Indo-Aryan peoples (also known as Indic peoples in the context of Indo-European studies) are a diverse collection of peoples predominantly found in South Asia, who (traditionally) speak Indo-Aryan languages. Historically, Aryans were the pastoralists who spoke Indo-Iranian languages, migrated from Central Asia into South Asia, and introduced the Proto-Indo-Aryan language. The early Indo-Aryan peoples were known to be closely related to the Iranian group that have resided west of the Indus River on the Iranian Plateau; an evident connection in cultural, linguistic, and historical ties. Today, the majority of Indo-Aryan speakers are found south of Hindu Kush across the modern-day regions of Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and northern half of India as well as parts of Afghanistan (Kunar).
The introduction of the Indo-Aryan languages in the Indian subcontinent was the outcome of a migration of Indo-Aryan people from Central Asia into the northern Indian subcontinent (modern-day Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka). Another group of Indo-Aryans migrated further westward and founded the Mitanni kingdom in northern Syria (c. 1500âÂÂ1300 BC); the other group was the Vedic people. According to Christopher I. Beckwith, the Wusun people of Inner Asia in antiquity could have been of Indo-Aryan origin.
The Proto-Indo-Iranians, from which the Indo-Aryans developed, are identified with the Sintashta culture (2100âÂÂ1800 BCE), and the Andronovo culture, which flourished ca. 1800âÂÂ1400 BCE in the steppes around the Aral Sea, present-day Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The Proto-Indo-Aryan split off around 1800âÂÂ1600 BCE from the Iranians, moved south through the Bactria-Margiana Culture, south of the Andronovo culture, borrowing some of their distinctive religious beliefs and practices from the BMAC, and then migrated further south into the Levant and north-western India. The migration of the Indo-Aryans was part of the larger diffusion of Indo-European languages from the Proto-Indo-European homeland at the PonticâÂÂCaspian steppe which started in the 4th millennium BCE. The GGC, Cemetery H, Copper Hoard, OCP, and PGW cultures are candidates for cultures associated with Indo-Aryans.
The Indo-Aryans were united by shared cultural norms and language, referred to as aryÃÂ 'noble'. Over theÃÂ lastÃÂ fourÃÂ millennia, the Indo-Aryan culture hasÃÂ evolvedÃÂ particularlyÃÂ insideÃÂ India itself, but its origins areÃÂ in theÃÂ conflationÃÂ of values and heritage of the Indo-Aryan andÃÂ indigenousÃÂ people groupsÃÂ of India. Diffusion of this culture and language took place by patron-client systems, which allowed for the absorption and acculturation of other groups into this culture, and explains the strong influence on other cultures with which it interacted.
Genetically, most Indo-Aryan-speaking populations are descendants of a mix of Central Asian steppe pastoralists, Iranian hunter-gatherers, and, to a lesser extent, South Asian hunter-gatherersâÂÂcommonly known as Ancient Ancestral South Indians (AASI). Dravidians are descendants of a mix of South Asian hunter-gatherers and Iranian hunter-gatherers, and to a lesser extent, Central Asian steppe pastoralists. South Indian Tribal Dravidians descend majorly from South Asian hunter-gatherers, and to a lesser extent Iranian hunter-gatherers. Additionally, Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burmese speaking people contributed to the genetic make-up of South Asia.
Indigenous Aryanism propagates the idea that the Indo-Aryans were indigenous to the Indian subcontinent, and that the Indo-European languages spread from there to central Asia and Europe. Contemporary support for this idea is ideologically driven, and has no basis in objective data and mainstream scholarship.