Indigenous Aryanism

3189:(RSS). In contrast to many other of their openly offensive teachings, the Hindu nationalists did not seek to keep the question of the Aryan migration out of public discourses or to modify it; rather, efforts were made to help the theory of the indigenousness of the Hindus achieve public recognition. For this the initiative of the publisher Sita Ram Goel (b. 1921) was decisive. Goel may be considered one of the most radical, but at the same time also one of the most intellectual, of the Hindu nationalist ideologues. Since 1981 Goel has run a publishing house named ‘Voice of India' that is one of the few which publishes Hindu nationalist literature in English which at the same time makes a 'scientific' claim. Although no official connections exist, the books of 'Voice of India' — which are of outstanding typographical quality and are sold at a subsidized price — are widespread among the ranks of the leaders of the Sangh Parivar. The increasing political influence of Hindu nationalism in the 1990s resulted in attempts to revise the Aryan migration theory also becoming known to the academic public. 3605:

long-abandoned theory of Aryan warrior bands attacking and subjugating the peaceful Indus civilization. This dramatic scenario, popularized by Sir Mortimer Wheeler, had white marauders from the northwest enslave the black aboriginals, so that "Indra stands accused" of destroying the Harappan civilization. Only the extremist fringe of the Indian Dalit (ex-Untouchable) movement and its Afrocentric allies in the USA now insist on this black-and-white narrative (vide Rajshekar 1987; Biswas 1995). But, for this once, I believe the extremists have a point. North India's linguistic landscape leaves open only two possible explanations: either Indo-Aryan was native, or it was imported in an invasion. In fact, scratch any of these emphatic "immigration" theorists and you'll find an old-school invasionist, for they never fail to connect Aryan immigration with horses and spoked-wheel chariots, that is, with factors of military superiority.

3572:

not necessary. The constant interaction of "Afghan" highlanders and Indus plain agriculturists could have set off the process. A further opening was created when, after the collapse of the Indus Civilization, many of its people moved eastwards, thus leaving much of the Indus plains free for IA style cattle breeding. A few agricultural communities (especially along the rivers) nevertheless continued, something that the substrate agricultural vocabulary of the RV clearly indicates (Kuiper 1991, Witzel 1999a,b). In an acculturation scenario the actual (small) number of people (often used a 'clinching' argument by autochthonists) that set off the wave of adaptations does not matter: it is enough that the 'status kit' (Ehret) of the innovative group (the pastoralist Indo-Aryans) was copied by some neighboring populations, and then spread further.

2322:, 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 discontinuity between the (northern) Indo-European part of India and the (southern) Dravidian part, and the Indo-European languages radiated out from a homeland in India into their present locations. According to Bresnan, it is a natural response to the 19th century narrative of a superior Aryan race subjecting the native Indians, implicitly confirming the ethnocentric superiority of the European invaders of colonial times, instead supporting "a theory of indigenous development that led to the creation of the Vedas." 2452:, writing in the 1980s and 1990s, has argued for an indigenous cultural continuity between Harappan and post-Harappan times. According to Shaffer, there is no archaeological indication of an Aryan migration into northwestern India during or after the decline of the Harappan city culture. Instead, Shaffer has argued for "a series of cultural changes reflecting indigenous cultural developments." According to Shaffer, linguistic change has mistakenly been attributed to migrations of people. Likewise, Erdosy also notes the absence of evidence for migrations, and states that "Indo-European languages may well have spread to South Asia through migration," but that the Rigvedic 3473:, pp. 14–15): "Although the collapse of the Indus valley civilization is no longer believed to have been due to an ‘Aryan invasion’ it is widely thought that, at roughly the same time, or perhaps a few centuries later, new Indo-Aryan-speaking people and influences began to enter the subcontinent from the north-west. Detailed evidence is lacking. Nevertheless, a predecessor of the language that would eventually be called Sanskrit was probably introduced into the north-west sometime between 3,900 and 3,000 years ago. This language was related to one then spoken in eastern Iran; and both of these languages belonged to the Indo-European language family." 3260:'discourse' than that of historical and critical scholarship. In other words, it continues the writing of religious literature, under a contemporary, outwardly 'scientific' guise ... The revisionist and autochthonous project, then, should not be regarded as scholarly in the usual post-enlightenment sense of the word, but as an apologetic, ultimately religious undertaking aiming at proving the "truth" of traditional texts and beliefs. Worse, it is, in many cases, not even scholastic scholarship at all but a political undertaking aiming at "rewriting" history out of national pride or for the purpose of "nation building". 2730: 3778:: "The astronomical lore in Vedic literature provides elements of an absolute chronology in a consistent way. For what it is worth, this corpus of astronomical indications suggests that the Rg-Veda was completed in the 4th millennium AD, that the core text of the Mahabharata was composed at the end of that millennium, and that the Brahmanas and Sutras are products of the high Harappan period towards the end of the 3rd millennium BC. This corpus of evidence is hard to reconcile with the AIT, and has been standing as a growing challenge to the AIT defenders for two centuries." 1959: 3538:

have mutually interacted from early on, that many of them were in fact frequently bilingual, and that even the RV already bears witness to that. They also think, whether explicitly following Ehret's model (1988, cf. Diakonoff 1985) or not, of smaller infiltrating groups (Witzel 1989: 249, 1995, Allchin 1995), not of mass migrations or military invasions. However, linguists and philologists still maintain, and for good reasons, that some IA speaking groups actually entered from the outside, via some of the (north)western corridors of the subcontinent."

3272:... the parallels between the Intelligent Design issue and the Indo-Aryan "controversy" are distressingly close. The Indo-Aryan controversy is a manufactured one with a non-scholarly agenda, and the tactics of its manufacturers are very close to those of the ID proponents mentioned above. However unwittingly and however high their aims, the two editors have sought to put a gloss of intellectual legitimacy, with a sense that real scientific questions are being debated, on what is essentially a religio-nationalistic attack on a scholarly consensus. 3939:

playwright and poet Kalidasa, supposed to have worked at the Gupta court in about 400 AD, wrote that the monsoon rains started at the start of the sidereal month of Ashadha; this timing of the monsoon was accurate in the last centuries BCE. This implicit astronomy-based chronology of Kalidasa, about 5 centuries higher than the conventional one, tallies well with the traditional high chronology of the Buddha, whom Chinese Buddhist tradition dates to c. 1100 BC, and the implicit Puranic chronology even to c. 1700 BC.

2118: 3052:, a suggestion of "monogenesis" (single origin) was formulated for these languages as well as their speakers. In the latter part of the 19th century, it was thought that language, culture and race were inter-related, and the notion of biological race came to the forefront The presumed "Aryan race" which originated the Indo-European languages was prominent among such races, and was deduced to be further subdivided into "European Aryans" and "Asian Aryans," each with their own homelands. 3483:, the Proto-Indo-Aryan civilization was influenced by two external waves of migrations. The first group originated from the southern Urals (c. 2100 BCE) and mixed with the peoples of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC); this group then proceeded to South Asia, arriving around 1900 BCE. The second wave arrived in northern South Asia around 1750 BCE and mixed with the formerly arrived group, producing the Mitanni Aryans (c. 1500 BCE), a precursor to the peoples of the 53: 3733:, pp. 1–2): "It consists of 1,028 hymns (suktas), highly crafted poetic compositions originally intended for recital during rituals and for the invocation of and communication with the Indo-Aryan gods. Modern scholarly opinion largely agrees that these hymns were composed between around 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE, during the eastward migration of the Indo-Aryan tribes from the mountains of what is today northern Afghanistan across the Punjab into north India." 2154: 2314:... share a conviction that the theory of an external origin of the Indo-Aryan speaking people on the Indian subcontinent has been constructed on flimsy or false assumptions and conjectures. As far as such scholars are concerned, no compelling evidence has yet been produced to posit an external origin of the Indo-Aryans they have taken it upon themselves to oppose the theory of Aryan invasions and migrations—hence the label Indigenous Aryanism. 2126: 8794:

Garrido; Hallgren, Fredrik; Khartanovich, Valery; Khokhlov, Aleksandr; Kunst, Michael; Kuznetsov, Pavel; Meller, Harald; Mochalov, Oleg; Moiseyev, Vayacheslav; Nicklisch, Nicole; Pichler, Sandra L.; Risch, Roberto; Rojo Guerra, Manuel A.; Roth, Christina; Szécsényi-Nagy, Anna; Wahl, Joachim; Meyer, Matthias; Krause, Johannes; Brown, Dorcas; Anthony, David; Cooper, Alan; Alt, Kurt Werner; Reich, David (2015).

3562:

access to positions of prestige and power A relatively small immigrant elite population can encourage widespread language shift among numerically dominant indigenes in a non-state or pre-state context if the elite employs a specific combination of encouragements and punishments. Ethnohistorical cases demonstrate that small elite groups have successfully imposed their languages in non-state situations."

2788:

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 cultural aspects of the division suggested by European historians.

2797: 2470:(2007), has provided an extensive overview of the archaeological trail of the Indo-European people across the Eurasian steppes and central Asia. The development and "revolutionary" improvement of genetic research since the early 2010s has reinforced this shift in focus, as it has unearthed previously unaccessible data, showing large-scale migrations in prehistoric times. 3280:, notes that the book has serious methodological shortcomings, by not asking the question what exactly constitutes historical evidence. This makes the "fair and adequate representation of the differences of opinion" problematic, since it neglects "the extent to which unscholarly opportunism has motivated the rebirth of this genre of 'scholarship 2721:. Along with this comes a redating of historical personages and events, in which the Buddha is dated to 1100 BCE or even 1700 BCE, and Chandragupta Maurya (c. 300 BCE) is replaced by Chandragupta, the Gupta king. The Bharata War is dated at 3139–38 BCE, the start of the kali Yuga. 3151:, 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. However, 3537:

Witzel: "For some decades already, linguists and philologists such as Kuiper 1955, 1991, Emeneau 1956, Southworth 1979, archaeologists such as Allchin 1982, 1995, and historians such as R. Thapar 1968, have maintained that the Indo-Aryans and the older local inhabitants ('Dravidians', 'Mundas', etc.)

3511:

Wendy Doniger (2017): "The opposing argument, that speakers of Indo-European languages were indigenous to the Indian subcontinent, is not supported by any reliable scholarship. It is now championed primarily by Hindu nationalists, whose religious sentiments have led them to regard the theory of Aryan

3293:

According to Bryant, OIT proponents tend to be linguistic dilettantes who either ignore the linguistic evidence completely, dismiss it as highly speculative and inconclusive, or attempt to tackle it with hopelessly inadequate qualifications; this attitude and neglect significantly minimises the value

3245:

According to Thapar, Modi's government and the BJP have "peddled myths and stereotypes," such as the insistence on "a single uniform culture of the Aryans, ancestral to the Hindu, as having prevailed in the subcontinent, subsuming all others," despite the scholarly evidence for migrations into India,

2835:

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

2787:

For Aurobindo, an "Aryan" was not a member of a particular race, but a person who "accepted a particular type of self-culture, of inward and outward practice, of ideality, of aspiration." Aurobindo wanted to revive India's strength by reviving Aryan traditions of strength and character. He denied the

2651:

Rig Vedic references to a physical river indicate that the Sarswati "had already lost its main source of water supply and must have ended in a terminal lake (samudra)," "depicting the present-day situation, with the Sarasvatī having lost most of its water." "Sarasvati" may also be identified with the

2291:

The migration into northern India was not necessarily of a large population, but may have consisted of small groups, who introduced their language and social system into the new territory when looking for pasture for their herds. These were then emulated by larger groups, who adopted the new language

3551:

has provided a fresh new perspective and large amounts of relevant data regarding the steppe migrations. For Europe, Corded Ware and later Bell Beaker cultures are now shown to be the result of large-scale steppe pastoralist takeovers which replaced the local genetics up to 75% and 90% respectively,

3297:

Fosse notes crucial theoretical and methodological shortcomings in the indigenist literature. Analysing the works of Sethna, Bhagwan Singh, Navaratna and Talageri, he notes that they mostly quote English literature, which is not fully explored, and omitting German and French Indology. It makes their

3288:

Bryant's call for accepting "the valid problems that are pointed out on both sides" (p. 500), holds intellectual value only if distinctions are strictly maintained between research that promotes scholarship, and that which does not. Bryant and Patton gloss over the relevance of such distinctions for

2423:

The theory of which we are about to discuss the linguistic evidence, is widely known as the "Aryan invasion theory" (AIT). I will retain this term even though some scholars object to it, preferring the term "immigration" to "invasion." ... North India's linguistic landscape leaves open only two

2260:

provides the main basis for the theory, analysing the development and changes of languages, and establishing relations between the various Indo-European languages, including the time frame of their development. It also provides information about shared words, and the corresponding area of the origin

2057:

introduced the notion of two Aryan races, a western and an eastern one, which 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

7842:

Metspalu, Mait; Gallego Romero, Irene; Yunusbayev, Bayazit; Chaubey, Gyaneshwer; Mallick, Chandana Basu; Hudjashov, Georgi; Nelis, Mari; Mägi, Reedik; Metspalu, Ene; Remm, Maido; Pitchappan, Ramasamy; Singh, Lalji; Thangaraj, Kumarasamy; Villems, Richard; Kivisild, Toomas (2011), "Shared and Unique

3951:

Elst: "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

3571:

Witzel: "Just one "Afghan" IndoAryan 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." "Actually, even this is, strictly speaking,

2909:

and inhabited that region by 2000 BCE. 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

2484:

OIT-proponents have questioned the findings of genetic research, and some older DNA-research had questioned the Indo-Aryan migrations. Since 2015 however, genetic research has "revolutionarily" improved, and further confirmed the migration of Steppe pastoralists into Western Europe and South Asia,

3872:

Witzel: "The autochthonous theory overlooks that RV 3.33206 already speaks of a necessarily smaller Sarasvatī: the Sudås hymn 3.33 refers to the confluence of the Beas and Sutlej (Vipåś, Śutudrī). This means that the Beas had already captured the Sutlej away from the Sarasvatī, dwarfing its water

3216:

The BJP considers Indo-Aryans fundamental to the party's conception of Hindutva, or "Hindu-ness": India is a nation of and for Hindus only. Only those who consider India their holy land should remain in the nation. From the BJP's point of view, the Indo-Aryan peoples were indigenous to India, and

3202:

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

3604:

Koenraad Elst: "The theory of which we are about to discuss the linguistic evidence, is widely known as the "Aryan invasion theory" (AIT). I will retain this term even though some scholars object to it, preferring the term "immigration" to "invasion." They argue that the latter term represents a

3938:

Elst: "It is not only the Vedic age which is moved a number of centuries deeper into the past, when comparing the astronomical indications with the conventional chronology. Even the Gupta age (and implicitly the earlier ages of the Buddha, the Mauryas etc.) could be affected. Indeed, the famous

3657:

2. The second possibility is that "such linguistic similarities are a result of post-second millennium B.C. contacts with the west" by trade, taken over by people who also adopted a new way of societal organisation. This language was used to record the myths preserved in the Vedas. According to

3581:

Thomason and Kaufman note that Dravidian features in Sanskrit and later Indic languages may be explained by "absorption". They quote Emeneau: "absorption, not displacement, is the chief mechanism in radical language changes of the kind we are considering." Thomason and Kaufman note that a basic

3561:

David Anthony (1995): "Language shift can be understood best as a social strategy through which individuals and groups compete for positions of prestige, power, and domestic security What is important, then, is not just dominance, but vertical social mobility and a linkage between language and

3941:

Elst 1999 2.3 note 17: "The argument for a higher chronology (by about 6 centuries) for the Guptas as well as for the Buddha has been elaborated by K.D. Sethna in Ancient India in New Light, Aditya Prakashan, Delhi 1989. The established chronology starts from the uncertain assumption that the

3875:

In sum, the middle and later RV (books 3, 7 and the late book, 10.75) already depict the present-day situation, with the Sarasvatī having lost most of its water to the Sutlej (and even earlier, much of it also to the Yamunå). It was no longer the large river it might have been before the early

3521:

Girish Shahane (September 14, 2019), in response to Narasimhan et al. (2019): "Hindutva activists, however, have kept the Aryan Invasion Theory alive, because it offers them the perfect strawman, 'an intentionally misrepresented proposition that is set up because it is easier to defeat than an

2676:

Indigenists claim a continuous cultural evolution of India, denying a discontinuity between the Harappan and Vedic periods, identifying the IVC with the Vedic people. According to Kak, "the Indian civilization must be viewed as an unbroken tradition that goes back to the earliest period of the

8793:

Haak, Wolfgang; Lazaridis, Iosif; Patterson, Nick; Rohland, Nadin; Mallick, Swapan; Llamas, Bastien; Brandt, Guido; Nordenfelt, Susanne; Harney, Eadaoin; Stewardson, Kristin; Fu, Qiaomei; Mittnik, Alissa; Bánffy, Eszter; Economou, Christos; Francken, Michael; Friederich, Susanne; Pena, Rafael

3922:

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,

3704:, published in Cell, confirmed the Indo-Aryan migrations, news-reports stated that the study proved the Indo-Aryan migration theory to be wrong. This suggestion was reinforced by Shinde himself and Niraj Rai, stating that their study "completely sets aside the Aryan Migration/Invasion Theory." 3525:

Koenraad Elst (May 10, 2016): "Of course it is a fringe theory, at least internationally, where the Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) is still the official paradigm. In India, though, it has the support of most archaeologists, who fail to find a trace of this Aryan influx and instead find cultural

3259:

The "revisionist project" certainly is not guided by the principles of critical theory but takes, time and again, recourse to pre-enlightenment beliefs in the authority of traditional religious texts such as the Purāṇas. In the end, it belongs, as has been pointed out earlier, to a different

2570:

cart burials as chariots. While horse remains and related artifacts have been found in Late Harappan (1900-1300 BCE) sites, indicating that horses may have been present at Late Harappan times, horses did not play an essential role in the Harappan civilisation, in contrast to the Vedic period

3522:

opponent's real argument' The Out of India hypothesis is a desperate attempt to reconcile linguistic, archaeological and genetic evidence with Hindutva sentiment and nationalistic pride, but it cannot reverse time's arrow The evidence keeps crushing Hindutva ideas of history."

2433:

Indigenists question the methodology and results of linguistics. According to Bryant, OIT proponents tend to be linguistic dilettantes who either ignore the linguistic evidence completely, dismiss it as highly speculative and inconclusive, or attempt to tackle it with hopelessly inadequate

3000:

Bryant commented that Frawley's historical work is more successful as a popular work, where its impact "is by no means insignificant", rather than as an academic study, and that Frawley "is committed to channelling a symbolic spiritual paradigm through a critical empirico rational one".

3172:

of contemporary fascism. Witzel adds that Savarkar offered a religious and cultural definition of Hindu-ness which he called "Hindutva". It has different components: territorial, political, nationalisitic, ancestral, cultural and religious. Since these ideas emerged on the brink of the

4034:

Witzel: "linguistic data have generally been neglected by advocates of the autochthonous theory. The only exception so far is a thin book by the Indian linguist S. S. Misra (1992) which bristles with inaccuracies and mistakes (see below) and some, though incomplete discussion by Elst

2547:, situating the arrival of the Aryans in the seventh millennium BCE, the hymns of the Rig Veda are organised in accordance with an astronomical code, supposedly showing "a tradition of sophisticated observational astronomy going back to events of 3000 or 4000 BCE." His ideas have been 2704:, which contain lists of kings and genealogies used to construct the traditional chronology of ancient India. "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 3654:

in Central Asia. Yet, Shaffer also notes that the Harappan culture was not extensively tied to this network in the third millennium BCE, leaving the possibility that "membership in a basic linguistic family - Zagrosian - may account for some of the linguistic similarities of later

3184:

The Aryan migration theory at first played no particular argumentative role in Hindu nationalism. This impression of indifference changed, however, with Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar (1906–1973), who from 1940 until his death was leader of the extremist paramilitary organization the

2497:. Small groups can change a larger cultural area, when an elite male group integrates in small indigenous groups which takes over the elite language, in this case leading to a language shift in northern India. Indo-Aryan languages were further disseminated with the spread of the 2261:

of Indo-European, and the specific vocabulary which is to be ascribed to specific regions. The linguistic analyses and data are supplemented with archaeological and genetical data and anthropological arguments, which together provide a coherent model that is widely accepted.

3552:

while recent genetic research further confirmed the migration of Steppe pastoralists into Western Europe and South Asia. Even in areas where population turnover is lower, there is a marked sex bias in the resulting mixed population in favor of steppe males, such as in India.

3241:...iving a hint of the Aryan origin debate in India, ... asked the court not to fall for the 'indigenous Aryan' claim since it has led to 'demonisation of Muslims and Christians as foreigners and to the near denial of the contributions of non-Hindus to Indian culture'. 3062:

during 1849–1874, postulated an original homeland for all Aryans in central Asia, from which a northern branch migrated to Europe and a southern branch to India and Iran. The Aryans were presumed to be fair-complexioned Indo-European speakers who conquered the dark-skinned

2844:...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. 2414:

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

3047:

Curiosity and the colonial requirements of knowledge about their subject people led the officials of the East India Company to explore the history and culture of India in the late 18th century. When similarities between Sanskrit, Greek and Latin were discovered by

3594:

The term "invasion" is only being used nowadays by opponents of the Indo-Aryan Migration theory. The term "invasion" does not reflect the contemporary scholarly understanding of the Indo-Aryan migrations; and is merely being used in a polemical and distracting

3757:

changed through the beginning of the Iron Age in South Asia, which started in the Northwest (Punjab) around 1000 BCE. On the basis of comparative philological evidence, Witzel has suggested a five-stage periodization of Vedic civilization, beginning with the

2691:

The idea of "Indigenous Aryanism" fits into traditional Hindu ideas of religious history, namely that Hinduism has timeless origins, with the Vedic Aryans inhabiting India since ancient times. The ideas Indigenist ideas are rooted in the chronology of the

2009:

Indigenists, reflecting traditional Indian views on history and religion, argue that the Aryans are indigenous to India, which challenges the standard view. In the 1980s and 1990s, the indigenous position has come to the foreground of the public debate.

3254:

The Indigenous Aryans theory has no relevance, let alone support, in mainstream scholarship. According to Michael Witzel, the "indigenous Aryans" position is not scholarship in the usual sense, but an "apologetic, ultimately religious undertaking":

2505:. In this process, local traditions ("little traditions") became integrated into the "great tradition" of Brahmanical religion, disseminating Sanskrit texts and Brahmanical ideas throughout India, and abroad. This facilitated the development of the 2856:

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

8922:

Saag, Lehti; Varul, Liivi; Scheib, Christiana Lyn; Stenderup, Jesper; Allentoft, Morten E.; Saag, Lauri; Pagani, Luca; Reidla, Maere; Tambets, Kristiina; Metspalu, Ene; Kriiska, Aivar; Willerslev, Eske; Kivisild, Toomas; Metspalu, Mait (2017).

2093:

stands accused" of the destruction of the Indus Civilisation. Scholarly critics have since argued that Wheeler misinterpreted his evidence and that the skeletons were better explained as hasty interments, not unburied victims of a massacre.

3505:: "The speakers at this symposium can generally be seen to support one of the following three ‘solutions’ to the Indo-European homeland problem: 1. The Anatolian Neolithic model 2. The Near Eastern model 3. The Pontic-Caspian model." 3650:. According to Shaffer "linguistic similarities may have diffused west from the plateau as a result of the extensive trading networks linking cultures in the plateau with those in Mesopotamia and beyond," while also linking with the 2459:

Since the 1990s, attention has shifted back to migrations as an explanatory model. Pastoral societies are difficult to identify in the archaeological record, since they move around in small groups and leave little traces. In 1990,

2565:

Several archaeological finds are interpreted as evidencing the presence of typical Indo-Aryan artefacts before 2000 BCE. Examples include the interpretation of animal bones from before 2000 BCE as horse-bones, and interpreting the

3032:

The Aryan Invasion theory plays an important role in Hindu nationalism, which favors Indigenous Aryanism. It has to be understood against the background of colonialism and the subsequent task of nation-building in India.

3658:

Shaffer, "nce codified, it was advantageous for the emerging hereditary social elites to stabilize such linguistic traits with the validity of the explanations offered in the literature enhancing their social position."

3289:

sustaining the academic nature of the Indo-Aryan debate, although the importance of distinguishing the scholarly from the unscholarly is rather well enunciated through the essays of Michael Witzel and Lars Martin Fosse.

3097:. From there, Aryans were believed to have migrated south in the post-glacial age, branching into a European branch that relapsed into barbarism and an Indian branch that retained the original, superior civilisation. 2531:

According to the mainstream view, Sanskrit arose in South Asia after Indo-Aryan languages had been introduced by the Indo-Aryans in the first half of the second millennium BCE. The most archaic form of Sanskrit is

4059:

According to Franklin Southworth, "The Dravidian languages, now spoken mainly in peninsular India, form one of two main branches of the Zagrosian language family, whose other main branch consists of Elamitic and

4044:

Erdosy: "Assertions of the indigenous origin of Indo-Aryan languages and an insistence on a long chronology for Vedic and even Epic literature are only a few of the most prominent tenets of this emerging lunatic

3954:

The Indic Studies Foundation reports of another meeting in 2003: "Scholars from across the world came together, for the first time, in an attempt to establish the 'Date of Kurukshetra War based on astronomical

3143:

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.

3739:, pp. 158–190, 160): "The Vedas were composed (roughly between 1500-1200 and 500 BCE) in parts of present-day Afghanistan, northern Pakistan, and northern India. The oldest text at our disposal is the 3518:: "As Tony Joseph has pointed out, the Out of India theory lacks support from even “a single, peer-reviewed scientific paper” and is best considered nothing “more than a kind of clever and angry retort.”" 3166:. 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 2543:

Taking recourse to "Hindu astronomical lore" Indigenists argue for ancient, indigenous origins of Sanskrit, dating the Rigveda and the Vedic people to the 3rd millennium BCE or earlier. According to

3198:

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

3644:

While arguing for an indigenous cultural continuity, Shaffer gives two possible alternative explanations for the similarities between Sanskrit and western languages, arguing for non-Indian origins.

3923:

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."

9191: 7521:

Kennedy, Kenneth A.R. (2012), "Have Aryans been identified in the prehistorical skeletal record from South Asia? Biological anthropology and cocnepts of ancient races", in Erdosy, George (ed.),

2677:

Sindhu-Sarasvati (or Indus) tradition (7000 or 8000 BCE). This identification is incompatible with the archaeological, linguistic and genetic data, and rejected by mainstream scholarship.

2121:

According to Allentoft (2015), the Sintashta culture probably derived from the Corded Ware Culture. The Sintashta Culture is commonly thought to be the first manifestation of the Indo-Iranians.

2648:, an eastern tributary to the Indus. Given the fact that the Ghaggar-Hakkra had dried-up at 2000 BCE, Indigenists argue that the Vedic people must therefore have been present much earlier. 3100:

However, Christian missionaries such as John Muir and John Wilson drew attention to the plight of lower castes, who they said were oppressed by the upper castes since the Aryan invasions.

3942:

Sandrokottos/ Chandragupta whom Megasthenes met was the Maurya rather than the Gupta king of that name. This hypothetical synchronism is known as the sheet-anchor of Indian chronology.

8111:

Shinde, Vasant; Narasimhan, Vagheesh M.; Rohland, Nadin; Mallick, Swapan; et al. (2019), "An Ancient Harappan Genome Lacks Ancestry from Steppe Pastoralists or Iranian Farmers",

2448:

In the 1960s, archaeological explanations for cultural change shifted from migration-models to internal causes of change. Given the lack of archaeological remains of the Indo-Aryans,

3067:

of India. The upper castes, particularly the Brahmins, were thought to be of Aryan descent whereas the lower castes and Dalits ("untouchables") were thought to be the descendants of

3582:

assumption is that Dravidians shifted in considerable numbers, so they could not only impose their own habits on Indic, but were also numerous enough to influence Indic as a whole.

2941:

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

9713:, in Philip L. Kohl, Mara Kozelsky, Nachman Ben-Yehuda "Selective remembrances: archaeology in the construction, commemoration, and consecration of national pasts", pp 349–378 9328: 10103: 2668:

of the Rig Veda may also refer to two distinct rivers, with the family books referring to the Helmand River, and the more recent 10th mandala referring to the Ghaggar-Hakra.

7833:

McGetchin, Douglas T. (2015), "'Orient' and 'Occident', 'East' and 'West' in the Doscourse of German Orientalists, 1790–1930", in Bavaj, Riccardo; Steber, Martina (eds.),

9145: 2292:

and culture. Witzel also notes that "small-scale semi-annual transhumance movements between the Indus plains and the Afghan and Baluchi highlands continue to this day."

3792: 3173:

internationalist and socially oriented Nehru-Gandhi government, they lay dormant for several decades after the independence, and only rose to prominence in the 1980s.

2410:

to attack the Indo-Aryan Migration theory. According to Witzel, the invasion model was criticised by Indigenous Aryanists for being a justification for colonial rule:

1966:

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. The

9162: 2038:

had been in India, with the other dialects spread to the west by historical migration. With the 20th-century discovery of Bronze-Age attestations of Indo-European (

2089:, 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 " 3467:, pp. 1–2): "... the eastward migration of the Indo-Aryan tribes from the mountains of what is today northern Afghanistan across the Punjab into north India." 2493:

Indigenists contest the possibility that small groups can change culture and languages in a major way. Mainstream scholarship explains this by elite dominance and

2925:. 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 2330:

The idea of "Indigenous Aryans" is supported with specific interpretations of archaeological, genetic, and linguistic data, and on literal interpretations of the

9229: 6998:

Fosse, Lars Martin (2005). "Aryan Past and Post-colonial Present: The Polemics and Politics of Indigenous Aryanism". In Bryant, Edwin; Patton, Laurie L. (eds.).

3996:

In any "Indigenous Aryan" scenario, speakers of Indo-European languages must have left India at some point prior to the 10th century BCE, when first mention of

9677:

None but India (Bharat): The Cradle of Aryans, Sanskrit, Vedas, & Swastika – 'Aryan Invasion of India' and 'IE Family of Languages' Re-examined and Rebutted

2836:

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.

9828: 9031: 9247: 9903: 8424: 2341:

Presenting the Indo-Aryan Migration theory as an "Indo-Aryan Invasion theory", which was invented by 19th century colonialists to suppress the Indian people.

2800:

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.

8694: 2456:, as a specific ethno-linguistic tribe holding a specific set of ideas, may well have been indigenous people whose "set of ideas" soon spread over India. 2714:

in 3102 BCE. The royal lists are based on Sūta bardic traditions, and are derived from lists which were orally transmitted and constantly reshaped.

3298:

works in various degrees underinformed, resulting in a critique that is "largely neglected by Western scholars because it is regarded as incompetent".

1982:, envisions a much older chronology for the Vedic culture. In this view, the Vedas were received thousands of years ago, and the start of the reign of 2743:

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

2218:

The idea of an "invasion" has been discarded in mainstream scholarship since the 1980s, and replaced by more sophisticated models, referred to as the

1917:

was a Vedic civilization. In this view, "the Indian civilization must be viewed as an unbroken tradition that goes back to the earliest period of the

8066:

Salmons, Joseph (2015), "Language shift and the Indo-Europanization of Europe", in Mailhammer, Robert; Vennemann, Theo; Olsen, Birgit Anette (eds.),

7302: 4633: 3766:

is dated as a late Bronze Age text composed by pastoral migrants with limited settlements, probably between 1350 and 1150 BCE in the Punjab region."

2085:

around the period of the Indo-Aryan migration, suggesting a destructive invasion. This argument was developed by the mid-20th century archaeologist

9646: 2026:

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

3217:

therefore were the first 'true Hindus'. Accordingly, an essential part of 'Indian' identity in this point of view is being indigenous to the land.

2368:

Arguing for ancient, indigenous origins of Sanskrit, dating the Rigveda and the Vedic people to the 3rd millennium BCE or earlier; This includes:

3788: 3407: 2982: 2560: 2479: 8599: 8569: 3859:

L.) was evidenced by the enamel pattern of the upper and lower cheek and teeth and by the size and form of incisors and phalanges (toe bones)."

3132:(Society of Aryans), held that Vedas were the source of all knowledge and were revealed to the Aryans. The first man (an Aryan) was created in 2708: 300 BCE, reported to have heard of a traditional list of 153 kings that covered 6042 years, beyond the traditional beginning of the 1838: 9008: 2640:

In the Rig Veda, the goddess Sarasvati is described as a mighty river. Indigenists take these descriptions as references to a real river, the

2443: 2355: 2625: 10087: 2937:. 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 1802: 7466: 2485:

and "many scientists who were either sceptical or neutral about significant Bronze Age migrations into India have changed their opinions."

2334:. Standard arguments, both in support of the "Indigenous Aryans" theory and in opposition the mainstream Indo-Aryan Migration theory, are: 9437:

are reports of his fieldwork, primarily interviews with Indian researchers, on the reception of the Indo-Aryan migration theory in India.

3632:, has provided an extensive overview of the archaeological trail of the Indo-European people across the Eurasian steppes and central Asia. 2660:, the name of which may have been reused in its Sanskrit form as the name of the Ghaggar-Hakra river, after the Vedic tribes moved to the 2238:

via the Central European Corded ware culture, and Eastern European/Central Asian Sintashta culture, through Central Asia into the Levant (

10301: 2280: 2180: 2146: 1000: 9821: 9388:, a cultural historian, has given an overview of the various "Indigenist" positions in his PhD-thesis and two subsequent publications: 3646:

1. The first is a linguistic relationship with a "Zagrosian family of language linking Elamite and Dravidian on the Iranian Plateau,"

2129:

The Andronovo culture's approximate maximal extent, with the formative Sintashta-Petrovka culture (red), the location of the earliest

9178: 6861: 3010:(2002) quotes Frawley's historical work extensively for the proposal of highly evolved ancient civilisations prior to the end of the 2254:, which further describes the spread of Indo-European languages into western Europe via migrations of Indo-European speaking people. 9338: 2779:

4.The Aryans entered the Indus Valley before 4500 BCE and got integrated with the Harappans, or might have been the Harappans.

8102:

Shaffer, J.; Lichtenstein, D. (1999). "Migration, Philology and South Asian Archaeology". In Bronkhorst, J.; Deshpande, M. (eds.).

2914:. Later on during their history, they went on to occupy western Europe and thus spread the Indo-European languages to that region. 2624:, predating the arrival of the horse-centered Indo-Aryans. According to Parpola, the carts were ox-pulled charts, and related to a 3985:

Lal 1997, "The Earliest Civilization of South Asia (Rise, Maturity and Decline)." New Delhi: Aryan Books International, p.281 sqq.

3976:

S. Kak 1994a, "On the classification of Indic languages." Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute 75, 1994a, 185-195.

9552: 3400: 2978: 2974: 2548: 9132: 9087: 6950:

Erdosy, George (1995). "The prelude to Urbanization: Ethnicity and the Rise of Late Vedic Chiefdoms". In Allchin, F. R. (ed.).

3226: 10248: 10119: 9814: 8743: 8528: 8372: 8208: 8008: 7990: 7710: 7548: 7235: 7195: 7171: 6850: 6829: 6678: 5942: 5910: 2172: 1809: 1781: 6423: 4160:

Koenraad Elst (May 10, 2016), Koenraad Elst: "I am not aware of any governmental interest in correcting distorted history",

2058:

powerful than the indigenous eastern natives, who were easy to conquer." By the 1880s, his ideas had been adapted by racist

660: 9281: 9118: 7979:"Revealing the Vedas in 'Hinduism': Foundations and issues of interpretation of religions in South Asian Hindu traditions" 6941:

Elst, Koenraad (2005). "Linguistic Aspects of the Aryan Non-Invasion Theory". In Bryant, Edwin; Patton, Laurie L. (eds.).

2815:

and spread to the remainder of the Indo-European region through a series of migrations. It implies that the people of the

10095: 7797: 3415: 1766: 17: 10111: 9621: 8234: 3628: 3423: 2717:

These lists are supplemented with astronomical interpretations, which are also used to reach an earlier dating for the

2466: 2279:(1800–1400 BCE). Around 1800 BCE, Indo-Aryan people split-off from the Iranian branches, and migrated to the 1831: 1788: 719: 9032:"The Collapse of the AIT and the prevalence of Indigenism: archaeological, genetic, linguistic and literary evidences" 4935: 3873:

supply. While the Sutlej is fed by Himalayan glaciers, the Sarsuti is but a small local river depending on rain water.

3301:

According to Erdosy, the indigenist position is part of a "lunatic fringe" against the mainstream migrationist model.

9630: 9613: 9576: 9562: 9506: 9471: 9411: 8720: 8342: 8323: 8261: 8247: 7736: 7578: 7511: 7369: 7149: 7097: 6970: 6960: 6920: 6792: 6592: 5675: 2949: 52: 9798: 9104: 9042: 8093:

Shaffer, Jim (2013) . "The Indo-Aryan Invasions: Cultural Myth and Archaeological Reality". In Lukacs, J. R. (ed.).

7530:

Khan, Razib (2019), "Genetic origins of Indo-Aryans", in R. Thapar; M. Witzel; J. Menon; K. Friese; R. Khan (eds.),

6049: 3706:

Shinde's statements were refuted by his co-author Nick Patterson, and by Vagheesh Narasimhan, Shinde's co-author on

10286: 7943:"Royal "Chariot" Burials of Sanauli near Delhi and Archaeological Correlates of Prehistoric Indo-Iranian Languages" 7007:

Friese, Kai (2019). "The Complications of Genetics". In R. Thapar; M. Witzel; J. Menon; K. Friese; R. Khan (eds.).

1795: 559: 9492: 8149:

Silva, Marina (2017), "A genetic chronology for the Indian Subcontinent points to heavily sex-biased dispersals",

6906: 3074:

The Aryan theory served politically to suggest a common ancestry and dignity between the Indians and the British.

6689: 2219: 2031: 70: 8732:"Early Loan Words in Western Central Asia: Indicators of Substrate Populations, Migrations, and Trade Relations" 10296: 9728: 9353: 9208: 6870:. The history of Hinduism " Sources of Hinduism " Non-Indo-European sources " The process of "Sanskritization". 6610:

Anthony, David (2021), Daniels, Megan (ed.), "Homo Migrans: Modeling Mobility and Migration in HUman HIstory",

3508:

Romila Thapar (2006): "there is no scholar at this time seriously arguing for the indigenous origin of Aryans".

3340: 3212:

According to Abhijith Ravinutala, the indigenist position is essential for Hindutva exclusive claims on India:

2629: 2617: 1651: 1426: 830: 3863:, p. 111, quoted from Bökönyi's letter to the Director of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1993-12-13. 10232: 10048: 9845: 9441:

is a bundle of papers by various "indigenists", including Koenraad Elst, but also a paper by Michael Witzel.

3829:

culture was pastoral and horse-centered, while the Harappan culture was neither horse-centered nor pastoral."

3136:

and, after living there for some time, the Aryans came down and inhabited India, which was previously empty.

2805: 1824: 1396: 665: 602: 403: 289: 3806:

These carts dubbed as "chariots" does not however have any spokes on the wheels like the chariots(Sanskrit:

10306: 10142: 10053: 10043: 10037: 9837: 9635: 7775:

Mallory, J.P. (2002b), "Archaeological models and Asian Indo-Europeans", in Sims-Williams, Nicholas (ed.),

3392: 3094: 3023: 2755: 2035: 1084: 587: 398: 393: 388: 283: 9587: 6568:

The Horse, the Wheel and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World

3753:

has assigned an approximate chronology to the strata of Vedic languages, arguing that the language of the

10311: 10237: 8313: 7889:

Narasimhan VM, Patterson N, Moorjani P, Rohland N, Bernardos R, Mallick S, et al. (September 2019).

7608: 7501: 7313: 3186: 3049: 2804:

The "Out of India theory" (OIT), also known as the "Indian Urheimat theory," is the proposition that the

1401: 896: 597: 476: 462: 443: 9657: 3176:

Bergunder likewise identifies Golwalkar as the originator of the "Indigenous Aryans" notion, and Goel's

2769:

3. The position that all the world's languages and civilisations derive from India, represented e.g. by

10271: 9991: 9858: 9853: 9716: 7843:

Components of Human Population Structure and Genome-Wide Signals of Positive Selection in South Asia",

6875: 3112:

were indigenous people and the rightful inheritors of the land, whereas Brahmins were Aryan and alien.

1883: 739: 697: 297: 8707:(2006). "Rama's realm: Indocentric rewritings of early South Asian History". In Fagan, Garrett (ed.). 6866: 2434:

qualifications; this attitude and neglect significantly minimises the value of most OIT publications.

10214: 10058: 7632: 3852: 3647: 2918: 2204: 2078: 1914: 1895: 1441: 1406: 1079: 383: 9070: 8614: 8584: 2379:, which had dried up c. 2000 BCE, arguing therefore for an earlier dating of the Rig Veda; 10137: 10070: 10011: 9878: 7085: 6894: 3711: 3548: 2251: 1953: 1701: 1591: 1411: 942: 774: 725: 621: 423: 378: 373: 293: 9719:(2002), "Aryanization of the Indus Civilization" in Panikkar, KN, Byres, TJ and Patnaik, U (Eds), 8437:"Separating the post-Glacial coancestry of European and Asian y chromosomes within haplogroup R1a" 2268:, from which emerged the Central European Corded Ware culture, which spread eastward creating the 9231:

Putting the horse before the cart: What the discovery of 4,000-year-old ‘chariot’ in UP signifies

9163:

Two new genetic studies upheld Indo-Aryan migration. So why did Indian media report the opposite?

7653:

Lazaridis, Iosif (2016), "Genomic insights into the origin of farming in the ancient Near East",

7246: 6666: 4000:

is made in Assyrian records, but likely before the 16th century BCE, before the emergence of the

3014:. including in India. Kreisburg refers to Frawley's "The Vedic Literature and Its Many Secrets". 2917:

During the 4th millennium BCE, civilisation in India started evolving into what became the urban

2227: 1879: 1596: 1323: 433: 428: 418: 62: 9261: 7481: 9873: 7616: 7596: 6628:

Basu (2003), "Ethnic India: A Genomic View, With Special Reference to Peopling and Structure",

2808: 2729: 2572: 2257: 2192: 2161: 1887: 1586: 1558: 1342: 1244: 1010: 856: 480: 318: 210: 149: 104: 44: 36: 9958: 8731: 8709:

Archaeological Fantasies: How Pseudoarchaeology Misrepresents the Past and Misleads the Public

7434: 7418: 7185: 6887: 5898: 5668:

Prophets Facing Backward : Postmodern Critiques of Science and Hindu Nationalism in India

2586:. However, archaeologists like Meadow (1997) disagree, on the grounds that the remains of the 10281: 10242: 10163: 9771: 9385: 8630: 8554: 7978: 6840: 6780: 6768: 6690:"Contested Past: Anti-Brahmanical and Hindu nationalist reconstructions of Indian prehistory" 5934: 5927: 3328: 3234: 3205: 2866:

Koenraad Elst summarises "the emerging alternative to the Aryan Invasion Theory" as follows.

2816: 2360:

Contesting the possibility that small groups can change culture and languages in a major way;

2319: 2019: 1949: 1891: 1733: 1562: 470: 466: 451: 447: 9947: 8517: 7700: 2831:, investigates "the developing arguments concerning the Aryan Invasion Theory". Elst notes: 2632:(2000-1500 BCE) shows similarities with both the Late Harappan culture and steppe-cultures. 10196: 10169: 10063: 9981: 9913: 9891: 9784: 9748:

The Construction of History and Nationalism in India: Textbooks, Controversies and Politics

9309: 8984: 8876: 8817: 8753: 8704: 8690: 8673: 8650: 8626: 8595: 8565: 8550: 8243: 8158: 7662: 7348: 7223: 7045: 5250: 3140: 2223: 2211: 2200: 2168: 1933: 1679: 1644: 957: 640: 592: 529: 499: 457: 437: 301: 155: 9780: 9766: 8634: 8487: 3973:

Waradpande, N.R., "The Aryan Invasion, a Myth." Nagpur: Baba Saheb Apte Smarak Samiti 1989

2571:(1500-500 BCE). The earliest undisputed finds of horse remains in South Asia are from the 2283:(2300–1700 BCE), and further to the Levant, northern India, and possibly Inner Asia. 825: 8: 10201: 10191: 9918: 8654: 6671:

Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present

6276: 3125: 3086: 3011: 2376: 2067: 2039: 1875: 952: 947: 843: 767: 732: 645: 504: 205: 200: 169: 8880: 8821: 8765:

Witzel, Michael (2019), "Early ' Aryans' and their neighbors outside and inside India",

8162: 7666: 7352: 7049: 5254: 3982:

Talageri 2000, "Rigveda. A Historical Analysis." New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, p.406 sqq,

9923: 9333: 8905: 8864: 8846: 8807: 8795: 8782: 8474: 8461: 8436: 8300: 8181: 8133: 7915: 7890: 7873: 7822: 7683: 7289: 7159: 7128: 7068: 7033: 6598: 5751: 5716: 5633: 5268: 3651: 3268:, which includes chapters by Elst and other "indigenists", Stephanie Jamison comments: 3083: 3075: 2922: 2686: 2424:

possible explanations: either Indo-Aryan was native, or it was imported in an invasion.

2269: 2208: 2196: 2165: 1967: 1902: 1658: 1609: 1543: 1527: 1152: 805: 544: 230: 135: 130: 8796:"Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe" 6650: 3970:

Waradpande, N.R., "Fact and fictions about the Aryans." In: Deo and Kamath 1993, 14-19

3718:

commented on the political complications of doing genetic research on India's history.

2766:(1999), and further popularised within Hindu nationalism by Shrikant Talageri (2000); 1958: 10291: 10276: 10186: 9908: 9626: 9609: 9572: 9558: 9502: 9467: 9407: 9192:

Indus Valley Civilisation is largest source of ancestry for South Asians: David Reich

8954: 8946: 8925:"Extensive Farming in Estonia Started through a Sex-Biased Migration from the Steppe" 8910: 8892: 8851: 8833: 8786: 8739: 8716: 8524: 8466: 8411: 8368: 8338: 8319: 8257: 8230: 8204: 8200:

A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century

8186: 8138: 8004: 7986: 7920: 7878: 7860: 7826: 7732: 7725: 7706: 7688: 7584: 7574: 7544: 7507: 7365: 7231: 7191: 7167: 7145: 7132: 7093: 7073: 6966: 6916: 6846: 6825: 6788: 6674: 6655: 6602: 6588: 5938: 5906: 5743: 5708: 5681: 5671: 5637: 5509: 5507: 3350: 3311: 3027: 2276: 2272: 2176: 2138: 2063: 1672: 1638: 1630: 1574: 1568: 1550: 1521: 1500: 1486: 1478: 1248: 1109: 1049: 1031: 972: 967: 962: 929: 924: 753: 616: 265: 258: 251: 237: 223: 183: 162: 99: 91: 8478: 8393: 7942: 5272: 3547:

The Ancient DNA revolution since about 2015, along with genome-wide techniques like

9943: 9933: 9928: 9868: 9863: 9706: 9539: 9498: 9445: 8936: 8900: 8884: 8841: 8825: 8774: 8456: 8448: 8401: 8292: 8283:

Thapar, Romila (1996). "The Theory of Aryan Race and India: History and Politics".

8253: 8227:

History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century

8176: 8166: 8128: 8120: 8020:

Politicizing the Past: Depictions of Indo-Aryans in Indian Textbooks from 1998–2007

7954: 7910: 7902: 7868: 7852: 7812: 7702:

Participles in Rigvedic Sanskrit: The syntax and semantics of adjectival verb forms

7678: 7670: 7281: 7120: 7063: 7053: 7016: 6912: 6704: 6645: 6637: 6580: 6575:

Anthony, David W. (2019). "Ancient DNA, Mating Networks, and the Anatolian Split".

5629: 5258: 3623: 3121: 2990: 2957: 2461: 2086: 2002:, which may relate historical events taking place ca. 1000 BCE at the heartland of 1929: 1666: 1616: 1433: 1239: 1127: 1067: 1044: 987: 982: 919: 906: 901: 891: 564: 177: 125: 117: 110: 9883: 5504: 9639: 9072:

Aryan invasion debunked. Genetic study shows South Asians have a diverse ancestry

8389: 8362: 8198: 8050:

Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past

6117: 4005: 3997: 3437: 3163: 2938: 2906: 2641: 2506: 2502: 2372: 2265: 2107: 2043: 1995: 1987: 1983: 1918: 1747: 1716: 1711: 1706: 1687: 1623: 1602: 1580: 1165: 1054: 977: 886: 819: 760: 626: 358: 343: 333: 328: 244: 216: 9606:

The Politics of History: Aryan Invasion Theory and the Subversion of Scholarship

9179:

Scientists Part of Studies Supporting Aryan Migration Endorse Party Line Instead

7789:

The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World

7214:

Hickey, Raymond (2010). "Contact and Language Shift". In Hickey, Raymond (ed.).

6952:

The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States

6820:

Darian, Steven G. (2001). "5. Ganga and Sarasvati: The Transformation of Myth".

6734:

Empire, the National, and the Postcolonial, 1890–1920: Resistance in Interaction

3979:

Elst 1999, "Update on the Aryan Invasion Debate." Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. p.119

2620:, and dated at ca. 2000-1800 BCE. They were interpreted by some as horse-pulled 2117: 10209: 10147: 10016: 10001: 9963: 9953: 9938: 9806: 9289: 8124: 7856: 7523:

The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia: Language, Material Culture and Ethnicity

7395: 7024: 6962:

The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia: Language, Material Culture and Ethnicity

4936:

The Nationalists Try – But India Remains Among the World's Oldest Melting Pots

3750: 3714:

repeated that Steppe people contributed to the genetic make-up of India, while

3362: 3345: 3230: 3177: 3168: 3156: 3042: 3007: 2953: 2812: 2737: 2575:, also known as the Swat culture (c. 1400-800 BCE), related to the Indo-Aryans 2533: 2494: 2449: 2348: 2235: 2142: 2103: 2047: 1492: 1359: 1234: 792: 746: 714: 650: 141: 9761: 8941: 8924: 8778: 8171: 7124: 6842:

A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day

6584: 5685: 5263: 5238: 2671: 1994:(aeon) and the progenitor of humanity, may be dated as far back 7350 BCE. The 10265: 9986: 9790: 9601: 9547: 9488: 8950: 8896: 8837: 8415: 7864: 7817: 7784: 7759: 7747: 7720: 7620: 7588: 6902: 6612:

Migration, ancient DNA, and Bronze Age pastoralists from the Eurasian steppes

5747: 5712: 5641: 4022: 3372: 3367: 3323: 3101: 3093:, dating it to 4500 BCE. He placed the homeland of the Aryans somewhere 3004: 2870: 2770: 2763: 2653: 2645: 2188: 2158: 2082: 2071: 1999: 1940:

politics. It has no relevance, let alone support, in mainstream scholarship.

1882:

radiated out from a homeland in India into their present locations. It is a "

1752: 1216: 1132: 849: 707: 569: 323: 7906: 7058: 3671:

may not have referred to all ethnic groups who spoke an Indo-Aryan language.

2382:

Arguing for the presence of horses and horse-drawn chariots before 2000 BCE;

2264:

In the model, the first archaeological remains of the Indo-Europeans is the

2054: 539: 9404:

The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate

9089:

Aryan Invasion Myth: How 21st Century Science Debunks 19th Century Indology

8958: 8914: 8855: 8538: 8470: 8190: 8142: 8104:

In Aryan and Non-Aryan in South Asia: Evidence, Interpretation and Ideology

7924: 7882: 7750:(1998). "A European Perspective on Indo-Europeans in Asia". In Mair (ed.). 7692: 7077: 6785:

The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate

6716: 6659: 3480: 2318:

The "Indigenist position" started to take shape after the discovery of the

1991: 1910: 1371: 1209: 683: 554: 353: 348: 338: 9793:

The Indigenous Aryan Discussion on RISA-L: The Complete Text (to 10/28/96)

9588:"Book Review: The Rig Vedic People Were Indigenous to India, Not Invaders" 9010:

Why Hindutva supporters love to hate the discredited Aryan Invasion Theory

8865:"The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe" 8452: 8267: 7570:

A place at the multicultural table the development of an American Hinduism

6708: 5699:

Mehendale, M. A. (1996). "Review of THE ASTRONOMICAL CODE OF THE ṚGVEDA".

2347:

Arguing for an indigenous cultural continuity, arguing there is a lack of

2050:

lost its special status as the most archaic Indo-European language known.

10006: 9543: 7959: 7181: 5613: 4584: 4001: 3379: 3079: 3055: 2994: 2926: 2898: 2890: 2874: 2697: 2657: 2544: 2184: 1971: 1347: 1333: 1297: 1005: 8888: 8829: 8600:"Substrate Languages in Old Indo-Aryan (Ṛgvedic, Middle and Late Vedic)" 7674: 5755: 5720: 534: 10021: 9512: 8406: 8304: 7293: 6926: 6641: 3222: 3129: 2986: 2902: 2840:

Edwin Bryant also notes that Elst's model is a "theoretical exercise:"

2609: 2510: 2498: 2153: 2027: 1924:

Support for the IAT mostly exists among a subset of Indian scholars of

1906: 1310: 1224: 1102: 867: 8655:"Autochthonous Aryans? The Evidence from Old Indian and Iranian Texts" 7380: 7333: 7090:

Hitler's Priestess: Savitri Devi, the Hindu-Aryan Myth, and Neo-Nazism

1970:, the timeline of events in ancient Indian history as narrated in the 8712: 8036: 7752:

The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Peoples of Eastern and Central Asia

7627:. Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series. Leiden: Brill. 7269: 6859: 5513: 4596: 2748: 2744: 2710: 2579: 2407: 2365:

Re-dating India's history by postulating a Vedic-Puranic chronology:

2059: 2003: 1513: 1290: 1282: 1275: 1268: 1254: 1122: 9527:

Kazanas, Nicholas (2002). "Indigenous Indo-Aryans and the Rigveda".

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