ANCIENT INDIANS

The name Aryan denotes to the people who were said to speak an archaic Indo-European language and who were thought to have settled in prehistoric times in ancient Iran  and Northern Indian subcontinent. They were believed to have invaded and conquered ancient India and whose literature, religion and modes of social organisation subsequently shaped the course of Indian culture, particularly the Vedic religion and was eventually superceded by Hinduism.

However since the late 20th century a growing number of scholars have rejected both the Aryan invasion and the use of the term Aryan as a racial designation. The Sanscrit term Arya (noble or distinguished), the linguistic root of the word was actually a social rather than an ethnic epithet. In the 19th century "Aryan" was used as a synonym for "Indo-European' and also, more restrictively, to refer to the Indo-Iranian languages. In Europe when the white racial superiority emerged, Houston Stewart Chamberlain who first used the term "Aryan" to mean the white race. Believers in Aryanism came to regard the Nordic and Germanic people as the purest members of the race. This belief was seized upon by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis and was made the basis of the German government policy of exterminating Jews, Roma (Gypsies) and other "non-Aryans". In the late 20th century there were many Christian groups and brotherhood with the name Aryans in different parts of US.

Coming back to the influence of Aryans in India, we may go back to around 3000 BCE. This was about a demographic change and it was mainly related to agriculture. The original inhabitants of the subcontinent, its aborigines, labeled by geneticists as Ancient Ancestral South Indians (AASI) Two demographic groups of farmers, one from the West and anther from the East, came with two crops. The West one with wheat and the demographically minor with rice. And that transformed the life in South Asia because the rice could thrive in India's climate. Soon they become the final major contributor to the subcontinent's ancient culture. Though it is not fully confirmed these two farmers groups mingled and shaped into the early Dravidian culture. There are however different findings about the origin of the Dravidians. While one say that it is a mixed culture of South Asian and West Asian farmers, other say that the Dravidians are originated in Africa and expanded into Iran, into the Indus Valley, across Central Asia into the Tarim Basin and China. The dark skinned gods like Rama and Krishna are believed to be Dravidians. Consequent upon the translation of Tamil texts into Sanskrit, gods belonging to Tamil lore have been worshipped all over India. The ethnic groups in India based on languages  are : Indo-Aryan, Iranic, Nuristani, Dravidian, Austroasiatic, Tibeto-Burman,  Andomanese and Nocobarese and Semitic people.

(Indebted to: 1) the article Aryan by the Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica and 2).article titled who were the people ...... come from? By Akhilesh Pillalamarri)

K V George

kvgeorgein@gmail.com