Indo-Aryan peoples

Indo-Aryan peoples
Total population
Geographical distribution of the major Indo-Aryan languages.
approximately 1.21 billion
Regions with significant populations
India	over 856 million^[1]
Pakistan	over 164 million^[2]
Bangladesh	over 171 million^[3]
Nepal	over 26 million
Sri Lanka	over 14 million
Burma	over 1 million
Maldives	over 300,000
Languages
Indo-Aryan languages
Religion
Indian religions (Mostly Hindu; with Buddhist, Sikh and Jain minorities) and Islam, some non-religious atheist/agnostic and Christians

Indo-European topics
Part of a series on
Languages List of Indo-European languages Historical Albanian Armenian Balto-Slavic Baltic Slavic Celtic Germanic Hellenic Greek Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Italic Romance Extinct Anatolian Tocharian Paleo-Balkan Dacian Illyrian Liburnian Messapian Mysian Paeonian Phrygian Thracian Reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language Phonology: Sound laws, Accent, Ablaut Hypothetical Daco-Thracian Graeco-Armenian Graeco-Aryan Graeco-Phrygian Indo-Hittite Italo-Celtic Thraco-Illyrian Grammar Vocabulary Root Verbs Nouns Pronouns Numerals Particles Other Proto-Anatolian Proto-Armenian Proto-Germanic (Proto-Norse) Proto-Celtic Proto-Italic Proto-Greek Proto-Balto-Slavic (Proto-Slavic) Proto-Indo-Iranian (Proto-Iranian)
Philology Hittite texts Hieroglyphic Luwian Linear B Rigveda Avesta Homer Behistun Gaulish epigraphy Latin epigraphy Runic epigraphy Ogam Gothic Bible Armenian Bible Slanting Brahmi Old Irish glosses
Origins Homeland Proto-Indo-Europeans Society Religion Mainstream Kurgan hypothesis Indo-European migrations Eurasian nomads Alternative and fringe Anatolian hypothesis Armenian hypothesis Paleolithic Continuity Theory Baltic homeland Indigenous Aryans
Archaeology Chalcolithic (Copper Age) Pontic Steppe Domestication of the horse Kurgan culture Kurgan Bug-Dniester Samara Khvalynsk Sredny Stog Dnieper-Donets Usatovo Yamna Kemi Oba Maykop East-Asia Afanasevo Eastern Europe Cernavodă Cucuteni Northern Europe Corded ware Baden Middle Dnieper Bronze Age Pontic Steppe Chariot Yamna Catacomb Poltavka Srubna Northern/Eastern Steppe Corded ware Abashevo culture Andronovo Sintashta Europe Beaker Tumulus Unetice Urnfield Lusatian Nordic Bronze Age Terramare Trzciniec South-Asia BMAC Yaz Gandhara grave Iron Age Steppe Chernoles Europe Thraco-Cimmerian Hallstatt Jastorf Caucasus Colchian India Painted Grey Ware Northern Black Polished Ware
Peoples and societies Bronze Age Anatolians Armenians Mycenaean Greeks Indo-Iranians Iron Age Indo-Aryans Indo-Aryans Iranians Iranians Scythians Persians Medes Europe Celts Gauls Celtiberians Insular Celts Hellenic peoples Italic peoples Germanic peoples Paleo-Balkans/Anatolia: Thracians Dacians Illyrians Phrygians Middle Ages East-Asia Tocharians Europe Balts Slavs Albanians Medieval Europe Indo-Aryan Medieval India Iranian Greater Persia
Religion and mythology Reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion Proto-Indo-Iranian religion Historical Hittite Indian Vedic Hinduism Buddhism Jainism Iranian Persian Zoroastrianism Yazidism Yarsanism Ossetian Kurdish Other Armenian Europe Paleo-Balkans Greek Roman Celtic Irish Scottish Breton Welsh Cornish Germanic Anglo-Saxon Continental Norse Baltic Latvian Lithuanian Slavic
Academic research Indo-European studies Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture Copenhagen Studies in Indo-European Journal of Indo-European Studies Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch Indo-European Etymological Dictionary The Horse, the Wheel and Language

Indo-Aryan peoples are a diverse Indo-European ethnolinguistic group of peoples who speak Indo-Aryan languages. The Indo-Aryan languages belong to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. Today, there are over one billion native speakers of Indo-Aryan languages, most of them native to South Asia, where they form the majority.^{[note 1]}

History

Main articles: Indo-European migrations and Indo-Aryan migrations

Further information: Indigenous Aryans and Genetics and archaeogenetics of South Asia

The Indo-European languages were introduced into northern India by Indo-Aryans. The Indo-Aryan migration theory^{[note 2]} explains the introduction of the Indo-Aryan languages in the Indian subcontinent by proposing a migration from the Sintashta culture^[5]^[6] through the Bactria-Margiana Culture and into the northern Indian subcontinent (modern day India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan). These migrations started approximately 1,800 BCE, after the invention of the war chariot, and also brought Indo-Aryan languages into the Levant and possibly Inner Asia. It was part of the diffusion of Indo-European languages from the proto-Indo-European homeland at the Pontic steppe, a large area of grasslands in far Eastern Europe, which started in the 5th to 4th millennia BCE, and the Indo-European migrations out of the Eurasian steppes, which started approximately 2,000 BCE.

The theory posits that these Indo-Aryan speaking people may have been a genetically diverse group of people who were united by shared cultural norms and language, referred to as aryā, "noble." Diffusion of this culture and language took place by patron-client systems, which allowed for the absorption and acculturalisation of other groups into this culture, and explains the strong influence on other cultures with which it interacted.The Proto-Indo-Iranians, from which the Indo-Aryans developed, are identified with the Sintashta culture (2100–1800 BCE),^[7] and the Andronovo culture,^[8] which flourished ca. 1800–1400 BCE in the steppes around the Aral sea, present-day Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The proto-Indo-Iranians were influenced by the Bactria-Margiana Culture, south of the Andronovo culture, from which they borrowed their distinctive religious beliefs and practices. The Indo-Aryans split off around 1800-1600 BCE from the Iranians,^[9] whereafter the Indo-Aryans migrated into the Levant and north-western India.^[10]

List of Indo-Aryan peoples

Historical

Archaeological cultures associated with Indo-Iranian migrations (after EIEC). The Andronovo, BMAC and Yaz cultures have often been associated with Indo-Iranian migrations. The GGC, Cemetery H, Copper Hoard and PGW cultures are candidates for cultures associated with Indo-Aryan migrations.

Contemporary

Notes

↑ Note the difference between linguistic and genetic distinction of South Asians. According to Reich et. al (2009), while the Indo-Aryan linguistic group occupies mainly northern parts of India, genetically, all South Asians across the subcontinent are a mix of both Indo-Aryan and Dravidian gene groups. Recent studies have indicated a distinct Ancestral North Indian (ANI) population and Ancestral South Indian (ASI) population which mixed over thousands of years to produce the current South Asian population. Northern Indians and traditionally upper castes (such as Kashmiri Pandits and Telugu Brahmins) are more related to Western Eurasians while Southern Indians and lower castes are less related to Western Eurasians.
↑ The term "invasion" is only being used nowadays by opponents of the Indo-Aryan Migration theory.^[4] The term "invasion" does not reflect the contemporary scholarly understanding of the Indo-Aryan migrations,^[4] and is merely being used in a polemical and distractive way.

References

↑ "India". The World Factbook.
↑ "Pakistan". The World Factbook.
↑ "Bangladesh". The World Factbook.
1 2 Witzel 2005, p. 348.
↑ Anthony 2007, pp. 408–411.
↑ Kuz'mina 2007, p. 222.
↑ Anthony 2007, p. 390 (fig. 15.9), 405-411.
↑ Anthony 2009, p. 49.
↑ Anthony 2007, p. 408.
↑ George Erdosy(1995) "The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia: Language, Material Culture and Ethnicity.", p.279

Sources

Anthony, David W. (2007). The Horse The Wheel And Language. How Bronze-Age Riders From the Eurasian Steppes Shaped The Modern World. Princeton University Press.
Beckwith, Christopher I. (16 March 2009). Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton University Press. ISBN 1400829941. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
Bryant, Edwin (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513777-9.
Loewe, Michael; Shaughnessy, Edward L. (1999). The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 BC. Cambridge University Press. pp. 87–88. ISBN 0-5214-7030-7. Retrieved November 1, 2013.
Mallory, JP. 1998. "A European Perspective on Indo-Europeans in Asia". In The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Peoples of Eastern and Central Asia. Ed. Mair. Washington DC: Institute for the Study of Man.
Trubachov, Oleg N., 1999: Indoarica, Nauka, Moscow.
Witzel, Michael (2005), "Indocentrism", in Bryant, Edwin; Patton, Laurie L., The Indo-Aryan Controversy. Evidence and inference in Indian history (PDF), Routledge

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/29/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.