Indo-Iranians

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Proto-Indo-Iranians
)
Sintashta-Petrovka culture (red) expanded into the Andronovo culture (orange) in the 2nd millennium BC, overlapping the Oxus civilization (green) in the south; it includes the area of the earliest chariots
(pink).

Indo-Iranian peoples, also known as Indo-Iranic peoples by scholars,

Indo-European speaking peoples who brought the Indo-Iranian languages to major parts of Eurasia in waves from the first part of the 2nd millennium BC onwards. They eventually branched out into Iranian peoples and Indo-Aryan peoples
.

Nomenclature

The term

Josef Wiesehofer,[6] Will Durant,[7] and Jaakko Häkkinen.[8][9] Population geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, in his 1994 book The History and Geography of Human Genes, also uses the term Aryan to describe the Indo-Iranians.[10]

History

Origin

The Proto-Indo-Iranians are commonly identified with the descendants of the

Afanasevo culture), and Transoxiana and the Hindu Kush on the south.[12]

Based on its use by Indo-Aryans in Mitanni and Vedic India, its prior absence in the Near East and Harappan India, and its 19th–20th century BC attestation at the Andronovo site of Sintashta, Kuzmina (1994) argues that the chariot corroborates the identification of Andronovo as Indo-Iranian.[note 1] Anthony & Vinogradov (1995) dated a chariot burial at Krivoye Lake to about 2000 BC, and a Bactria-Margiana burial that also contains a foal has recently been found, indicating further links with the steppes.[16]

Historical linguists broadly estimate that a continuum of Indo-Iranian languages probably began to diverge by 2000 BC,

Indo-Aryan
groups is not completely clear.

Expansion

Urheimat (Samara culture, Sredny Stog culture), red the area which may have been settled by Indo-European-speaking peoples up to c. 2500 BC, and orange the area to 1000 BC.[18]
BMAC and Yaz cultures have often been associated with Indo-Iranian migrations. The GGC, Cemetery H, Copper Hoard and PGW
cultures are candidates for cultures associated with Indo-Aryan movements.

First wave – Indo-Aryans

Two-wave models of Indo-Iranian expansion have been proposed by Burrow (1973)

Iranian plateau, and the Indian subcontinent.

The Mitanni of Anatolia

The Mitanni, a people known in eastern

superstrate
, in the form of:

  • a
    Indo-European Anatolian people
    who spoke a non Indo-Iranian language;
  • the names of Mitanni rulers and;
  • the names of gods invoked by these rulers in treaties.

In particular, Kikkuli's text includes words such as aika "one" (i.e. a cognate of the Indo-Aryan eka), tera "three" (tri), panza "five" (pancha), satta "seven", (sapta), na "nine" (nava), and vartana "turn around", in the context of a horse race (Indo-Aryan vartana). In a treaty between the Hittites and the Mitanni, the

loanwords tend to connect the Mitanni superstrate to Indo-Aryan rather than Iranian languages – i.e. the early Iranian word for "one" was aiva.[citation needed
]

Indian subcontinent – Vedic culture

The standard model for the entry of the Indo-European languages into the Indian subcontinent is that this first wave went over the Hindu Kush, either into the headwaters of the

Indo-Aryans in these areas established several powerful kingdoms and principalities in the region, from south eastern Afghanistan to the doorstep of Bengal. The most powerful of these kingdoms were the post-Rigvedic Kuru (in Kurukshetra and the Delhi area) and their allies the Pañcālas further east, as well as Gandhara and later on, about the time of the Buddha, the kingdom of Kosala and the quickly expanding realm of Magadha. The latter lasted until the 4th century BC, when it was conquered by Chandragupta Maurya and formed the center of the Maurya Empire
.

In eastern Afghanistan and some western regions of Pakistan, Indo-Aryan languages were eventually replaced by Eastern Iranian languages. Most Indo-Aryan languages, however, were and still are prominent in the rest of the Indian subcontinent. Today, Indo-Aryan languages are spoken in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Suriname and the Maldives.

Second wave – Iranians

The second wave is interpreted as the Iranian wave.[17]: 42–43 

Eurasia around 1000 BC, showing location of the Iranians and their neighbors

The first Iranians to reach the

Vistula River to the mouth of the Danube and eastward to the Volga, bordering the shores of the Black and Caspian seas as well as the Caucasus to the south.[note 2]
In the east, the Saka occupied several areas in Xinjiang, from Khotan to Tumshuq.

The

Indo-Aryans
from the area.

In

North Ossetia and South Ossetia, is a direct descendant of Alanic
, and by that the only surviving Sarmatian language of the once wide-ranging East Iranian dialect continuum that stretched from Eastern Europe to the eastern parts of Central Asia.

Archaeology

Archaeological cultures associated with Indo-Iranian expansion include:

  • Europe
  • Central Asia
    • Sintashta-Petrovka-Arkaim (2050–1750 BC)
    • Andronovo
      horizon (2000–1450 BC)
      • Alakul (2100–1400 BC)
      • Fedorovo (1400–1200 BC)
      • Alekseyevka (1200–1000 BC)
    • Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
      (2200–1700 BC)
    • Yaz culture (1500–1100 BC)
  • Indian subcontinent
  • Iranian Plateau

Parpola (1999) suggests the following identifications:

Date range Archaeological culture Identification suggested by Parpola
2800–2000 BC late Catacomb and Poltavka cultures late PIE to Proto–Indo-Iranian
2000–1800 BC Srubna and Abashevo cultures Proto-Iranian
2000–1800 BC Petrovka-Sintashta Proto–Indo-Aryan
1900–1700 BC BMAC "Proto-Dasa" Indo-Aryans establishing themselves in the existing BMAC settlements, defeated by "Proto-Rigvedic" Indo-Aryans around 1700
1900–1400 BC Cemetery H Indian Dasa
1800–1000 BC Alakul-Fedorovo Indo-Aryan, including "Proto–Sauma-Aryan" practicing the Soma cult
1700–1400 BC early Swat culture Proto-Rigvedic
1700–1500 BC late BMAC "Proto–Sauma-Dasa", assimilation of Proto-Dasa and Proto–Sauma-Aryan
1500–1000 BC Early West Iranian Grey Ware Mitanni-Aryan (offshoot of "Proto–Sauma-Dasa")
1400–800 BC late Swat culture and Punjab, Painted Grey Ware late Rigvedic
1400–1100 BC Yaz II-III, Seistan Proto-Avestan
1100–1000 BC Gurgan Buff Ware, Late West Iranian Buff Ware Proto-Persian, Proto-Median
1000–400 BC Iron Age cultures of Xinjiang Proto-Saka

Language

Indo-Iranian languages

The

Satem language still not removed very far from the Proto-Indo-European language, and in turn only removed by a few centuries from Vedic Sanskrit of the Rigveda. The main phonological change separating Proto-Indo-Iranian from Proto–Indo-European is the collapse of the ablauting vowels *e, *o, *a into a single vowel, Proto–Indo-Iranian *a (but see Brugmann's law). Grassmann's law and Bartholomae's law
were also complete in Proto-Indo-Iranian, as well as the loss of the labiovelars (kw, etc.) to k, and the Eastern Indo-European (Satem) shift from palatized k' to ć, as in Proto–Indo-European *k'ṃto- > Indo-Iran. *ćata- > Sanskrit śata-, Old Iran. sata "100".

Among the sound changes from Proto-Indo-Iranian to Indo-Aryan is the loss of the voiced sibilant *z, among those to Iranian is the de-aspiration of the PIE voiced aspirates.

The regions where

Kurdish languages, Zaza–Gorani and Kurmanji Dialect continuum[26]) and Iran (Persian), eastward to Xinjiang (Sarikoli) and Assam (Assamese), and south to Sri Lanka (Sinhala) and the Maldives (Maldivian), with branches stretching as far out as Oceania and the Caribbean for Fiji Hindi and Caribbean Hindustani respectively. Furthermore, there are large diaspora communities of Indo-Iranian speakers in northwestern Europe (the United Kingdom), North America (United States, Canada), Australia, South Africa, and the Persian Gulf Region (United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia
).

Religion

Despite the introduction of later

Indo-European religion. From the various and dispersed Indo-Iranian cultures, a set of common ideas may be reconstructed from which a common, unattested proto-Indo-Iranian source may be deduced.[27]

The pre-Islamic religion of the

Yamata-no-Orochi and in the myth of the dawn goddess Ame-no-Uzume.[33][34][35]

Most Indo-Iranians today follow

religions.

Development

Some beliefs developed in different ways as cultures separated and evolved. For example, the word '

Ahuras are particularly obvious and striking.Varuna, the most powerful of the Asuras, does not directly correspond to Ahura Mazda but shares several traits in common with him, particularly in terms of his role as king among the lesser gods and arbiter of law and morality among mortals. Even as Ahura Mazda rules by and upholds asha, the cosmic moral order, in the Avesta, so too do Varuna and the Asuras uphold the analogous concept of rta in the Vedas.[36]

The

Cognate terms

Rigveda manuscript page (1.1.1–9)
Yasna 28.1 (Bodleian MS J2)

The following is a list of cognate terms that may be gleaned from comparative linguistic analysis of the Rigveda and Avesta. Both collections are from the period after the proposed date of separation (c. 2nd millennium BC) of the Proto-Indo-Iranians into their respective Indic and Iranian branches.[27][38][39]

Vedic Sanskrit Avestan Common meaning
āp āp "water," āpas "the Waters"[39]
Apam Napat, Apām Napāt
Apām Napāt
the "water's offspring"[39]
aryaman airyaman "Arya-hood" (lit:** "member of Arya community")[39]
Asura Mahata/Medha (असुर महत/मेधा) Ahura Mazda "The Supreme Lord, Lord of Wisdom"[40][41]
rta
asha/arta "active truth", extending to "order" and "righteousness"[39][38]
atharvan āθrauuan, aθaurun Atar "priest"[38]
ahi azhi, (aži) "dragon, snake", "serpent"[39]
daiva, deva daeva, (daēuua) a class of divinities
manu manu "man"[39]
mitra
mithra, miθra "oath, covenant"[39][38]
asura ahura another class of spirits[39][38]
sarvatat Hauruuatāt "intactness", "perfection"[42][43]
Sarasvatī (Ārdrāvī śūrā anāhitā, आर्द्रावी शूरा अनाहिता) Haraxvati/Haraxvaitī (
Ārəduuī Sūrā Anāhitā
)
a controversial (generally considered mythological) river, a river goddess[44][45]
sauma, soma haoma a plant, deified[39][38]
svar hvar, xvar the Sun, also cognate to Greek helios, Latin sol, Engl. Sun[42]
Tapati tapaiti Possible fire/solar goddess; see
Scythian theonym). Cognate with Latin tepeo and several other terms.[42]
Vrtra
-/Vr̥tragʰná/Vritraban
verethra, vərəθra (cf. Verethragna, Vərəθraγna) "obstacle"[39][38]
Yama Yima son of the solar deity Vivasvant/Vīuuahuuant[39]
yajña yasna, object: yazata "worship, sacrifice, oblation"[39][38]
Gandharva Gandarewa "heavenly beings"[39]
Nasatya
Nanghaithya "twin Vedic gods associated with the dawn, medicine, and sciences"[39]
Amarattya Ameretat "immortality"[39]
Póṣa Apaosha "demon of drought"[39]
Ashman Asman "sky, highest heaven"[42]
Angira Manyu
Angra Mainyu "destructive/evil spirit, spirit, temper, ardour, passion, anger, teacher of divine knowledge"[39]
Manyu Maniyu "anger, wrath"[39]
Sarva Sarva "Rudra, Vedic god of wind, Shiva"[42]
Madhu Madu "honey"[39]
Bhuta
Buiti "ghost"[39]
Mantra Manthra "sacred spell"[39]
Aramati Armaiti "piety"
Amrita Amesha "nectar of immortality"[39]
Amrita Spanda (अमृत स्पन्द) Amesha Spenta "holy nectar of immortality"
Sumati Humata "good thought"[42][39]
Sukta Hukhta "good word"[39]
Narasamsa Nairyosangha "praised man"[39]
Vayu Vaiiu "wind"[39]
Vajra Vazra "bolt"[39]
Ushas Ushah "dawn"[39]
Ahuti azuiti "offering"[39]
púraṁdhi purendi[39]
bhaga baga "lord, patron, wealth, prosperity, sharer/distributor of good fortune"[39]
Usij Usij "priest"[39]
trita thrita "the third"[39]
Mas Mah "moon, month"[39]
Vivasvant Vivanhvant "lighting up, matutinal"[39]
Druh Druj "Evil spirit"[39]
Ahi Dasaka Azhi Dahaka "biting serpent"[46]

Genetics

Mohana tribe up to 71%,[50] Nepal Hindus up to 69.20%,[51] and Tajiks up to 68%.[52] In the western part of Iran, Iranians show low R1a1a levels, while males of eastern parts of Iran carry up to 35% R1a1a.[52]
The historical and prehistoric possible reasons for this are the subject of on-going discussion and attention amongst population geneticists and genetic genealogists, and are considered to be of potential interest to linguists and archaeologists also.

Out of 10 human male remains assigned to the Andronovo horizon from the Krasnoyarsk region, 9 possessed the

C-M130
haplogroup (xC3). mtDNA haplogroups of nine individuals assigned to the same Andronovo horizon and region were as follows: U4 (2 individuals), U2e, U5a1, Z, T1, T4, H, and K2b.

A 2004 study also established that during the Bronze Age/Iron Age period, the majority of the population of Kazakhstan (part of the Andronovo culture during the Bronze Age), was of west Eurasian maternal lineages (with mtDNA haplogroups such as U, H, HV, T, I and W), and that prior to the 13th–7th century BC, all Kazakh samples belonged to European lineages.[53]

A 2022 study found that modern individuals from Southern Central Asia, especially Tajiks and Yaghnobis, display strong genetic continuity towards Iron Age Indo-Iranians, and were only marginally affected by outside geneflow, while modern Turkic peoples derive significant amounts of ancestry from a 'Baikal hunter-gatherer' source (mean average ~50%), with the remainder being ancestry maximized in Tajik people. Historical Indo-Iranians showed high genetic affinity towards European hunter-gatherers and Iranian Neolithic farmers.[54]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Klejn (1974), as cited in Bryant 2001:206, acknowledges the Iranian identification of the Andronovo culture, but finds the Andronovo culture too late[clarification needed] for an Indo-Iranian identification, giving a later date for the start of the Andronovo culture "in the 16th or 17th century BC, whereas the Aryans appeared in the Near East not later than the 15th to 16th century BC.[13] Klejn (1974, p.58) further argues that "these [latter] regions contain nothing reminiscent of Timber-Frame Andronovo materials."[13] Brentjes (1981) also gives a later dating for the Andronovo culture.[14] Bryant further refers to Lyonnet (1993) and Francfort (1989), who point to the absence of archaeological remains of the Andronovans south of the Hindu Kush.[14] Bosch-Gimpera (1973) and Hiebert (1998) argue that there also no Andronovo remains in Iran,[14] but Hiebert "agrees that the expansion of the BMAC people to the Iranian plateau and the Indus Valley borderlands at the beginning of the second millennium BC is 'the best candidate for an archaeological correlate of the introduction of Indo-Iranian speakers to Iran and South Asia' (Hiebert 1995:192)".[15] Sarianidi states that the Andronovo tribes "penetrated to a minimum extent".[14]
  2. Aietes of Colchis (modern Georgia
    ).

References

Citations

  1. ^ Chen, Sanping. "SOME REMARKS ON THE CHINESE" BULGAR"." Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae (1998): 69–83.
  2. ^ Motti, Victor Vahidi. "Richard Slaughter: The master interpreter of alternative planetary futures." Futures 132 (2021): 102796.
  3. ^ Dwyer, Arienne M. "The texture of tongues: Languages and power in China." Nationalism and ethnoregional identities in China. Routledge, 2013. 68–85.
  4. ^ The "Aryan" Language, Gherardo Gnoli, Instituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente, Roma, 2002.
  5. ^ . Schmitt, "Aryans" in Encyclopedia Iranica: Excerpt:"The name "Aryan" (OInd. ā́rya-, Ir. *arya- [with short a-], in Old Pers. ariya-, Av. airiia-, etc.) is the self-designation of the peoples of Ancient India and Ancient Iran who spoke Aryan languages, in contrast to the "non-Aryan" peoples of those "Aryan" countries (cf. OInd. an-ā́rya-, Av. an-airiia-, etc.), and lives on in ethnic names like Alan (Lat. Alani, NPers. īrān, Oss. Ir and Iron.". Also accessed online: [1] in May, 2010
  6. ^ Wiesehofer, Joseph: Ancient Persia. New York: 1996. I.B. Tauris. Recommends the use by scholars of the term Aryan to describe the Eastern, not the Western, branch of the Indo-European peoples (see "Aryan" in index)
  7. Vedic Hindus, i.e., only to the eastern branch of the Indo-European peoples, whose western branch populated Europe
    ."
  8. . Retrieved 12 November 2013.
  9. ^ Häkkinen, Jaakko (23 September 2012). "Problems in the method and interpretations of the computational phylogenetics based on linguistic data – An example of wishful thinking: Bouckaert et al. 2012" (PDF). Jaakko Häkkisen puolikuiva alkuperäsivusto. Jaakko Häkkinen. Retrieved 12 November 2013.
  10. . Retrieved 2023-11-16.
  11. ^ Anthony 2007, p. 49.
  12. ^ a b Bryant 2001, p. 206.
  13. ^ a b c d Bryant 2001, p. 207.
  14. ^ Parpola 2015, p. 76.
  15. ^ Anthony & Vinogradov (1995); Kuzmina (1994), Klejn (1974), and Brentjes (1981), as cited in Bryant (2001:206)
  16. ^ a b Mallory 1989
  17. ^ Christopher I. Beckwith (2009), Empires of the Silk Road, Oxford University Press, p.30
  18. ^ Burrow 1973.
  19. ^ a b Mallory & Mair 2000
  20. ^ Rigveda – Britannica Online Encyclopedia
  21. ^ Brzezinski, Richard; Mielczarek, Mariusz (2002). The Sarmatians, 600 BC-AD 450. Osprey Publishing. p. 39. (..) Indeed, it is now accepted that the Sarmatians merged in with pre-Slavic populations.
  22. ^ Adams, Douglas Q. (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Taylor & Francis. p. 523. (..) In their Ukrainian and Polish homeland the Slavs were intermixed and at times overlain by Germanic speakers (the Goths) and by Iranian speakers (Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans) in a shifting array of tribal and national configurations.
  23. ^ Atkinson, Dorothy; et al. (1977). Women in Russia. Stanford University Press. p. 3. (..) Ancient accounts link the Amazons with the Scythians and the Sarmatians, who successively dominated the south of Russia for a millennium extending back to the seventh century B.C. The descendants of these peoples were absorbed by the Slavs who came to be known as Russians.
  24. ^ Slovene Studies. Vol. 9–11. Society for Slovene Studies. 1987. p. 36. (..) For example, the ancient Scythians, Sarmatians (amongst others), and many other attested but now extinct peoples were assimilated in the course of history by Proto-Slavs.
  25. .
  26. ^ a b c Gnoli, Gherardo (March 29, 2012). "Indo-Iranian Religion". Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved July 10, 2018.
  27. .
  28. .
  29. ^ Strand, Richard F. (31 December 2005). "Richard Strand's Nuristân Site: Peoples and Languages of Nuristan". nuristan.info. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 19 January 2012.
  30. ^ "The Kalash: Pakistan's last animist tribe". Atalayar. 29 March 2021. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  31. . The Kalash (which means 'black' because of the black garments they wear) are an animist tribe who live in a region sometimes called Kafiristan.
  32. ^ Witzel, Michael (2012). The Origin of the World's Mythologies.
  33. ^ Witzel, Michael (2005). Vala and Iwato: The Myth of the Hidden Sun in India, Japan, and beyond (PDF).
  34. ^ Michael Witzel. "Kalash Religion" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 February 2022. Retrieved 14 March 2022 – via HUIT.
  35. ^ a b "THE DAEVAS IN ZOROASTRIAN SCRIPTURE" (PDF). University of Missouri System. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
  36. ^ "Saraswati Palaeochannels". bhuvan-app1.nrsc.gov.in. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  37. ^ . Retrieved 21 January 2021.
  38. ^ . Retrieved 21 January 2021.
  39. ^ The Sacred Books of the East: The Zend-Avesta, pt. I. Clarendon Press. 1880. p. LVIII. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  40. . Retrieved 15 February 2021.
  41. ^ a b c d e f Muir, John (1874). Original Sanskrit Texts on the Origin and History of the People of India, Their Religion and Institutions. Vol. 2. Trübner. p. 224. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  42. ^ Bonar, Horatius (1884). The Life and Work of the Rev. G. Theophilus Dodds: Missionary in Connection with the McAll Mission, France. R. Carter. p. 425. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  43. . Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  44. . Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  45. ^ Braga, Teófilo (2013). Formação do Amadis de Gaula (in Brazilian Portuguese). Imprensa Portugueza. p. 36. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  46. PMID 24667786
    .
  47. ^ .
  48. ^ .
  49. .
  50. ."the qpAdm modelling shows that at least 90% of the ancestry of current Indo-Iranian ancestry is modelized as inherited from Iron Age individuals from southern Central Asia with an affinity with BMAC. Consequently, Indo-Iranians present a strong genetic continuity in the region since the Iron Age with anecdotic admixture with BHG ancestry related individuals, and, for the Tajiks, with South Asian ancestry related populations possibly after Iron Age."

Sources

Bibliography

  • Guarino-Vignon, P., Marchi, N., Bendezu-Sarmiento, J. et al. Genetic continuity of Indo-Iranian speakers since the Iron Age in southern Central Asia. Sci Rep 12, 733 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-04144-4
  • Vasil'ev, I. B., P. F. Kuznetsov, and A. P. Semenova. "Potapovo Burial Ground of the Indo-Iranic Tribes on the Volga" (1994).

External links