Much has been written and debated about the origins of the
Aryans who came to India after the collapse of the Indus Valley civilization
which came to an end around 1500 BCE. While some scholars favour the out of
India origin of the Indo Aryans others favour that the Aryans originated in India.
The word Aryan comes from the Sanskrit word ‘arya’ which means the noble
ones. The Aryans migrated from their ancestral
homes in central Asia corresponding to modern Russia, Afghanistan, Tajikistan.The
timing of the Indo European migrations can be traced back to 4000 BCE in Europe
when the speakers of Proto Indo European languages spread and dispersed through
large parts of Iran, Russia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey, and Greece, and a large part
of northern India. This dispersal has been confirmed by
linguistics, archaeology, anthropology, and genetics. This explains the similarity
between various languages like Sanskrit, Persian, Russian, Greek, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Punjabi, Assamese, Bengali, and Gujarati. We also notice a striking similarity in the use of the past tense
in Russian and many Indo Aryan languages.
It has been claimed by many historians that the Aryans
destroyed the Indus Valley civilization and that they entered India as
invaders. The Aryans entered India after the demise of the Indus valley
civilization around 1500 BCE and there is no direct evidence linking the Indo
Aryans to the destruction of the Indus Valley civilization. The religion and the
rituals of the Indo Aryans bears a striking resemblance to those of ancient
Iranian religions and Greek religions. For example, the horse is considered as an
indispensable trait of the Aryan culture and the term asva(horse) appears in
the Rig Veda and in Zend Avesta the religious text of the Iranians. It also
appears in Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and other Indo European languages. Similarly, the
pit dwellings, sacrificial rituals, the svastika, language, and inscriptional
evidence is a common feature among the speakers of the Indo Aryan languages.
The speakers of the Indo Aryan languages came to be
identified by their tribal identity and subsequently, it gave rise to Jana and
varna system of social differentiation. This system of social differentiation
eventually gave rise to jatis or castes like the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras.Tribal conflicts were frequent among the Indo Aryans.The rajan(king)
was expected to lead the tribes in battle against each other.The four Vedas
namely the Rigveda, Yajurveda,Atharvaveda and Samaveda were composed in this
period. Eventually, this formed the basis of the Vedic age which lasted from 1500
BCE to 500 BCE in ancient India.
