Indigenous Aryans

By Adesh Katariya
plast.adesh@gmail.com

The Indigenous Aryans theory

The Indigenous Aryans theory, also known as the Out
of India theory, proposes that the Indo-European
languages, or at least the Indo-Aryan languages,
originated within the Indian subcontinent, as an
alternative to the established migration model which
proposes the Pontic steppe as the area of origin of
the IndoEuropean languages.
The indigenist view sees the Indo-Aryan languages as
having a deep history in the Indian subcontinent, and
being the carriers of the Indus Valley Civilization.
This view proposes an older date than is generally
accepted for the Vedic period, which is generally
considered to follow the decline of Harappan culture.

 It includes arguments against the Indo-Aryan

migration theory, and arguments to re-date
the Vedas and the presence of the Vedic
people in accordance with traditional, VedicPuranic datings.
The idea of "Indigenous Aryans" also implies a
migration "Out of India" to Europe and east
Asia.
This is contrary to the mainstream scholarly
view, saying that the Indo-Aryan languages
originated outside India.

 The proposal has been entwined with political and

religious arguments, since it is based on traditional
and religious views on Indian history and its identity.
There has also been resistance among some Indian
scholars to the idea that Indian culture can be
divided between external Indo-European and
indigenous Dravidian elements, a division which is
sometimes described as a legacy of colonial rule and
a hindrance to Indian national unity.
The debate mostly exists among the scholars of
Hindu religion and the history and archaeology of
India, whereas historical linguists nearly
unanimously accept the migration model of Indic
origins.

Indo-European

Historical background
The standard view on the origins of the IndoAryans is the Indo-Aryan migration theory,
which states that they entered north-western
India at about 1500 BCE.
An alternative view is the idea that the Aryans
are indigenous to India, which challenges the
standard view.
In recent times the indigenous position has
come to the foreground of the public debate.

Indo-Aryan migration theory

The Indo-Aryan Migration theory posits a migration
of Indo-European-speaking people from the Pontic
Steppes into Europe, the Levant, south Asia and east
Asia. It is part of the Kurgan-hypothesis/Revvised Steppe
Theory.
Historical linguistics provides the main basis for the
theory, analysing the development and changes of
languages, and establishing relations between the
various Indo-European languages, and the time frame
wherein these languages developed.
It also provides information about shared words, and the
corresponding area of the origin of Indo-European, and
the specific vocabulary which is to be ascribed to specific
regions.

Indo-Aryan migration theory

The linguistic analyses and data are supplemented with
archaeological data and anthropological arguments, which
together provide a coherent model that is widely accepted.
In the model, the Yamna culture is the "Urheimat" of the
Indo-Europeans,east of which emerged the Sintashta
culture (21001800 BC), from which developed
the Andronovo culture (18001400 BC).
Andronovo culture interacted with the BMAC (23001700
BC) and, out of this interaction, developed the Indo-Iranians,
which split into the Indo-Aryan and the Iranian branches
around 1800 BC.
The Indo-Aryans migrated to the Levant, northern India, and
possibly east Asia.

 The migration into northern India was not

necessarily a large-scale immigration, but may
have consisted of small groups,possibly of
ethnically and genetically heterogeneous
composition, who introduced their language and
social system into the new territory.
These are then emulated by larger groups of
people,which become absorpted in the new
language group.
Witzel also notes that "small-scale semi-annual
transhumance movements between the Indus
plains and the Afghan and Baluchi highlands
continue to this day."

"Aryan Invasion Theory"

In the 1850s Max Mller introduced the notion of two Aryan
races, a western and an eastern one, who migrated from the
Caucasus into Europe and India respectively.
Mller dichotomized the two groups, ascribing greater
prominence and value to the western branch. Nevertheless,
this "eastern branch of the Aryan race was more powerful
than the indigenous eastern natives, who were easy to
conquer.
By the 1880s, his ideas had been "hijacked" by
racist ethnologists. For example, as an exponent of race
science, colonial administrator Herbert Hope Risley (1851
1911) used the ratio of the width of a nose to its height to
divide Indian people into Aryan and Dravidian races, as well
as seven castes and found Gurjar as Purest Aryans.

 The idea of an Aryan "invasion" was fueled after the

discovery of the Indus Valley Civilisation, also called
Harappan Civilisation.
The Indus Valley Civilisation underwent decline at
precisely the period at which the Indo-Aryan migration
occurred.
This led to the idea that this migration was actually an
aggressive invasion which caused the decline of the
Harappan Civilisation.
This argument was developed by the mid-20th century
archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler, who interpreted the
presence of many unburied corpses found in the top
levels of Mohenjo-daro as the victims of conquests.
He famously stated that the Vedic god "Indra stands
accused" of the destruction of the Indus Civilisation.

 Nevertheless, critics of the Indo-Aryan Migration

theory use it to present the Indo-Aryan Migration
theory as an "Aryan Invasion Theory".
According to Witzel, the invasion model was
criticised by Indigenous Aryanists for its allegedly
racist and colonialist undertones:
The theory of an immigration of IA speaking Arya
("Aryan invasion") is simply seen as a means of British
policy to justify their own intrusion into India and their
subsequent colonial rule: in both cases, a "white race"
was seen as subduing the local darker colored
population

Indo-Iranian migrations according to

Kazanas

Indigenous Aryanism
The "Indigenist position" started to take shape
after the discovery of the Harappan Civilisation,
which predates the Vedas.
According to this alternative view, the Aryans are
indigenous to India, the Indus Civilisation is the
Vedic Civilisation, the Vedas are older than the
second millennium BCE, there is no difference
between the (northern) Indo-European part and
the (southern) Dravidian part, and the IndoEuropean languages radiated out from a homeland
in India into their present locations.

 These ideas are based on the Puranas,

the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, which contain lists
of kings and genealogies,which are used for the
traditional chronology of India's ancient history.
"Indigenists" follow a "Puranic agenda",emphasizing that
these lists go back to the fourth millennium BCE.
Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador to the Maurya court
at Patna at ca. 300 BCE, reported to have heard of a
traditional list of 153 kings that covered 6042 years,
beyond the traditional beginning of the Kaliyuga at 3102
BCE.
The royal lists are based on Bardic traditions, and are
derived from lists which were orally transmitted and
constantly reshaped by the Sta bards.

 These lists are supplemented with astronomical

interpretations, which are also used to reach an earlier
dating for the Rg Veda.
Along with this comes a redating of historical personages
and events, in which the Buddha is dated to 1700 BCE or
even 3139/8 BCE, and Chandragupta Maurya (c. 300 BCE)
is replaced by Chandragupta, the Gupta king.
In August 1995, a gathering of 43 historians and
archaeologists from South-Indian universities (at the
initiative of Prof. K.M. Rao, Dr. N. Mahalingam and Dr. S.D.
Kulkarni) passed a resolution fixing the date of the Bharata
war at 3139-38 BC and declaring this date to be the true
sheet anchor of Indian chronology

 The Vedic Foundation gives a chronology of ancient

India (Bharata), which starts in 3228 BCE with the
descension of Bhagwan Krishna.
The Mahabharata War is dated at 3139 BCE, while
various dynasties are dated more than a millennium
earlier,Gautama Buddha is dated at 1894-1814
BCE, and Jagadguru Shankaracharya at 509-477 BCE.
These ideas provide a continues chronology of India,
in contrast to the discontinuity between the
Harappan end Vedic period:
[T]he Indian civilization must be viewed as an unbroken
tradition that goes back to the earliest period of the
Sindhu-Sarasvati (or Indus) tradition (7000 or 8000 BC)

 The idea of "Indigenous Aryanism" fits into

traditional Hindu ideas about their religion, namely
that it has timeless origins, with the Vedic Aryans
inhabiting India since ancient times. The Vedic
Foundation states:
The history of Bharatvarsh (which is now called India) is
the description of the timeless glory of the Divine
dignitaries who not only Graced the soils of India with
their presence and Divine intelligence, but they also
showed and revealed the true path of peace, happiness
and the Divine enlightenment for the souls of the world
that still is the guideline for the true lovers of God who
desire to taste the sweetness of His Divine love in an
intimate style.

"Indigenous Aryans" scenarios

Michael Witzel identifies three major types of "Indigenous
Aryans" scenarios:
1) A "mild" version that insists on the indigeneity of the
Rigvedic Aryans to the North-Western region of the Indian
subcontinent in the tradition of Aurobindo and Dayananda;
2) The "out of India" school that posits India as the Proto-IndoEuropean homeland, originally proposed in the 18th century,
revived by the Hindutva sympathiser Koenraad Elst (1999),
and further popularised within Hindu nationalism by Shrikant
Talageri (2000);
3) The position that all the world's languages and civilisations
derive from India, represented e.g. by David Frawley.
Kazanas adds a fourth scenario;
The Aryans entered the Indus Valley before 4500 BC and got
integrated with the Harappans, or might have been the
Harappans.

Main arguments of the "Indigenists"

The idea of "Indigenous Aryans" is supported
with specific interpretations of archaeological,
genetic, and linguistic data, and on literary
interpretations of the Rigveda.
Standard arguments, both in support of the
"Indigenous Aryans" theory, and in opposition
the mainstream Indo-Aryan Migration theory,
are shown in next slides.

Questioning the IAMt

Presenting the Indo-Aryan Migration theory as an
"Indo-Aryan Invasion theory";
Questioning the methodology of linguistics;
Reinterpretation of the linguistic data, arguing for
the ancient, indigenous origins of Sanskrit;
Pointing to the supposed lack
of genetic and archaeological evidence to support
such an "invasion" into North West India;
Contesting the possibility that small groups can
change culture and languages in a major way;

Re-dating India's chronology,

re-establishing the Vedic-Puranic chronology
Dating the Rigveda and the Vedic people to the
3rd millennium BC or earlier;
Identifying the Sarasvati River with the GhaggarHakra River, which dried up c. 2000 BC;
Identifying the Vedic people with the Harappan
Civilisation;
Equating the Harappan Civilisation, Vedic Culture
and the Vedic-Puranic chronology.

Aurobindo's Aryan person

For Aurobindo, an "Aryan" was not a person who
belonged to a particular race, but a person who "accepted
a particular type of self-culture, of inward and outward
practice, of ideality, of aspiration.
He wanted to revive India's strength by reviving the Aryan
strength and character.
Aurobindo denied the historicity of a racial division in
India between "Aryan invaders" and a native dark-skinned
population.
Nevertheless, he did accept two kinds of culture in ancient
India, namely the Aryan culture of northern and central
India and Afghanistan, and the un-Aryan culture of the
east, south and west.
Thus, he accepted the division of European historians
between two types of cultural configurations.

The "emerging Out of India" model

The "Out of India theory" (OIT), also known as
the "Indian Urheimat Theory," is the
proposition that the Indo-European language
family originated in Northern India and spread
to the remainder of the Indo-European region
through a series of migrations.
It implies that the people of the Harappan
civilisation were linguistically Indo-Aryans.

Map showing the spread of the Proto-Indo-European

language from the Indus Valley. Dates are those of the
"emerging non-invasionist model" according to Elst.

Theoretical overview
Koenraad Elst, in his Update in the Aryan Invasion
Debate, investigates "the developing arguments
concerning the Aryan Invasion Theory".
Elst notes: Personally, I don't think that either theory, of
Aryan invasion and of Aryan indigenousness, can claim
to have been proven by prevalent standards of proof;
even though one of the contenders is getting closer.
Indeed, while I have enjoyed pointing out the flaws in
the AIT statements of the politicized Indian academic
establishment and its American amplifiers, I cannot rule
out the possibility that the theory which they are
defending may still have its merits.

 Edwin Bryant also notes that Elst's model is a

"theoretical exercise:"
...a purely theoretical linguistic exercise [] as an
experiment to determine whether India can
definitively be excluded as a possible homeland. If it
cannot, then this further problematizes the
possibility of a homeland ever being established
anywhere on linguistic grounds.
And in Indo-Aryan Controversy Bryant notes:
Elst, perhaps more in a mood of devils advocacy, toys
with the evidence to show how it can be reconfigured,
and to claim that no linguistic evidence has yet been
produced to exclude India as a homeland that cannot be
reconfigured to promote it as such.

"The emerging alternative"

Koenraad Elst summarises "the emerging alternative to the Aryan
Invasion Theory" as follows.
During the 6th millennium BC Proto-Indo-Europeans lived in
the Punjab region of northern India. As the result of demographic
expansion, they spread into Bactria as the Kambojas.
The Paradas moved further and inhabited the Caspian coast and
much of central Asia while the Cinas moved northwards and
inhabited the Tarim Basin in northwestern China, forming
the Tocharian group of I-E speakers. These groups were ProtoAnatolian and inhabited that region by 2000 BC. These people
took the oldest form of the Proto Indo-European (PIE) language
with them and, while interacting with people of the Anatolian
and Balkan region, transformed it into a separate dialect. While
inhabiting central Asia they discovered the uses of the horse,
which they later sent back to the Urheimat.
Later on during their history, they went on to occupy western Europe
and thus spread the Indo-European languages to that region

 During the 4th millennium BC, civilization in

India started evolving into what became the
urban Indus Valley Civilization.
During this time, the PIE languages evolved
to Proto-Indo-Iranian.
Some time during this period, the Indo-Iranians
began to separate as the result of internal
rivalry and conflict, with the Iranians expanding
westwards towards Mesopotamia and Persia,
these possibly were the Pahlavas.

 They also expanded into parts of central Asia. By the

end of this migration, India was left with the ProtoIndo-Aryans.
At the end of the Mature Harappan period, the
Sarasvati river began drying up and the remainder of
the Indo-Aryans split into separate groups.
Some travelled westwards and established themselves
as rulers of the Hurrian Mitanni kingdom by around
1500 BC .
Others
travelled
eastwards
and
inhabited
the Gangetic basin while others travelled southwards
and interacted with the Dravidian people.

Hindu revivalism and nationalism

In contrast to the mainstream views, the Hindu
revivalist movements denied an external origin to
Aryans.
Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of the Arya
Samaj (Society of Aryans), held that Vedas were
the source of all knowledge that were revealed to
the Aryans.
The first man (an Aryan) was created in Tibet and,
after living there for some time, the Aryans came
down and inhabited India, which was devoid of
any people earlier.

 The Theosophical Society held that the Aryans were

indigenous to India, but that they were also the
progenitors of the European civilisation.
The Society saw a dichotomy between the
spiritualism of India and the materialism of Europe.
The Hindu nationalists, led
by Savarkar and Golwalkar, eager to construct a
Hindu identity for the nation, held that the original
Hindus were the Aryans and that they were
indigenous to India.
There was no Aryan invasion and no conflict among
the people of India. The Aryans spoke Sanskrit and
spread the Aryan civilization from India to the west.

 The Theosophical Society held that the Aryans were

indigenous to India, but that they were also the
progenitors of the European civilisation. The Society
saw a dichotomy between the spiritualism of India
and the materialism of Europe.
The Hindu nationalists, led
by Savarkar and Golwalkar, eager to construct a
Hindu identity for the nation, held that the original
Hindus were the Aryans and that they were
indigenous to India.
There was no Aryan invasion and no conflict among
the people of India. The Aryans spoke Sanskrit and
spread the Aryan civilization from India to the west.

 Lars Martin Fosse notes the political significance

of "Indigenous Aryanism". He notes that
"Indigenous Aryanism" has been adopted by
Hindu nationalists as a part of their ideology,
which makes it a political matter in addition to a
scholarly problem.
The proponents of Indigenous Aryanism
necessarily engage in "moral disqualification" of
Western Indology, which is a recurrent theme in
much of the indigenist literature.
The same rhetoric is being used in indigenist
literature and the Hindu nationalist publications
like the Organiser.

 Witzel traces the "indigenous Aryan" idea to the writings

of Savarkar and Golwalkar.
Golwalkar (1939) denied any immigration of "Aryans" to
the subcontinent, stressing that all Hindus have always
been "children of the soil", a notion which according to
Witzel is reminiscent of the blood and soil of
contemporary fascism .
Since these ideas emerged on the brink of the
internationalist and socially oriented Nehru-Gandhi
government, they lay dormant for several decades, and
only rose to prominence in the 1980s.
Bergunder likewise identifies Golwalkar as the originator
of the "Indigenous Aryans" notion, and Goel's Voice of
India as the instrument of its rise to notability.

Current form of Aryans: Gurjar, Jat

Rajputs of India
The Vedic Vayupurana describes a battle waged among the ancient Aryans.
It was as a result of this war that Anavs part of the Chandravanshi clan and
Gurtar ( Guzar ) of suryabanshi had to immigrate to wester Aryabart area
of modern Iran (Iran means "land of Aryans") to Tarim basin.
It was in these regions, where the fertile soil of the mountainous country
is surrounded by the Turanian desert, that the prophet Zarathushtra
(Zoroaster) was said to have been born and gained his first
adherents. Avestan, the language of the oldest portions of
the Zoroastrian Avesta, was once called "old-iranic" which is related
to Sanskrit.
Chandravansi known as Sythians ( Jats and Rajputs) and Suryabanshi
known as Guzar by Tibbetian , Yuezhi by Chineese , Tocharian by Romans
and Tushara by Indians, currently known as Gurjar in India and Gujjar in
Pakistan

Formation of Kushana Empire

In 176 BC, the Yuezhi were driven from Tarim Besin to
westward by the Xiongnu, a fierce people of Magnolia.
The Yuezhi under the leadership of the Kushanas came down
from Central Asia and swept away all earlier dynasties of the
Northwest in a great campaign of conquest. They established
an empire which extended from Central Asia right down to the
eastern Gangetic basin.
In Bactria, they conquered the Scythians and the local IndoGreek kingdoms, the last remnants of Alexander the Great's
invasion force that had failed to take India.
From this central location, the Kushan Empire became a
wealthy trading hub between the peoples of Han China,
Sassanid Persia and the Roman Empire.
Roman gold and Chinese silk changed hands in the Kushan
Empire, at a very tidy profit for the middle-men.

Kushana Empire Map

Gurjars are Purest Aryans

Gurjars are purest form of aryans as the survey depicts. All the
details are given in the book The People Of India By Herbert Risley,
W. Crooke.
The classification in general use is - leptorrhine (fine nose) if the
nasal index is < 70, mesorrhine is it is between 70-85 and
platyrrhine (broad-nosed) if it is > 85.
The Indo-Aryan is comparable to the European, fopr the French of
Paris have a nasal index of 69.4 as measurd by Topinard [ Ris 28-9 ].
According to Sir H.H.Risley, the nose of Sudras is very similar to that
of the lowest Negro types.
The nasal index frequently reaches more than 100. The Paniyans of
Malabar have an average nasal index of 95, while certain individual
Kadias of Tamil Nad measured 115.

Nasal Index of Gurjars is lowest ,

which means minimum mixing of
non Aryan Blood

No. Tribe
1. Gurjar
2. Sikh and Jat
3. Brahman (Bengal)
4. Kayasth (Bengal)
5. Rajput
6. Vellala
7. Brahman (Bihar)
8. Brahman (Bhojpur)
9. Tamil Brahman
10. Vaisya (Bania)

Nasal Index
66.9
68.8
70.3
70.3
71.6
73.1
73.2
74.6
76.7
79.6

Nasal Type
Leptorrhine
Leptorrhine
Sub-Leptorrhine
Sub-Leptorrhine
Sub-Leptorrhine
Sub-Platyrrhine
Sub-Leptorrhine
Sub-Leptorrhine
Sub-Leptorrhine
Sub-Leptorrhine

Aryan Practice : Khaps

Khap is generally a unit of 12 villages or multiple of 12 i.e. 24,
60 or 84 villages of a particular clan or gotra of tribe or caste.
Khaps are generally found in North western India, among
Gurjara, Jats and Rajputs.
Famous historian R S Sharma ascribes the formation of these
units of 12 villages or its multiples to the Gurjara Pratiharas or
their feudatories rule in North Western India during the early
medieval period. He says what distinguished the Gurjara
Pratihara polity from that of contemporary Rastrakutas and
Palas was the imposition of clan aristocracies on old, settled
villages. He further says that Gujar imposed themselves as
dominant clans on settled villages.
Source : Research Article of Dr. Sushil Bhati

 The tribal practice that spoils should be distributed

among the members of the tribe led to the
apportionment of villages among the conquering
chiefs, some of them received them in units of 84.
It implies that Khaps constitute the clan aristocracies
of Gurjara Pratihara empire system or polity.
It also implies that Jat clans formed the bulk of
Gurjara Pratihara army along the clans of leading
Gurjara tribe. Arab traveler Al Masudi informs in his
book Muruz-ul-zahab that Gurjara Pratihara had
four armies, each having 7 to 9 lakhs soldiers. Such
vast army of around 28-36 lakhs men is only possible
if all such clan aristocracies imposed on old, settled
villages are included in it.

 The upper doab of Ganga and Yamuna comprises the

Modern district of Saharanpur, Haridwar, Shamli,
Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Meerut, Hapur, Ghaziabad,
Bulandshahar and Gautam Budh Nagar.
The Trans Yamuna region of East Delhi also fall in the upper
doab.Some major khaps of Upper Doab of Ganga and
Yamuna are as follows1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Khubar Panwar Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 84 villages in

Saharanpur district.
Butar Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 52 villages in Saharanpur district.
Chokker khap of Gurjaras comprising of 24 villages in Saharanpur
district.
Kalsian Chauhan Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 84 Villages in
Khandhla- Kairana area in shamli district.
Baliyan Khap of Jats comprising of 84 villages in Shamli- Muzaffarnagar
area.
Malik Khap of Jats comprising of 45 villages in Shamli-Muzaffarpur area.
Rajput khap of 24 villages in Sardhana area of Meerut district.

8. Tomar Khap of Rajputs comprising of 12 Villages in

Meerut
9. Bhadana Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 12 villages
in Meerut
10. Chaprana Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 12
villages in Meerut-Baghpat area
11. Huna Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 12 villages in
Meerut-Hapur area
12. Salaklain khap of Jats comprising of 84 villages in
Baghpat district.
13. Bainsla Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 12 villages.
14. Kasana khap of Gurjaras comprising of 12 villages
15. Ahir khap of 24 villages in Bulanshahar district.

16. Bhati khap of Gurjaras comprising of 360

villages in Gautam Budh Nagar. 360 seem to be
traditional figure as we have only around 100
villages of this clan. In Medieval times Kaasnaa
and Dadri were their seats of power. 7 villages of
Bhati Rajputs are also found along with this
group in Gautam Budh Nagar district.
17. Nangdi Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 24
villages in Gautam Budh Nagar
18. Tomar Rajput Khap of 24 Villages in Dhaulana
area of Ghaziabad.
19. Dedha Khap of Gurjaras comprising of 24
villages in East Delhi.

Thanks