Indo-Aryan peoples

Indo-Aryan peoples are a diverse collection of Indo-European peoples speaking Indo-Aryan languages in the Indian subcontinent. Historically, Aryans were the Indo-Iranian speaking pastoralists who migrated from Central Asia into South Asia and introduced the Proto-Indo-Aryan language. Today, the Indo-Aryan language speakers are found 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 the Indo-Aryans migrated further westward and founded the Mitanni kingdom in northern Syria; (c. 1500–1300 BC) the other group were 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 millennia 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.
While the Indo-Aryan linguistic group occupies mainly northern parts of India, genetically, all South Asians across the Indian subcontinent are descendants of a mix of South Asian hunter-gatherers, Iranian hunter-gatherers, and Central Asian steppe pastoralists in varying proportion. 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
Kambojas
Kalinga
Kasmira
Kekaya
Khasas
Kikata
Koliya
Kosala
Kurus
Licchavis
Madra
Magadhis
Malavas
Mallakas
Mātsyeyas
Moriya
Nishadhas
Odra
Pakthas
Panchala
Paundra
Puru
Salva
Salwa
Saraswata
Sauvira
Shakya
Sindhu
Sudra
Surasena
Trigarta
Utkala
Vanga
Vatsa
Vidarbha
Videha
Yadava
Yadu
Contemporary Indo-Aryan people
Assamese people
Awadhi people
Banjara people
Bengali people
Bhil people
Bhojpuri people
Bishnupriya Manipuri people
Brokpa people
Chakma 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
Muhajir people
Maithil people
Marathi people
Marwari people
Nagpuria people
Odia people
Palula people
Pashayi people
Punjabi people
Rajasthani people
Romani people
Rohingya people
Sadan people
Saraiki people
Saurashtra people
Shina people
Sindhi people
Sinhalese people
Thari people
Tharu people
Thori 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
Indian diaspora
References
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
Indo-European peoples
Ancient peoples of India
Ancient peoples of Pakistan
Ancient peoples of Nepal