Origins of Indian ethnic groups

The Indian subcontinent has been home to a multitudinous variety of racial groups throughout the millennia, making it one of the most genetically rich areas on the globe today. Relatively isolated from the rest of Eurasia by the Himilayas to the north, and the Indian Ocean to the west, east and south, India has managed to shelter some of the most ancient races outside of Africa, while also assimilating and absorbing waves of later human populations, resulting in a greatly enriched genetic, linguistic and cultural heritage.

Negrito Aborigines

The aboriginal inhabitants of India belonged to an ancient population of uncertain origins who mainly inhabited the jungle environments of the subcontinent, much like the modern day Pygmies of Africa and the Negritos of Southeast Asia. We can only assume that the morphological features shared by these last two geographically diverse populations, such as very small-stature, dark skin, woolly hair, scant body hair and occasional steatopygia, must also have characterised the ancient Indian homunculi. Although little is known of their origins, we know that their arrival in the Indus predated that of the Proto-Australoids [http://www.webindia123.com/india/people/people.htm Facts about India - People of India- ethnic groups ] ] roughly 60,000 years ago. Forming a sub-stratum with which later waves of ethnic groups have been merged, these enigmatic pygmies have largely been amalgamated into the modern Indian race [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=8WNEcgMr11kC&pg=PA61&lpg=PA61&dq=indian+negrito&source=web&ots=0h2_vaZWM4&sig=n7u9cuf9C21GyT-X8HCqnMF5ams#PPA61,M1] ] leaving no trace of their language or culture.

Veddoid Migrants

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Genetically the Proto-Australoids are associated with the mtDNA haplogroup M, the earliest lineage outside of Africa.Fact|date=January 2008 Veddoid peoples were characterised by gracile body types, dark skin and wavy hair, broad, flat noses and fleshy, protruding lips. They had long heads with low foreheads and prominent eye ridges, thick jaws, large teeth and small chins. [The Masks of God: Oriental Mythology, Joseph Campbell, Penguin Books, 1959] ]

The Australoids laid the foundation of Indian civilization. They cultivated rice and vegetables and made sugar from sugarcane. Their languages have survived in the Central and Eastern India. The Veddahs of Sri Lanka are believed to be partly descended from the Australoids.

Mediterannean Farmers

At present this race includes a large number of groups of peoples stretching from Iberia to India. The characteristic type appears in late Natufian times in Palestine and may have been differentiated in the southern steppes of Northern Africa and in Asia, and spread westwards and eastwards. The peoples of Asia Minor, Crete and the pre-Hellenic Aegean as well as the predynastic Egyptians belonged to this stock and the purest representatives at present are to be found in the Arabian Peninsula. In India it forms a dominant element in the population of the north and is widespread elsewhere among the upper social classes. Such people are medium to tall in stature, wih a complexion ranging from dark to light olive brown, a long head and face, and eyes ranging from black to brown and characteristically large and open. The body is slenderly built. The archeological evidence shows that this long-headed Mediterranean type is everywhere in Western Asia associated with the earliest agricultural settlements. The appearance of the early Mediterranean folk in prehistoric India must be related to this Neolithic expansion from the west. They are reputed to have built the city civilizations of the Indus Valley, the remains of which have been found at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa.

Out of India Theory

The Out of India Theory postulates Aryans to have originated from Indian and subsequently migrated to different parts of Central Asia and beyond. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_of_india_theory]

Indo-Aryan Migration

The Aryan migration theory states that Aryans migrated from Central Asia towards Persia and India giving rise to the early Persians and the Indo-Aryans. Mounted on chariots, Aryans pressed through the passes of the Hindu Kush and broke into the broadly spreading, rich Indian plain.

ee also

* Wanniyala-Aetto
* Australoid

Notes