Indo-European identity part-II

(Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and north Indian genesis)

Some phenotypes of current south Asia seem to keep the track of this ancient migration from Central Asia occurring during bronze age.

Kalasha woman from north pakistan

Young Kalash woman from the Chitral district of north-western Pakistan

The famous Afghan girl with piercing green eyes.

Sharbat Gula, the famous Afghan girl whose photograph was on the cover of the National Geographic.

Little girl from Afghanistan

Afghan father and his son

Afghans from the village of Deh-e Hazara

Wakhi girl (Afghanistan)

Wakhi girl from the extreme east of Afghanistan, a region located between the south of Tajikistan, the west of China and the north of Pakistan

Afghan kids

Afghan kids in Jalalabad (Afghanistan)

Afghan children

Afghan children from Panjshir

Little Afghan girl from the Hazarajat region of Afghanistan

Little Hazara girl (Afghanistan)

North Pakistanese girl (maybe Nuristani)

Young girl from the north of Pakistan

South Asian man from north Pakistan with an Europoid appearance.

Man from the north of Pakistan

Paksitanese little boy

Pashtun boy from Pakistan

Man from Chitral (north of Pakistan)

Man from the Chitral district (North Pakistan)

Young teen from northern Pakistan, south Asia

A teenager from northern Pakistan

The south of Asia was the homeland of bright and famous ancient civilizations, culturally and linguistically Indo-european, especially India (of the Indo-aryan linguistical family) and Iran (formerly known as Persia, of the Iranian linguistical family).

It was at the end of the 18th century, that sir William Jones realized the relation between European languages and south Asian languages such as Sanskrit, inaugurating then the existence of the now famous Indo-european language family theory.

Latin, for instance, has many similarities with Sanskrit. Indeed, how couldn’t we link words such as vox (voc-is), “voice“  in Latin and vac in Sanskrit (also “voice” ; found in many other Indo-european languages, e.g. Tocharian vak/vek or Hittite huek), candor (“bright whiteness” in Latin ) and candra, “moon” in Sanskrit, ignis (“fire” in Latin) and agnis (“fire” in Sanskrit, Agni also being the god of fire – also ugnis in Lithuanian and ogon’ in Russian, all meaning “fire“), Latin jugum (meaning “yoke“, also derived from the same proto-indo-european word) and Sanskrit yugam, giving the word yoga (also in the ancient greek zugon, Tocharian yuk or Hittite yukan, among many examples), Latin nebula and Sanskrit nabhas (but also Hittite nepiš, German nebel and Russian nebo, for instance, meaning all either “cloud“, “mist” or “sky“), or pater (“father” (a word also related) in Latin) and pitar in Sanskrit (also the ancient greek pater or Tocharian pacer, and many others). Likewise, we can find some similarities between the declension suffixes in both languages (examples : -ibus at the plural dative and ablative cases in Latin and -ebhyas in Sanskrit in the same cases).

When it became obvious that most of the languages of Europe and most of the languages of south Asia were related, then started the search for an explanation to such an astonishing geographical extent. Many theories have been erected to try to solve the puzzle of the origin of the extent of this language family and to discover the original population responsible for this situation and their ancestral homeland.

The Kurgan hypothesis explains the repartition of the Indo-european languages in Eurasia by the successive migrations of pastoralist populations living north of the black sea (in what is nowadays east Ukraine and south Russia), whose arrival is visible in the archeology. In this theory, the early Indo-iranians originated in the region between Russia and north-west Kazakhstan between 2,500 BCE and 2,000 BCE (the Abashevo culture of Russia is also considered possibly a good candidate for the origin of the proto-indo-iranian language by some (The fact that it was influential in the origin of the Sintashta site (a site just east of the Ural mountains often considered as having the oldest visible expression of indo-iranian practices) could support this view as well)) and were subsequently found in the Andronovo culture of central Asia. Also, the fact that the Andronovo culture was followed by the Indo-iranian-speaking Scythians/Sakas (who clearly seem spawned from it (there is an archaeological continuity between these cultures)) seem to clearly make this theory the most logical one.

The Gandhara grave culture of the north of Pakistanis also seen as the advance of Indo-iranian populations in south Asia. The presence of proto-Indo-iranian loanwords in Finno-ugric languages (such as Estonian and Finnish) and in languages from the east of the Caucasus can be seen as supporting this theory of the Indo-iranian ethnogenesis (Interestingly, among the terms that the ancient Finno-ugric language borrowed to the ancient Indo-iranian language seems to be the “arya” word (source)).

A spreading of the Indo-european languages in Eurasia from neolithic agriculturalist populations seems very unlikely as the proto-indo-european language had words for the wheel (examples : Latin rota, Sanskrit rathas, Irish roth and Lithuanian ratas (a root also meaning sometimes “chariot” in a few languages)) and a metal (examples: Latin aes (bronze), Sanskrit ayas (iron), Gothic aiz (brass; coin) and old Norse eir (bronze), among others), which seems to exclude, de facto, the oldest typical neolithic time. The fact that the stem for “horse” (*ekwos ; the satem version of it in Sanskrit is ‘asva) is also present in the original language, the proto-indo-european language (a root visible in these few examples : Latin equus, Mycenian iqo, Gaulish epos, Tokharian B yakwe or old Irish ech), also excludes both south Asia and neolithic as the geographical origin and the time of the proto-indo-europeans, as the horse was apparently absent of south Asia until the last part of bronze age (this animal (as domesticated one) was apparently also absent of south-west Asia and in a big part of Asia minor until the same historical time (informations about the horse domestication)).

The study of ancient Indo-iranian languages also seems to support an origin of this language family from outside of India (source).

Girl from south Asia

An Indo-iranian ethnogenesis in the steppes of central Asia is still currently the most popular theory among the specialists.

The Gandhara grave culture, located in the north of Pakistan in the Swat valley, sees the arrival of the horse in south Asia during bronze age and a few points allows for a (still controversial and hypothetical) link with the early Indo-aryans. The funerary practices, for instance, show several similarities with other supposedly Indo-european practices and there are many similarities with the Andronovo culture traditions. They also could fit quite well with the RigVedic descriptions. These traditions are clearly the mark of a change in this region, at this time.

In the Kurgan theory, the first Indo-iranians supposedly arrived around 1,800 BC-1,600 BC in south Asia from central Asia. These populations were apparently in large part of Europoid type as hinted by several studies (see the central Asia article), which seems confirmed by the admixture estimates of south Asian populations that do have an european component even if in low quantity (examples here or here (or here for a higher resolution of the latter) | source : dienekes.blogspot.com)

Young man from the eastern Afghanistan or the north of Pakistan

Within a geographic continuum going from the south-east of Tajikistan, eastern Afghanistan (especially Nuristan) down to the north of Pakistan, the Europoid phenotypes are more frequent. The area is also apparently the place of a (slightly) higher frequency of the haplogroup Y-DNA R1a1a than in the neighboring areas.

Chitral kid (Pakistan)

Little child from the Chitral district of north Pakistan

Supporting the theory of migrations from central Asia into south Asia, the presence of the very mutation (mutation T-13910 of the lactase phlorizin hydrolase (LCT) gene) providing the lactose tolerance (here more precisely the lactase persistence) among European populations is also found in south Asia, especially in the the north-west of India (source). This clearly shows that south Asians and Europeans share a specific mutation and as such as specific relation of which west Asians are excluded (this allele is obviously only very marginal and residual among west Asians and likely the result of Indo-european migrations of little demographic impact).

The lactase persistence T-13910 alleles frequency in the world

Approximative frequency and spread of the lactase persistence T-13910 allele of the LCT gene. We can see that South Asians and Europeans share a specific mutation for lactase persistence. A correlation of that allele with Y-DNA haplogroups R1a1a, R1b1a2 (ex-R1b1b2), R1b1c (ex-R1b1a) and at least haplogroup mtDNA H (quite visible in north Africa on the map) seems obvious. (click to see bigger)

A 2009 study (Kallur N. Saraswathy et al., Brief communication: Allelic and haplotypic structure at the DRD2 locus among five North Indian caste populations) also emphasized the genetic flow inherited of populations extraneous to India within the upper caste populations of north India.

The dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) gene, with its known human-specific derived alleles that can facilitate haplotype reconstruction, presents an important locus for anthropological studies. The three sites (TaqIA, TaqIB, and TaqID) of the DRD2 gene are widely studied in various world populations. However, no work has been previously published on DRD2 gene polymorphisms among North Indian populations. Thus, the present study attempts to understand the genetic structure of North Indian upper caste populations using the allele and haplotype frequencies and distribution patterns of the three TaqI sites of the DRD2 gene. Two hundred forty-six blood samples were collected from five upper caste populations of Himachal Pradesh (Brahmin, Rajput and Jat) and Delhi (Aggarwal and Sindhi), and analysis was performed using standard protocols. All three sites were found to be polymorphic in all five of the studied populations. Uniform allele frequency distribution patterns, low heterozygosity values, the sharing of five common haplotypes, and the absence of two of the eight possible haplotypes observed in this study suggest a genetic proximity among the selected populations. The results also indicate a major genetic contribution from Eurasia to North Indian upper castes, apart from the common genetic unity of Indian populations. The study also demonstrates a greater genetic inflow among North Indian caste populations than is observed among South Indian caste and tribal populations.

[pastmists : interestingly, among the populations being the closest of the north Indian upper castes, in this specific study, we find  the Chuvash people (a Turkic-speaking people of Russia whose haplogroups and autosomal profile  reveal they are still largely from the ancient “Europoid” autochthonous non-Turkic substrate) [pastmists: the Finns and even the Russians are close too, seemingly confirming this view] living west of the Ural mountains, where was located the already mentionned Abashevo culture, during bronze age. Is this a sign that the Aryas had come from  populations in this general region (and of this historical culture), or maybe more generally from a region close to the Ural mountains?]

Aishwarya Rai without make-up

Aishwarya Rai, famous Indian actress

Asko Parpola, a Finnish scholar, evokes a few points supporting the migration of Indo-iranian populations in India during bronze age in this excerpt of an interview:

Hindu.com : “Some Indian scholars feel that the Indus Civilisation is Aryan [i.e. Indo-iranian] and connected with the Rig Veda. You are a Vedic scholar and you specialise in the Indus script too. So what is your reaction to this standpoint?”

 

Asko Parpola : “Rigvedic hymns often speak of horses and horse-drawn chariots, and the horse sacrifice, ashvamedha, is among the most prestigious Vedic rites. The only wild equid native to the Indian subcontinent is the wild ass, which is known from the bone finds of the Indus Civilisation and depicted (though rarely) in its art and script. The domesticated horse is absent from South Asia until the second millennium BCE. Finds from Pirak and Swat from 1600 BCE show it was introduced from Central Asia after the Indus Civilisation. The earliest archaeological finds of horse-drawn chariot come from graves dated to around 2000 BCE in the Eurasian steppes, the natural habitat of the horse. There are also ancient Aryan loanwords in Finno-Ugric languages spoken in northeastern Europe (for example, the word for ‘hundred‘ in my own language Finnish is ‘sata’ [i.e. the same word than in Indo-iranian]). Some of these Aryan loanwords represent a more archaic stage of development (that is, are phonetically closer to the older Proto-Indo-European language) than Rigvedic Sanskrit. It is very likely that these words came to Finno-Ugric languages from Proto-Aryan spoken in the Volga steppes [i.e. in Russia].”

(Source)

Indian man fom the north of India

Indian man from Haryana (north of India)

North Indian woman

Woman from North india

Indian woman from Rajathan

Woman from Rajathan (north-west of India)

Although often contested, some sentences from the RigVeda, the oldest holy book of Hinduism, are interpretable through an ethnic lense. In this text, the enemies of the Arya, the Dasa, are often associated with the darkness and blackness and sometimes the literal words of black (or dark) skin are written.

Example from the Mandala IX, hymn 73 :

5. “Blowing away with supernatural might from earth and from the heavens the swarthy skin which Indra hates.”

which can be opposed to the following sentence from the Mandala I, hymn 100 :

18. “The mighty Thunderer [i.e. Indra] with his fair-complexioned friends won the land, the sunlight, and the waters.”

[From the Ralph T.H. Griffith translation]

A few of such instances can be found in the RigVeda.

Young Indian boy

Young Indian boy from Rajasthan

Young orphan girl from Northewest India

Young orphan girl from rajasthan

Young Indian girl from Rajasthan

Young orphan girl from Rajasthan, a region of north-west India, whos the sister of the girl above

Young Indian girl from Kashmir, northwest of India

Young Indian girl from Kashmir, northwest of India

Although rare, blue or green eyes are findable in India. The Buddha, a prince of the north of India living in the 6th century BC and  whose real name was Siddhartha Gautama, is said, in the oldest written source of Buddhism, the Pali canon, to have had very blue eyes (“abhi nila netto” literally meaning “very blue eyes“). Similarly, Bodhidharma, an Indian monk of the 6th century AD, founder of the Zen Buddhism, also credited with the martial arts tradition of the Shaolin temple, was nicknamed “the blue-eyed barbarian” by the Chinese.

Little Indian schoolgirl

Little Indian schoolgirl from Uttaranchal, a region of the north of India

Young men from Heam, in the north of India

Young men from the north of India

Indian Girl from the north of India

Girl from the north of India

Indian girl

Indian girl

Sikh girl from Bangalore (India)

Sikh girl from Bangalore (India)

Indian woman from the Madhya Pradesh

Indian woman from the Madhya Pradesh (India)

Little Indian toddler

                  Pakistan

Little Kalasha girl from the North pakistan

Little Kalash girl from the Hindu-kush (North pakistan)

Little Kalash girl of the chitral district

Little Kalasha girl of the chitral district of North Pakistan

Little Kalasha girl from Chitral (North-west Pakistan)

Little Kalash girl from Chitral (North Pakistan)

Kalash children (Chitral, North Pakistan)

Kalasha children (North Pakistan)

Young Kalash girl (Chitral)

Young Kalash woman (North pakistan)

Young Kalash man

Young Kalash man (Chitral, north-west of Pakistan)

Kalash baby from Romboor, Chitral district in North Pakistan

Kalash baby from Romboor, Chitral district

Kalasha kids, Chitral

Kalash kids, Chitral

 

 

 

Kalasha child, Chitral, North Pakistan

Kalash woman from Chitral (Pakistan)

Kalash woman from the north of Pakistan

Kalash woman and her baby (Chitral)

Kalasha woman and her baby (Pakistan)

Little Kalasha girl with red hair from north Pakistan

Little Kalash girl with red hair from Chitral, Pakistan

In the north of Pakistan, some individuals also frequently show a strikingly europoid appearance. The most well-known of these populations where theses characteristics are visible are the Burushos of the Hunza valley (speaking a non-indo-european language, Burushaski) and the Kalash (or Kalashas, like the former name of the Nuristanis of eastern Afghanistan) a population of the Hindu-kush speaking an Indo-iranian language. The Kalash, the Burusho and the Nuristani claim to be descendants of the Alexander‘s army (another legend of the Kalash also claim a link with the Kushan) but so far the genetic tests have not seen any link with Greek or Macedonian populations (Very few tracks have been found among the Pathans (a.k.a. Pashtun) of Pakistan though). It is quite possible that these south Asian populations are actually partly the visible remains of the ancient Indo-iranian populations that probably came from central Asia during bronze age and mixed with the local populations, as the DNA tests have revealed that populations of bronze age south Siberia, strongly supposed to have been early Indo-europeans, had such characteristics.

Pakistanese children from the Hunza valley

Pakistani children of Karimabad, Hunza Valley (Pakistan)

Burusho girl of Hunza, Pakistan

Young Burusho girl (left) of the Hunza Valley (north Pakistan)

Young Hunza girl (north Pakistan)

Young girl from Hunza (north Pakistan)

Isolated people of the Hindu Kush mountains in the north of Pakistan (in the Chitral district), the Kalash are a polytheistic ethnic group speaking the Kalash language, a Dardic language (a language group considered as a subgroup of the Indo-aryan language family) of the Indo-iranian language family. Their traditions are said to be close to the ancient pre-Zoroastrian Iranian and ancient Indian Vedic traditions.

source : http://pastmists.wordpress.com/

Afghanistan :

Afghan child from the Uzbek community

Afghan child from the Uzbek community

Little girl from Herat, Afghanistan, not far from the Iranian border

Little girl from Herat, Afghanistan, not too far from the Iranian border

Little child from Afghanistan

Little child from Afghanistan

Afghan man with very blue eyes

Blue-eyed Afghan man from Herat, a city not far from the north-east Iran border

Young Afghan from a refugee camp in Iran

Young Afghan from a refugee camp in Iran

Little Afghan girl

Little Afghan girl

Picture of an Afghan boy from a refugee camp in Semnan, Iran

Picture of an Afghan boy from a refugee camp in Semnan, Iran

Hazara girl from Central Afghanistan

Hazara girl from Central Afghanistan

Hazara children, Afghanistan

Hazara children, Afghanistan

Young Hazara boy

Young Hazara boy (Afghanistan)

Young Afghans

Young Afghans

The words of Zoroaster (a.k.a. Zarathustra), the famous Persian sage, described the place of origin of the Aryans (Aryanam Vaejah) in terms that led some historians to believe he was maybe referring to a place in central Asia (excerpt from “The Cambridge ancient history by John Boardman)

Individuals with Europoids features, though rather rare, are findable in these regions as well, like in all the regions where Indo-european languages have been spoken or are currently spoken. It can probably be seen as a legacy of bronze age migrations from central Asia, (and originally from the north-east of the black sea, according to the Kurgan theory).

Little Pashtun girl from the Tribal area

Little Pashtun girl from the Tribal area

Pashtun man from Afghanistan

Pashtun man from Afghanistan. It seems that the term “Pakhta” in the RigVeda is a reference to the ancestors of the Pashtuns (a.k.a. Pakhtuns or Pathans), hinting to the ancient existence of this ethnical group in this region.

In the eastern part of Afghanistan, in a region named Nuristan (formerly known as Kafiristan), Europoid phenotypes are not that rare. The Nuristani (previously known as Kalasha before their conversion to Islam in 1895) are a people living in a very remote and isolated mountainous region of east Afghanistan, in the Hindu-Kush mountains. They maintained their very old pre-islamic traditions, believed to be derived from the antique Indo-iranian traditions of yore, and were polytheistic before being conquered and islamized in the end of the 19th century. They are speaking in a specific branch of Indo-iranian language family (sometimes perceived as having evolved from an archaic branch of the family (i.e. spawned from a different branch than proto-iranian or proto-indo-aryan within the indo-iranian family)).

Little Kalasha girl (Afghanistan)

Little Nuristani girl (Afghanistan)

Kalasha boy from eastern Afghanistan

Nuristani boy from eastern Afghanistan

Little Nuristani girl (Afghanistan)

Little Nuristani girl (1971)

Nursitani girl (notice the tattoo reminding of the Hindu Tilak/bindi)

Nuristani girl (notice the tattoo reminescent of the Hindu Tilak/bindi)

Nuristani schoolgirl (Afghanistan)

Nuristani Girl of Afghanistan

Nuristani Girl of Afghanistan (the tattoo resembles the Hindu bindi (or tilaka))

Little girls from Nuristan

Little girls from Nuristan

It is interesting to note that the regions where the Europoid phenotypes are the most frequent are also the most isolated places where population movements and mixing was much rarer.

Some people believe these Europoid phenotypes are actually the results of rapes by the USSR army during the invasion of Afghanistan that took place from 1979 to 1989. Though, it is very unlikely for several reasons :

  1. It’s already difficult to imagine the Russian army changing the face of Nuristan (especially such an isolated and difficult to access mountainous region), in 10 years – especially since it was a region it didn’t control.
  2. There are photographs of Nuristani from before the Russian invasion such as this one from 1971 (8 years before the invasion) .
  3. Europoid phenotypes are found way further in Asia (north-west China, India, north Pakistan, etc…) that in the area the USSR troopers operated, even though they are not frequent.
  4.  We know by archeological findings and ancient DNA that individuals with such characteristics existed deep into Asia (and it seems confirmed by a few Mummies as well) not so far from these regions (more will be said about this in the next articles).
  5. We have ancient writings that confirms that such features are found in these regions from a long time. For instance, a Chinese buddhist monk from the 7th century describes the population of a kingdom in what is nowadays either south Tajikistan or north-eastern Afghanistan where most of the people had blue eyes (source : Si-Yu-Ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World | the page before the excerpt can be found there in searching “Ta-mo-si-tie-ti“)

Kurdistan :

The Kurds are a people located partly in Turkey, north Syria, north of Iraq and north-western Iran and speaking an Iranian language. They are generally associated with the antique Medes, an ancient “Persian” people having likely brought the ancestor of the Kurdish language in this region. Haplogroup Y-DNA R1a1a is found at a low frequency in west Asia, except among the Kurds where this male lineage reaches about 20% of the local male population.

Here are a few examples of europoid phenotypes found among the Kurdish population :

Kurdish boys from northern Syria

Two Kurdish boys from northern Syria

Little Kurdish boy

Little Kurdish boy

Little Kurdish child

Little Kurdish child

Kurds

Kurds

 

Peshmerga Kurd with Daughter

Peshmerga warrior Kurd with his Daughter

 

               IRAN:

Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Mayor of Tehran

Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf (Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf), Mayor of Tehran

Ayatollah Yazdi (Iran)

Ayatollah Yazdi, former minister of justice of Iran

Ali Larijani, chairman of the Iranian parliament

Ali Larijani, chairman of the Iranian parliament

Mohammad Reza Golzar, Iranian actor and musician

Mohammad Reza Golzar, Iranian actor and musician

Iranian woman

Iranian woman

Old Iranian man

Old Iranian man

Little iranian girl

Little Iranian girl

Little peasant girl from Khorasan (Iran)

Little peasant girl from Khorasan (Iran)

Little Qashaqii girl from Iran

Little Qashaqii girl from Iran

Young Iranian girl from Ar-panah

Young Iranian girl from Ar-panah

Young Iranian schoolgirl

Young Iranian schoolgirl