Indo-Aryan migrations: Difference between revisions

The '''Indo-Aryan migrations'''{{refn|group=note|The term "invasion", while it was once commonly used in regard to Indo-Aryan migration, is now usually used only by opponents of the Indo-Aryan migration theory.{{sfn|Witzel|2005|p=348}} The term "invasion" does not any longer reflect the scholarly understanding of the Indo-Aryan migrations,{{sfn|Witzel|2005|p=348}} and is now generally regarded as polemical, distracting and unscholarly.}} were the migrations into the [[Indian subcontinent]] of [[Indo-Aryan peoples]], an [[ethnolinguistic group]] that spoke [[Indo-Aryan languages]], the predominant languages of today's [[North India]], [[Pakistan]], [[Nepal]], [[Bangladesh]], [[Sri Lanka]] and [[the Maldives]]. Indo-Aryan population movements into the region from [[Central Asia]] are considered to have started after 2000 BCE, as a slow diffusion during the [[Indus Valley Civilisation#Late Harappan|Late Harappan]] period, which led to a [[language shift]] in the northern Indian subcontinent. Several hundreds year later, the [[Iranian languages]] were brought into the [[Iranian plateau]] by the Iranians, who were closely related to the Indo-Aryans.

The [[Indo-Iranians|Proto-Indo-Iranian]] culture, which gave rise to the [[Indo-Aryan peoples|Indo-Aryans]] and Iranians, developed on the [[Eurasian Steppe#Central Steppe|Central Asian steppes]] north of the [[Caspian Sea]] as the [[Sintashta culture]] (2050<ref>Lindner, Stephan, (2020). [https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/C4FDF8C5E7D1D20A28BEB7F6C50A9AF4/S0003598X2000037Xa.pdf/chariots_in_the_eurasian_steppe_a_bayesian_approach_to_the_emergence_of_horsedrawn_transport_in_the_early_second_millennium_bc.pdf "Chariots in the Eurasian Steppe: a Bayesian approach to the emergence of horse-drawn transport in the early second millennium BC"], in Antiquity, Vol 94, Issue 374, April 2020, p. 367: "...The 12 calibrated radiocarbon dates belonging to the Sintashta horizon range between 2050 and 1760 cal BC (at 95.4% confidence; Epimakhov & Krause 2013: 137). These dates correlate well with the seven AMS-sampled Sintashta graves in the associated KA-5cemetery, which date to 2040–1730 cal BC (95.4% confidence...)".</ref>–1800 BCE){{sfn|Witzel|2003}}{{sfn|Anthony|2007|pp=390 (fig. 15.9), 405–411}}{{sfn|Kuz'mina|2007|p=222}}{{sfn|Parpola|2015}} in present-day Russia and Kazakhstan, and developed further as the [[Andronovo culture]] (2000–1450 BCE).<ref name="Grigoriev">Grigoriev, Stanislav, (2021). [https://www.academia.edu/45686126/Andronovo%20Problem%20Studies%20of%20Cultural%20Genesis%20in%20the%20Eurasian%20Bronze%20Age "Andronovo Problem: Studies of Cultural Genesis in the Eurasian Bronze Age"], in Open Archaeology 2021 (7), '''p.3:''' "...By Andronovo cultures we may understand only Fyodorovka and Alakul cultures..."</ref><ref name="Parpola">Parpola, Asko, (2020). [https://journal.fi/store/article/view/98032 "Royal 'Chariot' Burials of Sanauli near Delhi and Archaeological Correlates of Prehistoric Indo-Iranian Languages"], in Studia Orientalia Electronica, Vol. 8, No. 1, Oct 23, 2020, '''p.188''': "...the Alakul’ culture (c.2000–1700 BCE) in the west and the Fëdorovo culture(c.1850–1450 BCE) in the east..."</ref>

The Indo-Aryans split off sometime between 2000 BCE and 1600 BCE from the Indo-Iranians,<ref name="Lubotsky">Lubotsky, Alexander (2020). [https://www.academia.edu/44087441/What_language_was_spoken_by_the_people_of_the_Bactria_Margiana_Archaeological_Complex "What language was spoken by the people of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex?"], in Paul W. Kroll and Jonathan A. Silk (eds.), ''{{'}}At the Shores of the Sky': Asian Studies for Albert Hoffstädt'', Brill, Leiden/Boston, p. 6: "The breakdown of the Indo-Iranian branch into Indian and Iranian occurred somewhere between 2000 and 1600 bce, when future Indians left their tribesmen and crossed the Hindu Kush on their way to India..."</ref> and migrated southwards to the [[Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex|Bactria–Margiana Culture]] (BMAC), from which they borrowed some of their distinctive religious beliefs and practices. From the BMAC, the Indo-Aryans migrated into northern Syria and, possibly in multiple waves, into the [[Punjab]] (northern Pakistan and India), while the Iranians could have reached western Iran before 1300 BCE,<ref>Gopnik, Hilary, (2017). [https://www.academia.edu/34285360/The%20Median%20Confederacy "The Median Confederacy"], in Touraj Daryaee (ed.), ''King of the Seven Climes: A History of the Ancient Iranian World (3000 BCE - 651 CE)'', Ancient Iran Series, Vol. IV, UCI-Jordan Center for Persian Studies, '''p. 40:''' "...We can say for certain that the neighboring Assyrians recognized a group of people that they identified as coming from the “land of the Medes” (māt madayya) as early as the reign of Shalmaneser III (858–824 BCE), and it is almost certain that Indo-Iranian-speaking peoples had settled in Western Iran at least some 500 years —if not 1,000 years—earlier than this..."</ref> both bringing with them the [[Indo-Iranian languages]].

Eastward emerged the [[Sintashta culture]] (2050–1900 BCE), where common Indo-Iranian was spoken.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=408}} Out of the Sintashta culture developed the [[Andronovo culture]] (2000–1450 BCE), which interacted with the [[Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex|Bactria-Margiana Culture]] (2250–1700 BCE). This interaction further shaped the Indo-Iranians, which split at sometime between 2000 and 1600 BCE into the Indo-Aryans and the Iranians.<ref name="Lubotsky" /> The Indo-Aryans migrated to the Levant and [[South Asia]].{{sfn|Beckwith|2009}} The migration into northern India was not a large-scale immigration, but may have consisted of small groups{{sfn|Witzel|2005|pp=342–343}}{{refn|group=note|Michael Witzel: "Just one 'Afghan' IA tribe that did not return to the highlands but stayed in their Panjab winter quarters in spring was needed to set off a wave of acculturation in the plains, by transmitting its 'status kit' (Ehret) to its neighbors."{{sfn|Witzel|2005|pp=342–343}}<p>Compare Max Muller: "why should not one shepherd, with his servants and flocks, have transferred his peculiar dialect from one part of Asia or Europe to another? This may seem a very humble and modest view of what was formerly represented as the irresistible stream of mighty waves rolling forth from the Aryan centre and gradually overflowing the mountains and valleys of Asia and Europe, but it is, at all events, a possible view; nay, I should say a view far more in keeping with what we know of recent colonisation."{{sfn|Muller|1988|p=91}}}} which were genetically diverse.{{clarify|date=August 2020}} Their culture and language spread by the same mechanisms of acculturalisation, and the absorption of other groups into their patron-client system.{{sfn|Anthony|2007}}

According to Joseph Salmons, language shift is facilitated by "dislocation" of language communities, in which the elite is taken over.{{sfn|Salmons|2015|p=118}} According to Salmons, this change is facilitated by "systematic changes in community structure", in which a local community becomes incorporated in a larger social structure.{{sfn|Salmons|2015|p=118}}{{refn|group=note|name="dislocation"}}

While Reich notes that the onset of admixture coincides with the arrival of Indo-European language,<ref group=web name="Reich-interview" /> according to Moorjani et al. (2013) these groups were present "unmixed" in India before the Indo-Aryan migrations.{{sfn|Moorjani et al.|2013}} Gallego Romero et al. (2011) propose that the ANI component came from Iran and the Middle East,{{sfn|Gallego Romero|2011|p=9}} less than 10,000 years ago,<ref group=web name="ScienceLife2011" />{{refn|group=note|name="Dravidian"}} while according to Lazaridis et al. (2016) ANI is a mix of "early farmers of western Iran" and "people of the Bronze Age Eurasian steppe".{{sfn|Lazaridis et al.|2016}} Several studies also show traces of later influxes of maternal genetic material{{sfn|Kivisild et al.|1999}}<ref group=web name="Kivisild2000" /> and of paternal genetic material related to ANI and possibly the Indo-Europeans.{{sfn|Reich et al.|2009}}{{sfn|Jones|2016}}{{sfn|Basu et al.|2016}}

The oldest inscription{{When|date=August 2020}} in Old Indic is found in northern Syria in [[Hittites|Hittite]] records regarding the [[Hurrians|Hurrian]]-speaking Mitanni.{{sfn|Mallory|Mair|2000}}{{sfn|Mallory|1989}} The religious practices depicted in the ''Rigveda'' and those depicted in the ''[[Avesta]]'', the central religious text of [[Zoroastrianism]], show similarities.{{sfn|Mallory|1989}} Some of the references to the Sarasvati in the Rigveda refer to the [[Ghaggar-Hakra River]],<ref name="Ancient Indian Geography p.590">"Encyclopaedia of Ancient Indian Geography, Volume 2", by Subodh Kapoor, p.590</ref> while the Afghan river Haraxvaiti/Harauvati [[Helmand River|Helmand]] is sometimes quoted as the locus of the early Rigvedic river.<ref name="Vedas p. 7">"Discovering the Vedas: Origins, Mantras, Rituals, Insights", p. 7, by Frits Staal</ref>{{Context inline|date=August 2020}} The Rigveda does not explicitly refer to an external homeland{{sfn|Majumdar|Pusalker|1951|p=220}} or to a migration,{{sfn|Cardona|2002|pp=33–35}} but later Vedic and Puranic texts do show the movement into the Gangetic plains.{{Citation needed|date=May 2019}}

In the 16th century, European visitors to India became aware of similarities between Indian and European languages<ref name="auroux">{{cite book |first=Sylvain |last=Auroux |title=History of the Language Sciences |page=1156 |isbn=3-11-016735-2 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |location=Berlin, New York |year=2000 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yasNy365EywC&q=3110167352&pg=PA1156}}</ref> and as early as 1653 [[Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn|Van Boxhorn]] had published a proposal for a [[proto-language]] ("Scythian") for [[Germanic languages|Germanic]], [[Romance languages|Romance]], [[Hellenic languages|Greek]], [[Baltic languages|Baltic]], [[Slavic languages|Slavic]], [[Celtic languages|Celtic]] and [[Indo-Iranian language|Iranian]].<ref name=Blench>Roger Blench [http://www.ulb.ac.be/socio/anthropo/CH4-BLENCH.pdf Archaeology and Language: methods and issues]. In: ''A Companion To Archaeology''. J. Bintliff ed. 52–74. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 2004.</ref>

{{quote|The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists: there is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both the Gothic and the Celtic, though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanskrit; and the old Persian might be added to the same family, if this were the place for discussing any question concerning the antiquities of Persia.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=7}}<ref group=web>[http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/general/histling.html Jonathan Slocum, ''What is Historical Linguistics? What are 'Indo-European' Languages?'', The University of Texas at Austin] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071030105123/http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/general/histling.html |date=30 October 2007 }}</ref>}}

Scholars assume a homeland either in central Asia or in Western Asia, and [[Sanskrit]] must in this case have reached India by a language transfer from west to east.{{sfn|Senthil Kumar|2012|p=123}}<ref name="JH" /> In 19th century [[Indo-European studies]], the language of the [[Rigveda]] was the most archaic Indo-European language known to scholars, indeed the only records of Indo-European that could reasonably claim to date to the [[Bronze Age]]. This primacy of Sanskrit inspired scholars such as [[Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel|Friedrich Schlegel]], to assume that the locus of the [[proto-Indo-European homeland]] had been in India, with the other dialects spread to the west by historical migration. {{sfn|Senthil Kumar|2012|p=123}}<ref name="JH" />

[[Herbert Hope Risley#Ethnographic Survey of Bengal: 1885–1891|Herbert Hope Risley]] expanded on Müller's two-race Indo-European speaking Aryan invasion theory, concluding that the caste system was a remnant of the Indo-Aryans domination of the native Dravidians, with observable variations in phenotypes between hereditary, race based, castes.<ref name="Trautmann2006p203">{{harvnb|Trautmann|2006|p=203}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=The Study of Ethnology in India |first=Herbert Hope |last=Risley |journal=The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland |volume=20 |year=1891 |publisher=Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland |jstor=2842267 |page=253 }}</ref> [[Thomas Trautmann]] explains that Risley "found a direct relation between the proportion of Aryan blood and the nasal index, along a gradient from the highest castes to the lowest. This assimilation of caste to race proved very influential."{{sfn|Trautmann|2006|page=183}}

This possibility was for a short time seen as a hostile invasion into northern India. The [[Indus Valley Civilisation#Late Harappan|decline]] of the [[Indus Valley Civilisation]] at precisely the period in history in which the Indo-Aryan migrations probably took place, seemed to provide independent support of such an invasion. This argument was proposed by the mid-20th century archaeologist [[Mortimer Wheeler]], who interpreted the presence of many unburied corpses found in the top levels of Mohenjo-daro as the victims of conquest wars, and who famously stated that the god "[[Indra]] stands accused" of the destruction of the Civilisation.<ref name="GLP" />

This position was discarded after finding no evidence of wars. The skeletons were found to be hasty interments, not massacred victims.<ref name="GLP">{{citation |title=The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective |author = Gregory L. Possehl |publisher=Rowman Altamira |year=2002 |isbn=9780759101722| page = 238}}</ref> Wheeler himself also nuanced this interpretation in later publications, stating "This is a possibility, but it can't be proven, and it may not be correct."{{sfn|Wheeler|1967|p=76}} Wheeler further notes that the unburied corpses may indicate an event in the final phase of human occupation of Mohenjo-Daro, and that thereafter the place was uninhabited, but that the decay of Mohenjo-Daro has to be ascribed to structural causes such as salinisation.{{sfn|Wheeler|1967|pp=82–83}}

{{quote|The theory of an immigration of IA speaking Arya ("Aryan invasion") is simply seen as a means of British policy to justify their own intrusion into India and their subsequent colonial rule: in both cases, a "white race" was seen as subduing the local darker colored population.{{sfn|Witzel|2005|p=348}}}}

{{quote|...it has been supplanted by much more sophisticated models over the past few decades [...] philologists first, and archaeologists somewhat later, noticed certain inconsistencies in the older theory and tried to find new explanations, a new version of the immigration theories.{{sfn|Witzel|2005|p=348}}{{refn|group=note|Michael Witzel: "In these views, though often for quite different reasons, any immigration or trickling in – nearly always called "invasion" – of the (Indo-)Aryans into the subcontinent is suspect or simply denied. The [[Arya]] of the Rigveda are supposed to be just another tribe or group of tribes that have always been resident in India, next to Dravidians, Mundas, etc. The theory of an immigration of IA speaking Arya ("Aryan invasion") is simply seen as a means of British policy to justify their own intrusion into India and their subsequent colonial rule: in both cases, a "white race" was seen as subduing the local darker colored population.<br />However, present (European, American, Japanese, etc.) Indologists do not maintain anything like this now [...] While the "invasion model" was still prominent in the work of archaeologists such as Wheeler (1966: "Indra stands accused"), it has been supplanted by much more sophisticated models over the past few decades (see Kuiper 1955 sqq.; Thapar 1968; Witzel 1995). This development has not occurred because Indologists were reacting, as is now frequently alleged, to current Indian criticism of the older theory. Rather, philologists first, and archaeologists somewhat later, noticed certain inconsistencies in the older theory and tried to find new explanations, a new version of the immigration theories.{{sfn|Witzel|2005|p=348}}}}}}

Linguistics use the '''comparative method''' to study the development of languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison of two or more languages with common descent from a shared ancestor, as opposed to the method of [[internal reconstruction]], which analyses the internal development of a single language over time.<ref>{{harvnb|Lehmann|1993|pp=31 ff}}.</ref> Ordinarily both methods are used together to reconstruct prehistoric phases of languages, to fill in gaps in the historical record of a language, to discover the development of phonological, morphological, and other linguistic systems, and to confirm or refute hypothesized relationships between languages.

The comparative method aims to prove that two or more historically [[attested language]]s are descended from a single [[proto-language]] by comparing lists of [[cognate]] terms. From them, regular sound correspondences between the languages are established, and a sequence of regular [[sound change]]s can then be postulated, which allows the proto-language to be [[Linguistic reconstruction|reconstructed]]. Relation is deemed certain only if at least a partial reconstruction of the common ancestor is feasible, and if regular sound correspondences can be established with chance similarities ruled out.

[[Proto-Indo-European]] ('''PIE''') is the [[linguistic reconstruction]] of the common ancestor of the [[Indo-European languages]]. [[August Schleicher|August Schleicher's]] 1861 reconstruction of PIE was the first proposed [[proto-language]] to be accepted by modern linguists.{{sfn|Lehmann|1993|p=26}} More work has gone into reconstructing it than any other proto-language, and it is by far the best understood among all proto-languages of its age. During the 19th century, the vast majority of linguistic work was devoted to reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European or its daughter proto-languages such as [[Proto-Germanic]], and most of the current techniques of [[linguistic reconstruction]] in [[historical linguistics]] (e.g., the [[Comparative method (linguistics)|comparative method]] and the method of [[internal reconstruction]]) were developed as a result.<ref name="Fox">{{cite book |last1=Fox |first1=Anthony |title=Linguistic Rconstruction: An introduction to theory and method |date=1995 |publisher=OUP |location=Oxford |pages=17–19}}</ref>

PIE is thought{{By whom|date=August 2020}} to have had a complex system of [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]] that included [[inflection|inflectional suffixes]] as well as [[Indo-European ablaut|ablaut]] (vowel alterations, as preserved in English ''sing, sang, sung''). Nouns and verbs had complex systems of [[declension]] and [[Grammatical conjugation|conjugation]] respectively.

According to Anthony, between 3100–2800/2600 BCE, a real folk migration of Proto-Indo-European speakers from the Yamna-culture took place toward the west, into the Danube Valley.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|pp=345, 361–367}} These migrations probably split off Pre-Italic, Pre-Celtic and Pre-Germanic from Proto-Indo-European.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=344}} According to Anthony, this was followed by a movement north, which split away Baltic-Slavic c. 2800 BCE.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=101}} Pre-Armenian split off at the same time.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=100}} According to Parpola, this migration is related to the appearance of Indo-European speakers from Europe in Anatolia, and the appearance of Hittite.{{sfn|Parpola|2015|pp=37–38}}

The Indo-Iranian language and culture emerged in the [[Sintashta culture]] (c. 2050–1900 BCE),<ref>Lindner, Stephan, (2020). [https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/C4FDF8C5E7D1D20A28BEB7F6C50A9AF4/S0003598X2000037Xa.pdf/chariots_in_the_eurasian_steppe_a_bayesian_approach_to_the_emergence_of_horsedrawn_transport_in_the_early_second_millennium_bc.pdf "Chariots in the Eurasian Steppe: a Bayesian approach to the emergence of horse-drawn transport in the early second millennium BC"], in Antiquity, Vol 94, Issue 374, April 2020, p. 367: "...The 12 calibrated radiocarbon dates belonging to the Sintashta horizon range between 2050 and 1760 cal BC (at 95.4% confidence; Epimakhov & Krause 2013: 137). These dates correlate well with the seven AMS-sampled Sintashta graves in the associated KA-5cemetery, which date to 2040–1730 cal BC (95.4% confidence...)".</ref> where the chariot was invented.{{sfn|Anthony|2007}} Allentoft et al. (2015) found close [[Autosome|autosomal]] genetic relationship between peoples of [[Corded Ware culture]] and Sintashta culture, which "suggests similar genetic sources of the two", and may imply that "the Sintashta derives directly from an eastward migration of Corded Ware peoples".{{sfn|Allentoft|Sikora|Sjögren|Rasmussen|2015}}

The Proto-Indo-Iranians are commonly identified with the [[Andronovo culture]],{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=49}} that flourished c. 2000–1450 BCE in an area of the [[Eurasian Steppe]] that borders the [[Ural River]] on the west, the [[Tian Shan]] on the east. The older [[Sintashta culture]] (2050–1900), formerly included within the Andronovo culture, is now considered separately, but regarded as its predecessor, and accepted as part of the wider Andronovo horizon.

The Sintashta culture, also known as the Sintashta-Petrovka culture<ref name="Koryakova 1998b">{{Harvnb|Koryakova|1998b}}.</ref> or Sintashta-Arkaim culture,<ref name="Koryakova 1998a">{{Harvnb|Koryakova|1998a}}.</ref> is a [[Bronze Age]] [[archaeological culture]] of the northern [[Eurasian Steppe]] on the borders of [[Eastern Europe]] and [[Central Asia]], dated to the period 2050–1900 [[Common Era|BCE]].<ref>Lindner, Stephan, (2020). [https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/C4FDF8C5E7D1D20A28BEB7F6C50A9AF4/S0003598X2000037Xa.pdf/chariots_in_the_eurasian_steppe_a_bayesian_approach_to_the_emergence_of_horsedrawn_transport_in_the_early_second_millennium_bc.pdf "Chariots in the Eurasian Steppe: a Bayesian approach to the emergence of horse-drawn transport in the early second millennium BC"], in Antiquity, Vol 94, Issue 374, April 2020, p. 367: "...The 12 calibrated radiocarbon dates belonging to the Sintashta horizon range between 2050 and 1760 cal BC (at 95.4% confidence; Epimakhov & Krause 2013: 137). These dates correlate well with the seven AMS-sampled Sintashta graves in the associated KA-5cemetery, which date to 2040–1730 cal BC (95.4% confidence...)".</ref> The Sintashta culture is probably the archaeological manifestation of the Indo-Iranian language group.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|pp=390 (fig. 15.9), 405–411}}

The Andronovo culture is a collection of similar local [[Bronze Age]] [[Indo-Iranians|Indo-Iranian]] cultures that flourished {{circa}}&nbsp;2000–1450 BC in western [[Siberia]] and the central [[Eurasian Steppe]].<ref name="Grigoriev">Grigoriev, Stanislav, (2021). [https://www.academia.edu/45686126/Andronovo%20Problem%20Studies%20of%20Cultural%20Genesis%20in%20the%20Eurasian%20Bronze%20Age "Andronovo Problem: Studies of Cultural Genesis in the Eurasian Bronze Age"], in Open Archaeology 2021 (7), '''p.3:''' "...By Andronovo cultures we may understand only Fyodorovka and Alakul cultures..."</ref><ref>Parpola, Asko, (2020). [https://journal.fi/store/article/view/98032 "Royal 'Chariot' Burials of Sanauli near Delhi and Archaeological Correlates of Prehistoric Indo-Iranian Languages"], in Studia Orientalia Electronica, Vol. 8, No. 1, Oct 23, 2020, '''p.188''': "...the Alakul’ culture (c.2000–1700 BCE) in the west and the Fëdorovo culture

(c.1850–1450 BCE) in the east..."</ref> It is probably better termed an archaeological complex or [[Horizon (archaeology)|archaeological horizon]]. The name derives from the village of Andronovo ({{coord|55|53|N|55|42|E|}}), where in 1914, several graves were discovered, with skeletons in crouched positions, buried with richly decorated pottery.

*'''Fëdorovo''' (2000–1450 BC)<ref>Grigoriev, Stanislav, (2021). [https://www.academia.edu/45686126/Andronovo%20Problem%20Studies%20of%20Cultural%20Genesis%20in%20the%20Eurasian%20Bronze%20Age "Andronovo Problem: Studies of Cultural Genesis in the Eurasian Bronze Age"], in Open Archaeology 2021 (7), '''p.28:''' ".... The Fyodorovka dates in the north of the forest-

BC...Fyodorovka culture, in general, is synchronous with Alakul..."</ref><ref name="Parpola" /> in southern Siberia (earliest evidence of [[cremation]] and [[fire worship|fire cult]]<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Diakonoff|1995|p=473}}</ref>)

In other respects, the economy was pastoral, based on [[cattle]], [[horse]]s, [[sheep]], and [[goat]]s.<ref name="camhist" /> While agricultural use has been posited{{By whom|date=August 2020}}, no clear evidence has been presented.<!-- Image with inadequate rationale removed: [[File:Arqaim.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Arkaim]] in [[Russia]] is believed to have been constructed by Sintashta-Petrovka tribes some 4000 years ago.]] -->

Mallory acknowledges the difficulties of making a case for expansions from Andronovo to northern India, and that attempts to link the Indo-Aryans to such sites as the Beshkent and Vakhsh cultures "only gets the [[Indo-Iranians|Indo-Iranian]] to Central Asia, but not as far as the seats of the [[Medes]], Persians or Indo-Aryans". He has developed the "kulturkugel" model that has the Indo-Iranians taking over [[Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex|Bactria-Margiana]] cultural traits but preserving their language and religion{{Contradict-inline|reason=Next section says - borrowed "distinctive religious beliefs and practices"|date=August 2020}} while moving into Iran and India.{{sfn|Bryant|2001|p=216}}{{sfn|Parpola|2015|p=76}} Fred Hiebert also agrees that an expansion of the BMAC into Iran and the margin of the Indus Valley is "the best candidate for an archaeological correlate of the introduction of Indo-Iranian speakers to Iran and South Asia."{{sfn|Parpola|2015|p=76}} According to Narasimhan et al. (2018), the expansion of the Andronovo culture towards the BMAC took place via the [[Inner Asia Mountain Corridor]].{{sfn|Narasimhan et al.|2018}}

[[File:BMAC.png|thumb|300px|The extent of the Bactria-Margiana Culture (after [[Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture|EIEC]]).]]

The Indo-Iranians also borrowed their distinctive religious beliefs{{Contradict-inline|reason="... the "kulturkugel" model that has the Indo-Iranians taking over Bactria-Margiana cultural traits but preserving their language and religion ..."|date=August 2020}} and practices from this culture.{{sfn|Beckwith|2009|p=32}} According to Anthony, the Old Indic religion probably emerged among Indo-European immigrants in the contact zone between the [[Zeravshan River]] (present-day Uzbekistan) and (present-day) Iran.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=462}} It was "a syncretic mixture of old Central Asian and new Indo-European elements",{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=462}} which borrowed "distinctive religious beliefs and practices"{{sfn|Beckwith|2009|p=32}} from the [[Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex|Bactria–Margiana Culture]].{{sfn|Beckwith|2009|p=32}} At least 383 non-Indo-European words were borrowed from this culture, including the god [[Indra]] and the ritual drink [[Soma (drink)|Soma]].{{sfn|Anthony|2007|pp=454–455}}

The Indo-Iranian migrations took place in two waves,{{sfn|Burrow|1973}}{{sfn|Parpola|1999}} belonging to the second and the third stage of Beckwith's description of the Indo-European migrations.{{sfn|Beckwith|2009|pp=32–34}} The first wave consisted of the Indo-Aryan migration into the Levant, seemingly founding the [[Mitanni]] kingdom in northern Syria{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=454}} (c. 1600–1350 BCE),<ref>Novák, Mirko, (2013). [https://www.academia.edu/7615265/Upper_Mesopotamia_in_the_Mittani_Period "Upper Mesopotamia in the Mittani Period"], in Archéologie et Histoire de la Syrie I, Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, p. 349.</ref> and the migration south-eastward of the Vedic people, over the Hindu Kush into northern India.{{sfn|Beckwith|2009|p=33 note 20}} [[Christopher I. Beckwith]] suggests that the [[Wusun]], an [[Proto-Indo-Europeans|Indo-European]] [[Caucasian race|Europoid]] people of [[Inner Asia]] in [[Ancient history|antiquity]], were also of Indo-Aryan origin.{{sfn|Beckwith|2009|pp=376–377}} The second wave is interpreted as the Iranian wave.{{sfn|Mallory|1989|pp=42–43}}

[[File:Near East 1400 BCE.png|thumb|Map of the Near East c. 1400 BCE showing the Kingdom of Mitanni at its greatest extent]]

Mitanni ([[Hittite cuneiform]] {{transl|hit|[[KUR]]^{[[Cities of the ancient Near East|URU]]}Mi-ta-an-ni}}), also Mittani ({{transl|hit|Mi-it-ta-ni}}) or Hanigalbat ([[Assyria]]n Hanigalbat, Khanigalbat cuneiform {{transl|akk|Ḫa-ni-gal-bat}}) or Naharin in ancient Egyptian texts was a [[Hurrian language|Hurrian]]-speaking state in northern [[Syria]] and south-east [[Anatolia]] from c. 1600 BCE – 1350 BCE.<ref name="academia.edu">Novák, Mirko, (2013). [https://www.academia.edu/7615265/Upper_Mesopotamia_in_the_Mittani_Period "Upper Mesopotamia in the Mittani Period"], in Archéologie et Histoire de la Syrie I, Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, p. 349.</ref>

According to one hypothesis, founded by an [[Indo-Aryan peoples|Indo-Aryan]] ruling class governing a predominately [[Hurrians|Hurrian]] population, Mitanni came to be a regional power after the Hittite destruction of [[Amorites|Amorite]]<ref>{{citation |title = The Kingdom of the Hittites |first=Trevor |last=Bryce |publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2005 | page = 98}}</ref> [[First Babylonian dynasty|Babylon]] and a series of ineffectual [[Assyria]]n kings created a power vacuum in Mesopotamia. At the beginning of its history, Mitanni's major rival was Egypt under the [[Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt|Thutmosids]]. However, with the ascent of the [[Hittites|Hittite]] empire, Mitanni and Egypt made an alliance to protect their mutual interests from the threat of Hittite domination.

At the height of its power, during the 14th century BCE, Mitanni had outposts centered on its capital, [[Washukanni]], whose location has been determined by archaeologists to be on the headwaters of the [[Khabur (Euphrates)|Khabur River]]. Their sphere of influence is shown in Hurrian place names, personal names and the spread through Syria and the [[Levant]] of a distinct pottery type. Eventually, Mitanni succumbed to Hittite and later Assyrian attacks, and was reduced to the status of a province of the [[Middle Assyrian Empire]].

During the Early Vedic Period (c. 1500–800 BCE<ref group=web name="EB-Early Vedic period" />) the Indo-Aryan culture was centered in the northern Punjab, or [[Rigvedic rivers|Sapta Sindhu]].<ref group=web name="EB-Early Vedic period">[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/285248/India/46842/Early-Vedic-period Frank Raymon Allchin, ''Early Vedic Period'', Encyclopædia Britannica]</ref> During the Later Vedic Period (c. 800–500 BCE<ref group=web name="EB-Later Vedic Period" />) the Indo-Aryan culture started to extend into the western Ganges Plain,<ref group=web name="EB-Later Vedic Period">[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/285248/India/46843/Later-Vedic-period-c-800-c-500-bce Joseph E. Scwartzberg, ''Later Vedic period (c. 800–c. 500 bce)'', Encyclopædia Britannica]</ref> centering on the Vedic [[Kuru Kingdom|Kuru]] and [[Panchala]] area,{{sfn|Samuel|2010}} and had some influence{{sfn|Samuel|2010|p=61}} at the central Ganges Plain after 500 BCE.<ref group=web name="EB-Beginning historical period">[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/285248/India/46844/The-beginning-of-the-historical-period-c-500-150-bce R. Champakalakshmi, ''The beginning of the historical period, c. 500–150 bce'', Encyclopædia Britannica]</ref> Sixteen [[Mahajanapada]] developed at the Ganges Plain, of which the [[Kuru Kingdom|Kuru]] and [[Panchala]] became the most notable developed centers of Vedic culture, at the western Ganges Plain.<ref group=web name="EB-Later Vedic Period" />{{sfn|Samuel|2010}}

The Indo-Aryan migration into the northern [[Punjab (region)|Punjab]] started shortly after the decline of the [[Indus Valley Civilisation]] (IVC). According to the "Aryan Invasion Theory" this decline was caused by "invasions" of barbaric and violent Aryans who conquered the IVC. This "Aryan Invasion Theory" is not supported by the archeological and genetic data, and is not representative of the "Indo-Aryan migration theory".{{Citation needed|date=August 2020}}

The decline of the IVC from about 1900 BCE started before the onset of the Indo-Aryan migrations, caused by aridisation due to shifting mossoons.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Malik|first=Nishant|date=2020|title=Uncovering transitions in paleoclimate time series and the climate driven demise of an ancient civilization.|journal=Chaos|volume=30|issue=8|page=083108|doi=10.1063/5.0012059|pmid=32872795|bibcode=2020Chaos..30h3108M|s2cid=221468124}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=New mathematical method shows how climate change led to the fall of an ancient civilization|url=https://www.rit.edu/news/new-mathematical-method-shows-how-climate-change-led-fall-ancient-civilization|url-status=live}}</ref> A regional cultural discontinuity occurred during the second millennium BCE and many Indus Valley cities were abandoned during this period, while many new settlements began to appear in [[Gujarat]] and East Punjab and other settlements such as in the western [[Bahawalpur]] region increased in size.

{{quote|It is evident that a major geographic population shift accompanied this 2nd millennium BCE localisation process. This shift by Harappan and, perhaps, other Indus Valley cultural mosaic groups, is the only archaeologically documented west-to-east movement of human populations in the [[Indian subcontinent]] before the first half of the first millennium B.C.{{sfn|Erdosy|1995|p=139}}}}

According to Kennedy, the [[Cemetery H culture]] "shows clear biological affinities" with the earlier population of Harappa.<ref>{{harvnb|Kennedy|2000|p=312}}; {{harvnb|Mallory|Adams|1997|pp=103, 310}}</ref> The archaeologist Kenoyer noted that this culture "may only reflect a change in the focus of settlement organization from that which was the pattern of the earlier Harappan phase and not cultural discontinuity, urban decay, invading aliens, or site abandonment, all of which have been suggested in the past."<ref>{{harvnb|Kenoyer|1991b|p=56}}</ref> Recent excavations in 2008 at Alamgirpur, Meerut District, appeared to show an overlap between the Harappan and PGW{{Expand acronym|date=August 2020}} pottery<ref>Singh, R.N., Cameron Petrie et al., (2013). [https://www.academia.edu/8246061/Recent_Excavations_at_Alamgirpur_Meerut_District_A_Preliminary_Report "Recent Excavations at Alamgirpur, Meerut District: A Preliminary Report"], in Man and Environment 38(1), pp. 32-54.</ref> indicating cultural continuity.

{{quote|Evidence in material culture for systems collapse, abandonment of old beliefs and large-scale, if localised, population shifts in response to ecological catastrophe in the 2nd millennium B.C. must all now be related to the spread of Indo-Aryan languages.{{sfn|Erdosy|1995|p=5}}}}

Scholars have argued that the historical [[Vedic period#Culture|Vedic culture]] is the result of an amalgamation of the immigrating Indo-Aryans with the remnants of the indigenous civilization, such as the [[Ochre Coloured Pottery culture]]. Such remnants of IVC{{Expand acronym|date=August 2020}} culture are not prominent in the [[Rigveda]], with its focus on chariot warfare and nomadic pastoralism in stark contrast with an urban civilization.

{{quote|... understands shift in terms of geographical, social, and cultural "dislocation" of language communities. Social dislocation, to give the most relevant example, involves "siphoning off the talented, the enterprising, the imaginative and the creative" ([Fishman] 1991: 61), and sounds strikingly like Anthony's 'recruitment' scenario.{{sfn|Salmons|2015|p=118}}}}

{{quote|... systematic changes in community structure are what drive language shift, incorporating Milroy's network structures as well. The heart of the view is the quintessential element of modernization, namely a shift from local community-internal organization to regional (state or national or international, in modern settings), extra-community organizations. Shift correlates with this move from pre-dominantly "horizontal" community structures to more "vertical" ones.{{sfn|Salmons|2015|p=118}}{{refn|group=note|name="dislocation"|Note the dislocation of the [[Indus Valley Civilisation]] prior to the start of the Indo-Aryan migrations into northern India, and the onset of [[Sanskritisation]] with the rise of the [[Kuru Kingdom]], as described by Michael Witzel.{{sfn|Witzel|1995}} The "Ancestral North Indians" and "Ancestral South Indians"{{sfn|Metspalu et al.|2011}}{{sfn|Reich et al.|2009}} mixed between 4,200 to 1,900 years ago (2200 BCE–100 CE), whereafter a shift to endogamy took place.{{sfn|Moorjani et al.|2013}}}}}}

{{harvtxt|Kivisild et al.|1999}} concluded that there is "an extensive deep late Pleistocene{{Technical statement|date=August 2020}} genetic link between contemporary Europeans and Indians" via the [[mitochondrial DNA]], that is, DNA which is inherited from the mother. According to them, the two groups split at the time of the peopling of Asia and Eurasia and before modern humans entered Europe.{{sfn|Kivisild et al.|1999}} Kivisild et al. (2000) note that "the sum of any recent (the last 15,000 years) western mtDNA gene flow to India comprises, in average, less than 10 percent of the contemporary Indian mtDNA lineages."<ref group=web name="Kivisild2000">[http://www.archaeologyonline.net/artifacts/Kivisild2000.pdf Kivisild et al. (2000), ''An Indian Ancestry'', p.271] (referring to Kivisild et al. (1999), "Deep common ancestry")</ref>

{{harvtxt|Kivisild et al.|2003}} and {{harvtxt|Sharma|2005}} note that north and south Indians share a common maternal ancestry: Kivisild et al. (2003) further note that "these results show that Indian tribal and caste populations derive largely from the same genetic heritage of Pleistocene{{Technical statement|date=August 2020}}  southern and western Asians and have received limited gene flow from external regions since the Holocene.{{Technical statement|date=August 2020}}{{sfn|Kivisild et al.|2003}}

{{harvtxt|Reich et al.|2009}}, in a collaborative effort between the [[Harvard Medical School]] and the [[Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology]] (CCMB), examined the entire genomes worth 560,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), as compared to 420 SNPs in prior work. They also cross-compared them with the genomes of other regions available in the global genome database.<ref>{{cite news |last=Chakravarti |first=Aravinda |title=Tracing India's invisible lthreads |newspaper=Nature (News & Views) |date=24 September 2009 |url=http://genepath.med.harvard.edu/~reich/Press/2009_Nature_India_Chakravarti_News_and_Views.pdf |access-date=11 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150903021818/http://genepath.med.harvard.edu/%7Ereich/Press/2009_Nature_India_Chakravarti_News_and_Views.pdf |archive-date=3 September 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Through this study, they were able to discern two genetic groups in the majority of populations in India, which they called "Ancestral North Indians" (ANI) and "Ancestral South Indians" (ASI).<ref group=note>{{harvtxt|Reich et al.|2009}} excluded the [[Austro-Asiatic languages|Austro-Asiatic]] and [[Tibeto-Burman languages|Tibeto-Burman]] speakers from their analysis in order to avoid interference.</ref> They found that the ANI genes are close to those of Middle Easterners, Central Asians and Europeans whereas the ASI genes are dissimilar to all other known populations outside India, though the indigenous [[Andamanese]] were determined to be the most closely related to the ASI population of any living group (albeit distinct from the ASI).{{refn|group=note|{{harvtxt|Reich et al.|2009}}: "We analyze 25 diverse groups to provide strong evidence for two ancient populations, genetically divergent, that are ancestral to most Indians today. One, the "Ancestral North Indians" (ANI), is genetically close to Middle Easterners, Central Asians, and Europeans{{Contradict-inline|reason="southern and western Asians and have received limited gene flow from external regions since the Holocene."|date=September 2020}}, while the other, the "Ancestral South Indians" (ASI), is as distinct from ANI and East Asians as they are from each other."}}{{refn|group=note|{{harvtxt|Moorjani et al.|2013}}: "Most Indian groups descend from a mixture of two genetically divergent populations: Ancestral North Indians (ANI) related to Central Asians, Middle Easterners, Caucasians, and Europeans; and Ancestral South Indians (ASI) not closely related to groups outside the subcontinent."}} These two distinct groups, which had split ca. 50,000 years ago, formed the basis for the present population of India.<ref group=web name="Dolgin">[http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090922/full/news.2009.935.html Elie Dolgin (2009), ''Indian ancestry revealed. The mixing of two distinct lineages led to most modern-day Indians'', Nature News]</ref>

{{quote|Studies based on uni-parental marker have shown diverse Y-chromosomal haplogroups making up the Indian gene pool. Many of these Y-chromosomal markers show a strong correlation to the linguistic affiliation of the population. The genome-wide variation of the Indian samples in the present study correlated with the linguistic affiliation of the sample.{{sfn|ArunKumar et al.|2015|p=497}}}}

{{quote|The asymmetry of admixture, with ANI populations providing genomic inputs to tribal populations (AA, Dravidian tribe, and TB) but not vice versa, is consistent with elite dominance and patriarchy. Males from dominant populations, possibly upper castes, with high ANI component, mated outside of their caste, but their offspring were not allowed to be inducted into the caste. This phenomenon has been previously observed as asymmetry in homogeneity of mtDNA and heterogeneity of Y-chromosomal haplotypes in tribal populations of India as well as the African Americans in United States.{{sfn|Basu et al.|2016|p=1598}}}}

{{See also|Neolithic Revolution|Fertile Crescent|Dravidian_languages#Prehistory}}

According to Gallego Romero et al. (2011), their research on lactose tolerance in India suggests that "the west Eurasian genetic contribution identified by Reich et al. (2009) principally reflects gene flow from Iran and the Middle East."{{sfn|Gallego Romero|2011|p=9}} Gallego Romero notes that Indians who are lactose-tolerant show a genetic pattern regarding this tolerance which is "characteristic of the common European mutation".<ref group=web name="ScienceLife2011">[http://sciencelife.uchospitals.edu/2011/09/14/lactose-tolerance-in-the-indian-dairyland/ Rob Mitchum (2011), ''Lactose Tolerance in the Indian Dairyland'', ScienceLife]</ref> According to Gallego Romero, this suggests that "the most common lactose tolerance mutation made a two-way migration out of the Middle East less than 10,000 years ago. While the mutation spread across Europe, another explorer must have brought the mutation eastward to India – likely traveling along the coast of the Persian Gulf where other pockets of the same mutation have been found."<ref group=web name="ScienceLife2011" /> In contrast, Allentoft et al. (2015) found that lactose-tolerance was absent in the Yamnaya culture, noting that while "the Yamnaya and these other Bronze Age cultures herded cattle, goats, and sheep, they couldn't digest raw milk as adults. Lactose tolerance was still rare among Europeans and Asians at the end of the Bronze Age, just 2000 years ago."<ref group=web>[http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/06/nomadic-herders-left-strong-genetic-mark-europeans-and-asians Ann Gibbons (2015), ''Nomadic herders left a strong genetic mark on Europeans and Asians'', Science]</ref>{{sfn|Allentoft|Sikora|Sjögren|Rasmussen|2015}}

[[File:R1a origins (Underhill 2010) and R1a1a oldest expansion and highest frequency (2014).jpg|thumb|R1a origins (Underhill 2010;<ref>{{cite journal | pmc = 2987245 | pmid=19888303 | doi=10.1038/ejhg.2009.194 | volume=18 | issue=4 | title=Separating the post-Glacial coancestry of European and Asian Y chromosomes within haplogroup R1a | year=2010 | journal=European Journal of Human Genetics | pages=479–84 | last1 = Underhill | first1 = PA | last2 = Myres | first2 = NM | last3 = Rootsi | first3 = S | last4 = Metspalu | first4 = M | last5 = Zhivotovsky | first5 = LA | last6 = King | first6 = RJ | last7 = Lin | first7 = AA | last8 = Chow | first8 = CE | last9 = Semino | first9 = O | last10 = Battaglia | first10 = V | last11 = Kutuev | first11 = I | last12 = Järve | first12 = M | last13 = Chaubey | first13 = G | last14 = Ayub | first14 = Q | last15 = Mohyuddin | first15 = A | last16 = Mehdi | first16 = SQ | last17 = Sengupta | first17 = S | last18 = Rogaev | first18 = EI | last19 = Khusnutdinova | first19 = EK | last20 = Pshenichnov | first20 = A | last21 = Balanovsky | first21 = O | last22 = Balanovska | first22 = E | last23 = Jeran | first23 = N | last24 = Augustin | first24 = DH | last25 = Baldovic | first25 = M | last26 = Herrera | first26 = RJ | last27 = Thangaraj | first27 = K | last28 = Singh | first28 = V | last29 = Singh | first29 = L | last30 = Majumder | first30 = P | last31 = Rudan | first31 = P | last32 = Primorac | first32 = D | last33 = Villems | first33 = R | last34 = Kivisild | first34 = T}}</ref> R1a migration to Eastern Europe; R1a1a diversification (Pamjav 2012); and R1a1a oldest expansion and highest frequency (Underhill 2014)]]

{{quote|...at least some of the history of population mixture in India is related to the spread of languages in the subcontinent. One possible explanation for the generally younger dates in northern Indians is that after an original mixture event of ANI and ASI that contributed to all present-day Indians, some northern groups received additional gene flow from groups with high proportions of West Eurasian ancestry, bringing down their average mixture date.{{sfn|Moorjani et al.|2013|pp=429–430}}{{refn|group=note|The "original mixture event of ANI and ASI" may have been the spread of Dravidian languages to the south, followed by the (still ongoing) [[Sanskritization]] of India.<ref>[[Razib Khan]] (2013), "[http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2013/08/indo-aryans-dravidians-and-waves-of-admixture-migration/ Indo-Aryans, Dravidians, and waves of admixture (migration?)]", Gene expression</ref> Note that [[Asko Parpola]] proposes that the Harappans spoke [[Proto-Dravidian language]],<ref group=web>[http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/underlying-language-of-indus-script-protodravidian-asko-parpola/article485447.ece The Hindu, ''Underlying language of Indus script, Proto-Dravidian: Asko Parpola'']</ref> and Mikhail Andronov proposes that the Proto-Dravidian language was introduced by migrations at the beginning of the third millennium BCE.{{sfn|Andronov|2003|p=299}} See Dieneke's blogspot, "[http://dienekes.blogspot.nl/2009/09/560k-snp-study-reveals-dual-rigin-of.html 560K SNP study reveals dual rigin of Indian populations (Reich et al. 2009)]" and [[Razib Khan]] (8 August 2013), "[http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2013/08/indo-aryans-dravidians-and-waves-of-admixture-migration/ Indo-Aryans, Dravidians, and waves of admixture (migration?)]" for various proposals and discussions, and [http://dienekes.blogspot.nl/2012/10/the-tangled-web-of-humanity.html this chart] for the complexities of the Indian (and European) genepool.}}}}

According to Martin P. Richards, co-author of {{harvp|Silva et al.|2017}}, "[the prevalence of R1a in India was] very powerful evidence for a substantial Bronze Age migration from central Asia that most likely brought Indo-European speakers to India."<ref name="Joseph 2017">{{cite news |first=Tony |last=Joseph |date=16 June 2017 |url= https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/how-genetics-is-settling-the-aryan-migration-debate/article19090301.ece |title=How genetics is settling the Aryan migration debate |work=The Hindu}}</ref>{{refn|group=note|See also: {{cite web |website=Eurogenes Blog |date=March 28, 2017 |url= http://eurogenes.blogspot.com/2017/03/heavily-sex-biased-population.html |title="Heavily sex-biased" population dispersals into the Indian Subcontinent (Silva et al. 2017)}}</ref>}}

There is mention in the ''Avesta'' of ''Airyan Vaejah'', one of the '16 the lands of the Aryans'.<ref>{{citation|title=Iran Facing Others: Identity Boundaries in a Historical Perspective|page=189|author1=Abbas Amanat |author2=Farzin Vejdani |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IRzIAAAAQBAJ&q=16+nation+of+aryans+avesta&pg=PA189|isbn=9781137013408|date=13 February 2012}}</ref> 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 [[cognate]]s of the Vedic root "vij", suggesting the region of fast-flowing rivers. 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 {{Harvtxt|Mallory|Mair|2000}}, the probable homeland of Avestan is, in fact, the area south of the Aral Sea.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Bryant|2001|p=133}}<br />Gnoli, Boyce, Skjaervo, and Witzel, as cited in {{Harvcoltxt|Bryant|2001|p=133}}<br />Humbach and Gnoli, as cited in {{Harvcoltxt|Bryant|2001|p=327}}<br />{{Harvcoltxt|Mallory|Mair|2000}}</ref>

[[File:Late Vedic Culture (1100-500 BCE).png|thumb|Probable geographic expansion of late Vedic culture.]]

{{quote|This time was one of great upheaval for ecological reasons. Prolonged failure of rains caused acute water shortage in a large area, causing the collapse of sedentary urban cultures in south-central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran, and India, and triggering large-scale migrations. Inevitably, the new arrivals came to merge with and dominate the post-urban cultures.<ref group=web name="Kochhar2017"/>}}

The [[Indus Valley Civilisation]] was localised, that is, urban centers disappeared and were replaced by local cultures, due to a [[climate change (general concept)|climatic change]] that is also signalled for the neighbouring areas of the Middle East.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://phys.org/news/2014-02-decline-bronze-age-megacities-linked.html|title=Decline of Bronze Age 'megacities' linked to climate change}}</ref> {{As of| 2016}} many scholars believe that drought and a decline in trade with Egypt and Mesopotamia caused the collapse of the Indus Civilisation.<ref name="Science">{{cite journal|date=6 June 2008|title=Indus Collapse: The End or the Beginning of an Asian Culture?|journal=Science Magazine|volume=320|pages=1282–3}}</ref> The Ghaggar-Hakra system was rain-fed,<ref name="Giosan">{{cite journal|last=Giosan|first=L.|title=Fluvial landscapes of the Harappan Civilization|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA|year=2012|volume=109|issue=26|display-authors=etal|doi=10.1073/pnas.1112743109|pmid=22645375|pages=E1688–E1694|pmc=3387054|bibcode=2012PNAS..109E1688G|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=Clift>{{cite journal |last=Clift |first=P. D. |display-authors=etal |year=2012 |title=U-Pb zircon dating evidence for a Pleistocene Sarasvati River and capture of the Yamuna River |journal=Geology |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=211–214 |doi=10.1130/G32840.1|bibcode=2012Geo....40..211C }}</ref><ref name="Tripathi_2004">{{cite journal|first= Jayant K.|last= Tripathi|author2= Tripathi, K.|author3=Bock, Barbara|author4=Rajamani, V.|author5=Eisenhauer, A.|title= Is River Ghaggar, Saraswati? Geochemical Constraints|journal= Current Science|volume= 87|issue= 8|date= 25 October 2004|url= http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/oct252004/1141.pdf}}</ref> and water-supply depended on the monsoons. The Indus valley climate grew significantly cooler and drier from about 1800 BCE, linked to a general weakening of the [[monsoon]] at that time.<ref name="Giosan"/> The Indian monsoon declined and aridity increased, with the [[Ghaggar-Hakra]] retracting its reach towards the foothills of the Himalaya,<ref name="Giosan"/><ref>{{cite web | url = http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/an-ancient-civilization-upended-by-climate-change/?_r=0 | title = An Ancient Civilization, Upended by Climate Change | author = Rachel Nuwer | date = 28 May 2012 | access-date = 29 May 2012 | publisher = LiveScience }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.livescience.com/20614-collapse-mythical-river-civilization.html | title = Huge Ancient Civilization's Collapse Explained | author = Charles Choi | date = 29 May 2012 | access-date = 18 May 2016 | work = [[The New York Times]] }}</ref> leading to erratic and less extensive floods that made inundation agriculture less sustainable. Aridification reduced the water supply enough to cause the civilisation's demise, and to scatter its population eastward.<ref name="madella-fuller">{{cite journal|last2=Fuller|first2=Dorian|date=2006|title=Palaeoecology and the Harappan Civilisation of South Asia: a reconsideration|journal=Quaternary Science Reviews|volume=25|issue=11–12|pages=1283–1301|last1=Madella|first1=Marco|doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2005.10.012|bibcode=2006QSRv...25.1283M}}</ref><ref name="macdonald">{{cite journal|last=MacDonald|first=Glen|year=2011|title=Potential influence of the Pacific Ocean on the Indian summer monsoon and Harappan decline|journal=Quaternary International|volume=229|issue=1–2|pages=140–148|doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2009.11.012|bibcode=2011QuInt.229..140M}}</ref><ref name=brooke-2015>{{citation|last=Brooke|first=John L.|title=Climate Change and the Course of Global History: A Rough Journey|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O9TSAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA296|date= 2014|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-87164-8|page=296}}</ref>

Indian [[Hindu nationalism|nationalistic opponents]] of the Indo-Aryan migration question it, and instead promote [[Indigenous Aryanism]], claiming that speakers of [[Indo-Iranian languages]] (sometimes called ''Aryan languages'') are "indigenous" to the Indian subcontinent.{{sfn|Fosse|2005}}{{sfn|Bryant|2001}}<ref>Witzel, Michael (2006), "Rama's realm: Indocentric rewritings of early South Asian History", in Fagan, Garrett, Archaeological Fantasies: How pseudoarchaeology misrepresents the past and misleads the public, Routledge, {{ISBN|0-415-30592-6}}</ref>{{sfn|Gupta|2007|pp=108–109}}{{refn|group=note|See also S. Kalyanaraman (19 December 2005), "[http://www.ivarta.com/columns/ol_051219.htm Harvard University's international scandal unravels a global Hindu conspiracy].}}{{Dead link|date=June 2021}} Indigenous Aryanism has no support in contemporary mainstream scholarship, as it is contradicted by a broad range of research on [[Indo-European migrations]].{{sfn|Anthony|2007}}{{refn|group=note|name="no support"|No support in mainstream scholarship:

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* [http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/research/possehl/ahar-banas.shtml Cache of Seal Impressions Discovered in Western India]

* Tony Joseph (2018), [https://www.thequint.com/voices/opinion/genomic-study-vedic-aryan-migration-dravidian-languages-sanskrit ''How We, The Indians, Came to Be''] (summary of Narasimhan (2018)

* Scroll.in, {{cite web|url=https://scroll.in/article/874102/aryan-migration-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-study-on-indian-genetics|title=Aryan migration: Everything you need to know about the new study on Indian genetics}}, on Narasimhan (2018)