# Indo-Aryan peoples

Indo-Aryan peoples are a diverse collection of peoples predominantly found in South Asia, who (traditionally) speak Indo-Aryan languages. Historically, Aryans were the Indo-Iranian speaking pastoralists who 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 Indo-Iranian group that have resided north of the Indus River; 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, eastern-Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and northern-India.

## History
### Proto-Indo-Iranians

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 Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, 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. 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. Christopher I. Beckwith suggests that the Wusun, an Indo-European Caucasoid people of Inner Asia in antiquity, were also 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.

## List of historical Indo-Aryan peoples

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

## Contemporary Indo-Aryan people

* Assamese people
* Awadhi people
* Banjara people
* Bengali people
* Bhil people
* Bhojpuri people
* Bishnupriya Manipuri people
* Brokpa people
* Chittagonian people
* Deccani people
* Dhivehi people
* Dogra people
* Garhwali people
* Gujarati people
* Halba people
* Haryanvi 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
* 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