Expansions of Aryans in India

Original Home and Identity of the Aryans

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• The composers of the Rig Veda described themselves as arya, a term that can be understood as a cultural or ethnic label. The word Arya occurs 36 times in the Rig Veda, and generally indicates a cultural community.
  • The word literally means “kinsman” or “companion,” or it may be etymologically derived from ar (“to cultivate”).
• There has been great divergence of opinion on the question of where the Aryans came into India from, and no firm conclusion is possible on this matter.
  • The problem of identifying the original home of the Aryans has to be approached from both linguistic and racial points of view.

The Abandonment of Racial Classification

• During the 19th and early 20th centuries, when large parts of Africa and Asia were being colonised by European nations, many scholars thought about history in terms of the movement and interaction of different races.
  • The trend was to classify the peoples of the world into races such as Caucasian, Mongoloid, Negroid, and so on, on the basis of physical and other characteristics — providing a pseudo-scientific justification for the European subjugation of Asian and African peoples, whom they presented as “inferior races.”
  • For example, Penka and his school of thought approached the problem of the Indo-Aryans from a racial point of view, and concluded that Germany was the original home of the Indo-Aryans.
• Today, most anthropologists have abandoned racial classifications.
  • The old, prejudiced category of “race,” which presented peoples in different parts of the world as separate, unrelated, and unchanging entities, frozen in time, has been replaced by more meaningful and objective ways of classifying and understanding human cultures.

The Aryans as a Linguistic Group

• The terms “Indo-European” and “Indo-Aryan” have nothing to do with racial classification — they are linguistic terms, referring to families of languages and their speakers.
• Sir William Jones, in 1786, showed that Sanskrit and European languages such as Greek, Latin, German, Celtic, and Gothic, as well as Persian, had a common origin.
  • Scholars have named this language group the Indo-European language group.
• Max Müller also emphatically pointed out that, scientifically speaking, “Aryan” means language, not race.
  • It is now understood as a linguistic group of people, who spoke an Indo-European language from which Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, and others later emerged.
  • This is reflected in words in these languages that are similar in both sound and meaning — for instance, the Sanskrit words matri and pitri are similar to the Latin mater and pater.
• The Vedas reflect a close connection with Iran.
  • On their way to India, the Aryans first appeared in Iran, where the Indo-Iranians lived for a long time — though we do not know when, where, or why the Indo-Iranians and Indo-Aryans parted ways.
  • The Rig Veda has many things in common with the Avesta, the oldest text in the Iranian language — the two texts use the same names for several gods, and even for social classes.
• Some of the earliest specimens of the Indo-European language are found in:
  • A 2200 BC inscription from Iraq.
  • Hittite inscriptions in Anatolia (Turkey), from the 19th to 17th centuries BC — for example, Inar of the Hittite (Turkish) language is similar to Indra of the Vedas.
  • Aryan names appear in Kassite inscriptions, of about 1600 BC, from Iraq — Suryyas and Maruttash, in the Kassite (Mesopotamian) inscriptions, are equivalent to the Vedic Surya and Marut.
  • Also in Mitanni inscriptions, of the 14th century BC, from Syria.

The Continuing Debate on the Original Homeland

The original homeland of the Indo-Europeans and Indo-Aryans is the subject of continuing debate. The dominant view is that the Indo-Aryans came to the subcontinent as immigrants.

Europe as the original home of the Aryans:

• From the affinity of languages, it is argued that the Indo-European languages — at least a large number of them — are concentrated in Europe, with some found stretching out in a narrow band reaching up to the region of the Punjab, in the early Rig Vedic period.
• This has led many scholars to conclude that the original home of the Aryans was Europe, rather than India.

The theory of indigenous origin of the Aryans:

• There is a mass of literary evidence to show that Sapta-Sindhu was regarded by the Vedic Aryans as their original home.
  • There is no reference to their coming into India from any outside country, and it seems unlikely that the Aryans would have forgotten all about their original home, if it lay anywhere outside India — there is typically an emotional association with the land of origin among migrating peoples, but no such evidence has been found in the literature of the Vedic Aryans.
• It has also been pointed out that linguistic affinity cannot be regarded as positive proof of the Aryans’ immigration from any outside country.
  • The largest number of vocables of the Aryan languages is found in the Sanskrit language — but if Europe were the original home of the Indo-Aryans, it would be inexplicable why only very few such vocables are found in the languages of European countries.
  • It is also argued that the Aryan language, and other languages of Aryan affinity, came into existence through the contacts between migrating Aryans and non-Aryans outside India.
• Another argument in support of this view is that Vedic literature was the expression of the highly developed thought of the Aryans.
  • If the Aryans had come to India from outside, it would be natural to find some traces of their thought and literary activity in some of the places through which they had travelled — but no such record has been discovered anywhere.
  • To suggest that the Aryans attained their highly developed literary and intellectual acumen only after arriving in India does not justify the total absence of any record in the places through which they had travelled into India.
• Such arguments have been put forward in support of the contention that the Vedic Aryans did not come from outside, but were original inhabitants of India.
  • However, the overwhelming majority opinion favours regarding the Aryans as a people who had migrated into India.
• Over the years, many original homelands have been proposed for the Indo-Aryans. One of the more widely accepted views locates their original homeland somewhere in the steppes stretching from southern Russia to Central Asia.
  • Certain names of animals — such as goats, dogs, and horses — and names of certain plants — such as pine and maple — are similar across all the Indo-European languages, indicating the shared fauna and flora of Eurasia.

The Aryan Invasion: A Myth or a Reality?

Sources Suggesting Aryan Migration

• The Aryans are believed to have come to India in several waves. The earliest wave is represented by the Rig Vedic people, who appeared in the subcontinent around 1500 BC.

Linguistic evidence:

• Linguistic similarities have been found between the Rigveda and the Avesta:
  • The Rig Veda has many things in common with the Avesta, the oldest text in the Iranian language — the two texts use the same names for several gods, and even for social classes.
  • The Sanskrit words matri and pitri are similar to the Latin mater and pater.

Archaeological evidence:

• We do not find clear and definite archaeological traces of the Aryans’ advent, though there is some archaeological evidence:
  • The Aryans possibly used socketed axes, bronze dirks, and swords, which have been discovered in north-western India.
  • Painted Grey Ware (PGW) pottery, dated between 900 BC and approximately 500 BC, has been repeatedly connected with Aryan craftsmanship.
  • There are similarities in pottery forms, ceramic paintings, and forms of copper objects, between post-Harappan assemblages and those of the West Asian/Iranian Chalcolithic — such similarities were magnified to support the view that the Aryans were a group who migrated from West Asia to the Indian subcontinent.
  • Archaeological evidence of the horse and horse sacrifice has been found in southern Tajikistan in Central Asia, and in the neighbouring Swat valley in Pakistan.
• Thus, literary and archaeological sources were made to support one another, in order to validate the notion of migration.

Why This Does Not Validate the Notion of an “Aryan Invasion”

• The linguistic similarities between the Rig Veda and the Avesta are not disputed — but such similarity does not really suggest a large-scale migration (i.e., no “invasion”) of people into the Indian subcontinent.
• The similarities found between Chalcolithic artefacts of India and those of Western Asia are only occasional, and also do not suggest large-scale migration.
• The concept of an “Aryan,” as stated earlier, cannot be equated with any particular type of pottery, and has no ethnic or racial significance.
  • Therefore, the “Aryan” is, at best, a vague concept, related to linguistic similarity between people.
• Earlier scholars believed that the Indo-Aryans caused the downfall of the Harappan civilisation, by destroying the Harappan towns and cities.
  • They quoted Rigvedic hymns, which invoke Indra to destroy the “dwellers of the forts.” But archaeological evidence has shown that the decline of the Harappan civilisation was not caused by any large-scale destruction brought about by an alien invading group.
• Attempts to identify the makers of Painted Grey Ware with the Aryans also do not receive strong support from archaeological evidence.
  • If the PGW cultures were related to the Aryans, then, keeping the theory of invasion in mind, we should have found this pottery type in the areas of Bahawalpur and Punjab — that is, along the route taken by the so-called Aryan migrants.
  • However, we find these pottery types confined to a particular geographical region, comprising Haryana, the upper Ganga basin, and eastern Rajasthan.
• It was earlier thought that a time gap, and hence a cultural discontinuity, existed between the late Harappan and the post-Harappan Chalcolithic period.
  • However, recent excavations at Bhagwanpura, Dadheri (Haryana), and Manda (Jammu) have shown that the Late Harappan and Painted Grey Wares could be found together, without any breaks.
  • Hence, “invasion” cannot be proved on the basis of the excavated sites.
• What disappeared after 1750 BC were the towns and cities of the Harappan civilisation, and articles connected with trade and urbanism, such as seals, weights, and measures.
  • The rural structure of the earlier period continued into the second and first millennia BC.
  • The variation found in the archaeological remains of the post-Harappan period — in pottery, metal implements, and other objects — may also simply represent “regional” variations in Indian Chalcolithic cultures.
• Archaeological evidence relating to the period between the second and first millennium BC has thus helped modify existing views regarding the Vedic “Aryans,” in several ways:
  1. There is no substantial proof in archaeology of any large-scale migration of people from Central or Western Asia into the Indian subcontinent around 1500 BC.
  2. There is no archaeological proof that the Aryans destroyed the Harappan civilisation and laid the foundation of a new Indian civilisation.
     • In fact, although the Rigveda repeatedly refers to hostilities and wars between different groups, the so-called clashes between Aryan and non-Aryan communities and cultures are not documented in archaeology.
• Today, most historians have discarded the idea of an “Aryan invasion” of the Indian subcontinent, in favour of a theory of several waves of Indo-Aryan migration.
  • Superior military technology, and the use of the horse and chariot, may have given the immigrants a crucial initial advantage, enabling them to establish political dominance in the land of the seven rivers.

Early Aryan Settlement

• The geographical horizon of the Rigvedic hymns gives us an idea of the initial Aryan settlement in the subcontinent.
  • The earliest Aryans lived in eastern Afghanistan, Punjab, and the fringes of western Uttar Pradesh.
  • Though not adequately supported by archaeological evidence, this is clearly borne out by the Rigveda, which refers to the western tributaries of the Indus — the Gomati (modern Gomal), the Krumu (modern Kurram), and the Kubha (modern Kabul).
  • The Suvastu (Swat) is the most important river mentioned to the north of Kabul — the name implies “fair dwellings,” and may be evidence of Aryan settlement in the Swat valley.
• The main focus of Rigvedic culture, however, seems to have been the Punjab and Delhi region.
  • The Sindhu, identical with the Indus, is the river par excellence of the Aryans, and is repeatedly mentioned.
  • Other frequently mentioned rivers are the Sindhu (Indus), the Saraswati (identified with the Ghaggar-Hakra channel in Haryana and Rajasthan), the Drishadvati (Ghaggar), and the five streams that collectively gave their name to the Punjab (“five waters”): the Shutudri (Sutlej), Vipas (Beas), Parushni (Ravi), Asikni (Chenab), and Vitasta (Jhelum).
  • The geographical knowledge of the early Aryans does not seem to have extended beyond the Yamuna, which is mentioned in the Rigveda.
• The whole region in which the Aryans first settled in the Indian subcontinent is called the “Land of the Seven Rivers,” represented by the Indus and its principal tributaries.
  • This area largely covers the north-western part of South Asia, up to the river Yamuna.
  • The seven rivers included the Sindhu, Vitasta (Jhelum), Asikni (Chenab), Parushni (Ravi), Vipash (Beas), Shutudri (Sutlej), and the Saraswati.

Tribal Conflicts

• We know little about the weapons of the adversaries of the Aryan peoples, though we hear of many defeats inflicted by Indra on their enemies.
  • In the Rig Veda, Indra is called Purandara, meaning “the breaker of forts” — but we cannot identify the forts held by the pre-Aryans.
• The Aryans succeeded everywhere because they possessed chariots driven by horses, and introduced these for the first time into West Asia and India.
  • The Aryan soldiers were probably equipped with coats of mail (varman), and better arms, as well.
• The Aryans were engaged in two types of conflict:
  1. First, they fought with the pre-Aryan indigenous inhabitants.
  2. Second, they fought amongst themselves.

Conflict with the Indigenous Inhabitants

• Many passages in the Rigveda show a general feeling of hostility towards a people known as the Panis.
  • Described as wealthy, the Panis refused to patronise Vedic priests or perform Vedic rituals, and stole cattle from the Aryans.
• More hated than the Panis were the Dasas and Dasyus.
  • Since the dasas are also mentioned in ancient Iranian literature (as Dahaes), they seem to have been a branch of the early Aryans.
  • The Rig Veda mentions the defeat of the non-Aryan Sambara by a chief called Divodasa, who belonged to the Bharata clan — here, the term dasa appears in the name Divodasa itself, indicating his Aryan antecedents.
  • Possibly, the dasyus in the Rig Veda represent the original inhabitants of the country — an Aryan chief who overpowered them was called Trasadasyu.
  • The Aryan chief was soft towards the dasas, but strongly hostile to the dasyus. In the Rig Veda, instances of the slaughter of the Dasyus (dasyu-hatya) outnumber references to conflicts with the Dasas — suggesting that the Rigvedic Aryans were not as hostile towards the latter.
  • The term dasyuhatya (“slaughter of the dasyus”) is repeatedly mentioned in the Rig Veda. The dasyus possibly worshipped the phallus, and did not keep cattle for dairy products.
  • Dasyu corresponds to dahyu in the ancient Iranian language — it has therefore been suggested that conflicts between the Rigvedic tribes and the Dasyus were, in fact, conflicts between two main branches of the Indo-Aryan peoples, who came to India in successive waves.
  • The Dasas and Dasyus were most likely people who originally belonged to the Aryan-speaking stock, but who, in the course of their migration into the subcontinent, acquired cultural traits very different from those of the Rigvedic people.
  • Not surprisingly, the Rigveda describes them as “black-skinned,” “malignant,” and “non-sacrificing,” and speaking a language totally different from that of the Aryans.

Conflict Amongst Themselves

• The Aryans also fought amongst themselves, sometimes enlisting the support of non-Aryan peoples for the purpose.
• The most important of the tribal wars to which the Rigveda refers was the Battle of the Ten Kings (dasarajna).
  • The Bharata ruling clan was opposed by a host of ten kings, five of whom were heads of Aryan tribes, and the remaining five heads of non-Aryan peoples.
  • Sudas, we are told, was the king of the Bharata tribe, settled in western Punjab.
  • Vishvamitra was his chief priest, who had led him to victorious campaigns on the Vipas and the Shutudri. Later, Sudas dismissed Vishvamitra and appointed Vasishtha, who possessed greater knowledge of priestly lore.
    • Vishvamitra, feeling slighted, formed a confederacy of ten tribes, five of whom were important, and are frequently referred to in the Rigveda as panchajanah (the five tribes).
  • The battle fought between the Bharatas, on the one hand, and the host of ten kings, on the other, is known as the Battle of the Ten Kings.
    • This battle was fought on the river Parushni, identical with the river Ravi, and it gave victory to Sudas, establishing the supremacy of the Bharatas.
  • Of the defeated tribes, the most important was that of the Purus.
• Subsequently, the Bharatas joined hands with the Purus, forming a new ruling tribe called the Kurus.
  • The Kurus combined with the Panchalas, and together they established their rule in the upper Gangetic basin, where they went on to play an important part in Later Vedic times.

Expansion in the Later Vedic Period (1000–500 BC)

• As the Aryans gradually moved eastward, they came to occupy eastern UP (Kosala) and north Bihar (Videha) during the Later Vedic period.
  • In the same period, and in the same area, digging and exploration have brought to light nearly 700 sites inhabited for the first time. These are called Painted Grey Ware (PGW) sites, because they were inhabited by people who used earthen bowls and dishes of painted grey pottery.
  • This pottery, known as Painted Grey Ware, has been generally associated with the Later Vedic people, who also used iron weapons.
  • With the combined evidence of the Later Vedic texts and PGW/Iron-phase archaeology, we can form an idea of the life of the people in the first half of the first millennium BC, in western Uttar Pradesh and the adjoining areas of Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan.

The Kuru-Panchala Realm

• The texts show that the Aryans expanded from Punjab over the whole of western Uttar Pradesh, covered by the Ganga-Yamuna doab.
  • The Bharatas and Purus, the two major tribes, combined to form the Kuru people. In the beginning, they lived between the Sarasvati and the Drishadvati, just on the fringe of the doab.
  • Soon, the Kurus occupied Delhi and the upper portion of the doab — the area called Kurukshetra, or “the land of the Kurus.”
  • Gradually, they coalesced with a people called the Panchalas, who occupied the middle portion of the doab.
  • The authority of the Kuru-Panchala people spread over Delhi, and the upper and middle parts of the doab; they set up their capital at Hastinapur, situated in the district of Meerut.
• The history of the Kuru tribe is important for the battle of the Bharatas, which is the main theme of the great epic, the Mahabharata.
  • This war is supposed to have been fought around 950 BC, between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, although both belonged to the Kuru clan — as a result, practically the whole of the Kuru clan was wiped out.
  • Excavations at Hastinapur, datable to the period 900 BC to 500 BC, have revealed settlements and faint beginnings of town life — though they do not fully answer the description of Hastinapur given in the Mahabharata, since the epic was finally compiled much later, around the 4th century AD, when material life had advanced considerably.

The Further Eastward Expansion

• Towards the end of the Later Vedic period, around 600 BC, the Vedic people spread from the doab further east, to Kosala in eastern Uttar Pradesh, and Videha in north Bihar.
  • Although Kosala is associated with the story of Rama, he is not himself mentioned in Vedic literature.
• In eastern Uttar Pradesh and north Bihar, the Vedic people had to contend with a people who used copper implements and black-and-red earthen pots.
  • In western Uttar Pradesh, they possibly encountered people who used pots of ochre or red colour, and copper implements.
  • They possibly also encountered thin habitations of some people using black-and-red ware.
  • It is suggested that, at a few places, they came up against the users of the late Harappan culture — though these people seem to represent a conglomerate culture, which cannot be characterised as purely Harappan.
• Whoever the opponents of the Later Vedic peoples were, they evidently did not occupy any large or compact area, and their numbers in the upper Gangetic basin do not seem to have been large.
  • The Vedic people succeeded in this second phase of their expansion because they used iron weapons and horse-drawn chariots.
• According to one view, the main line of Aryan thrust eastward was along the Himalayan foothills, north of the Ganga — though expansion in the area south of this river cannot be precluded.

Land Clearance and the Legend of Videha

• Initially, the land was cleared by means of fire.
  • In a famous passage of the Shatapatha Brahmana, we are told that Agni moved eastward, burning the earth, until he reached the river Sadanira, the modern Gandak, where he stopped.
  • In his wake came the chieftain Videha Mathava, who caused the fire god to cross over the river — thus, the land of Videha was “Aryanised,” and it took its name from its coloniser.
  • This legend may be treated as a significant account of the process of land clearance by burning, leading to the founding of new settlements by migrating warrior-peasants.
• Burning may have been supplemented by the use of the iron axe for cutting the forests in some areas.
  • This metal is referred to in the literature as shyama ayas (“dark” or “black” metal), and has also been found at excavated sites like Atranjikhera and Jakhera in western Uttar Pradesh and adjoining regions, whose dates fall within the time bracket of the Later Vedic period.
  • The number of iron agricultural tools and implements is, however, less than that of iron weapons.
  • On this basis, the importance of iron technology in facilitating land clearance has been altogether denied by some scholars, who see no relationship between technological development and social change.

Aryan Expansion in the South

• Aryan expansion began in the south as well, though the chronology of this southward migration remains uncertain.
• The existence of several kingdoms — the large kingdom of Sattwata in Vidarbha, the Dandaka kingdom near Nasik, and the Mulaka and Ashmaka kingdoms on the bank of the Godavari — provide clear demonstration of the expansion of Aryan power in the south, by the end of the Vedic age.

Conclusion

The expansion of the Aryans across the Indian subcontinent — from their earliest settlements in the “Land of the Seven Rivers,” through the tribal conflicts recorded in the Rig Veda, to the Kuru-Panchala consolidation in the Ganga-Yamuna doab and the eventual eastward and southward spread of Vedic culture — was never the single, decisive “invasion” once imagined by early scholars, but rather a long, uneven process of migration, settlement, and cultural assimilation, unfolding over many centuries and several successive waves. As the linguistic evidence increasingly points to a distant Eurasian homeland, while the archaeological record stubbornly refuses to show any trace of conquest or catastrophic rupture, the most defensible picture that emerges is one of gradual Indo-Aryan migration and settlement — advantaged by superior military technology, the horse, and the chariot, but expanding into, mingling with, and ultimately absorbing the indigenous populations of the subcontinent, rather than simply displacing them by force.