Indigenous Aryans
By Adesh Katariya
plast.adesh@gmail.com
The Indigenous Aryans theory
• The Indigenous Aryans theory, also known as the Out
of India theory, proposes that the Indo-European
languages, or at least the Indo-Aryan languages,
originated within the Indian subcontinent, as an
alternative to the established migration model which
proposes the Pontic steppe as the area of origin of
the IndoEuropean languages.
• The indigenist view sees the Indo-Aryan languages as
having a deep history in the Indian subcontinent, and
being the carriers of the Indus Valley Civilization.
• This view proposes an older date than is generally
accepted for the Vedic period, which is generally
considered to follow the decline of Harappan culture.
• It includes arguments against the Indo-Aryan
migration theory, and arguments to re-date
the Vedas and the presence of the Vedic
people in accordance with traditional, Vedic-
Puranic datings.
• The idea of "Indigenous Aryans" also implies a
migration "Out of India" to Europe and east
Asia.
• This is contrary to the mainstream scholarly
view, saying that the Indo-Aryan languages
originated outside India.
• The proposal has been entwined with political and
religious arguments, since it is based on traditional
and religious views on Indian history and its identity.
• There has also been resistance among some Indian
scholars to the idea that Indian culture can be
divided between external Indo-European and
indigenous Dravidian elements, a division which is
sometimes described as a legacy of colonial rule and
a hindrance to Indian national unity.
• The debate mostly exists among the scholars of
Hindu religion and the history and archaeology of
India, whereas historical linguists nearly
unanimously accept the migration model of Indic
origins.
Indo-European
Historical background
• The standard view on the origins of the Indo-
Aryans is the Indo-Aryan migration theory,
which states that they entered north-western
India at about 1500 BCE.
• An alternative view is the idea that the Aryans
are indigenous to India, which challenges the
standard view.
• In recent times the indigenous position has
come to the foreground of the public debate.
Indo-Aryan migration theory
• The Indo-Aryan Migration theory posits a migration
of Indo-European-speaking people from the Pontic
Steppes into Europe, the Levant, south Asia and east
Asia. It is part of the Kurgan-hypothesis/Revvised Steppe
Theory.
• Historical linguistics provides the main basis for the
theory, analysing the development and changes of
languages, and establishing relations between the
various Indo-European languages, and the time frame
wherein these languages developed.
• It also provides information about shared words, and the
corresponding area of the origin of Indo-European, and
the specific vocabulary which is to be ascribed to specific
regions.
Indo-Aryan migration theory
• The linguistic analyses and data are supplemented with
archaeological data and anthropological arguments, which
together provide a coherent model that is widely accepted.
• In the model, the Yamna culture is the "Urheimat" of the
Indo-Europeans,east of which emerged the Sintashta
culture (2100–1800 BC), from which developed
the Andronovo culture (1800–1400 BC).
• Andronovo culture interacted with the BMAC (2300–1700
BC) and, out of this interaction, developed the Indo-Iranians,
which split into the Indo-Aryan and the Iranian branches
around 1800 BC.
• The Indo-Aryans migrated to the Levant, northern India, and
possibly east Asia.
• The migration into northern India was not
necessarily a large-scale immigration, but may
have consisted of small groups,possibly of
ethnically and genetically heterogeneous
composition, who introduced their language and
social system into the new territory.
• These are then emulated by larger groups of
people,which become absorpted in the new
language group.
• Witzel also notes that "small-scale semi-annual
transhumance movements between the Indus
plains and the Afghan and Baluchi highlands
continue to this day."
"Aryan Invasion Theory"
• In the 1850s Max Müller introduced the notion of two Aryan
races, a western and an eastern one, who migrated from the
Caucasus into Europe and India respectively.
• Müller dichotomized the two groups, ascribing greater
prominence and value to the western branch. Nevertheless,
this "eastern branch of the Aryan race was more powerful
than the indigenous eastern natives, who were easy to
conquer”.
By the 1880s, his ideas had been "hijacked" by
racist ethnologists. For example, as an exponent of race
science, colonial administrator Herbert Hope Risley (1851 –
1911) used the ratio of the width of a nose to its height to
divide Indian people into Aryan and Dravidian races, as well
as seven castes and found Gurjar as Purest Aryans.
• The idea of an Aryan "invasion" was fueled after the
discovery of the Indus Valley Civilisation, also called
Harappan Civilisation.
• The Indus Valley Civilisation underwent decline at
precisely the period at which the Indo-Aryan migration
occurred.
• This led to the idea that this migration was actually an
aggressive invasion which caused the decline of the
Harappan Civilisation.
• This argument was developed 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 conquests.
• He famously stated that the Vedic god "Indra stands
accused" of the destruction of the Indus Civilisation.
• Nevertheless, critics of the Indo-Aryan Migration
theory use it to present the Indo-Aryan Migration
theory as an "Aryan Invasion Theory".
• According to Witzel, the invasion model was
criticised by Indigenous Aryanists for its allegedly
racist and colonialist undertones:
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
Indo-Iranian migrations according to
Kazanas
Indigenous Aryanism
• The "Indigenist position" started to take shape
after the discovery of the Harappan Civilisation,
which predates the Vedas.
• According to this alternative view, the Aryans are
indigenous to India, the Indus Civilisation is the
Vedic Civilisation, the Vedas are older than the
second millennium BCE, there is no difference
between the (northern) Indo-European part and
the (southern) Dravidian part, and the Indo-
European languages radiated out from a homeland
in India into their present locations.
• These ideas are based on the Puranas,
the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, which contain lists
of kings and genealogies,which are used for the
traditional chronology of India's ancient history.
• "Indigenists" follow a "Puranic agenda",emphasizing that
these lists go back to the fourth millennium BCE.
• Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador to the Maurya court
at Patna at ca. 300 BCE, reported to have heard of a
traditional list of 153 kings that covered 6042 years,
beyond the traditional beginning of the Kaliyuga at 3102
BCE.
• The royal lists are based on Bardic traditions, and are
derived from lists which were orally transmitted and
constantly reshaped by the Sūta bards.
• These lists are supplemented with astronomical
interpretations, which are also used to reach an earlier
dating for the Rg Veda.
• Along with this comes a redating of historical personages
and events, in which the Buddha is dated to 1700 BCE or
even 3139/8 BCE, and Chandragupta Maurya (c. 300 BCE)
is replaced by Chandragupta, the Gupta king.
• In August 1995, a gathering of 43 historians and
archaeologists from South-Indian universities (at the
initiative of Prof. K.M. Rao, Dr. N. Mahalingam and Dr. S.D.
Kulkarni) passed a resolution fixing the date of the Bharata
war at 3139-38 BC and declaring this date to be the true
sheet anchor of Indian chronology
• The Vedic Foundation gives a chronology of ancient
India (Bharata), which starts in 3228 BCE with the
descension of Bhagwan Krishna.
• The Mahabharata War is dated at 3139 BCE, while
various dynasties are dated more than a millennium
earlier,Gautama Buddha is dated at 1894-1814
BCE, and Jagadguru Shankaracharya at 509-477 BCE.
• These ideas provide a continues chronology of India,
in contrast to the discontinuity between the
Harappan end Vedic period:
[T]he Indian civilization must be viewed as an unbroken
tradition that goes back to the earliest period of the
Sindhu-Sarasvati (or Indus) tradition (7000 or 8000 BC)
• The idea of "Indigenous Aryanism" fits into
traditional Hindu ideas about their religion, namely
that it has timeless origins, with the Vedic Aryans
inhabiting India since ancient times. The Vedic
Foundation states:
The history of Bharatvarsh (which is now called India) is
the description of the timeless glory of the Divine
dignitaries who not only Graced the soils of India with
their presence and Divine intelligence, but they also
showed and revealed the true path of peace, happiness
and the Divine enlightenment for the souls of the world
that still is the guideline for the true lovers of God who
desire to taste the sweetness of His Divine love in an
intimate style.
"Indigenous Aryans" scenarios
Michael Witzel identifies three major types of "Indigenous
Aryans" scenarios:
1) A "mild" version that insists on the indigeneity of the
Rigvedic Aryans to the North-Western region of the Indian
subcontinent in the tradition of Aurobindo and Dayananda;
2) The "out of India" school that posits India as the Proto-Indo-
European homeland, originally proposed in the 18th century,
revived by the Hindutva sympathiser Koenraad Elst (1999),
and further popularised within Hindu nationalismby Shrikant
Talageri (2000);
3) The position that all the world's languages and civilisations
derive from India, represented e.g. by David Frawley.
Kazanas adds a fourth scenario;
The Aryans entered the Indus Valley before 4500 BC and got
integrated with the Harappans, or might have been the
Harappans.
Main arguments of the "Indigenists"
• The idea of "Indigenous Aryans" is supported
with specific interpretations of archaeological,
genetic, and linguistic data, and on literary
interpretations of the Rigveda.
• Standard arguments, both in support of the
"Indigenous Aryans" theory, and in opposition
the mainstream Indo-Aryan Migration theory,
are shown in next slides.
Questioning the IAMt
• Presenting the Indo-Aryan Migration theory as an
"Indo-Aryan Invasion theory";
• Questioning the methodology of linguistics;
• Reinterpretation of the linguistic data, arguing for
the ancient, indigenous origins of Sanskrit;
• Pointing to the supposed lack
of genetic and archaeological evidence to support
such an "invasion" into North West India;
• Contesting the possibility that small groups can
change culture and languages in a major way;
Re-dating India's chronology,
re-establishing the Vedic-Puranic chronology
• Dating the Rigveda and the Vedic people to the
3rd millennium BC or earlier;
• Identifying the Sarasvati River with the Ghaggar-
Hakra River, which dried up c. 2000 BC;
• Identifying the Vedic people with the Harappan
Civilisation;
• Equating the Harappan Civilisation, Vedic Culture
and the Vedic-Puranic chronology.
Aurobindo's Aryan person
• For Aurobindo, an "Aryan" was not a person who
belonged to a particular race, but a person who "accepted
a particular type of self-culture, of inward and outward
practice, of ideality, of aspiration.“
• He wanted to revive India's strength by reviving the Aryan
strength and character.
• Aurobindo denied the historicity of a racial division in
India between "Aryan invaders" and a native dark-skinned
population.
• Nevertheless, he did accept two kinds of culture in ancient
India, namely the Aryan culture of northern and central
India and Afghanistan, and the un-Aryan culture of the
east, south and west.
• Thus, he accepted the division of European historians
between two types of cultural configurations.
The "emerging Out of India" model
• The "Out of India theory" (OIT), also known as
the "Indian Urheimat Theory," is the
proposition that the Indo-European language
family originated in Northern India and spread
to the remainder of the Indo-European region
through a series of migrations.
• It implies that the people of the Harappan
civilisation were linguistically Indo-Aryans.
Map showing the spread of the Proto-Indo-European
language from the Indus Valley. Dates are those of the
"emerging non-invasionist model" according to Elst.
Theoretical overview
• Koenraad Elst, in his Update in the Aryan Invasion
Debate, investigates "the developing arguments
concerning the Aryan Invasion Theory".
• Elst notes: Personally, I don't think that either theory, of
Aryan invasion and of Aryan indigenousness, can claim
to have been proven by prevalent standards of proof;
even though one of the contenders is getting closer.
• Indeed, while I have enjoyed pointing out the flaws in
the AIT statements of the politicized Indian academic
establishment and its American amplifiers, I cannot rule
out the possibility that the theory which they are
defending may still have its merits.
• Edwin Bryant also notes that Elst's model is a
"theoretical exercise:"
...a purely theoretical linguistic exercise […] as an
experiment to determine whether India can
definitively be excluded as a possible homeland. If it
cannot, then this further problematizes the
possibility of a homeland ever being established
anywhere on linguistic grounds.
• And in Indo-Aryan Controversy Bryant notes:
Elst, perhaps more in a mood of devil’s advocacy, toys
with the evidence to show how it can be reconfigured,
and to claim that no linguistic evidence has yet been
produced to exclude India as a homeland that cannot be
reconfigured to promote it as such.
"The emerging alternative"
• Koenraad Elst summarises "the emerging alternative to the Aryan
Invasion Theory" as follows.
• During the 6th millennium BC Proto-Indo-Europeans lived in
the Punjab region of northern India. As the result of demographic
expansion, they spread into Bactria as the Kambojas.
• The Paradas moved further and inhabited the Caspian coast and
much of central Asia while the Cinas moved northwards and
inhabited the Tarim Basin in northwestern China, forming
the Tocharian group of I-E speakers. These groups were Proto-
Anatolian and inhabited that region by 2000 BC. These people
took the oldest form of the Proto Indo-European (PIE) language
with them and, while interacting with people of the Anatolian
and Balkan region, transformed it into a separate dialect. While
inhabiting central Asia they discovered the uses of the horse,
which they later sent back to the Urheimat.
Later on during their history, they went on to occupy western Europe
and thus spread the Indo-European languages to that region
• During the 4th millennium BC, civilization in
India started evolving into what became the
urban Indus Valley Civilization.
• During this time, the PIE languages evolved
to Proto-Indo-Iranian.
• Some time during this period, the Indo-Iranians
began to separate as the result of internal
rivalry and conflict, with the Iranians expanding
westwards towards Mesopotamia and Persia,
these possibly were the Pahlavas.
• They also expanded into parts of central Asia. By the
end of this migration, India was left with the Proto-
Indo-Aryans.
• At the end of the Mature Harappan period, the
Sarasvati river began drying up and the remainder of
the Indo-Aryans split into separate groups.
• Some travelled westwards and established themselves
as rulers of the Hurrian Mitanni kingdom by around
1500 BC .
• Others travelled eastwards and inhabited
the Gangetic basin while others travelled southwards
and interacted with the Dravidian people.
Hindu revivalism and nationalism
• In contrast to the mainstream views, the Hindu
revivalist movements denied an external origin to
Aryans.
• Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of the Arya
Samaj (Society of Aryans), held that Vedas were
the source of all knowledge that were revealed to
the Aryans.
• The first man (an Aryan) was created in Tibet and,
after living there for some time, the Aryans came
down and inhabited India, which was devoid of
any people earlier.
• The Theosophical Society held that the Aryans were
indigenous to India, but that they were also the
progenitors of the European civilisation.
• The Society saw a dichotomy between the
spiritualism of India and the materialism of Europe.
• The Hindu nationalists, led
by Savarkar and Golwalkar, eager to construct a
Hindu identity for the nation, held that the original
Hindus were the Aryans and that they were
indigenous to India.
• There was no Aryan invasion and no conflict among
the people of India. The Aryans spoke Sanskrit and
spread the Aryan civilization from India to the west.
• The Theosophical Society held that the Aryans were
indigenous to India, but that they were also the
progenitors of the European civilisation. The Society
saw a dichotomy between the spiritualism of India
and the materialism of Europe.
• The Hindu nationalists, led
by Savarkar and Golwalkar, eager to construct a
Hindu identity for the nation, held that the original
Hindus were the Aryans and that they were
indigenous to India.
• There was no Aryan invasion and no conflict among
the people of India. The Aryans spoke Sanskrit and
spread the Aryan civilization from India to the west.
• Lars Martin Fosse notes the political significance
of "Indigenous Aryanism". He notes that
"Indigenous Aryanism" has been adopted by
Hindu nationalists as a part of their ideology,
which makes it a political matter in addition to a
scholarly problem.
• The proponents of Indigenous Aryanism
necessarily engage in "moral disqualification" of
Western Indology, which is a recurrent theme in
much of the indigenist literature.
• The same rhetoric is being used in indigenist
literature and the Hindu nationalist publications
like the Organiser.
• Witzel traces the "indigenous Aryan" idea to the writings
of Savarkar and Golwalkar.
• Golwalkar (1939) denied any immigration of "Aryans" to
the subcontinent, stressing that all Hindus have always
been "children of the soil", a notion which according to
Witzel is reminiscent of the blood and soil of
contemporary fascism .
• Since these ideas emerged on the brink of the
internationalist and socially oriented Nehru-Gandhi
government, they lay dormant for several decades, and
only rose to prominence in the 1980s.
• Bergunder likewise identifies Golwalkar as the originator
of the "Indigenous Aryans" notion, and Goel's Voice of
India as the instrument of its rise to notability.
Current form of Aryans: Gurjar, Jat
Rajputs of India
• The Vedic Vayupurana describes a battle waged among the ancient Aryans.
It was as a result of this war that Anavs part of the Chandravanshi clan and
Gurtar ( Guzar ) of suryabanshi had to immigrate to wester Aryabart area
of modern Iran (Iran means "land of Aryans") to Tarim basin.
• It was in these regions, where the fertile soil of the mountainous country
is surrounded by the Turanian desert, that the prophet Zarathushtra
(Zoroaster) was said to have been born and gained his first
adherents. Avestan, the language of the oldest portions of
the Zoroastrian Avesta, was once called "old-iranic" which is related
to Sanskrit.
• Chandravansi known as Sythians ( Jats and Rajputs) and Suryabanshi
known as Guzar by Tibbetian , Yuezhi by Chineese , Tocharian by Romans
and Tushara by Indians, currently known as Gurjar in India and Gujjar in
Pakistan
Formation of Kushana Empire
• In 176 BC, the Yuezhi were driven from Tarim Besin to
westward by the Xiongnu, a fierce people of Magnolia.
• The Yuezhi under the leadership of the Kushanas came down
from Central Asia and swept away all earlier dynasties of the
Northwest in a great campaign of conquest. They established
an empire which extended from Central Asia right down to the
eastern Gangetic basin.
• In Bactria, they conquered the Scythians and the local Indo-
Greek kingdoms, the last remnants of Alexander the Great's
invasion force that had failed to take India.
• From this central location, the Kushan Empire became a
wealthy trading hub between the peoples of Han China,
Sassanid Persia and the Roman Empire.
• Roman gold and Chinese silk changed hands in the Kushan
Empire, at a very tidy profit for the middle-men.
Kushana Empire Map
Gurjars are Purest Aryans
• Gurjars are purest form of aryans as the survey depicts. All the
details are given in the book The People Of India By Herbert Risley,
W. Crooke.
• The classification in general use is - leptorrhine (fine nose) if the
nasal index is < 70, mesorrhine is it is between 70-85 and
platyrrhine (broad-nosed) if it is > 85.
• The Indo-Aryan is comparable to the European, fopr the French of
Paris have a nasal index of 69.4 as measurd by Topinard [ Ris 28-9 ].
• According to Sir H.H.Risley, the nose of Sudras is very similar to that
of the lowest Negro types.
• The nasal index frequently reaches more than 100. The Paniyans of
Malabar have an average nasal index of 95, while certain individual
Kadias of Tamil Nad measured 115.
Nasal Index of Gurjars is lowest ,
which means minimum mixing of
non Aryan Blood
• No. Tribe Nasal Index Nasal Type
1. Gurjar 66.9 Leptorrhine
2. Sikh and Jat 68.8 Leptorrhine
3. Brahman (Bengal) 70.3 Sub-Leptorrhine
4. Kayasth (Bengal) 70.3 Sub-Leptorrhine
5. Rajput 71.6 Sub-Leptorrhine
6. Vellala 73.1 Sub-Platyrrhine
7. Brahman (Bihar) 73.2 Sub-Leptorrhine
8. Brahman (Bhojpur) 74.6 Sub-Leptorrhine
9. Tamil Brahman 76.7 Sub-Leptorrhine
10. Vaisya (Bania) 79.6 Sub-Leptorrhine
Aryan Practice : Khaps
• Khap is generally a unit of 12 villages or multiple of 12 i.e. 24,
60 or 84 villages of a particular clan or gotra of tribe or caste.
Khaps are generally found in North western India, among
Gurjara, Jats and Rajputs.
• Famous historian R S Sharma ascribes the formation of these
units of 12 villages or its multiples to the Gurjara Pratihara’s or
their feudatories rule in North Western India during the early
medieval period. He says what distinguished the Gurjara
Pratihara polity from that of contemporary Rastrakutas and
Palas was the imposition of clan aristocracies on old, settled
villages. He further says that Gujar imposed themselves as
dominant clans on settled villages.
Source : Research Article of Dr. Sushil Bhati
• The tribal practice that spoils should be distributed
among the members of the tribe led to the
apportionment of villages among the conquering
chiefs, some of them received them in units of 84.
• It implies that Khaps constitute the clan aristocracies
of Gurjara Pratihara empire system or polity.
• It also implies that Jat clans formed the bulk of
Gurjara Pratihara army along the clans of leading
Gurjara tribe. Arab traveler Al Masudi informs in his
book ‘Muruz-ul-zahab’ that Gurjara Pratihara had
four armies, each having 7 to 9 lakhs soldiers. Such
vast army of around 28-36 lakhs men is only possible
if all such clan aristocracies imposed on old, settled
villages are included in it.
• The upper doab of Ganga and Yamuna comprises the
Modern district of Saharanpur, Haridwar, Shamli,
Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Meerut, Hapur, Ghaziabad,
Bulandshahar and Gautam Budh Nagar.
• The Trans Yamuna region of East Delhi also fall in the upper
doab.Some major khaps of Upper Doab of Ganga and
Yamuna are as follows-
1. ‘Khubar’ Panwar Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 84 villages in
Saharanpur district.
2. Butar Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 52 villages in Saharanpur district.
3. Chokker khap of Gurjaras comprising of 24 villages in Saharanpur
district.
4. Kalsian Chauhan Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 84 Villages in
Khandhla- Kairana area in shamli district.
5. Baliyan Khap of Jats comprising of 84 villages in Shamli- Muzaffarnagar
area.
6. Malik Khap of Jats comprising of 45 villages in Shamli-Muzaffarpur area.
7. Rajput khap of 24 villages in Sardhana area of Meerut district.
8. Tomar Khap of Rajputs comprising of 12 Villages in
Meerut
9. Bhadana Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 12 villages
in Meerut
10. Chaprana Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 12
villages in Meerut-Baghpat area
11. Huna Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 12 villages in
Meerut-Hapur area
12. Salaklain khap of Jats comprising of 84 villages in
Baghpat district.
13. Bainsla Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 12 villages.
14. Kasana khap of Gurjaras comprising of 12 villages
15. Ahir khap of 24 villages in Bulanshahar district.
16. Bhati khap of Gurjaras comprising of 360
villages in Gautam Budh Nagar. 360 seem to be
traditional figure as we have only around 100
villages of this clan. In Medieval times Kaasnaa
and Dadri were their seats of power. 7 villages of
Bhati Rajputs are also found along with this
group in Gautam Budh Nagar district.
17. Nangdi Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 24
villages in Gautam Budh Nagar
18. Tomar Rajput Khap of 24 Villages in Dhaulana
area of Ghaziabad.
19. Dedha Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 24
villages in East Delhi.
Thanks

Indigenous aryans

  • 1.
  • 3.
    The Indigenous Aryanstheory • The Indigenous Aryans theory, also known as the Out of India theory, proposes that the Indo-European languages, or at least the Indo-Aryan languages, originated within the Indian subcontinent, as an alternative to the established migration model which proposes the Pontic steppe as the area of origin of the IndoEuropean languages. • The indigenist view sees the Indo-Aryan languages as having a deep history in the Indian subcontinent, and being the carriers of the Indus Valley Civilization. • This view proposes an older date than is generally accepted for the Vedic period, which is generally considered to follow the decline of Harappan culture.
  • 4.
    • It includesarguments against the Indo-Aryan migration theory, and arguments to re-date the Vedas and the presence of the Vedic people in accordance with traditional, Vedic- Puranic datings. • The idea of "Indigenous Aryans" also implies a migration "Out of India" to Europe and east Asia. • This is contrary to the mainstream scholarly view, saying that the Indo-Aryan languages originated outside India.
  • 5.
    • The proposalhas been entwined with political and religious arguments, since it is based on traditional and religious views on Indian history and its identity. • There has also been resistance among some Indian scholars to the idea that Indian culture can be divided between external Indo-European and indigenous Dravidian elements, a division which is sometimes described as a legacy of colonial rule and a hindrance to Indian national unity. • The debate mostly exists among the scholars of Hindu religion and the history and archaeology of India, whereas historical linguists nearly unanimously accept the migration model of Indic origins.
  • 6.
  • 7.
    Historical background • Thestandard view on the origins of the Indo- Aryans is the Indo-Aryan migration theory, which states that they entered north-western India at about 1500 BCE. • An alternative view is the idea that the Aryans are indigenous to India, which challenges the standard view. • In recent times the indigenous position has come to the foreground of the public debate.
  • 8.
    Indo-Aryan migration theory •The Indo-Aryan Migration theory posits a migration of Indo-European-speaking people from the Pontic Steppes into Europe, the Levant, south Asia and east Asia. It is part of the Kurgan-hypothesis/Revvised Steppe Theory. • Historical linguistics provides the main basis for the theory, analysing the development and changes of languages, and establishing relations between the various Indo-European languages, and the time frame wherein these languages developed. • It also provides information about shared words, and the corresponding area of the origin of Indo-European, and the specific vocabulary which is to be ascribed to specific regions.
  • 9.
    Indo-Aryan migration theory •The linguistic analyses and data are supplemented with archaeological data and anthropological arguments, which together provide a coherent model that is widely accepted. • In the model, the Yamna culture is the "Urheimat" of the Indo-Europeans,east of which emerged the Sintashta culture (2100–1800 BC), from which developed the Andronovo culture (1800–1400 BC). • Andronovo culture interacted with the BMAC (2300–1700 BC) and, out of this interaction, developed the Indo-Iranians, which split into the Indo-Aryan and the Iranian branches around 1800 BC. • The Indo-Aryans migrated to the Levant, northern India, and possibly east Asia.
  • 10.
    • The migrationinto northern India was not necessarily a large-scale immigration, but may have consisted of small groups,possibly of ethnically and genetically heterogeneous composition, who introduced their language and social system into the new territory. • These are then emulated by larger groups of people,which become absorpted in the new language group. • Witzel also notes that "small-scale semi-annual transhumance movements between the Indus plains and the Afghan and Baluchi highlands continue to this day."
  • 11.
    "Aryan Invasion Theory" •In the 1850s Max Müller introduced the notion of two Aryan races, a western and an eastern one, who migrated from the Caucasus into Europe and India respectively. • Müller dichotomized the two groups, ascribing greater prominence and value to the western branch. Nevertheless, this "eastern branch of the Aryan race was more powerful than the indigenous eastern natives, who were easy to conquer”. By the 1880s, his ideas had been "hijacked" by racist ethnologists. For example, as an exponent of race science, colonial administrator Herbert Hope Risley (1851 – 1911) used the ratio of the width of a nose to its height to divide Indian people into Aryan and Dravidian races, as well as seven castes and found Gurjar as Purest Aryans.
  • 12.
    • The ideaof an Aryan "invasion" was fueled after the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilisation, also called Harappan Civilisation. • The Indus Valley Civilisation underwent decline at precisely the period at which the Indo-Aryan migration occurred. • This led to the idea that this migration was actually an aggressive invasion which caused the decline of the Harappan Civilisation. • This argument was developed 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 conquests. • He famously stated that the Vedic god "Indra stands accused" of the destruction of the Indus Civilisation.
  • 13.
    • Nevertheless, criticsof the Indo-Aryan Migration theory use it to present the Indo-Aryan Migration theory as an "Aryan Invasion Theory". • According to Witzel, the invasion model was criticised by Indigenous Aryanists for its allegedly racist and colonialist undertones: 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
  • 14.
  • 15.
    Indigenous Aryanism • The"Indigenist position" started to take shape after the discovery of the Harappan Civilisation, which predates the Vedas. • According to this alternative view, the Aryans are indigenous to India, the Indus Civilisation is the Vedic Civilisation, the Vedas are older than the second millennium BCE, there is no difference between the (northern) Indo-European part and the (southern) Dravidian part, and the Indo- European languages radiated out from a homeland in India into their present locations.
  • 16.
    • These ideasare based on the Puranas, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, which contain lists of kings and genealogies,which are used for the traditional chronology of India's ancient history. • "Indigenists" follow a "Puranic agenda",emphasizing that these lists go back to the fourth millennium BCE. • Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador to the Maurya court at Patna at ca. 300 BCE, reported to have heard of a traditional list of 153 kings that covered 6042 years, beyond the traditional beginning of the Kaliyuga at 3102 BCE. • The royal lists are based on Bardic traditions, and are derived from lists which were orally transmitted and constantly reshaped by the Sūta bards.
  • 17.
    • These listsare supplemented with astronomical interpretations, which are also used to reach an earlier dating for the Rg Veda. • Along with this comes a redating of historical personages and events, in which the Buddha is dated to 1700 BCE or even 3139/8 BCE, and Chandragupta Maurya (c. 300 BCE) is replaced by Chandragupta, the Gupta king. • In August 1995, a gathering of 43 historians and archaeologists from South-Indian universities (at the initiative of Prof. K.M. Rao, Dr. N. Mahalingam and Dr. S.D. Kulkarni) passed a resolution fixing the date of the Bharata war at 3139-38 BC and declaring this date to be the true sheet anchor of Indian chronology
  • 18.
    • The VedicFoundation gives a chronology of ancient India (Bharata), which starts in 3228 BCE with the descension of Bhagwan Krishna. • The Mahabharata War is dated at 3139 BCE, while various dynasties are dated more than a millennium earlier,Gautama Buddha is dated at 1894-1814 BCE, and Jagadguru Shankaracharya at 509-477 BCE. • These ideas provide a continues chronology of India, in contrast to the discontinuity between the Harappan end Vedic period: [T]he Indian civilization must be viewed as an unbroken tradition that goes back to the earliest period of the Sindhu-Sarasvati (or Indus) tradition (7000 or 8000 BC)
  • 19.
    • The ideaof "Indigenous Aryanism" fits into traditional Hindu ideas about their religion, namely that it has timeless origins, with the Vedic Aryans inhabiting India since ancient times. The Vedic Foundation states: The history of Bharatvarsh (which is now called India) is the description of the timeless glory of the Divine dignitaries who not only Graced the soils of India with their presence and Divine intelligence, but they also showed and revealed the true path of peace, happiness and the Divine enlightenment for the souls of the world that still is the guideline for the true lovers of God who desire to taste the sweetness of His Divine love in an intimate style.
  • 20.
    "Indigenous Aryans" scenarios MichaelWitzel identifies three major types of "Indigenous Aryans" scenarios: 1) A "mild" version that insists on the indigeneity of the Rigvedic Aryans to the North-Western region of the Indian subcontinent in the tradition of Aurobindo and Dayananda; 2) The "out of India" school that posits India as the Proto-Indo- European homeland, originally proposed in the 18th century, revived by the Hindutva sympathiser Koenraad Elst (1999), and further popularised within Hindu nationalismby Shrikant Talageri (2000); 3) The position that all the world's languages and civilisations derive from India, represented e.g. by David Frawley. Kazanas adds a fourth scenario; The Aryans entered the Indus Valley before 4500 BC and got integrated with the Harappans, or might have been the Harappans.
  • 21.
    Main arguments ofthe "Indigenists" • The idea of "Indigenous Aryans" is supported with specific interpretations of archaeological, genetic, and linguistic data, and on literary interpretations of the Rigveda. • Standard arguments, both in support of the "Indigenous Aryans" theory, and in opposition the mainstream Indo-Aryan Migration theory, are shown in next slides.
  • 22.
    Questioning the IAMt •Presenting the Indo-Aryan Migration theory as an "Indo-Aryan Invasion theory"; • Questioning the methodology of linguistics; • Reinterpretation of the linguistic data, arguing for the ancient, indigenous origins of Sanskrit; • Pointing to the supposed lack of genetic and archaeological evidence to support such an "invasion" into North West India; • Contesting the possibility that small groups can change culture and languages in a major way;
  • 23.
    Re-dating India's chronology, re-establishingthe Vedic-Puranic chronology • Dating the Rigveda and the Vedic people to the 3rd millennium BC or earlier; • Identifying the Sarasvati River with the Ghaggar- Hakra River, which dried up c. 2000 BC; • Identifying the Vedic people with the Harappan Civilisation; • Equating the Harappan Civilisation, Vedic Culture and the Vedic-Puranic chronology.
  • 24.
    Aurobindo's Aryan person •For Aurobindo, an "Aryan" was not a person who belonged to a particular race, but a person who "accepted a particular type of self-culture, of inward and outward practice, of ideality, of aspiration.“ • He wanted to revive India's strength by reviving the Aryan strength and character. • Aurobindo denied the historicity of a racial division in India between "Aryan invaders" and a native dark-skinned population. • Nevertheless, he did accept two kinds of culture in ancient India, namely the Aryan culture of northern and central India and Afghanistan, and the un-Aryan culture of the east, south and west. • Thus, he accepted the division of European historians between two types of cultural configurations.
  • 25.
    The "emerging Outof India" model • The "Out of India theory" (OIT), also known as the "Indian Urheimat Theory," is the proposition that the Indo-European language family originated in Northern India and spread to the remainder of the Indo-European region through a series of migrations. • It implies that the people of the Harappan civilisation were linguistically Indo-Aryans.
  • 26.
    Map showing thespread of the Proto-Indo-European language from the Indus Valley. Dates are those of the "emerging non-invasionist model" according to Elst.
  • 27.
    Theoretical overview • KoenraadElst, in his Update in the Aryan Invasion Debate, investigates "the developing arguments concerning the Aryan Invasion Theory". • Elst notes: Personally, I don't think that either theory, of Aryan invasion and of Aryan indigenousness, can claim to have been proven by prevalent standards of proof; even though one of the contenders is getting closer. • Indeed, while I have enjoyed pointing out the flaws in the AIT statements of the politicized Indian academic establishment and its American amplifiers, I cannot rule out the possibility that the theory which they are defending may still have its merits.
  • 28.
    • Edwin Bryantalso notes that Elst's model is a "theoretical exercise:" ...a purely theoretical linguistic exercise […] as an experiment to determine whether India can definitively be excluded as a possible homeland. If it cannot, then this further problematizes the possibility of a homeland ever being established anywhere on linguistic grounds. • And in Indo-Aryan Controversy Bryant notes: Elst, perhaps more in a mood of devil’s advocacy, toys with the evidence to show how it can be reconfigured, and to claim that no linguistic evidence has yet been produced to exclude India as a homeland that cannot be reconfigured to promote it as such.
  • 29.
    "The emerging alternative" •Koenraad Elst summarises "the emerging alternative to the Aryan Invasion Theory" as follows. • During the 6th millennium BC Proto-Indo-Europeans lived in the Punjab region of northern India. As the result of demographic expansion, they spread into Bactria as the Kambojas. • The Paradas moved further and inhabited the Caspian coast and much of central Asia while the Cinas moved northwards and inhabited the Tarim Basin in northwestern China, forming the Tocharian group of I-E speakers. These groups were Proto- Anatolian and inhabited that region by 2000 BC. These people took the oldest form of the Proto Indo-European (PIE) language with them and, while interacting with people of the Anatolian and Balkan region, transformed it into a separate dialect. While inhabiting central Asia they discovered the uses of the horse, which they later sent back to the Urheimat. Later on during their history, they went on to occupy western Europe and thus spread the Indo-European languages to that region
  • 30.
    • During the4th millennium BC, civilization in India started evolving into what became the urban Indus Valley Civilization. • During this time, the PIE languages evolved to Proto-Indo-Iranian. • Some time during this period, the Indo-Iranians began to separate as the result of internal rivalry and conflict, with the Iranians expanding westwards towards Mesopotamia and Persia, these possibly were the Pahlavas.
  • 31.
    • They alsoexpanded into parts of central Asia. By the end of this migration, India was left with the Proto- Indo-Aryans. • At the end of the Mature Harappan period, the Sarasvati river began drying up and the remainder of the Indo-Aryans split into separate groups. • Some travelled westwards and established themselves as rulers of the Hurrian Mitanni kingdom by around 1500 BC . • Others travelled eastwards and inhabited the Gangetic basin while others travelled southwards and interacted with the Dravidian people.
  • 32.
    Hindu revivalism andnationalism • In contrast to the mainstream views, the Hindu revivalist movements denied an external origin to Aryans. • Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of the Arya Samaj (Society of Aryans), held that Vedas were the source of all knowledge that were revealed to the Aryans. • The first man (an Aryan) was created in Tibet and, after living there for some time, the Aryans came down and inhabited India, which was devoid of any people earlier.
  • 33.
    • The TheosophicalSociety held that the Aryans were indigenous to India, but that they were also the progenitors of the European civilisation. • The Society saw a dichotomy between the spiritualism of India and the materialism of Europe. • The Hindu nationalists, led by Savarkar and Golwalkar, eager to construct a Hindu identity for the nation, held that the original Hindus were the Aryans and that they were indigenous to India. • There was no Aryan invasion and no conflict among the people of India. The Aryans spoke Sanskrit and spread the Aryan civilization from India to the west.
  • 34.
    • The TheosophicalSociety held that the Aryans were indigenous to India, but that they were also the progenitors of the European civilisation. The Society saw a dichotomy between the spiritualism of India and the materialism of Europe. • The Hindu nationalists, led by Savarkar and Golwalkar, eager to construct a Hindu identity for the nation, held that the original Hindus were the Aryans and that they were indigenous to India. • There was no Aryan invasion and no conflict among the people of India. The Aryans spoke Sanskrit and spread the Aryan civilization from India to the west.
  • 35.
    • Lars MartinFosse notes the political significance of "Indigenous Aryanism". He notes that "Indigenous Aryanism" has been adopted by Hindu nationalists as a part of their ideology, which makes it a political matter in addition to a scholarly problem. • The proponents of Indigenous Aryanism necessarily engage in "moral disqualification" of Western Indology, which is a recurrent theme in much of the indigenist literature. • The same rhetoric is being used in indigenist literature and the Hindu nationalist publications like the Organiser.
  • 36.
    • Witzel tracesthe "indigenous Aryan" idea to the writings of Savarkar and Golwalkar. • Golwalkar (1939) denied any immigration of "Aryans" to the subcontinent, stressing that all Hindus have always been "children of the soil", a notion which according to Witzel is reminiscent of the blood and soil of contemporary fascism . • Since these ideas emerged on the brink of the internationalist and socially oriented Nehru-Gandhi government, they lay dormant for several decades, and only rose to prominence in the 1980s. • Bergunder likewise identifies Golwalkar as the originator of the "Indigenous Aryans" notion, and Goel's Voice of India as the instrument of its rise to notability.
  • 37.
    Current form ofAryans: Gurjar, Jat Rajputs of India • The Vedic Vayupurana describes a battle waged among the ancient Aryans. It was as a result of this war that Anavs part of the Chandravanshi clan and Gurtar ( Guzar ) of suryabanshi had to immigrate to wester Aryabart area of modern Iran (Iran means "land of Aryans") to Tarim basin. • It was in these regions, where the fertile soil of the mountainous country is surrounded by the Turanian desert, that the prophet Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) was said to have been born and gained his first adherents. Avestan, the language of the oldest portions of the Zoroastrian Avesta, was once called "old-iranic" which is related to Sanskrit. • Chandravansi known as Sythians ( Jats and Rajputs) and Suryabanshi known as Guzar by Tibbetian , Yuezhi by Chineese , Tocharian by Romans and Tushara by Indians, currently known as Gurjar in India and Gujjar in Pakistan
  • 38.
    Formation of KushanaEmpire • In 176 BC, the Yuezhi were driven from Tarim Besin to westward by the Xiongnu, a fierce people of Magnolia. • The Yuezhi under the leadership of the Kushanas came down from Central Asia and swept away all earlier dynasties of the Northwest in a great campaign of conquest. They established an empire which extended from Central Asia right down to the eastern Gangetic basin. • In Bactria, they conquered the Scythians and the local Indo- Greek kingdoms, the last remnants of Alexander the Great's invasion force that had failed to take India. • From this central location, the Kushan Empire became a wealthy trading hub between the peoples of Han China, Sassanid Persia and the Roman Empire. • Roman gold and Chinese silk changed hands in the Kushan Empire, at a very tidy profit for the middle-men.
  • 39.
  • 40.
    Gurjars are PurestAryans • Gurjars are purest form of aryans as the survey depicts. All the details are given in the book The People Of India By Herbert Risley, W. Crooke. • The classification in general use is - leptorrhine (fine nose) if the nasal index is < 70, mesorrhine is it is between 70-85 and platyrrhine (broad-nosed) if it is > 85. • The Indo-Aryan is comparable to the European, fopr the French of Paris have a nasal index of 69.4 as measurd by Topinard [ Ris 28-9 ]. • According to Sir H.H.Risley, the nose of Sudras is very similar to that of the lowest Negro types. • The nasal index frequently reaches more than 100. The Paniyans of Malabar have an average nasal index of 95, while certain individual Kadias of Tamil Nad measured 115.
  • 41.
    Nasal Index ofGurjars is lowest , which means minimum mixing of non Aryan Blood • No. Tribe Nasal Index Nasal Type 1. Gurjar 66.9 Leptorrhine 2. Sikh and Jat 68.8 Leptorrhine 3. Brahman (Bengal) 70.3 Sub-Leptorrhine 4. Kayasth (Bengal) 70.3 Sub-Leptorrhine 5. Rajput 71.6 Sub-Leptorrhine 6. Vellala 73.1 Sub-Platyrrhine 7. Brahman (Bihar) 73.2 Sub-Leptorrhine 8. Brahman (Bhojpur) 74.6 Sub-Leptorrhine 9. Tamil Brahman 76.7 Sub-Leptorrhine 10. Vaisya (Bania) 79.6 Sub-Leptorrhine
  • 42.
    Aryan Practice :Khaps • Khap is generally a unit of 12 villages or multiple of 12 i.e. 24, 60 or 84 villages of a particular clan or gotra of tribe or caste. Khaps are generally found in North western India, among Gurjara, Jats and Rajputs. • Famous historian R S Sharma ascribes the formation of these units of 12 villages or its multiples to the Gurjara Pratihara’s or their feudatories rule in North Western India during the early medieval period. He says what distinguished the Gurjara Pratihara polity from that of contemporary Rastrakutas and Palas was the imposition of clan aristocracies on old, settled villages. He further says that Gujar imposed themselves as dominant clans on settled villages. Source : Research Article of Dr. Sushil Bhati
  • 43.
    • The tribalpractice that spoils should be distributed among the members of the tribe led to the apportionment of villages among the conquering chiefs, some of them received them in units of 84. • It implies that Khaps constitute the clan aristocracies of Gurjara Pratihara empire system or polity. • It also implies that Jat clans formed the bulk of Gurjara Pratihara army along the clans of leading Gurjara tribe. Arab traveler Al Masudi informs in his book ‘Muruz-ul-zahab’ that Gurjara Pratihara had four armies, each having 7 to 9 lakhs soldiers. Such vast army of around 28-36 lakhs men is only possible if all such clan aristocracies imposed on old, settled villages are included in it.
  • 44.
    • The upperdoab of Ganga and Yamuna comprises the Modern district of Saharanpur, Haridwar, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Meerut, Hapur, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahar and Gautam Budh Nagar. • The Trans Yamuna region of East Delhi also fall in the upper doab.Some major khaps of Upper Doab of Ganga and Yamuna are as follows- 1. ‘Khubar’ Panwar Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 84 villages in Saharanpur district. 2. Butar Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 52 villages in Saharanpur district. 3. Chokker khap of Gurjaras comprising of 24 villages in Saharanpur district. 4. Kalsian Chauhan Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 84 Villages in Khandhla- Kairana area in shamli district. 5. Baliyan Khap of Jats comprising of 84 villages in Shamli- Muzaffarnagar area. 6. Malik Khap of Jats comprising of 45 villages in Shamli-Muzaffarpur area. 7. Rajput khap of 24 villages in Sardhana area of Meerut district.
  • 45.
    8. Tomar Khapof Rajputs comprising of 12 Villages in Meerut 9. Bhadana Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 12 villages in Meerut 10. Chaprana Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 12 villages in Meerut-Baghpat area 11. Huna Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 12 villages in Meerut-Hapur area 12. Salaklain khap of Jats comprising of 84 villages in Baghpat district. 13. Bainsla Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 12 villages. 14. Kasana khap of Gurjaras comprising of 12 villages 15. Ahir khap of 24 villages in Bulanshahar district.
  • 46.
    16. Bhati khapof Gurjaras comprising of 360 villages in Gautam Budh Nagar. 360 seem to be traditional figure as we have only around 100 villages of this clan. In Medieval times Kaasnaa and Dadri were their seats of power. 7 villages of Bhati Rajputs are also found along with this group in Gautam Budh Nagar district. 17. Nangdi Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 24 villages in Gautam Budh Nagar 18. Tomar Rajput Khap of 24 Villages in Dhaulana area of Ghaziabad. 19. Dedha Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 24 villages in East Delhi.
  • 47.