Indo-Aryan peoples

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Indo-Aryan peoples refers to both the pastoralist Indo-European people migrating from Central Asia into South Asia in the second millennium BCE, introducing the Proto-Indo-Aryan language,^[1][2] as well as to contemporary Indo-European ethnolinguistic groups speaking modern Indo-Aryan languages, a subgroup of the Indo-European language family.

History[]

Archaeological cultures associated with Indo-Iranian migrations (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 result of a migration of Indo-Aryan people from Central Asia into the northern Indian subcontinent (modern-day India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, 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.^[3]

The Proto-Indo-Iranians, from which the Indo-Aryans developed, are identified with the Sintashta culture (2100–1800 BCE),^[4][5] and the Andronovo culture,^[3] which flourished ca. 1800–1400 BCE in the steppes around the Aral sea, present-day Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The proto-Indo-Aryan split off around 1800–1600 BCE from the Iranians,^[6] 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.^[7][1] 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 steppe which started in the 4th millennia BCE.^[1][8][9] 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." Diffusion of this culture and language took place by patron-client systems, which allowed for the absorption and acculturalisation of other groups into this culture, and explains the strong influence on other cultures with which it interacted.

While the Indo-Aryan linguistic group occupies mainly northern parts of India, genetically, all South Asians across the Indian subcontinent are descendants from a mix of South Asian hunter-gatherers, Iranian hunter-gatherers, and Central-Asian steppe pastoralists in varying proportion.^[10][11] Additionally, Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burmese speaking people contributed to the genetic make-up of South Asia.^[12]

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.^{[13][14][15][16][17]}

List of historical Indo-Aryan peoples[]

Contemporary Indo-Aryan peoples[]

Contemporary Indo-Aryan speaking groups

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. show   Central   Dardic   Eastern   Northern   Northwestern   Southern   Western
Total population
~1.5 billion[citation needed]
Regions with significant populations
India	over 911 million[18]
Pakistan	over 233 million[19]
Bangladesh	over 160 million[20]
Nepal	over 26 million
Sri Lanka	over 14 million
Myanmar	over 1 million
Mauritius	over 725,400
Maldives	over 300,000[21]
Bhutan	over 240,000
Languages
Indo-Aryan languages
Religion
Indian religions (Mostly Hindu; with Buddhist, Sikh and Jain minorities) and Islam, Christians and some non-religious atheist/agnostic

See also[]

References[]

Citations[]

Sources[]

External links[]

• Horseplay at Harappa - People Fas Harvard - Harvard University
• A tale of two horses - Frontline