Proto-Indo-Iranians (after
EIEC). The
Andronovo,
BMAC and
Yaz cultures have often been associated with Indo-Iranian migrations. The
GGC,
Cemetery H,
Copper Hoard,
OCP, and
PGW cultures are candidates for cultures associated with
Indo-Aryan migrations. The introduction of the
Indo-Aryan languages in the Indian subcontinent was the outcome of a
migration of Indo-Aryan people from Central Asia into the northern
Indian subcontinent (modern-day
Bangladesh,
Bhutan,
India,
Nepal,
Pakistan, and
Sri Lanka). Another group of Indo-Aryans migrated further westward and founded the
Mitanni kingdom in northern Syria (c. 1500–1300 BC); the other group was the Vedic people. According to
Christopher I. Beckwith, the
Wusun people of
Inner Asia in
antiquity could have been of Indo-Aryan origin. The
Proto-Indo-Iranians, from which the Indo-Aryans developed, are identified with the
Sintashta culture (2100–1800 BCE), and the
Andronovo culture, which flourished ca. 1800–1400 BCE in the steppes around the
Aral Sea, present-day Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The Proto-Indo-Aryan split off around 1800–1600 BCE from the Iranians, moved south through the
Bactria-Margiana Culture, south of the Andronovo culture, borrowing some of their distinctive religious beliefs and practices from the BMAC, and then migrated further south into the
Levant and north-western India. The migration of the Indo-Aryans was part of the larger diffusion of
Indo-European languages from the
Proto-Indo-European homeland at the
Pontic–Caspian steppe which started in the 4th millennium BCE. The
GGC,
Cemetery H,
Copper Hoard,
OCP, and
PGW cultures are candidates for cultures associated with Indo-Aryans. The Indo-Aryans were united by shared cultural norms and language, referred to as
aryā 'noble'. Over the last four millennia, the Indo-Aryan culture has evolved particularly inside India itself, but its origins are in the conflation of values and heritage of the Indo-Aryan and indigenous people groups of India. Diffusion of this culture and language took place by patron-client systems, which allowed for the absorption and acculturation of other groups into this culture, and explains the strong influence on other cultures with which it interacted. Genetically, most Indo-Aryan-speaking populations are descendants of a mix of Central Asian steppe pastoralists, Iranian hunter-gatherers, and, to a lesser extent, South Asian hunter-gatherers—commonly known as Ancient Ancestral South Indians (AASI). Dravidians are descendants of a mix of South Asian hunter-gatherers and Iranian hunter-gatherers, and to a lesser extent, Central Asian steppe pastoralists. South Indian Tribal Dravidians descend majorly from South Asian hunter-gatherers, and to a lesser extent Iranian hunter-gatherers. Additionally, Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burmese speaking people contributed to the genetic make-up of South Asia.
Indigenous Aryanism propagates the idea that the Indo-Aryans were indigenous to the Indian subcontinent, and that the Indo-European languages spread from there to central Asia and Europe. Contemporary support for this idea is ideologically driven, and has no basis in objective data and mainstream scholarship. == List of historical Indo-Aryan peoples ==