↑ The Indo-Aryans were a branch of the Indo-Iranians, which originated in the Andronovo culture[11] in the Bactria-Margiana era, in present northern Afghanistan.[12] The roots of this culture go back further to the Sintashta culture, with funeral sacrifices which show close parallels to the sacrificial funeral rites of the Rig Veda.[13] The Indo-Aryans split-off around 1800–1600 BCE from the Iranians,[14] where-after they were defeated and split into two groups by the Iranians,[15] who dominated the Central Eurasian steppe zone[16] and "chased them to the extermities of Central Eurasia."[16] One group were the Indo-Aryans who founded the Mitanni kingdom in northern Syria[12] (ca.1500–1300 BCE). The other group were the Vedic people, who were pursued by the Iranians "across the Near East to the Levant (the lands of the eastern Mediterranean littoral), across Iran into India."[17]
For an overview of the current relevant research, see:
Shereen Ratnagar (2008), “The Aryan homeland debate in India”, in Kohl, PL, M Kozelsky and N Ben-Yehuda (Eds) Selective remembrances: archaeology in the construction, commemoration, and consecration of national pasts, pp 349-378
Suraj Bhan (2002), “Aryanization of the Indus Civilization” in Panikkar, KN, Byres, TJ and Patnaik, U (Eds), The Making of History, pp 41-55.
Anthony, David W. (2007), The Horse The Wheel And Language. How Bronze-Age Riders From the Eurasian Steppes Shaped The Modern World, Princeton University Press
↑ Some writers and archaeologists have opposed the notion of a migration of Indo-Aryans into India.[18][19] Edwin Bryant used the term "Indo-Aryan Controversy" for an oversight of the Indo-Aryan Migration theory, and some of its opponents.[20] These ideas are outside the academic mainstream. Mallory and Adams note that two types of models "enjoy significant international currency," namely the Anatolian hypothesis, and a migration out of the Eurasian steppes.[21] According to Upinder Singh, "The original homeland of the Indo-Europeans and Indo-Aryans is the subject of continuing debate among philologists, linguists, historians, archaeologists and others. The dominant view is that the Indo-Aryams came to the subcontinent as immigrants. Another view, advocated mainly by some Indian scholars, is that they were indigenous to the subcontinent."[22]
An overview of the "Indigenist position" can be obtained from Bryant, Edwin F.; Patton, Laurie L. biên tập (2005), The Indo-Aryan Controversy: Evidence and inference in Indian history, London: Routledge, ISBN0-7007-1463-4
↑ Anthony: "Many of the qualities of Indo-Iranian god of might/victory, Verethraghna, were transferred to the adopted god Indra, who became the central deity of the developing Old Indic culture. Indra was the subject of 250 hymns, a quarter of the Rig Veda. He was associated more than any other deity with Soma, a stimulant drug (perhaps derived from Ephedra) probably borrowed from the BMAC religion. His rise to prominence was a peculiar trait of the Old Indic speakers."[12]
↑ According to Erdosy, this battle provided a prototype for the epic Mahabharata,[34] Hiltebeitel calls this idea a "particularly baffling fancy."[35]
