras were driven to the north. In still later texts, Manu was said to be a king from Dravida. In the legend of the flood he stranded with his ship in Northwestern India or the Himalayas. The Vedic land (e.g. Aryavarta, Brahmavarta) is located in Northern India or at the Sarasvati and Drsadvati River, according to Hindu texts. In the Mahabharata Udyoga Parva (108), the East is described as the homeland of the Vedic culture, where "the divine Creator of the universe first sang the Vedas." The legends of Ikshvaku, Sumati and other Hindu legends may have their origin in South-East Asia.

Puranas

The evidence from the Puranas is often disputed because they are a comparably late text. They are often dated from c.400 to c.1000 C.E. The Rgveda dates from before 1200 B.C.E. Thus the Rgveda and the Puranas are separated by approximately 1600 to 2200 years, though scholars argue that some contents of the Puranas may date to an earlier period.

The Puranas record that Yayati left Prayag (confluence of Ganga & Yamuna) and conquered the region of Saptha Sindhu. His five sons Yadu, Druhyu, Puru, Anu and Turvashu became the main tribes of the Rigveda.

The Puranas also record that the Druhyus were driven out of the land of the seven rivers by Mandhatr and that their next king Ghandara settled in a north-western region which became known as Gandhara. The sons of the later Druhyu king Pracetas are supposed by some to have migrated to the region north of Afghanistan. This migration is recorded in several Puranas.

Vedic and Puranic genealogies

The Vedic and Puranic genealogies indicate a greater antiquity of the Vedic culture. The Puranas themselves state that these lists are incomplete. But the accuracy of these lists is disputed. In Arrian's Indica, Megasthenes is quoted as stating that the Indians counted from Shiva (Dionysos) to Chandragupta Maurya (Sandracottus) "a hundred and fifty-three kings over six thousand and forty-three years." The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad (4.6.), ca. 8th century B.C.E., mentions 57 links in the Guru-Parampara ("succession of teachers"). This would mean that this Guru-Parampara would go back about 1400 years, although the accuracy of this list is disputed. as student-teacher generations do not correspond to normal father-son generations of 20/30 years. The list of kings in Kalhana's Rajatarangini goes back to the 19th century B.C.E.

History and political background

In the earliest phase of Indo-European studies, Sanskrit was assumed to be very close to (if not identical with) hypothetical Proto-Indo-European language. Its geographical location also fitted the then-dominant Biblical model of human migration, according to which Europeans were descended from the tribe of Japhet, which was supposed to have expanded from Mount Ararat after the Flood. Iran and northern India seemed to be likely early areas of settlement for the Japhetites.

In the course of the 19th century, as the field of historical linguistics progressed, and Bible-based models of history were abandoned, it became clear that Sanskrit could no longer be given priority. In line with mid to late 19th century ideas, an Aryan 'invasion' was made the vehicle of the language transfer. Max Muller estimated the date to be around 1500–1200 B.C.E., a date also supported by more recent scholars.

The Indus Valley civilization, discovered in the 1920s, was unknown to 19th century scholars. The discovery of the Harappa and Mohenjo-daro sites changed the theory from an invasion of implicitly advanced Aryan people on an aboriginal population to an invasion of nomadic barbarians on an advanced urban civilization, an argument associated with the mid-20th century archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler. The decline roughly contemporaneous to the proposed migration movement was seen initially as an independent confirmation of these early suggestions.

Among the archaeological signs claimed by Wheeler to support the theory of an invasion are the many unburied corpses found in the top levels of Mohenjo-daro. They were interpreted by Wheeler as victims of a conquest of the city, but Wheeler's interpretation is no longer accepted by many scholars. Wheeler himself expressed no certainty, but wrote, in a famous phrase, that "Indra stands accused."

In the later 20th century, ideas were refined, and so now migration and acculturation are seen as the methods whereby Indo-Aryan spread into northwest India around 1700 B.C.E. These changes are exactly in line with changes in thinking about language transfer in general, such as the migration of the Greeks into Greece (between 2100 and 1600 B.C.E.), or the Indo-Europeanization of Western Europe (between 2200 and 1300 B.C.E.).

Political debate and implications

The debate over such a migration, and the accompanying influx of elements of Vedic religion from Central Asia is politically charged and hotly debated in India. Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) organizations, especially, mostly remain opposed to the concept. Outside India, the perceived political overtones of the theory are not pronounced, and it is discussed in the larger framework of Indo-Iranian and Indo-European expansion.

Even though it lies outside the mainstream academic consensus, an "Indian Urheimat" has its proponents, such as Elst (1999) and Kazanas (2001, 2002). "Out of India" scenarios locating the Indo-European homeland on the Indian subcontinent have had some currency in Hindu nationalism since the 2000s, but found no support in the academic community.

See also

Aryan Kurgan

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

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External links

• The Myth of Aryan Invasion Theory. Retrieved July 7, 2008.
• Famous Personalities on Aryan Invasion Theory. Retrieved July 7, 2008.
• Witzel, Michael: The Home of the Aryans. Retrieved July 7, 2008.
• `What is Aryan Migration Theory ?' by Vishal Agrawal. Retrieved July 7, 2008.
• Agarwal, Vishal: Is There Vedic Evidence for the Indo-Aryan Immigration to India? (pdf). Retrieved July 7, 2008.
• Thapar, Romila: The Aryan question revisited (1999). Retrieved July 7, 2008.
• Kazanas, Nicholas homepage Articles by Nicholas Kazanas. Retrieved July 7, 2008.
• Elst, Koenraad: Update on the Aryan Invasion Theory - K. Elst's Online book, Articles, Book reviews. Retrieved July 7, 2008.

Archaeology

• Cache of Seal Impressions Discovered in Western India. Retrieved July 7, 2008.
• Central Asia 2000-1000B.C.E. (Metmuseum.org). Retrieved July 7, 2008.
• Lal, B.B.: The Homeland of Indo-European Languages and Culture: Some Thoughts By Archaeologist B.B. Lal. Retrieved July 7, 2008.
• Danino, Michel: The Indus-Sarasvati Civilization and its Bearing on the Aryan Question Article by Michel Danino. Retrieved July 7, 2008.
• Agrawal, D.P.: The Indus Civilization = Aryans equation: Is it really a Problem? By D.P. Agrawal (pdf). Retrieved July 7, 2008.

Genetics

• Genetic Evidence on the origins of Indian Caste Population, Genome Research, 2001. Retrieved July 7, 2008.
• A prehistory of Indian Y chromosomes: Evaluating demic diffusion scenarios, PNAS paper, 2006. Retrieved July 7, 2008.

Religious and political aspects

• Frawley, David: The Myth of the Aryan Invasion. Retrieved July 7, 2008.

Credits

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