The migration of Aryans is one of the much-debated and least-understood topics of modern history but history hides more than it reveals. I strongly believe that the past incubates the future. Today, Aryans are the tribe who inhabit a large part of the Indian subcontinent. But were they alone?
The term Aryan was used to refer to the Proto-Indo-Europeans and their descendants. In Sanskrit, it means “superior human” and was used for addressing each other. The word appeared in the ancient scripture Rigveda. Historians picked up this term to refer to the tribe.
The Aryan tribe did not originate in India. Various research has been conducted over several decades to indicate that origins were outside the subcontinent. The linguistic relationship indicates that Sanskrit came from the Indo-Iranian language, which came from the Proto-Indo-European language. Proto-Indo-Europen is the mother of all other European languages.
The various studies conducted by historians revealed that Aryans were European nomadic tribes and there have been multiple migrations of these tribes. These migrations are explained in various ways but the most popular of them Kurgan hypothesis which explains the dispersal based on historical evidence and tracing the language from 5500 BC. Post 5500 BC, the civilization migrated in different directions from the Urals of Russia. The culture is also known as Kurgan Culture and the great migrations happened towards various parts of Europe, Central Asia, and South Asia. The reason for these migrations has been the conflicts and shifts in the culture wherever they lived, leading to many temporary homelands spread all over Europe and Central Asia. Hence I call it the balkanization of homelands.
Fig 1: Migrations as per Kurgan hypothesis 5000 BC to 1000 BC migrations
Scheme of Indo-European language dispersals from c. 4000 to 1000 BCE according to the widely held Kurgan hypothesis. Center: Steppe cultures — 1 (black): Anatolian languages (archaic PIE), 2 (black): Afanasievo culture (early PIE), 3 (black) Yamnaya culture expansion (Pontic-Caspian steppe, Danube Valley) (late PIE), 4A (black): Western Corded Ware, 4B-C (blue & dark blue): Bell Beaker; adopted by Indo-European speakers, 5A-B (red): Eastern Corded ware, 5C (red): Sintashta (proto-Indo-Iranian), 6 (magenta): Andronovo, 7A (purple): Indo-Aryans (Mittani), 7B (purple): Indo-Aryans (India), [NN] (dark yellow): proto-Balto-Slavic, 8 (grey): Greek, 9 (yellow): Iranians,
But the question is, what happened before 5500 BC?
I tried to understand how they reached Russia. History may not have the right answer as it is dependent on evidence on the ground. The better way to understand is the genetic study of the DNA. The DNA-based migration studies have not only endorsed the theory of various migrations previously explained by historians but also added more insights into the way it has happened.
The early Aryans were based in Macedonia as per DNA analysis. Macedonia was an Aryan ancestral homeland during 10,000 BC, towards the end of the ice age. They moved towards Russia and then took the semi-circular path towards the Indian sub-continent. They were culturally referred to as the “Kurgan culture”. For two decades Kurgan Concept has been the central element in attempts to explain the cultural shifts that occurred during the Late Copper Age/Early Bronze Age transition in Eastern Europe, ca. 2500 BC.
The Rigveda, (1700 BC) does not talk about the Urals, and it is conceived in the Indian subcontinent as it appears in the literature review. However, it talks about the Ashurs (Iranians and Assyrians) with whom they shared a common heritage. Rigvedic Aryans expressed surprise and cultural shock in various hymns of Rigveda about the local civilizations being different from what they practiced. There were many conflicts as it appears from hymns with the local people in the Indian subcontinent. The indigenous population of the Indus Valley (Harappans) moved towards the South of India.
The below map shows the DNA-based study which is very similar to the Kurgan Hypothesis I posted earlier. Two different approaches and methodologies point only in one direction, that Aryans migrated from elsewhere.
Fig 2: Migrations as per DNA Study
Source: “WHERE THE “SLOVENS” AND “INDO-EUROPEANS” CAME FROM?” by Anatoly Klyosov
Does that explain the Greek and Aryan overlaps?
There is more. Aryans were mono haplogroup, made of R1a1 (genes) only. India itself has plenty of other haplogroups that are almost nonexistent outside of India. There have been various migrations for nearly 40,000 years in India. That created plenty of their Indian haplogroups. Among them are H, L, and R2. If by any chance the Indians were those who brought their R1a1 out of Indian borders, or even to Europe, R1a1 will inevitably show such distinct Indian local haplogroups. And throughout all of Russia and Eastern Europe, there’s no trace of them, nor even in Western Europe, with some rare exceptions. It is clear that this R1a1 haplogroup came to India and not the other way around. Furthermore, when moving toward South India, the R1a1 haplogroup decreases. This indicates, that the South of India is genetically different and that coincides with Proto-Dravidian-speaking Harappan (Indus Valley) tribes which moved south when Aryans reached the North of the subcontinent (current day Pakistan and Afghanistan), where they used to live before 1500 BC.
Conclusion
The consolidation of the analysis from two different concepts — Kurgan Hypothesis and DNA profiling indicates the same pattern of migrations of Aryan tribes. The inferences on the age of those migrations may vary by a few hundred years, but it has proven beyond doubt the migration theory of Aryan steppe tribes. To arrive at this conclusion, I have spent years studying scriptures of various civilizations and reading academic research. The contrarian views were also analyzed but the contrarian claims of indigenous tribes of Aryan fall flat in the arguments and DNA profiling has further established the inward migration to the Indian subcontinent. This explains the similarity and overlaps of Greek and Sanskrit, common deities, and much more. Based on the DNA profiling and various historical findings, Macedonia was the original Aryan homeland where they originated. Please also refer to my earlier study on the Aryan and Pagan connections which can bring another angle to it. This study intends to understand history from the right perspective by connecting the dots and investigating how civilizations and humanity evolved together.
