Indigenous or Mixed?

Fig. 52 The first verses of the Rig Veda - RV 1.1.1

This image is in the Public domain

Introduction

In the previous section, we touched upon two theories on the origins of Hinduism, Sanskrit, the Vedas and the population of India. The Out of India theory believes that all of them were indigenous to India and they were not influenced by people or cultures from outside the region. They believe that Indo-European languages were influenced by Sanskrit.  Some proponents of this theory believe that any other theory reveals a colonial and racist mindset.

The competing theory states that after the decline of the IVC, the religion, language and cultural practices of the people of India were influenced by people who migrated from the Steppe region of Central Europe. This is sometimes referred to as the Aryan migration theory.

Until recently, this topic was addressed by analyzing archaeological remains, looking for similarities or derivatives between languages and the study of religious texts such as the Vedas and the Avesta.

The field of genomics and the ability to sequence DNA from human fossils has provided more scientific evidence. This has been discussed at length in the chapters on Paleogenetics and Mehrgarh.

This chapter will look at additional evidence from archaeology, linguistics and genetics to determine which of these two theories has a scientific basis for correctness.

Background

In the chapter on Mehrgarh, we looked at two papers that were published in Science and Cell in 2019. The conclusions are repeated here -

• According to the paper in Science by Narasimhan et al,  titled, "The Formation of Human Populations in South and Central Asia" -

  • Around the time of the decline of the IVC after the mature Harappan phase (2600 - 1900 BCE), people from the Steppe region arrived in present day Pakistan and Northwest India between 1900 BCE and 1500 BCE.

  • Some people in North India have a significant amount (20%) of Steppe genes, especially among certain castes like Brahmins and Bhumihars.

  • After the decline of the Harappan civilization, some of the inhabitants of the IVC moved south and mixed with groups that had lived in South India at that time (which would have been the AASI) to form the Ancestral South Indians (ASI)

  • The people from the Steppe mixed with the people of the IVC region forming the Ancestral North Indians (ANI)

  • Indians today derive their ancestry from Ancient South Indians (AASI + Iranian hunter gatherers) and Ancient North Indians (AASI + Iranian hunter gatherers + Steppe pastoralists)

  • The authors write, "...the absence of much Anatolian farmer-related ancestry in the Indus Periphery Cline suggests that the Indo-European languages spoken in South Asia today are unlikely to owe their origin to the spread of farming from West Asia"

  • "Our results not only provide negative evidence against an Iranian plateau origin for Indo-European languages in South Asia, but also positive evidence for the theory that these languages spread from the Steppe"

• According to the  paper in Cell by Shinde et al, titled, "An Ancient Harappan Genome Lacks Ancestry from Steppe Pastoralists or Iranian Farmers" -

  • The fossil sample in Rakhigarhi that yielded the ancient DNA is dated using radiocarbon methods to 2800-2300 BCE

  • The samples of 12 people who were from the IVC had no Steppe ancestry. They had a mix of Iranian hunter gatherers and AASI which would be the same as the ASI

  • The data suggests a Steppe origin for Indo European languages. It spread from Eastern Europe via Central Asia in the first half of the second millennium BCE (2000 - 1500 BCE).  The authors write, "... a natural route for Indo-European languages to have spread into South Asia is from Eastern Europe via Central Asia in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE, a chain-of-transmission now documented in detail with ancient DNA. The fact that the Steppe pastoralist ancestry in South Asia matches that in Bronze Age Eastern Europe (but not Western Europe (de Barros Damgaard et al., 2018; Narasimhan et al., 2019)) provides additional evidence for this theory.."

The figure below, based on these 2 papers, shows an increase in Steppe ancestry from the Indus Periphery Cline to the Modern Indian cline. This is a strong indication that people from the Steppe region moved into the IVC region from around 1900 BCE and over a period of time mixed with the people who were living there. This gave rise to the Steppe ancestry among some sections of Indians like the Brahmins. 

Fig. 53 The Increase in Steppe ancestry along the IVC cline going from West to East

Out of India or Aryan Migration?

Genetic Evidence

If the Out of India theory was correct, one would expect to see South Asian haplogroups in Europe.

• Haplogroup H is a Y-chromosome haplogroup. It's primary branch H1 and its descendant H1a1 is a dominant haplogroup in South Asia. Haplogroup H is called the "Indian marker" for this reason.  If people from India had migrated to Europe spreading Sanskrit or influencing other languages along the way, one would expect to find a higher prevalence of  H or its clades among Europeans. A branch of H1a1 called H1a1a is found among the Romani people of Europe. The Roma are believed to have migrated from India about 1500 years ago. Apart from the Romani, there is little  Y-haplogroup H or their clades anywhere else in Europe. The dominant Y-haplogroups in Europe are R1b, R1a, I, E, G and J and it sub-clades.

•  In India, the predominant mtDNA haplogroups are M, R & U. The M mtDNA haplogroup is considered to be of Indian origin and it and its descendants accounts for 60% of the mtDNA in India.  In a paper titled, "In situ origin of deep rooting lineages of mitochondrial Macrohaplogroup 'M' in India", published in BMC Genomics in 2006, the authors write, "The deep roots of M phylogeny clearly ascertain the relic of Indian lineages as compared to other M sub lineages suggesting 'in-situ' origin of these sub-haplogroups in South Asia, most likely in India".  mtDNA haplogroups M5a1, M18 and M35b have been found among the Romani adding weight to the theory that the Romani are migrants from India.  Other than the Romani,  there is little M mtDNA haplogroup or its clades in Europe.  European mtDNA haplogroups include H, U, J, T and K and its subclades. None of these are descended from M.

There is no evidence from either the Y-haplogroups or the mtDNA haplogroups that supports the Out of India theory.

If the Aryan migration theory is correct, then there must be some haplogroups among the Indian population that originated in Europe.  

• Y haplogroup R1a-M420 has a spread that is in the same parts of the world as the speakers of Indo-European languages. Its subclade R1a1a1-M417 is split into 2 groups : R1a1a1a-Z282 and R1a1a1b2-Z93.  Z282 is found primarily in Europe; Z93 is the primary R1a lineage in India and more prevalent among Brahmins. The oldest R1a lineage was found in Ukraine.  

This suggests the following - The R1a lineage originated in Ukraine, part of which is in the Steppe. The Yamnaya (or Sintashta or Andronovo) culture which originated in the Steppe migrated to Europe and Asia. The European branch shows R1a-Z292 and the Asian branch shows R1a-Z93.  In India, it is more prevalent among Brahmins who are the guardians, speakers and propagators of Sanskrit and the Vedas.  Based on this data, the reasoning is that Steppe migrants influenced the Sanskrit language and the Vedas when they arrived in the IVC regions around 2000-1500 BCE. 

There are other studies that must be considered. 

• 2009 - Some researchers  argue for a South Asian origin for R1a. In a paper published in the Journal of Human Genetics titled, "The Indian origin of paternal haplogroup R1a1* substantiates the autochthonous origin of Brahmins and the caste system", the authors contend that while R1a1 was highest among Brahmins, it was also found among people who belong to other castes. It is also more diverse among Indians than among Europeans suggesting that it originated in India. 

This study suggests that the gene flow was from India to Central Asia and beyond and not the other way around. 

• 2009 - In another paper published in Human Genetics, titled, "Ancient DNA provides new insights into the history of south Siberian Kurgan people", the haplotypes of nearly all 26 ancient human specimens from the Krasnoyarsk area in Siberia dated from the middle of the second millennium BCE to the fourth century CE belonged to subclade R1a1. 

• 2012 - Another study published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology titled, "Brief communication: new Y-chromosome binary markers improve phylogenetic resolution within haplogroup R1a1"  confirmed that subclade R1a1 appears all across Eurasia

• 2018 - A study published in Nature, titled, "A comprehensive portrait of Y-STR diversity of Indian populations and comparison with 129 worldwide populations"  describes the analysis of genome data collected from 407 males. 14 Y-haplogroups were found with R(51.5%), H(16.2%) and L(15.8%) dominating. R was higher in North and West India followed by the North and South. The L haplogroup followed the reverse trend, highest in the South and decreasing towards the other regions.  H was distributed almost evenly across all regions.

 There is not much discussion about the origins of the haplogroups but the data is crucial to this discussion. If the R1a is not indigenous to India, the Steppe migration theory will be correct since R1a is the dominant haplogroup in India. 

• 2019 - The two papers from Science by Narasimhan et al, and Cell by Vasant Shinde et al, have been discussed in the previous chapter

• 2020 - A study published n the journal Molecular Genetics and Genomics looked the the genetic origins of Brahmins in India. The dataset consisted of Y-chromosome profiles of 1201 Brahmins  and 2196 non-Brahmins from all over India.  The data for Brahmins was collected by various researchers between 2006 to 2016. The data for non-Brahmins was collected in 2018.
  Using AMOVA (Analysis of Molecular Variance), the genetic distance (called Rst) to various foreign populations was calculated. The value was the lowest with the Uighur population in Xinjiang. Other populations that had high genetic affinity with the Indian dataset included populations from Uzbekistan, Iran, Hungary and Turkey.

The Brahmins and non-Brahmins were represented by 12 Y haplogroups. Of these, 83% of Brahmins and 77% of non-Brahmins belonged to 4 haplogroups - R, J, H and L. 

The paper suggests that the R1a haplogroup originated in Iran and arrived in India about 10,000 BP (8000 BCE) around the time the Mehrgarh civilization was starting.   R1a accounts for almost 51% of the Indian population. This means that Brahmins and non-Brahmins have significant ancestry from outside India.  

According to this paper, of  the 12 Y-haplogroups, only the H is indigenous to India.

The papers listed above agree that R1a is found all over Eurasia pointing to some form of migration between Europe and South Asia. The genetic evidence analyzed in the two 2019 papers does favor the theory that some people from the Steppe region migrated  to the regions of the IVC between 2000 to 1500 BCE.  The Out  of India  theory does  not have any basis in  genetics.

A recent study of the genes of 2762 individuals in India, covering various geographic regions, languages, tribal and caste groups shows
"that most Indians derive ancestry from three ancestral groups related to ancient Iranian farmers, Eurasian Steppe pastoralists and South Asian hunter-gatherers". Surprisingly, 1-2% of Indians ancestry derives from Neanderthals and Denisovans. In addition, the paper states "Indians have the largest variation in Neanderthal ancestry, as well as the highest amount of population-specific Neanderthal segments among worldwide groups."  
This is a preprint and the final peer reviewed paper is awaited. 

The Aryan  migration theory has genetic and linguistic evidence to support it. However, it has not  yet found widespread acceptance among experts.  Interestingly, researchers whose affiliations are with institutions in Europe or USA appear to favor the Aryan migration theory. Most of the opposition to this theory comes from scientists whose affiliation is with Indian institutions or with some Indians living in the US.

Language

William Jones observation about Sanskrit, Persian and Latin having a common origin is now accepted among linguists. These languages belong to the Indo-European family of languages that, today, includes Sanskrit and its daughter languages -  Hindi, Sindhi, Gujarati, Marathi in India, German, English, French, Italian etc. 

All these languages have a common parent language that is called the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language. There is no direct record of PIE. It's existence is postulated based on the commonality between the languages that make up the Indo-European family. It is believed that PIE  was spoken between 4500 - 2500 BCE in the Pontic Steppe region, the same region from where pastoralists migrated to the IVC. 

The Mittani Empire

The Mittani empire ruled a region in the northern Euphrates-Tigris region (present day Iraq, Syria, Turkey) from about 1550 to 1250 BCE.  The earliest name for the kingdom is Maittani with the word Maita derived from the Sanskrit  verb मिथ्; (unite, pair, couple, meet). Most of what is known about the Mittani kingdom comes from correspondence between the kingdom and its neighbors, the Assyrian and the Egyptian kingdoms.  This includes the Amarna letters named after the place, Tell al-Amarna in Egypt, where the tablets were found. In addition a horse training manual and a treaty between the Mittanis and Hittites have been found.

Of relevance to this discussion is the treaty between the Mittanis and the Hittites, a neighboring kingdom. The treaty written in cuneiform tablets in the Akkadian language (which has been deciphered) was found in Hattusa, in modern Turkey. The treaty names "the Mitra gods, the Varuna gods, Indra the Nasatya gods" as divine witnesses for the Mittanis.   (The Nasatya are the Asvinis of the Rig Veda)

While these gods appear in several places in the Rig Veda, RV 10.125.1 says -

अ॒हं रु॒द्रेभि॒र्वसु॑भिश्चराम्य॒हमा॑दि॒त्यैरु॒त वि॒श्वदे॑वैः । अ॒हं मि॒त्रावरु॑णो॒भा बि॑भर्म्य॒हमि॑न्द्रा॒ग्नी अ॒हम॒श्विनो॒भा ॥ 

“I proceed with the  Rudras, with the Vasus, with the Adityas and with the Viswadevas. I support both Mitra, Varuna, Agni and Indra and the two Asvinis ”

Mittani kings had Indo-Aryan names such as "Purusa" (man), Indrota ("helped by Indra") etc. The horse training manual mentioned earlier had terms like  aika (one), tera (three), satta (seven) and asua (ashva, meaning “horse”). There is also mention of Maryannu, who are chariot mounted warriors. The term is derived from Marya, which in Sanskrit means man or youth or warrior.

The people who brought these (now recognized as) Sanskrit words came from the Steppe region around 2000 BCE. They represented the Andronovo culture (named after the village Andronovo in Siberia where the first remains were excavated) and existed between 2000 - 1200 BCE. DNA was extracted from some of the remains in Andronovo. The Y-haplogroup was found to be R1a1a1b which is close to R1a1a1b2 (Z93) found in India.

Burials in the Andronovo culture were accompanied with wheeled weapons, horses, ceramics and chariots. It is believed that the spoke wheeled chariot was invented by the people of the Andronovo or the earlier Sintashta culture. The ability to ride horse drawn wheeled chariots gave the culture a significant advantage and enabled them to travel long distances through Europe and Asia spreading their culture and their genes to the people of those regions. Some of them moved south-west towards present day Iran, Syria, Turkey etc. where they formed the Mittani empire several hundred years later.  Others moved south-east and traveled through the BMAC  region on their way to the region of the IVC.

Excavations at BMAC by Viktor Sarianidi, a Russian archaeologist have uncovered sacred altars, poppy seeds, cannabis and ephedra which are all intoxicants and possibly used to make soma, a drink that is mentioned in the Rig Veda. There is also  evidence of four wheeled chariots and horse sacrifice, all of which are mentioned in the Rig Veda.

To both these places - the region of the Mittani empire and the IVC region -  they took the names of the deities mentioned above. The Mittani empire is long gone but these deities live on in the Rig Veda, and by extension, in Hinduism. 

One could argue that the names of Vedic gods could have spread west from India to the Mittani empire.  However there is no genetic evidence for the Out of India theory. The use of names of gods that are mentioned in the Rig Veda (Indra, Varuna etc.) in tablets that have been unearthed from the Middle East and assigned to the Mittani kingdom (dated to 1500 BCE) adds weight to the theory that people from the Steppe migrating to the lands of the IVC brought an early version of Sanskrit, called Vedic Sanskrit, with them.  The Rig Veda is written in Vedic Sanskrit. 

The IVC and the Vedic Civilization

There are competing theories on the relationship between the IVC and the Vedic civilization. One  theory states that the IVC predates the Vedic civilization. The competing theories state that the IVC and the Vedic civilizations are the same or that the Vedic civilization is older than the IVC. 

The theory that the IVC predates the Vedic civilization is based on the following -

• Genetic evidence -  If the Vedic and IVC civilizations existed at the same time, there must be some genetic overlap between their residents.  The fossils that are from the IVC cline (from Rakhigarhi (dated 2800-2300 BCE) and the 11 outliers) had a mix of AASI and Iranian hunter-gatherers but no Steppe ancestry.  The fossils from Swat and Chitral dated to 1700-1400 BCE have 49% Steppe ancestry.  Brahmins have up to 20% Steppe ancestry. The fact that Steppe ancestry is seen  at a date later than the accepted date for the mature Harappan phase means that they could not have co-existed. The same argument can be used to challenge the notion that the Vedic civilization predates the IVC

• Type of civilization - The IVC was an urban civilization. Well laid streets, drainage systems, large public baths, granaries etc. The Vedas describe a pastoral and rural culture. One could argue that the transition was from a rural Vedic culture to an urban IVC but the other arguments given here belie this argument

• IVC seals - There are no seals in the IVC that depict the Rig Vedic gods like Indra, Varuna, Agni, Mitra etc. If the Vedic civilization co-existed or pre-dated the Vedas, one could expect to see at least a few seals for these deities

• Language - There is no similarity between the IVC script and the Devanagari script used in Sanskrit. If the Vedic civilization was older, one would expect to see some seals with the Devanagari script. None have been found. There are important differences. The IVC script was written right to left; the Devanagari script is written left to right. Sanskrit words, and it's daughter languages like Hindi, have a line over them. None of the seals show a line over them

• Dating - There is mention of Ayas in the Rig Veda which could be copper or bronze or iron.  Krishna ayas (black metal)  is mentioned in the Yajur Veda (YV) and the Atharvana Veda (AV) which were composed after the Rig Veda Samhita. This could only mean that the phrase krishna ayas was used in the YV and AV to distinguish it from ayas mentioned in the RV. If we accept that the Iron age started around 1200 BCE in India, it means the Rig Veda Samhita must have been composed before 1200 BCE but probably after 2000 BCE based on the genetic and linguistic evidence presented in the previous sections. Since the Mittani kingdom existed between 1550-1250 BCE and the deities mentioned in the Amarna letters are also found in the Rig Veda, the Rig Veda was probably composed between 2000 - 1200 BCE. The mature Harappa phase ended about 1900 BCE

The Rig Veda could have been composed earlier if the early Mandalas were composed before the Steppe pastoralists arrived in the IVC region. There is no evidence to support this idea. 

• Horse - No topic has generated more heat than the horse (or lack of it) in the IVC. Thousands of seals have been discovered from the IVC. These seals depict various animals like the unicorns, bulls, tigers, peacocks, rhinoceros etc. Not one seal depicting the horse has been found.  The argument goes like this - It is unlikely that horses would have been ignored in the seals if they existed in the IVC.  If the migrants from the Steppe entered the IVC regions around 1900-1500 BCE with their horses and chariots, it is likely that horses would appear in the artifacts after the mature Harappan phase. It does. The Rig Veda is replete with the mention of horses. Several hymns have been composed that refer the horse, especially those related to the Ashvamedha Yaga in Mandala 1, sukta 162 - RV 1.162. Since the Rig Veda is dated between 2000 - 1200 BCE, and the mature Harappan phase ended around 1900 BCE, the IVC predates the Vedas or they might have been a small overlap between 2000 to 1900 BCE.

However there have been counter arguments. Bones have been found in the Harappan site of Surkotada in Gujarat. These have been dated to 2100-1700 BCE. Some archaeologists have called this out as horse bones; others disagree. It is possible that horses were brought to the IVC as part  of the trade between the IVC and Mesopotamian civilizations.  

The absence of horses in IVC seals is by itself not a convincing argument for the IVC predating the Vedic civilization. The other arguments presented here lend more weight to the theory that the mature Harappan phase predates the Vedic civilization.

The Indigenous Theory

The basic premise of  the Indigenous Theory is the same as that for the Out of India theory. Hinduism, Sanskrit, Vedas and Indians have been in the subcontinent for ever and there is no migration from outside that influenced any aspect of Indian life. 

One of the earliest proponents was Swami Vivekananda. In a speech in Madras, the Swamiji said, "...As for as the truth in these theories, there is not one word in our scriptures, not one, to prove that the Aryans came from anywhere outside of India..."

Some other leaders of the early 20th century had slightly different ideas. Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote a book in 1903 called, "The Arctic Home in the Vedas".  Based on his study of the Vedas, he stated that the North Pole was the original home of the Aryans and they moved to Europe and Asia around 8000 BCE due to climate changes. 

Unable to accept the idea that Aryans originated outside India, M.S.Golwalkar, who was a strong proponent of the concept of Hindu Rashtra (Hindu Nation),   stated that the North Pole used to be in Bihar and Orissa in India at the time mentioned by Tilak, thus salvaging the theory. 

Koenraad Elst, a Belgian author has vigorously opposed the Aryan migration theory. He has written that Indo European languages originated in India and spread to the Middle East and Europe when the indigenous Aryans migrated out of India. 

Other historians like Sampurnanand and A.C.Das also believed that the Aryans were indigenous to India. The thrust of their argument is that the Aryans in the Vedas considered the Sapta Sindhu their home. There is no mention of any other land in the Vedas and hence Aryans had to be indigenous. 

Other more recent proponents of the Indigenous theory such as Subhash Kak state that the hymns of the Rig Veda have been organised according to an astronomical code pointing to sophisticated observational astronomy  going back to events of 3000 or 4000 BCE. A reviewer of the paper from TIFR called the approach "highly unscientific and speculative" and the application of probability theory "totally flawed". 

Another person who has supported the Indigenous Aryan theory is N.S.Rajaram. He believed the Aryan migration theory was created for missionary and colonial interests and later propagated by Marxists and left leaning liberals. He also claimed to have deciphered the IVC script. Rajaram also claimed that Indus seals showed horses. Rajaram published an image of a horse, which later turned out to be computer generated.  To quote from Iravathan Mahadevan's Presidential address to the Indian History Congress in 2001,  "Seal No. 453 in Mackay's Further Excavations at Mohenjo-Daro is broken off right in the middle and the front portion of the animal is lost. However, judging from the hind part of the animal and comparing the motif with hundreds of complete specimens, the animal on the fragmentary seal can be recognized as a bull, most probably the 'unicorn' , but certainly not the 'horse'. Rajaram has published in the book a computer-created picture, so manipulated as to convert the image of half a bull into a full horse. Lest the readers miss the point, an artist's rendering of the horse is also added. The text above the animal is said to contain the word asva 'horse'. Significantly, Rajaram has refrained from publishing the original illustration from Mackay, which would have clearly shown what the animal really is. Rajaram could not, of course, get away with it. An expose has been published by Michael Witzel, Professor of Sanskrit Harvard University and Steve Farmer, a comparative historian. It was a sad day for Indian scholarship"

 Asko Parpola has also called out duplicity on the part of Rajaram.

Romila Thapar has noted that Rajaram branded anyone who disagreed with him as a Marxist. 

Another theory that has been championed is that the Vedas anticipated modern Science. The Brahmastra is the same as a nuclear weapon, the Pushpaka Vimana is the same as modern aircraft etc. 

Acclaimed Indian scientists like Meghnad Saha and Jayant Narlikar have clearly called out the fact that modern science is not rooted in the Vedas. Saha wrote in 1939, "For the past twenty years, I have minutely searched the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas, Shastras, astrology books, and ancient texts on science but have failed to trace any root of modern science to them." He adds, "..the reality is that modern science is a product of the collective research work of European scholars over the past three centuries"

In his 2003 book, The Scientific Edge, renowned astrophysicist Jayant Narlikar wrote, "A scientific theory is expected to make a clearly worded prediction, often with quantitative details. The more sophisticated a theory is, the more precisely stated are its predictions” 

He continues, "The claims that all the modern discoveries of science are of Vedic origin do not stand up to scientific scrutiny. In fact, they are counterproductive because they divert attention from the  genuine discoveries attributable to ancient India.” 

“our Vedic ancestors had the same scientific curiosity that drives modern  science,”  but it cannot be that “they knew what modern science talks about today.” 

Narlikar points to the Nasadiya Sukta  (RV 10.129) asking questions that are similar to those asked by cosmologists today. 

In general, most of the proponents of the Indigenous Aryan theory rely on one or more of the following -

• The Vedas do not state anywhere that its composers came from another land. Hence they must be indigenous to India

• Anyone who proposes the Aryan migration theory has a racist and colonial mindset and hence must be wrong

• Claim to use science and linguistics (and even computer generated images) to bolster the theory

• Date the Vedas to a much earlier date, say 7000 or 8000 BCE, thus preempting any discussion about outside influence or its relation to the IVC

The modus operandi is easy to understand - Assume that the Aryans (Indians) are indigenous to the land and try to find (or fit or fix) the evidence or claim scientific proof in an unscientific manner

Indigenous or Mixed

The term Aryan was used as a self identity by Zoroastrians in Iran several millennia ago. The term Dravidian is used to refer to people who live in the southern part of the Indian subcontinent (Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in India today). 

The people who called themselves Aryans lived in present day Iran several millennia ago. The Steppe ancestry, that some Indians have, came from people who migrated from the Pontic Steppe region of  Europe much later. Thus the term, "Aryan" refers to one group of people; the Steppe ancestry that some Indians have is derived from a different group of people. 

Aryans or Dravidians are not a race.  Aryans and Dravidians are not different ethnic groups either.  The genetic similarities between North and South Indians is overwhelming.  In fact 99.9% of the human genome is common among all humans today.

The term Aryan migration or Aryan invasion is wrong on several counts. They are used by individuals to serve their narrow religious or political purposes.  A better term would be Steppe migration.

The archaeological, radiocarbon dating and genetic evidence points to an influx of people from the Zagros mountains of Iran around 8000 BCE into the Mehrgarh area of present day Pakistan. They went on to establish the Mehrgarh civilization which led to the IVC.  Several millennia later, around 2000-1500 BCE, people from the Steppe region of Central Europe brought with them an Indo-European language that could have been Sanskrit or a proto version of Sanskrit, Rig Vedic deities like Indra, Varuna, Mitra etc., and cultural practices such as the use of soma and chariots. These influences shaped the Sanskrit language and the Vedic civilization. 

There is no scientific evidence that supports the Indigenous Aryan or the Out of India theory. 

We are mixed and we are diverse. The diversity in our features, cultural practices, our religions and our habits are due to genetic adaptation, environmental influences, experiences and, yes, external influences. At the fundamental genetic level, there is at most a 0.1% difference between humans.  There is much more common among North and South Indians and between Indians and the rest of the world than there are differences.

Are we Indigenous or Mixed?

We are,  most decidedly, Mixed

References

1. The Indian origin of paternal haplogroup R1a1 substantiates the autochthonous origin of Brahmins and the caste system

2. Ancient DNA provides new insights into the history of south Siberian Kurgan people

3. Y-DNA genetic evidence reveals several different ancient origins in the Brahmin population

4. A comprehensive portrait of Y-STR diversity of Indian populations and comparison with 129 worldwide populations 

5. In situ origin of deep rooting lineages of mitochondrial Macrohaplogroup 'M' in India

See Also

• Early Indians by Tony Joseph. pp 171-173

• The phylogenetic and geographic structure of Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a

• Wikipedia page on Mittani

• The Mittani kingdom

• The Amarna letters

• The Quest for the origins of the Vedic culture

• The treaty between the Mittanis and the Hittites

• Indo-Iranian superstrate in Mittani

• The Horse and the Aryan debate

• The Horse, the Wheel and Language, pp 454-457. 

• GENERAL PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS: ARYAN OR DRAVIDIAN OR NEITHER? A STUDY OF RECENT ATTEMPTS TO DECIPHER THE INDUS SCRIPT (1995-2000) 

• Interview with Vagheesh Narasimhan

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