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Indigenous Aryanism

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The notion of Indigenous (viz., to India) Aryans is the proposal that "Aryans", that is, speakers of Indo-Iranian languages, are "indigenous" to the Indian subcontinent. The claim is thus that the Proto-Indo-Iranian language evolved out of an earlier stage in situ, somewhere in Northern India. This contrasts with the mainstream model of Indo-Aryan migration which posits that Indo-Aryan tribes migrated to India after the formation of Proto-Indo-Iranian.

The concept is notable in Indian politics as part of Hindu nationalist propaganda. In its extreme forms, postulating "Aryans" in the Neolithic period (7th to 5th millennia BC), it qualifies as pseudohistory or national mysticism, while more moderate proposals (postulating the 3rd millennium BC Harappan civilization as the locus of Proto-Indo-Iranian) can qualify as bona fide scholarship, albeit far removed from mainstream opinion.

Historiographical Context

"Indigenous Aryans" is usually taken to imply that the bearers of the Harappan civilization were linguistically Indo-Iranians, with the split of Iranian and Indo-Aryan dated to Late Harappan times. In any "Indigenous Aryan" scenario, speakers of Iranian languages must have left India at some point prior to the 10th century BC, when first mention of Iranian peoples is made in Assyrian records, but likely before the 16th century BC, before the emergence of the Yaz culture which is often identified as a Proto-Iranian culture.

Political significance

Further information: Nationalism and ancient history

The concept is of great notability in Indian politics as the stated ideology of Hindu nationalist ("Hindutva") movements. It is based on Hindu reformist currents such as Arya Samaj or Gayatri Pariwar that emerged in the 19th century.

It is designed as the ideological counterpart of the Anti-Brahmanism of Dravidistan or "self respect" movements on one hand, effectively reflecting the conflict of Indo-Aryan vs. Dravidian ethnic nationalism (the main ethnic division of the population of the Republic of India), and the conflict between Hinduism and Islam in India on the other hand (the main religious division of the Republic of India). The implicit argument is that "Indigenous Aryans" take away any claim of priority from the Dravidian population, making both groups equally "autochthonous" while at the same time facilitating the portrayal of Islam as a recent and "foreign" violent intrusion into a monolithic and immutable native Indo-Aryan (Hindu) culture of incalculable antiquity.

Repercussions of these divisions have reached Californian courts with the Californian Hindu textbook case, where according to the Times of India historian and president of the Indian History Congress, D. N. Jha in a "crucial affidavit" to the superior court of the state of California,

"Giving a hint of the Aryan origin debate in India, asked the court not to fall for the 'indigenous Aryan' claim since it has led to 'demonisation of Muslims and Christians as foreigners and to the near denial of the contributions of non-Hindus to Indian culture'."

Evidence

Rigveda

Proponents often claim that the Rigveda can be shown to date to the 3rd millennium BC (or earlier), in particular based on arguments in involving the Sarasvati River, and sometimes archaeoastronomy. The date of the Rigveda is clearly a terminus ante quem for Indo-Aryan presence in the Punjab, but a 3rd millennium is neither necessary nor sufficient for an Indo-Iranian Urheimat in India: a Proto-Indo-Iranian Urheimat is just as compatible with a mainstream (2nd millennium) date of the Rigveda, while a 3rd millennium Rigveda would prove Indo-Aryan presence in India in the Mature Harappan period, but would still leave open the location of the Indo-Iranian Urheimat.

"Indigenous Aryans" and Proto-Indo-European

Main article: Out of India theory

The Indigenous Aryan notion is often combined with the proposition of Out of India models, assuming that not just Proto-Indo-Iranian, but the Proto-Indo-European language itself evolved in India. This is a stronger claim, and does imply "Indigenous Aryans" as a corollary. The "Indigenous Aryan" scenario is not compatible with the mainstream Kurgan hypothesis of Indo-European origins, but it is equally compatible with Out of India and Anatolian models. In the "Anatolian" case, a pre-Indo-Iranian migration to India could have taken place any time between the 5th and the 3rd millennia, Indo-Iranian would have developed in Mature Harappan times, and early Iranian peoples would have re-emigrated out of India in Late Harappan times.

Notes

  1. See, e.g. R. Schmitt, Aryans in the Encyclopedia Iranica
  2. See, e.g., Roman Ghirshman, L'Iran et la migration des Indo-aryens et des Iraniens (Leiden 1977). Cited by Carl .C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, Archeology and language: the case of the Bronze Age Indo-Iranians, in Laurie L. Patton & Edwin Bryant, Indo-Aryan Controversy: Evidence and Inference in Indian History (Routledge 2005), p.162.
  3. US text row resolved by Indian, 9 Sep, 2006

Literature

  • Template:Harvard reference
  • Bryant, Edwin, The indigenous Aryan debate, diss. Columbia University (1997). (abstract)
  • Kazanas, Nicholas (2001b). "Indigenous Indoaryans and the Rgveda". Journal of Indo-European Studies. 29: 257–93. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)
  • Lal, B. B., The Sarasvati flows on: The continuity of Indian culture, Aryan Books International (2002), ISBN 8173052026.
  • Mallory, JP. 1998. A European Perspective on Indo-Europeans in Asia. In: The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Peoples of Eastern and Central Asia. Ed. Mair. Washingion DC: Institue for the Study of Man.
  • Template:Harvard reference
  • Talageri, S. G., The Rigveda: A Historical Analysis, Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi in 2000 ISBN 81-7742-010-0

See also

External links

See Out of India, Indo-Aryan migration and Aryan Invasion Theory (history and controversies) for links on the philological, historical and archaeological aspects of the topic, and Genetics and Archaeogenetics of South Asia for genetic aspects.

Religious and political aspects

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