The Aryan Migrations 1500-1200 BC
The Indus Valley (or Harappan) Civilization was the largest civilization in the world during its reign from 3000 to
1500 BC. This culture was unique in that its cities were extraordinarily similar throughout a geographically
widespread area, yet there is no physical evidence of a central unifying government. Regardless, the
civilization appears to have been very peaceful, with an emphasis on trade rather than agriculture or war. For
reasons yet undetermined, this civilization began to deteriorate around 2000 BC, with little of it remaining by
1500 BC.
A group of warrior nomads, the Aryans, began to migrate into the Indus Valley region around the time that the
Harappan Civilization began to decline. Scholars disagree about whether the Aryans overtook the Harappan
Civilization by force, or simply moved in and coexisted with them during their decline. Regardless, the
nomadic Aryans were predominately a cattle-breeding society, and they learned how to live as settled
agriculturists from the remaining Harappan people. Therefore, the Aryans absorbed remnants of the Harappan
Civilization and integrated them into their own culture to form the Vedic culture. Since the Indus Valley
Civilization left no written records, the nature of the transition from the Harappan culture to the resulting Vedic
culture is that much more a mystery.
There are several possible arguments against the idea of Aryan invasions. According to the invasion theory,
the Aryans were a group of primitive nomads who came out of Central Asia with chariots, iron weapons, and
superior battle tactics; and thus overthrew the Indus Valley culture. However, this theory can be called into
question for several reasons. First, there has been no evidence of horses, chariots, or iron discovered at the
Indus Valley excavation sites. Also, the idea of Aryans using chariots has been questioned since they are not
typically the vehicles of nomads, and chariots would not have been suitable for crossing the mountainous
terrain that an Aryan invasion would have required. Further, some scholars assert that excavation evidence
points to internal factors and floods as the cause of destruction of the Harappan culture rather than outside
invasion.
However, other scholars argue that the Aryans were undoubtedly a conquering people when they first spread
into India, then they gradually mixed with the indigenous Harappan culture. According to this view, the Aryans
were a fierce and conquering people whose culture was oriented around warfare. Their religion also reflected
their culture, as it was dominated by warring storm-gods and sky-gods. This warlike nature was preserved in
the later Vedic religion (see the "Rig Veda"), where the god Indra was portrayed as a conquering deity who
smashed cities and killed enemies. In the "Hymn to Parusha" in the "Rig Veda", the god Parusha sacrificed
himself to himself, and out of his parts came the different classes of Indian peoples. This became the basis for
the socially stratified caste system. Perhaps the Aryans used this creation myth to subjugate the darkerskinned people they conquered (the Harappans). Further, the Aryans saw themselves as superiors to the
people they conquered as evidenced in the Indo-European root word of their name, "ar", meaning "noble" or
"superior".
Therefore, the two sides of the argument are clear enough. Either the Aryans and Harappans mixed together
and became peaceful, or the Aryans came in as a conquering people, became the ruling class, and instituted
the caste system to maintain control. Scholars still debate, however, as to what actually occurred.
Migration or Invasion?
The first responses to the Aryan invasion theory accept the basic premise that the Aryans came from
outside India but speculate and differ on the nature of their ingress. The proponents of this camp are of the
opinion that there is very little archaeological evidence for an invasion. For the invasion theory to be viable,
the Aryans would have had to discover mountain passes among the treacherous Hindu-Kush mountains,
most of which are snow free only three months a year. The Aryan invaders, being a nomadic people would
be far smaller in number to the Indus Valley civilization, which was spread over an area greater than 1.8
million km², with an estimated population greater than the combined populations of all the other river
civilizations at that time except ancient China. They would then have to quickly and completely rout an
advanced civilization living in fortified cities over a large geographic area and impose their culture,
language, cosmology and religion on the local population without leaving any physical traces of themselves.
In addition, there are practically no archaeological signs of an invasion, such as carbonized layers in the
Indus Valley city sites. Nor are there oral or written legends of an invasion. It seems much more likely that
Aryan migrants found mountain passes and entered the sub-continent during the snow free months and
settled within or close to the Indus Valley civilization. Multiple waves of migration are possible, causing a
mingling of the immigrant and local populations. There may have been significant exchange and
assimilation of culture and language on both sides. The immigrants may have travelled back and forth to
their original lands taking language and culture to other Indo-European peoples, especially Ancient Persia.
Human skeletal remains excavated from sites of the Indus Valley civilization show a mixed ethnic
composition similar to the present, showing support for migration rather than an invasion. Thus the idea of
"invasion by barbarian Aryan hordes" has been replaced by "immigration and acculturation by a small group
of linguistically Indo-European people".
On the other hand, historians favoring the invasion theory have based many of their arguments on
connecting the introduction of the horse and chariot in India to invading “Aryans". They also point to the
balladic character of some of the verses in the Rig Veda with references to armed cattle raids and warriors on
horse-driven chariots who appear to portray a race or a group of clans of pastoral nomadic warriors. The
imagery fits particularly well with artifacts found in Babylon and Ancient Persia (and other regions near the
Caspian Sea) that depict warriors riding on horse-driven chariots. Other literary evidence from the Rig Veda
also appears to connect the authors of these Rig Veda verses to the "Aryan" identified civilization of ancient
Persia. Also, among the archeological signs claimed to support the theory of an invasion are the many
unburied corpses found in the top levels of Mohenjo-daro. Some interpret these as victims of a conquest of
the city.
Genetic evidence on caste system and its origins
The caste system although not currently officially sanctioned by their governments is used by Hindus
particularly in India and Nepal. It is based on four varnas (meaning "colours"):Brahmins (white) priests,
Kshatriyas (red) warriors, Vaishyas (yellow) merchants/craftsmen, Shudras (blue) workers. A 2001
examination of male Y-DNA by Indian and American scientists indicated that higher castes are genetically
closer to West Eurasians than are individuals from lower castes, whose genetic profiles are similar to other
Asians. These results indicates that at some point male West Eurasians provided a significant genetic input
into the higher castes, a result which supports the notion that the caste system was an attempt by these
predominantly male arrivals to keep themselves separate from the native population. [4]
The genetic studies by Michael J Bamshad and his team (2001) from University of Utah and Dr. Spencer
Wells (2003) from Harvard University, give strong backing to the Aryan invasion theory.
In the study by M.J Bamshad and his team [5] they wrote, "Our results demonstrate that for biparentally
inherited autosomal markers, genetic distances between upper, middle, and lower castes are significantly
correlated with rank; upper castes are more similar to Europeans than to Asians; and upper castes are
significantly more similar to Europeans than are lower castes."
The genetic study involves the analysis of genetic material known as the Mitochondrial DNA which is only
passed maternally and so it is used to study female inheritance. The male-determining Y chromosome, is
passed along paternally and is therefore used to study male inheritance. The evidence implies that few
millennia ago group of males with European affinities invaded the Indian sub-continent from the Northwest
of the sub-continent.