Who were Aryans -The Aryan theory

 

In 19^th century when British colonized India they also brought with them their thoughts and out of those many, one was of the Aryans which India has also connection with but during the colonial era the Aryan question became the central idea for Indian identity and origin, and later a notion of Indian nationalism and struggle for independence. But the theories and the ideas which propagated in 19^th century India are still challenging to trained historians and archaeologists. Here are some theories related to Aryans and their advent in the Indian sub-continent.

The origin of the word Aryan

Aryan was derived from the old Iranian language ‘Arya’ used in the Zoroastrian text Avesta and was kindred with Sanskrit ‘Aryan’

The theories related to Aryans in Indian sub-continent are associated with, Aryans as a race, linguistic group and are also linked with the caste system and religion (Hinduism) widely. Max Muller one of the scholars of 19^thcentury mentions about a “Aryan homeland in central Asia, he postulated a small Aryan clan on a high elevation in central Asia speaking of a language which was not yet Sanskrit or Greek, a kind of proto-language .From here and over the course of some centuries it branched off in two directions; one come towards Europe and other migrated to Iran, eventually splitting again with one segment invading north western India.” (thapar,1995, pg-5, the theory of Aryan race in India). He further states that northern Aryan who migrated to Europe were combative and active and developed an idea of a nation ,while southern Aryans who migrated to Iran and India are passive and meditative and inclined towards religion and philosophy" but it can be questioned on his theory that if two groups of people who early belonged to same clan how both of them can have such major differences in their behavior and bend of minds.

Max Muller also mentioned Aryans as a race, people with fair complexion and Indo-Europeans speakers who invaded dark skinned Dasas of India.

Max Muller’s this interpretation of the term is racial and through his this theory it could be possible that he was trying to appropriate the rule of British on India. The Aryan racial theory is also associated with caste, by many nationalist leaders like Jyotiba Phule who states that the non-Aryans are the indigenous people of India means the Shudras and other castes; and particularly the Brahmans are aliens to this land, for him apart from Brahmans all other castes are indigenous to India. He referred to Brahmanical texts which mentions Dasas and Shudras. He used the example of Brahman Parshurama destroying Kshatriyas, to back his theory. His this theory became popular between the non-brahmin classes and particularly the Shudras which became part of many Brahman reform movement.

Phule’s theory was molded by upper castes in their favor to promote the superiority and they also related the racial versions of the theory to European Aryans, but their only agenda behind this was to form relations with British and to gain power and majority in society through them to subjugate other castes, communities and religions.

Through B.G.Tilak’s perspective Aryans migrated from arctic region in post-glacial age and then branched off with coming to India and other going to Europe. According to him Europeans Aryans relapsed into barbarism but Indian Aryans retained their original, superior civilization which they re-established on conquering non-Aryans of India. His this theory is a vice-versa of Max Muller’s one and also talks about Aryan advent in Indian sub-continent, but the new researches contradicted his theory and many other with different claims.

The other theory for origin of Aryans is of Dayanand Saraswati which is based in purity of Aryan race and linguistic, he states that Tibet is the place for homeland of Aryans but this claim is not supported by any evidence and also for him only the Vedas are the only source of knowledge; he also formed a society of ‘pure Aryan race’ called as ‘Arya Samaj’ in which upper castes are included and lower cates or untouchables excluded. To bring back Hindus who converted to any other religion is a ritual of ‘Shuddhi’ or purification and for lower castes to provide them an upper status same ritual was there but with less frequency. But all this is a way to subjugate others and constitute Hindus as a majority for one umbrella dominance of society.This was all done to form only a Hindu nation and just to achieve this goal it was necessary to find a Hindu identity and multiply the numbers of Hindus.

One more interpretation of the ‘Arya’ mentioned in early texts by the linguists is it refers to someone with knowledge and wisdom and one who is respected. So, the term ‘Arya’ also refers to respected people. This is one connotation of the term which early texts speaks of. 

There were also attempts to prove Harappan civilization as Vedic civilization after its discovery in 1920’s which took back the history of India to earlier than 1500 BCE which is a date suggested by max Muller for Vedas and proposed by many leaders like B.G Tilak proposed the Vedas to 4500 BCE which is a date earlier than Harappan civilization. But some of the questions raised by historians regarding the composition of Vedas like “the compositions were preserved orally for many centuries and whether the system of memorization was fixed prior to compilation of hymns, or whether this was also prior to adoption of a script”( thapar,1995,the theory of Aryan race in India ) . As there is a gap of centuries between the composition of earliest hymns and their compilation into Rigveda, even after strict oral traditions there are possibilities of changes, additions and subtractions over time.

And looking towards the characteristics of Rigvedic culture and Harappan civilization there many differences like the absence of horses and any evidence of it in Harappan period is a major difference because with the advent of Aryans spoked wheels, horse and horse drawn chariots also came to Indian sub-continent and the unavoidable difference between the language of Vedic people and Harappan people whose script is still needs to be deciphered. These are some of the questions which are common and unignorable before saying Harappan civilization as Vedic. One more difference is between their patterns of life, the Harappan civilization was much urbanized and developed than the Vedic, the well planned cities of Harappa, the well laid system of drainage and streets, vast geographical area it covers,trade networks with Mesopotamia and Oman and other land, developed craft production; but the absence of iron in Harappan civilization, the use of bronze and copper in the Harappan period but the absence of iron which became later prominent after its decline in the Vedic period is a major difference.

Secondly, the steppe pastoralists which are Aryans lacks the existence of such kind of urbanization which Harappan people possessed. The complexities of religion and ritualistic practices is not evident in the Harappan civilization.

Now, looking to the new research which shows the composition of population in the Indian sub-continent and contradict the all earlier theories of Aryan origin in India and Aryan invasion theories.

1.       Firstly, this research talks about small migrations of steppe pastoralists into sub-continent who came from vast central Asian grasslands to the north of Afghanistan and these pastoralists are called Aryans.

2.      The composition of population of Indus valley suggested by the research is the mixing of Iranian agriculturalists and south Asian hunter gatherers and also is the ancient ancestral south Indians.

3.       For the composition of the north Indian population it suggests a composition of Iranian agriculturalists, south Asian hunter gatherers and the steppe pastoralists but only after 2^nd millennium BCE the ancestry from steppe pastoralists can be traced because genetic evidences prior to it didn’t suggest of any ancestry from this group.

4.       “The researchers also says about 10 groups out of 140 having heavy amount of steppe ancestry compared to Indus valley ancestry. These two were titled “Brahmin Tiwari” and “Brahmin UP”. More generally groups of priestly status seem to have higher steppe ancestry, suggesting those with the mixture may have a central role in spreading Vedic culture.” (joseph, who was here first ,2019).

5.      This research curtail the possibility of Out Of India theory which suggests at the spread of Aryans from India.

 

Lastly, after the recent researches the Aryan debate has reached at a point but it is just a starting as many questions are needed to be answered regarding the origin and homeland for Aryans and who are actually the descendants of the Aryans.  

                       

 References:-

1    Romila thapar,1995, the theory of Aryan race in India

2 Rohan Venkataramakrishnann,2018, who was here first    

3 Tony joseph, 2018, how we Indians, came to be    

4    Research article, ‘The formation of human populations in South and Central Asia’, 2019

5  Specific portions from book 'Which of us are Aryans?' by  Romila Thapar (Author),  Michael Witzel (Author),  Jaya Menon (Author),  Kai Friese (Author),  Razib Khan (Author)         

6https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/indus-valley-settlers-had-a-distinct-genetic-lineage/article29355941.ece