Indo-Aryan peoples

Infobox Ethnic group
group=Indo-Aryans
poptime= > 1 billion
popplace=
region1 = flagcountry|India
pop1 = 821 mil
ref1 = [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html#People] |
region2 = flagcountry|Pakistan
pop2 = Over 164 mil
ref2 = [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/pk.html#People] |
region3 = flagcountry|Bangladesh
pop3 = Over 150 mil
ref3 = [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bg.html#People]
region4 = flagcountry|Nepal|
region5 = flagcountry|Sri Lanka|
region6 = flagcountry|Maldives|
region7 = flagcountry|UK|
region8 = flagcountry|United States|
region9 = flagcountry|Canada|
region10 = flagcountry|Australia|
region11 = flagcountry|Mauritius|
region12 = flagcountry|Fiji|
region13 = flagcountry|New Zealand|
region14 = flagcountry|South Africa|
region15 = flagcountry|UAE|
region16 = flagcountry|Guyana|
region17 = flagcountry|Suriname
langs= Indo-Aryan languages
rels= Primarily Hinduism and Islam

Indo-Aryan is an ethno-linguistic term referring to the wide collection of peoples united as native speakers of the Indo-Aryan branch of the family of Indo-European languages. Indo-Aryan identity, at least in terms of language, is traced to the ancient Indo-European Aryans who, according to mainstream scholarly consensus, arrived in the Indian Subcontinent circa 2000-1500 BCE. Today, there are slightly over approximately one billion native speakers of Indo-Aryan languages, most of them native to South Asia, where they form the majority. Their cultural influence, from early on in the 1st millennium AD, reached as far east as modern Cambodia and Vietnam (Khmer and Champa kingdoms) as well as Indonesia, where it survives in Bali and in the Philippines. Modern migration gave rise to Indo-Aryan minorities on most continents.

Pre-Vedic Indo-Aryans

The separation of Indo-Aryans proper from Proto-Indo-Iranians is commonly dated, on linguistic grounds, to roughly 2000 BC. [Citation | last =Mallory | first =J.P. | author-link =J.P. Mallory | year =1989 | title =In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology, and Myth | place =London | publisher =Thames & Hudson | page=38f. ] The Nuristani languages probably split in such early times, and are classified as either remote Indo-Aryan dialects or as an independent branch of Indo-Iranian. By the mid 2nd millennium BC early Indo-Aryans had reached Assyria in the west (the Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni) and the northern Punjab in the east (the Rigvedic tribes). [e.g. EIEC, s.v. "Indo-Iranian languages", p. 306.]

The spread of Indo-Aryan languages has been connected with the spread of the chariot in the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. Some scholars trace the Indo-Iranians (both Indo-Aryans and Iranians) back to the Andronovo culture (2nd millennium BC). Other scholars [Brentjes (1981), Klejn (1974), Francfort (1989), Lyonnet (1993), Hiebert (1998) and Sarianidi (1993)] have argued that the Andronovo culture proper formed too late to be associated with the Indo-Aryans of India, and that no actual traces of the Andronovo culture (e.g. warrior burials or timber-frame materials) have been found in India or Mesopotamia. [Edwin Bryant. 2001]

Archaeologist J.P. Mallory (1998) finds it "extraordinarily difficult to make a case for expansions from this northern region to northern India" and remarks that the proposed migration routes "only [get] the Indo-Iranian to Central Asia, but not as far as the seats of the Medes, Persians or Indo-Aryans" (Mallory 1998; Bryant 2001: 216). Therefore he prefers to derive the Indo-Aryans from the intermediate stage of the BMAC culture, in terms of a "Kulturkugel" model of expansion. Likewise, Asko Parpola (1988) connects the Indo-Aryans to the BMAC. But although horses were known to the Indo-Aryans, evidence for their presence in the form of horse bones is missing in the BMAC. [e.g. Bernard Sergent. Genèse de l'Inde. 1997:161 ff.] Parpola (1988) has argued that the Dasas were the "carriers of the Bronze Age culture of Greater Iran" living in the BMAC and that the forts with circular walls destroyed by the Indo-Aryans were actually located in the BMAC. Parpola (1999) [Parpola, Asko (1999), "The formation of the Aryan branch of Indo-European", in Blench, Roger & Spriggs, Matthew, Archaeology and Language, vol. III: Artefacts, languages and texts, London and New York: Routledge.] elaborates the model and has "Proto-Rigvedic" Indo-Aryans intrude the BMAC around 1700 BC. He assumes early Indo-Aryan presence in the Late Harappan horizon from about 1900 BC, and "Proto-Rigvedic" (Proto-Dardic) intrusion to the Punjab as corresponding to the Swat culture from about 1700 BC.

Antiquity

An influx of early Indo-Aryan speakers over the Hindukush (comparable to the Kushan expansion of the first centuries AD) together with Late Harappan cultures gave rise to the Vedic civilization of the Early Iron Age. This civilization is marked by a continual shift to the east, first to the Gangetic plain with the Kurus and Panchalas, and further east with the Kosala and Videha. This Iron Age expansion corresponds to the black and red ware and painted grey ware cultures.

For Hellenistic times, Oleg N. Trubachev (1999; elaborating on a hypothesis by Kretschmer 1944) suggests that there were Indo-Aryan speakers in the Pontic steppe. The Maeotes and the Sindes, the latter also known as "Indoi" and described by Hesychius as an "an Indian people". [Sindoi (or Sindi etc.) were also described by e.g. Herodotus, Strabo, Dionysius, Stephen Byzantine, Polienus. [http://indoeuro.bizland.com/archive/article17.html] ]

Middle Ages

The various Prakrit vernaculars developed into independent languages in the course of the Middle Ages (see Apabhramsha), forming the Abahatta group in the east and the Hindustani group in the west. The Roma people (also known as Gypsies) are believed to have left India around AD 1000.

Contemporary Indo-Aryans

Contemporary Indo-Aryans are spread over most of the northern, western, central and eastern regions of the Indian subcontinent, Hyderabad in southern India, and in most parts of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Non-native speakers of Indo-Aryan languages also reach the south of the peninsula. The largest group are the Hindi and Urdu (Hindustani) speakers of India and Pakistan, together with other dialects also grouped as Hindustani, numbering at roughly half a billion native speakers, constituting the largest community of speakers of any of the Indo-European languages. Of the 23 national languages of India, 16 are Indo-Aryan languages (see also languages of India).

List of Indo-Aryan peoples

Ancient

* Rigvedic tribes
* Angas
* Kalingas
* Kambojas
* Kasis
* Kurus
* Licchavis
* Gandharis
* Gangaridai
* Gupta
* Magadhis
* Maurya
* Nanda
* Pala
* Satavahanas
* Shakya
* Vanga

Modern

* Assamese people
* Bengali people
* Bhils
* Bihari people
* Ravidasi
* Ramdasia
* Romani
* Chamar
* Jatav
* Chhettris
* Chittagonians
* Dakhni people
* Dardic people
* Dhivehi people
* Dogras
* Dom people

* Garhwali people
* Gujarati people
* Gurkhas
* Hindkis
* Hindustanis
* Jat people
* Kalasha
* Kashmiri people
* Kambojs, Kambohs
* Khas people
* Khowar
* Kohistani
* Konkani people
* Kumaoni people
* Lahnda
* Lohanas

* Lhotsampa people
* Maldivian people
* Manipuri people
* Marathi people
* Marwaris
* Mers
* Nahali
* Nepali people
* Oriya people
* Punjabi people
* Rajasthani people
* Romani people
* Seraikis
* Shina people
* Sinhalese
* Sindhi people

Notes

References

*
*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.

See also

*Aryan
*Arya
*Aryavarta
*Aryan race
*Iranian Peoples
*Indo-Aryan migration
*Dasa
*Kshatriya
*Proto-Indo-Europeans
*Indo-Aryan languages