The ancient Middle Eastern state of Mitanni (modern-day Northeast Syria, Southeastern Turkey, 2nd millennium BCE) used a dialect of Hurrian as its main language. This dialect however contains some loanwords of evidently Indo-Aryan origin, i.e. related to Sanskrit, the ancestor of many modern languages of the Indian subcontinent. The loaned vocabulary seems to be related to an elite group in Mitanni society, as they appear in the names of rulers and gods as well as in relation to horse-breeding and the military (thus forming a so-called superstrate).
It is thus generally believed that Indo-Aryan peoples settled in Upper Mesopotamia and northern Syria, and established the kingdom of Mitanni following a period of political vacuum, while also adopting Hurrian. This is considered a part of the Indo-Aryan migrations.
Some theonyms, proper names, and other terminology of the Late Bronze Age Mitanni civilisation of Upper Mesopotamia exhibit an Indo-Aryan superstrate. While what few written records left by the Mittani are either in Hurrian (which appears to have been the predominant language of their kingdom) or Akkadian (the main diplomatic language of the Late Bronze Age Near East), these apparently Indo-Aryan names suggest that an Indo-Aryan elite imposed itself over the Hurrians in the course of the Indo-Aryan expansion. If these traces are Indo-Aryan, they would be the earliest known direct evidence of Indo-Aryan, and would increase the precision in dating the split between the Indo-Aryan and Iranian languages (as the texts in which the apparent Indicisms occur can be dated with some accuracy).
Scholarship has reached a consensus that the linguistic data is most certainly affiliated to the Indo-Iranian language family, more specifically to Indo-Aryan. Professor Eva von Dassow concurs with the presence of Indo-Aryan terms in Mitanni vocabulary, but cautiously advises against the notion of an "Indo-Aryan takeover". Michael Witzel argues for the antiquity of the Indo-Aryan words attested in the Mitanni data, since they almost certainly predate linguistic developments attested in the Rigveda. In the same vein, German linguist divides the Indo-Aryan elements into WIA (Western Indo-Aryan) and (E)IA ((Eastern) Indo-Aryan), the latter "being slightly less archaic than WIA".
In a treaty between the Hittites and Mitanni (between Suppiluliuma I and Shattiwaza, c. 1380 BC), the deities Mitra, Varuna, Indra, and Nasatya (Ashvins) are invoked. Kikkuli's horse training text (circa 1400 BC) includes technical terms such as aika (Vedic Sanskrit eka, one), tera (tri, three), panza (pañca, five), satta (sapta, seven), na (nava, nine), vartana (vartana, round). The numeral aika "one" is of particular importance because it places the superstrate in the vicinity of Indo-Aryan proper (Vedic Sanskrit eka, with regular contraction of /ai/ to [eÃÂ]) as opposed to Indo-Iranian or early Iranian (which has *aiva; compare Vedic eva "only") in general.
The Mitanni warriors were called marya (Hurrian: maria-nnu), the term for '(young) warrior' in Sanskrit as well, formed by adding the Hurrian suffix -nnu; note 'mià ¡ta-nnu' (= miáºÂá¸Âha,~ Sanskrit mëá¸Âha) "payment (for catching a fugitive)".
All of the following examples are from Witzel (2001). For the pronunciation of the sounds transcribed from cuneiform as à ¡ and z, see and .
Sanskritic interpretations of Mitanni names render Artashumara (artaà ¡à ¡umara) as Arta-smara "who thinks of Arta/á¹Âta", Biridashva (biridaà ¡á¹·a, biriiaà ¡á¹·a) as PrëtÃÂà Âva "whose horse is dear", Priyamazda (priiamazda) as Priyamedha "whose wisdom is dear", Citrarata as Citraratha "whose chariot is shining", Indaruda/Endaruta as Indrota "helped by Indra", Shativaza (à ¡attiá¹·aza) as SÃÂtivÃÂja "winning the race prize", à  ubandu as Subandhu "having good relatives" (a name in Palestine), Tushratta (tá¹·ià ¡eratta, tuà ¡ratta, etc.) as *tá¹·aià ¡aratha, Vedic Tveá¹£aratha "whose chariot is vehement".
From treaties of Mitanni.
From Kikkuli.
A document from Nuzi has babru(-nnu) (babhru, brown), parita(-nnu) (palita, grey), and pinkara(-nnu) (pingala, red) for horse colours. Their chief festival was the celebration of the solstice which was common in most cultures in the ancient world.
The following table includes the remaining lexicon, considered to attest horse colours.