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 mil^[1]
Pakistan	Over 164 mil^[2]
Bangladesh	Over 150 mil^[3]
Nepal	Over 26 mil
Sri Lanka	Over 14 mil
Burma	Over 1 mil
Maldives	Over 300,000
Languages
Indo-Aryan languages
Religion
Indian religions (Mostly Hindu; with Sikh, Buddhist 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 African Romance Armenian Balto-Slavic Baltic Slavic Celtic Insular Celtic Germanic Hellenic Greek Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Italic Romance Extinct Anatolian Tocharian Paleo-Balkan Dacian Thracian Illyrian Phrygian Reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language Phonology: Sound laws, Accent, Ablaut 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 Kurgan hypothesis Indo-European migrations Indo-Aryan migration hypothesis Armenian hypothesis Anatolian hypothesis Indigenous Aryans Paleolithic Continuity Theory Eurasian nomads
Archaeology Chalcolithic Domestication of the horse Corded ware Baden Middle Dnieper Cucuteni Dnieper-Donets Samara Sredny Stog Khvalynsk Maykop Kurgan culture Kurgan Cernavodă Yamna Kemi Oba Funnelbeaker Bronze Age Chariot Andronovo Afanasevo Catacomb Sintashta Srubna Beaker Tumulus Unetice Urnfield Lusatian Nordic Bronze Age Terramare BMAC Trzciniec Yaz Gandhara grave Iron Age Thraco-Cimmerian Chernoles Colchian Painted Grey Ware Northern Black Polished Ware Hallstatt Jastorf
Peoples and societies Reconstructed Proto-Indo-Europeans Society Religion Historical Bronze Age Anatolians Armenians Mycenaean Greeks Indo-Iranians Iron Age Indo-Aryans Iranians Scythians Persians Medes Celts Gauls Celtiberians Insular Celts Hellenic peoples Italic peoples Germanic peoples Paleo-Balkans/Anatolia: Thracians Dacians Illyrians Phrygians Middle Ages Balts Slavs Tocharians Albanians Medieval Europe Greater Persia Medieval India
Religion and mythology Reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion Proto-Indo-Iranian religion Historical Hittite Vedic Hinduism Buddhism Jainism Persian Zoroastrianism Yazdânism Ossetian Paleo-Balkans Armenian Greek Roman Celtic Gaelic Gaulish 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

Indo-Aryan peoples are an Indo-European ethnolinguistic group of peoples who speak Indo-Aryan languages. The Indo-Aryan languages belong to 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.

Indo-Aryan migrations 1
List of Indo-Aryan peoples 2
- Historical 2.1
- Contemporary 2.2
See also 3
Notes 4
References 5
Sources 6
External links 7

Indo-Aryan migrations

The Indo-European languages were introduced into northern India by Indo-Aryans. The Indo-Aryan migration theory^{[note 1]} explains the introduction of the Indo-Aryan languages in the Indian subcontinent by proposing a migration from the Bactria-Margiana Culture (present-day northern Afghanistan) into the northern Indian Subcontinent (modern day India, Nepal 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),^[5] and the Andronovo culture,^[6] 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,^[7] whereafter the Indo-Aryans migrated into the Levant and north-western India.

List of Indo-Aryan peoples

Historical

Contemporary

Notes

^ 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.
^ ^a ^b Witzel 2005, p. 348.
^ Anthony 2007, p. 390 (fig. 15.9), 405-411.
^ Anthony 2009, p. 49.
^ Anthony 2007, p. 408.
^ ^a ^b
^ ^a ^b
^ Jindal, Mangal Sen (1992). History of origin of some clans in India, with special reference to Jats (Original from the University of Michigan). Sarup & Sons. pp. 29–36.

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.
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., TheE Indo-Aryan Controversy. Evidence and inference in Indian history (PDF), Routledge

External links

Horseplay at Harappa - People Fas Harvard - Harvard University
A tale of two horses - Frontline

Indo-Aryan peoples