Indo-Aryan peoples

Template:Short description Template:Pp-pc1 Template:Use Indian English Template:Short description [[Category:Articles using infobox ethnic group with image parameters|Indo-Aryan peoples]] Indo-Aryan peoples (also known as Indic peoples in the context of Indo-European studies) are a diverse collection of peoples predominantly found in South Asia, who (traditionally) speak Indo-Aryan languages. Historically, Aryans were the pastoralists who spoke Indo-Iranian languages, migrated from Central Asia into South Asia, and introduced the Proto-Indo-Aryan language. The early Indo-Aryan peoples were known to be closely related to the Iranian group that have resided west of the Indus River on the Iranian Plateau; an evident connection in cultural, linguistic, and historical ties. Today, Indo-Aryan speakers are found south of the Indus, across the modern-day regions of Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan (east of Indus River), Sri Lanka, Maldives and northern half of India.

History

Proto-Indo-Iranians

File:Indo-Iranian origins.png

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 outcome of a migration of Indo-Aryan people from Central Asia into the northern Indian subcontinent (modern-day Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka). Another group of Indo-Aryans migrated further westward and founded the Mitanni kingdom in northern Syria (c. 1500–1300 BC); the other group was the Vedic people. According to Christopher I. Beckwith, the Wusun people of Inner Asia in antiquity could have been of Indo-Aryan origin.

The Proto-Indo-Iranians, from which the Indo-Aryans developed, are identified with the Sintashta culture (2100–1800 BCE), and the Andronovo culture, which flourished ca. 1800–1400 BCE in the steppes around the Aral Sea, present-day Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The Proto-Indo-Aryan split off around 1800–1600 BCE from the Iranians, moved south through the Bactria-Margiana Culture, south of the Andronovo culture, borrowing some of their distinctive religious beliefs and practices from the BMAC, and then migrated further south into the Levant and north-western India. The migration of the Indo-Aryans was part of the larger diffusion of Indo-European languages from the Proto-Indo-European homeland at the Pontic–Caspian steppe which started in the 4th millennium BCE. The GGC, Cemetery H, Copper Hoard, OCP, and PGW cultures are candidates for cultures associated with Indo-Aryans.

The Indo-Aryans were united by shared cultural norms and language, referred to as aryā 'noble'. Over the last four millennia, the Indo-Aryan culture has evolved particularly inside India itself, but its origins are in the conflation of values and heritage of the Indo-Aryan and indigenous people groups of India. Diffusion of this culture and language took place by patron-client systems, which allowed for the absorption and acculturation of other groups into this culture, and explains the strong influence on other cultures with which it interacted.

Genetically, most Indo-Aryan-speaking populations are descendants of a mix of Central Asian steppe pastoralists, Iranian hunter-gatherers, and, to a lesser extent, South Asian hunter-gatherers—commonly known as Ancient Ancestral South Indians (AASI). Dravidians are descendants of a mix of South Asian hunter-gatherers and Iranian hunter-gatherers, and to a lesser extent, Central Asian steppe pastoralists. South Indian Tribal Dravidians descend majorly from South Asian hunter-gatherers, and to a lesser extent Iranian hunter-gatherers. Additionally, Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burmese speaking people contributed to the genetic make-up of South Asia.

Indigenous Aryanism propagates the idea that the Indo-Aryans were indigenous to the Indian subcontinent, and that the Indo-European languages spread from there to central Asia and Europe. Contemporary support for this idea is ideologically driven, and has no basis in objective data and mainstream scholarship.Template:Snf

List of historical Indo-Aryan peoples

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

Contemporary Indo-Aryan people

• Assamese people
• Awadhi people
• Banjara people
• Bede people
• Bengali people
• Bhil people
• Bhojpuri people
• Bishnupriya Manipuri people
• Brokpa people
• Chittagonian people
• Deccani people
• Deshi people
• Dhakaiya people
• Dhivehi people
• Dogra people
• Garhwali people
• Gujarati people
• Halba people
• Haryanvi people
• Hindki people
• Jaunsari people
• Kalash people
• Kashmiri people
• Khas people
• Kho people
• Kohistani people
• Konkani people
• Kumauni people
• Kutchi people
• Magahi people
• Maithil people
• Marathi people
• Marwari people
• Memon people
• Muhajir people
• Nagpuria people
• Odia people
• Palula people
• Pashayi people
• Pahari people
• Punjabi people
• Rajasthani people
• Romani people
• Rohingya people
• Sadan people
• Saraiki people
• Saurashtra people
• Shina people
• Sindhi people
• Sinhalese people
• Sylheti people
• Thari people
• Tharu people
• Tirahi people
• Torwali people
• Warli people

See also

• Proto-Indo-Europeans
• Indo-Iranians
• Dardic peoples
• Aryan
• Indo-Aryan languages
• Indo-Aryan migrations
• Indigenous Aryanism
• Aryan race
• Aryavarta
• Dasa
• Dravidian peoples
• Early Indians
• South Asian diaspora
• Northern South Asia

Sources

• Mallory, JP. 1998. "A European Perspective on Indo-Europeans in Asia". In The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Peoples of Eastern and Central Asia. Ed. Mair. Washington DC: Institute for the Study of Man.
• Trubachov, Oleg N., 1999: Indoarica, Nauka, Moscow.

External links

• Horseplay at Harappa – People Fas Harvard – Harvard University (PDF)
• A tale of two horses – Frontline