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Dacians, Dahae: How Far Did they Spread? the Aryan Trail. Caucasian descent druhyu.

                                                 

india - gujarat by retlaw snellac.

          

The image is of a contemporary Jat - one of the hidden tribes in Gujarat (India). Red hair Dhaneta Jat man (left) and a portrait of the Dacian king Decebalu from the Vatican (right) ]

Dahae (Old Persian Dahâ): nomadic tribe in the south of modern Kazakhstan. The name is also spelled Daai, Dai, or Daoi.

Mircea Elaide, in his book  Zalmoxis, equates the Dacians with the Dahae branch of Sakas:
 According to Strabo (304: 7, 3, 12), the original name of the Dacians  was daoi…certain nomadic Scythians to the east of the Caspian Sea  were also called daoi. The Latin authors called them Dahae, and  some  Greek historians daai…At first the name "Dacians" were referred to   one of the Thracian tribes in Northwestern Dacia (Strabo 304: 7. 3.  12). In general the name "Getae" occurs more commonly toward the   Black Sea, from the Balkans to the Dniester, whereas, the   name "Dacians" is more frequent in the northwest, west, and the   south…. (Eliade 1970: 1-2,12).

 

Geţii au existat ca popor de sine stătător si în India fiind cunoscuţi subnumele de Yut Yat Jut Jhut. Ei ocupau Hindustanul septentrional si valea Indului. Specialiştii sunt de acord că populaţia rurala din Pundjab se trage din acest corp etnic al Yut-şilor. De asemena populaţia Yut formeza pricipala etnie din regiunea Sindi, iar în Belucistan, poporul Yut a format prin amestecul cu baluchii, poporul Jugdalli.

 Descendenţii dacilor cunoscuţi sub numele Yut în India si Yue–tchi în China erau prezenţi şi în secolul XIX în India, în nord-estul provinciei Gudjarat aflându-se regiunea Jutvar (Ţara lui Yut sau a Yut-şilor)

Basarabia Literara, Dacologie

http://basarabialiterara.com.md/?cat=44

 

Table of Contents, Cuprins:

Dahae - the Name

The Dahae on the Daeva Inscription, Persepolis

Dahae Funeral Ritual

Scythians / Sacae

Little Scythia or Scythia Minor (now Dobrudja Romania)

The Aryan Trail. Caucasian descent druhyu.

  •  Jats, Getae.

    •

    Dacian, Dahae - the Name

     

    DACIAN NAME


    According to Strabo, the original name of the Dacians was daoi. A tradition preserved by Hesychius informs us that daos was the Phrygian word for "wolf.' P. Kretschmer had explained daos by the root *dhäu, "to press, to squeeze, to strangle."' Among the words derived from this root we may note the Lydian Kandaules, the name of the Thracian war god, Kandaon, the Illyrian dhaunos (wolf), the god Daunus, and so on. The city of Daous-dava, in Lower Moesia, between the Danube and Mount Haemus, literally meant "village of wolves. Formerly, then, the Dacians called themselves "wolves" or "those who are like wolves," who resemble wolves. Still according to Strabo, certain nomadic Scythians to the east of the Caspian Sea were also called daoi. The Latin authors called them Daliae, and some Greek historians daai. In all probability their ethnic name was derived from Iranian (Saka) dahae, "wolf." But similar names were not unusual among the IndoEuropeans. South of the Caspian Sea lay Hyrcania, that is, in Eastern Iranian "Vehrkana," in Western Iranian "Varkana," literally the "country of wolves" (from the Iranian root vehrka, "wolf'). The nomadic tribes that inhabited it were called Hyrkanoi, "the wolves," by Greco-Latin authors. In Phrygia there was the tribe of the Orka (Orkoi). We may further cite the Lycaones of Arcadia, and Lycaonia or Lucaonia in Asia Minor, and especially the Arcadian Zeus Lykaios" and Apollo Lykagenes; the latter surname has been explained as "he of the she-wolf," "he born of the she-wolf," that is, born of Leto in the shape of a she-wolf. According to Heraclides Ponticus (Fragm. Hist. Gr. 218), the name of the Samnite tribe of the Lucani came from Lykos, "wolf." Their neighbors, the Hirpini, took their name from hirpus, the Samnite word for "wolf." At the foot of Mount Soracte lived the Hirpi Sorani, the "wolves of Sora" (the Volscian city). According to the tradition transmitted by Servius, an oracle had advised the Hirpi Sorani to live "like wolves," that is, by rapine. And in fact they were exempt from taxes and from military service, for their biennial rite-which consisted in walking barefoot over burning coals-was believed to ensure the fertility of the country. Both this shamanic rite and their living "like wolves" reflect religious concepts of considerable antiquity.
     

     

     http://www.iranica.com/newsite/index.isc?


  • Articleat: http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/v6f6/v6f6a009.html

  • Already in 1912 the Old Persian ethnonym Daha­- (Gk. Dáoi, Dáai; Lat. Dahae) had been connected by Sten Konow with Khotanese daha- “man, male,” an etymology that is all the more plausible as it is com­mon throughout the world for nations to designate themselves with the words meaning “man” in their respective languages (for a few examples, see Bailey, 1958, pp. 109-10). The corresponding long-grade form *dāha- is represented by New Persian dāh “ser­vant,” Buddhist Sogdian dʾyh, Christian Sogdian dʾy “slave woman,” and apparently also Avestan *Dāha-­(or rather *Dåŋha-), attested only as feminine Dāhī-, in Yašt 13.144, where it occurs, together with the Airiia-, Tūiriia-, Sairima- and Sāinu-, as the name of one of the tribes that followed the Zoroastrian religion. The fact that Old Persian Daha- and Avestan *Dāha- seem to be related etymologically is not, however, necessarily proof that the two names referred to the same ethnic group; if the Daha- were indeed a Scythian tribe (see ii, below) it would be difficult to identify them with a group that is clearly excluded from the Airiia- (Ary­ans) in the Avesta. The ancient Indians also knew of a people called *Dasa- (attested only in adjectival dāsa-), depicted in the Rigveda as enemies of the Ārya-. The same root is also apparent in Avestan daxˊiiu-, Old Persian dahyu- (daha¡yu-) “province” (i.e., “(mass of) people”; cf. Skt. dasyu- “(hostile) people, demons”), and perhaps also Avestan aži- dahāka- ­“manlike serpent” (cf. Schwartz, 123-24).

  •  See aûdahā.

     Bibliography : S. Konow, “Vedic "dasyu," Toxrī [i.e. Khotanese] "dahä,"” Festschrift Vilhelm Thomsen, Leipzig, 1912, pp. 96-97. H. W. Bailey, “Iranian arya- and daha-,” TPS 1958, pp. 71-115, esp. 107-12. M. Schwartz, review of M. Mayrhofer, Die avestischen Namen, Iranisches Personen­namenbuch I/1, Orientalia 49, 1980, pp. 123-26. O. Szemerényi, Four Old Iranian Ethnic Names, Vienna, 1980, p. 43 n. 123.

     (François De Blois)
     
    The People

     Herodotus (1.125) referred to the Dáoi as one of the nomadic tribes of the Persians, together with the Mardians, Dropicans, and Sagartians. The name also occurs in the so-called “Daeva inscription” of the Achaemenid king Xerxes I (486-465/4 b.c.e.), where the Dahā are included in a list of thirty dahyāva (lands, provinces) that formed part of the Achaemenid empire (Kent, Old Persian, XPh 26, p. 151). Near the end of the list the Dahā are mentioned together with two clearly Scythian groups, the Sakā haumavargā and the Sakā tigraxaudā, among various lands and peoples along the periphery of the empire. Furthermore, it is possible that delegates from the Dahā are depicted among the subject peoples in the reliefs in the Central Building and in the Throne Hall at Persepolis (Schmidt, 1953, pls. 118-20, 135-36). Four of the delegates (nos. 17/W9, 18/E9, 22/E11, 28/E14) on each relief are shown wearing almost identical costumes (including the cutaway coat), clearly connecting them with the Scythian groups from the far northeastern part of the empire (see clothing i, v). From the evidence of the provincial lists in various Achaemenid inscriptions, only the Sakā haumavargā, the Dahā, and the people from Sugda- and Uvārazmī- could be identified with these four delegates.

     In various classical sources the Dahae are listed in the rosters of the Persian army that fought against Alexander the Great at Gaugamela (q.v.). Arrian (Anabasis 3.11.3­7) reported that the Dahae fought in the left wing, together with the Bactrians and the Arachosians. Curtius Rufus (4.12.5ff.) also placed the Bactrians and Dahae in the left wing. In addition, both authors noted that beyond the Persian ranks, at the extreme left, there were Bactrian and Scythian cavalry and scythe chariots (Arrian), or the Massagetae (Curtius Rufus). It is thus clear that the left wing of the Achaemenid army was formed by troops from the northeastern part of the empire, predominantly of Scythian descent, and that the Dahae were one of these groups.

     According to his biographers, Alexander later also incorporated Dahae into his own cavalry (Arrian, Anabasis 5.12.2; cf. Curtius Rufus, 7.7.32). They were described as “horseriding” bowmen (cf. Appian, Syriaca 167) and were said to have lived in the wastes northeast of Bactria and east of Sogdiana. At least some of the Dahae must thus be placed along the eastern fringes of the Karakum desert, near ancient Margiana, a conclusion confirmed by information found in some other classical sources (e.g., Ptolemy, Geog­raphy 6.10.2; Tacitus, Annales 11.10). It is possible that the Dahae were thus responsible for nomadic invasions of Margiana and Areia some time around 300 b.c.e., in which the towns of Alexandreia and Heracleia, the first located in Margiana, the latter apparently in Areia, were destroyed (cf. Pliny, Historia Naturalis 6.47-48; 33; 6.67; Strabo 11.516).

     The spread of the Dahae farther west, at least by the mid-3rd century b.c.e., is indicated in other sources, which refer to Dahae who settled in the lands north of ancient Hyrcania, along the southeastern shores of the Caspian Sea. This area was later known as Dahistān (Dehestān). In this connection Strabo (11.508, 11.515) referred to the (S)párnoi (cf. Justin 41.1.10). He also mentioned two other Dahā tribes, namely the Xánthioi and the Píssouroi, who lived east as far as the lands north of ancient Areia (11.511). The (S)párnoi are of particular interest, as elsewhere Strabo reported that Arsaces, the founder of the Parthian empire, who lived around the middle of the 3rd century b.c.e., was the chief of this Dahā tribe (11.515). Strabo added that the (S)párnoi lived along the Ochus; this reference cannot be separated from another (11.509) to the Ochus as one of the rivers that crossed Hyrcania. All this informa­tion suggests that the (S)párnoi lived in or near what was later called Dahistān; at least one ancient tradition linked their presence in this area to the Scythian invasions of Parthia that led to the foundation of the Parthian empire. The ensuing history of the Dahistān steppes and their role as a cradle for future rulers on the Persian plateau (cf. the sequence of Turkmen dynas­ties in Persia since the Middle Ages) appear to support the hypothesis that these lands formed the basis for nomadic inroads into the plains along and between the Khorasan mountain chains.

    When exactly the (S)párnoi or Dahae settled along the southern and southwestern fringes of the Karakum desert remains unclear; they may have moved there in the late 4th or early 3rd century b.c.e., when other Scythian tribes invaded Margiana and Areia (see above), though the Dahae may have settled in ancient Dahistān much earlier.

     It could thus be concluded that the main group of the Dahae resided in the arid steppes of the Karakum, in lands inhabited in recent centuries mainly by Turkmen.

     There is no need to assume, however, that the present harsh conditions already existed in the 1st millennium b.c.e.; archeological finds, for example, a fortress of the Parthian period at Igdy along the banks of the now dried-up Uzboi river (Koshelenko, 1985, pp. 211, 214, 216), suggest that the Karakum was far from completely deserted. The Dahae must have been one of those Scythian groups that dominated traffic between Hyrcania and Parthia to the south and ancient Choresmia (q.v.) to the north. Whether or not the Dáoi listed by Herodotus as one of the Persian tribes should be identified with the Dahae of the Karakum remains uncertain, but in the light of other evidence of northern infiltrations onto the Persian plateau and beyond dur­ing the early 1st millennium b.c.e. (cf., e.g., the name of the Mardians), it cannot be excluded that Scythian groups, including the Dahae, were present in southwestern Persia at a fairly early date.

     Bibliography : G. A. Koshelenko, ed., Arkheologiya SSSR. Drevneĭshie gosudarstva Kavkaza i Sredneĭ Azii (Archeology of the U.S.S.R. The ancient empires of the Caucasus and Central Asia), Moscow, 1985. E. F. Schmidt, Persepolis I, Oriental Institute Publications 68, Chicago, 1953. W. Tomaschek, “Daai,” in Pauly-Wissowa IV/2, cols. 1945-46. Idem, “Daoi,” in Pauly-Wissowa IV/2, col. 2133.

     (Willem Vogelsang

     In various classical sources the Dahae are listed in the rosters of the Persian army that fought against Alexander the Great at Gaugamela (q.v.). Arrian (Anabasis 3.11.3­7) reported that the Dahae fought in the left wing, together with the Bactrians and the Arachosians. Curtius Rufus (4.12.5ff.) also placed the Bactrians and Dahae in the left wing. In addition, both authors noted that beyond the Persian ranks, at the extreme left, there were Bactrian and Scythian cavalry and scythe chariots (Arrian), or the Massagetae (Curtius Rufus). It is thus clear that the left wing of the Achaemenid army was formed by troops from the northeastern part of the empire, predominantly of Scythian descent, and that the Dahae were one of these groups.

     According to his biographers, Alexander later also incorporated Dahae into his own cavalry (Arrian, Anabasis 5.12.2; cf. Curtius Rufus, 7.7.32). They were described as “horseriding” bowmen (cf. Appian, Syriaca 167) and were said to have lived in the wastes northeast of Bactria and east of Sogdiana. At least some of the Dahae must thus be placed along the eastern fringes of the Karakum desert, near ancient Margiana, a conclusion confirmed by information found in some other classical sources (e.g., Ptolemy, Geog­raphy 6.10.2; Tacitus, Annales 11.10). It is possible that the Dahae were thus responsible for nomadic invasions of Margiana and Areia some time around 300 b.c.e., in which the towns of Alexandreia and Heracleia, the first located in Margiana, the latter apparently in Areia, were destroyed (cf. Pliny, Historia Naturalis 6.47-48; 33; 6.67; Strabo 11.516).

     The spread of the Dahae farther west, at least by the mid-3rd century b.c.e., is indicated in other sources, which refer to Dahae who settled in the lands north of ancient Hyrcania, along the southeastern shores of the Caspian Sea. This area was later known as Dahistān (Dehestān). In this connection Strabo (11.508, 11.515) referred to the (S)párnoi (cf. Justin 41.1.10). He also mentioned two other Dahā tribes, namely the Xánthioi and the Píssouroi, who lived east as far as the lands north of ancient Areia (11.511). The (S)párnoi are of particular interest, as elsewhere Strabo reported that Arsaces, the founder of the Parthian empire, who lived around the middle of the 3rd century b.c.e., was the chief of this Dahā tribe (11.515). Strabo added that the (S)párnoi lived along the Ochus; this reference cannot be separated from another (11.509) to the Ochus as one of the rivers that crossed Hyrcania. All this informa­tion suggests that the (S)párnoi lived in or near what was later called Dahistān; at least one ancient tradition linked their presence in this area to the Scythian invasions of Parthia that led to the foundation of the Parthian empire. The ensuing history of the Dahistān steppes and their role as a cradle for future rulers on the Persian plateau (cf. the sequence of Turkmen dynas­ties in Persia since the Middle Ages) appear to support the hypothesis that these lands formed the basis for nomadic inroads into the plains along and between the Khorasan mountain chains.

     When exactly the (S)párnoi or Dahae settled along the southern and southwestern fringes of the Karakum desert remains unclear; they may have moved there in the late 4th or early 3rd century b.c.e., when other Scythian tribes invaded Margiana and Areia (see above), though the Dahae may have settled in ancient Dahistān much earlier.

     It could thus be concluded that the main group of the Dahae resided in the arid steppes of the Karakum, in lands inhabited in recent centuries mainly by Turkmen.

     There is no need to assume, however, that the present harsh conditions already existed in the 1st millennium b.c.e.; archeological finds, for example, a fortress of the Parthian period at Igdy along the banks of the now dried-up Uzboi river (Koshelenko, 1985, pp. 211, 214, 216), suggest that the Karakum was far from completely deserted. The Dahae must have been one of those Scythian groups that dominated traffic between Hyrcania and Parthia to the south and ancient Choresmia (q.v.) to the north. Whether or not the Dáoi listed by Herodotus as one of the Persian tribes should be identified with the Dahae of the Karakum remains uncertain, but in the light of other evidence of northern infiltrations onto the Persian plateau and beyond dur­ing the early 1st millennium b.c.e. (cf., e.g., the name of the Mardians), it cannot be excluded that Scythian groups, including the Dahae, were present in southwestern Persia at a fairly early date.

  • Bibliography : G. A. Koshelenko, ed., Arkheologiya SSSR. Drevneĭshie gosudarstva Kavkaza i Sredneĭ Azii (Archeology of the U.S.S.R. The ancient empires of the Caucasus and Central Asia), Moscow, 1985. E. F. Schmidt, Persepolis I, Oriental Institute Publications 68, Chicago, 1953. W. Tomaschek, “Daai,” in Pauly-Wissowa IV/2, cols. 1945-46. Idem, “Daoi,” in Pauly-Wissowa IV/2, col. 2133.

  •  (Willem Vogelsang)

     There is quite a possibility that Pallavas were from Iran. There are many other pointers. We follow the 'Saka Samvat'(Calender) supposed to have been instituted by the Saka ruler, Salivahana in Maharashtra/Andhra Pradesh. I will also point that the name of the Achaemenid Emperor, Cyrus II, the Great, is mentioned as 'Kurus' in old persian. The Kurus in India are supposed to hail from Uttara Kuru in 'Uttarapatha' (the northern road). Arjuna is called as 'Partha' (does it relate to Parthian?). Even Lord Rama had an ancestor named as 'Prithu'. The Vedas and other scriptures freely mention the Central Asian tribes, Tusharas (Tocharians), Druhyu (Dahae), Parsus (Persians), Panis (Parnis - a scythain tribe which later founded the Parthian dynasty). Valmiki's Ramayana lists Sakas, Yavanas, Pahlavas, and Kambojas (perhaps the tribe to which I belong, my progenitor, Sage Upamanyu, was famously supposed to be a Kamboja who had their spread from Kabul to Kyrghystan).

    The basic thing to realize is that North India had close relations with the northern tribes. There was trade, philosophical exchange, and marriage relations. India was not encapsulated as it seems to be now. And just as people from South Asia go to America and Australia in search of greener pastures now, people of these northern tribes used to come to India because of its riches. Though nothing stands proved.

    Lastly a special note about Yavanas. The people who gave their name to Ionia were from Central Asia and here they were known as Yavanas. It is not that Indians called the Ionians as Yavanas. They knew Yavanas from much earlier when they were in these areas. Alexander was not the first 'Yavana' who came to India. SrimadBhagawat Purana knows 'Kalavyavana' as one of their kings.

     http://en.allexperts.com/q/Asian-Middle-Eastern-671/Pallava.htm

     http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/numismatics/parthia/frames/prulfm.htm

     

    • The Dahae on the Daeva Inscription, Persepolis

    The Dahae (Persian: داها, Latin; Greek Δάοι, Daoi, and Δάαι, Daai), or Dahaeans were a confederacy of three Ancient Iranian tribes who lived in the region to the immediate east of the Caspian Sea. They spoke an Eastern Iranian language.
    The first datable mention of this nomad confederacy appears in the list of nations of Xerxes the great Daeva inscription.

     

     The 'daiva inscription' of Xerxes, found at Persepolis. Archaeological Museum, Tehran (Iran).

    One of the most important Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions is the "Daiva inscription". The Old Persian text is known from three slabs of stone from Persepolis and Pasargadae. (Elamite and Babylonian copies exist.) The interesting detail for which this text has become famous is the rebel country mentioned in section #4, although -unfortunately- it cannot be identified with sufficient certainty. Much depends on the meaning of the word daiva, which clearly means 'demon' and looks similar to the word daeva in the Avesta, the holy book of Zoroastrianism . If daiva and daeva are identical, we can assume that the rebels lived in Iran, where the Zoroastrian religion was influential.

    However, if these words are not the same, daiva may refer to the gods of Babylonia or Egypt. The latter is mentioned by the Greek researcher Herodotus as rebellious at the beginning of Xerxes reign (Histories 7.4), and we know from cuneiform texts from Babylon that there were two Babylonion rebels in 484 (Šamaš-eriba and Bêl-šimânni). We can not decide where Xerxes had to intervene - Iran, Egypt, or Babylon, but the text is intriguing.
       
     baga \ vazraka \ Auramazdâ \ hya \ imâm \ bûm
    im \ adâ \ hya \ avam \ asmânam \ adâ \ hya
    \ martiyam \ adâ \ hya \ šiyâtim \ adâ \
    martiyahyâ \ hya \ Xšayâršâm \ xšâyathi
    yam \ akunauš \ aivam \ parunâm \ xšâyath
    iyam \ aivam \ parunâm \ framâtâram \ ada
    m \ Xšayâršâ \ xšâyathiya \ vazraka \ xšâya
    thiya \ xšâyathiyânâm \ xšâyathiya \ dahy
    unâm \ paruv \ zanânâm \ xšâyathiya \ ah
    yâyâ \ bumiyâ \ vazrakâyâ \ dûraiy \ a
    piy \ Dârayavahauš \ xšâyathiyahyâ \ puça
    \ Haxâmanišiya \ Pârsa \ Pârsahyâ \ puça
    \ Ariya \ Ariyaciça \ thâtiy \ Xšayâršâ
    \ xšâyathiya \ vašnâ \ Auramazdahâ \ imâ \
    dahyâva \ tyaišâm \ adam \ xšâyathiya \ âh
    âm \ apataram \ hacâ \ Pârsâ \ adamšâm \
    patiyaxšayaiy \ manâ \ bâjim \ abaraha \ t
    yašâm \ hacâma \ athahiya \ ava \ akunava \ d
    âtam \ tya \ manâ \ avadiš \ adâraya \ Mâda
    \ Uja \ Harauvatiš \ Armina \ Zraka \ Parthava
    \ Haraiva \ Bâxtriš \ Sugda \ Uvârazmi
    š \ Bâbiruš \ Athurâ \ Thataguš \ Sparda
    \ Mudrâya \ Yaunâ \ tya \ drayahiyâ \ dâ
    rayatiy \ utâ \ tyaiy \ paradraya \ dârayat
    iy \ Maciyâ \ Arabâya \ Gadâra \ Hiduš \
    Katpatuka \ Dahâ \ Sakâ \ haumavargâ \ Sakâ
    \ tigraxaudâ     \ Skudrâ \ Âkaufaciyâ \
    Putâyâ \ Karkâ \ Kušiya \ thâtiy \ Xša
    1. A great god is Ahuramazda, who created this earth, who created yonder sky, who created man, who created happiness for man, who made Xerxes king, one king of many, one lord of many.
    2. I am Xerxes, the great king, king of kings, king of countries containing many kinds of men, king in this great earth far and wide, son of king Darius, an Achaemenian, a Persian, son of a Persian, an Aryan, of Aryan stock.

    3. King Xerxes says: By the grace of Ahuramazda these are the countries of which I was king apart from Persia. I had lordship over them. They bore me tribute. What was said to them by me, that they did. My law, that held them: Media, Elam, Arachosia, Armenia, Drangiana, Parthia, Aria, Bactria, Sogdia, Chorasmia, Babylonia, Assyria, Sattagydia, Lydia, Egypt, Yaunâ, those who dwell on this side of the sea and those who dwell across the sea, men of Maka, Arabia, Gandara, India, Cappadocia, the Dahae, the haoma-drinking Sacae, the Sacae wearing pointed caps, Thrace, men of Âkaufaciyâ, Libyans, Carians, and the Nubians.    

    http://www.livius.org/a/1/iran/xerxes_tablet.jpg

     In this list of the peoples and provinces of the Achaemenid Empire, the Dahae are identified in Old Persian as Dāha and are immediately followed by a "Saka" group, who are listed as being neighbors of the Dāha. Unclear is however whether the Dahae are also the *Dāha people (or *Dåŋha, only attested in the feminine Dahi) of the Avestan Yasht 13.144. An etymological relationship "is not proof that the two names refer to the same ethnic group."[1]

     In the 1st century BCE Strabo (Geographika 11.8.1) refers to the Dahae explicitly as the "Scythian Dahae" ("Scythian" is in Strabo not necessarily an equation with the "Sacae"). The historiographer further places the Dahae in the approximate vicinity of present-day Turkmenistan.
    The Dahae, together with the Saka tribes, are known to have fought in the Achaemenid armies at the Battle of Gaugamela. Following the fall of the Achaemenid Empire, they joined Alexander of Macedon in his quest to India. Saka coins from the Seleucid era are sometimes specifically attributed to the Dahae.
    In the third century, a branch of Dahae called the Parni would rise to prominence under their chief Arsaces. They invaded Parthia, which had just previously declared independence from the Seleucids, deposed the reigning monarch, and Arsaces crowned himself king. His successors, who all named themselves Arsaces and are thus referred to as the Arsacids, would eventually assert military control over the entire the Iranian plateau. By then, they would be indistinguishable from the Parthians, and would also be called by that name.
    While 'Dahae' was preserved in the toponym 'Dahestan'/'Dihistan' - a district "on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea" - "an urban center of the ancient Dahae (if indeed they possessed one) is quite unknown."[2]
    The Dahae should not by default be equated with Vedic Sanskrit's dasa. While the two are etymologically related, there is no directly transferable functional equivalence. In the Vedas, dasa is an ambiguous term that could mean any number of things, including - but not limited to - being a reference to a tribe. Even in this latter case, it only may refer to the same tribe as the Dahae; "man", which is probably the literal meaning of the root of the name, appears in the name of many tribes and individuals. If the Iranic and Indic terms were all - in addition to being etymologically related - also functionally equivalent, it would be enormously difficult to explain how the Avestan tribe that is exalted alongside the Aryans could simultaneously be vilified as the Daxiiu, the Anti-Aryans.[1]

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahae

     The Central-Asian steppe has been the home of nomad tribes for centuries. These nomads roamed across the plains and incidentally attacked the Achaemenid empire. The Persians called these nomads the Sakâ, the Greeks knew them as the Scythians.
    One of the tribes was known as the Dahâ, which is the Persian word for 'robbers'. This name need not surprise us; nomad tribes often received names like this from the people in the towns who suffered from their raids. For example, in the tenth century CE, the Europeans compared the Magyars to the greatest barbarians they had ever known, the Huns; when the Magyars finally settled, they kept using this name and their country is still called Hungary. Probably, 'Dahâ' was a similar proud nickname.
    A memory of these savage days seems to be preserved in the Avestan legend that the prophet Zarathustra, the founder of Zoroastroanism, was killed by the Dahae. In fact, this is impossible, because the Dahae and Zarathustra are separated by at least five centuries. However, it suggests that the atrocity of this particular tribe was proverbal.
    The Dahae are mentioned for the first time in the Daiva inscription of the Persian king Xerxes (486-465); he mentions them as one of the satrapies that listened to his orders. Since they are not mentioned in any inscription by king Darius I the Great, we may assume that Xerxes subdued the Dahae.
    The Greek researcher Herodotus calls the Dai a Persian nomad tribe:
    The Persian nation contains a number of tribes, and the ones which Cyrus assembled and persuaded to revolt were the Pasargadae, Maraphii, and Maspii, upon which all the other tribes are dependent. [...] Other tribes are the Panthialaei, Derusiaei, Germanii, all of which are attached to the soil, the remainder -the Dai, Mardi, Dropici, Sagarti, being nomadic.
    [Herodotus, Histories 1.125;
    tr.Aubrey de Selincourt]
    If this short catalogue goes back to an authentic list from the days of Cyrus the Great (559-530), we may assume that the Dahae took part in the rebellion against the Median leader Astyages in 550, but were dependent on one of the main tribes, i.e. the Pasargadae, the Maraphii, or the Maspii.
    Being nomads, the Dahae were not living on one place. In the fourth century CE, they lived on the lower reaches of the river Syrdar'ya, the ancient Jaxartes. It is very probable that this was their homestead in Xerxes' days too, because he mentions the Dahae, the Sakâ haumavargâ and the Sakâ tigrakhaudâ in one breath, and these two tribes certainly lived in this neighborhood. In the age of the Macedonian king Alexander the Great, they lived in the neigborhood of Hyrcania.  

    http://www.livius.org/da-dd/dahae/dahae.html

     attack on Vologeses I ( in Vologeses I (king of Parthia) )

  • ...(ad 54–63). A peace was finally concluded by which Tiridates was acknowledged as a Roman client king in Armenia. The power of Vologeses was further weakened by an attack by the nomadic Dahae and Śakas, a rebellion of the Hyrcanians, an invasion by Alani tribesmen in Media and Armenia, and the usurpation of his son Vardanes II. Vologeses’ reign was also marked by a decided...

  • place of Parni ( in Parni (people) )

    one of three nomadic or seminomadic tribes in the confederacy of the Dahae living east of the Caspian Sea; its members founded the Parthian empire. After the death of Alexander the Great (323 bc) the Parni apparently moved southward into the region of Parthia and perhaps eastward into...

  • role in history of Iran ( in ancient Iran: Invasion of the Parni;

    Arsaces, who was chief of the Parni (a member tribe of the Dahae confederation) must have begun his struggle

    http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/851961/ancient-Iran/32140/Artabanus-III#ref=ref315558http://books.google.com/books?id=RZGi_RRZ6EIC&pg=PA182&lpg=PA182&dq=dahae+tribe&source=bl&ots=KGFiIw_Qzi&sig=HkpXx1gpAFh6uPYGAuCkpJP7B4c&hl=en&ei=yK4-StLiK5GOMp_VxLAO&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3

     Thundering Zeus: the making of Hellenistic Bactria  

  •  Google Books Result

  • by Frank Lee Holt - 1999 - History - 221 pages
    Thereafter Arsaces, a Scythian leading some of the Dahae (the nomads called the ... tribe ...
    books.google.com/books?isbn=0520211405.

     

    • Dahae Funeral Rituals

    Dahae funeral rituals

    Chariot and Horse Burial Chamber Excavated in Henan

    http://english.china.com/zh_cn/culture_history/news/11020710/20090219/15333213.html 

    A recently excavated Eastern Zhou period chariot and horse burial chamber in Luoyang, Henan province. The chamber contains two horses and two chariots. [Photo: Dahe Daily]
    The excavation of some Eastern Zhou period tombs that had ancient chariots and horses buried underground has been completed, an official from Luoyang's cultural relics office told Dahe Daily on Tuesday.
    This is another latest uncover of ancient tombs following similar discoveries in surrounding areas in 2002.
    The excavation site contains 29 tombs, including two imperial wooden chariots and two dead horses.
    Field work for this excavation began in August 2008 and took archaeologists three months to finish. Many artifacts such as pottery, bronze weapons and jade were found despite the fact that most of the tombs had already been plundered by grave robbers.

    The horses, laying back to back in an orderly arrangement, were evidently killed before the burial. The two wooden chariots had rotted away, leaving only dusts.
    According to local archaeologists, this is also the first time a burial chamber with two horses and two chariots has been discovered in the Luoyang region.
    The chamber is located beneath a restaurant undergoing renovation. The restaurant, Luoyang Jujia, plans to encase the burial chamber in an underground culinary museum.
      

    The Scythians; Sacae

  • Scythians / Sacae
    By: Jona Lendering
    The Central-Asian steppe has been the home of nomad tribes for centuries. Being nomads, they roamed across the plains, incidentally attacking the urbanized countries to the south, east and west.
    The first to describe the life style of these tribes was a Greek researcher, Herodotus, who lived in the fifth century BCE. Although he concentrates on the tribes living in modern Ukraine, which he calls Scythians, we may extrapolate his description to people in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and possibly Mongolia, even though Herodotus usually calls these eastern nomads 'Sacae'. In fact, just as the Scythians and the Sacae shared the same life style, they had the same name: in their own language, which belonged to the Indo-iranian family, they called themselves Skudat ('archers'?). The Persians rendered this name as Sakâ and the Greeks as Skythai. The Chinese called them, at a later stage in history, Sai.

    Tribes are, almost by definition, very loose organizations. Every now and then, new tribal coalitions came into being, and sometimes, new languages became prominent among the nomads from the Central-Asian steppe.

    The oldest group we know of, is usually called Indo-Iranian. (The old name 'Aryan' is no longer used.) There are no contemporary reports about their migration, but it can be reconstructed from their language. It is reasonably certain that at the beginning of the second millennium BCE, the speakers of the Proto-Indo-Iranian language moved from Ukraine to the southeast. From an archaeological point of view, their migration is attested in the change from the Yamnaya culture into the Andronovo culture.

    They invaded the country that was later called Afghanistan, where they separated in an Iranian and an Indian branch. The first group settled in Aria, a name that lives on in our word 'Iran', where they settled after 1000 BCE; the second group reached the Punjab c.1500 BCE. From the second millennium on, three groups of languages can be discerned: the Indian group (Vedic, Sanskrit...), the Scythian group (in the homeland on the steppe), and the Iranian group (Gathic, Persian...). Even when, in the sixth century, the Achaemenid Empire was at its most powerful and the Persians lived in comfortable towns, they still remembered their earlier, nomadic life style:

  •  

      The Persian nation contains a number of tribes, and the ones which Cyrus assembled and persuaded to revolt were the Pasargadae, Maraphii, and Maspii, upon which all the other tribes are dependent. Of these, the Pasargadae are the most distinguished; they contain the clan of the Achaemenids from which spring the Perseid kings. Other tribes are the Panthialaei, Derusiaei, Germanii, all of which are attached to the soil, the remainder -the Dahae, Mardi, Dropici, Sagarti, being nomadic.
      [Herodotus, Histories 1.125 tr. Aubrey de Selincourt]

     The second group of nomads known to have gone south, is the tribe of the Cimmerians. Their name Gimirru -given to them by the Assyrians- means 'people traveling back and forth'; this name still exists in our word 'Crimea'. The Cimmerians destroyed the kingdoms of Urartu (an old name for Armenia) and Phrygia (in Turkey) in the first quarter of the seventh century BCE; other Scythians reached Ascalon in Palestine. According to Herodotus, they ruled the northwest of Iran (which Herodotus calls Media) for twenty-eight years.

    In the sixth, fifth and fourth centuries BCE, the Persians discerned several nomad tribes on the Central-Asian steppe. As we have seem, they called them Sakâ. We know the names of these tribes from Persian royal inscriptions and can add information from Herodotus and other Greek authors.

    • The Sakâ haumavargâ ('haoma-drinking Sacae') were subjected by Cyrus the Great. Herodotus calls them Amyrgian Scythians. Haoma was a trance inducing drink, made from fly agaric. This mushroom does not occur south of the river Amudar'ya (Oxus). Consequently, we may assume that these nomads lived in Uzbekistan. Herodotus informs us that they wore trousers and pointed caps; they fought as archers. He also mentions their use of the battle ax (which they called sagaris).
    • The Sakâ tigrakhaudâ ('Sacae with pointed hats') were defeated in 520/519 BCE by the Persian king Darius I the Great, who gave this tribe a new leader. One of the earlier leaders was killed, the other, named Skunkha, was taken captive and is visible on the relief at Behistun. (It is possible that Darius created a new tribe from several earlier tribes.) Herodotus calls the Sakâ tigrakhaudâ the Orthocorybantians ('pointed hat men'), and informs us that they lived in the same tax district as the Medes. This suggests that the Sakâ tigrakhaudâ lived on the banks of the ancient lower reaches of the Amudar'ya, which used to have a mouth in the Caspian Sea south of Krasnovodsk. The pointed hat is a kind of turban.
    • The Apâ Sakâ ('Water Sacae') are also known as the Pausikoi, as Herodotus prefers to call them. Later authors, like Arrian of Nicomedia (in his Anabasis) and Ammianus Marcellinus (in his Roman history) call them the Abian Scythians; still later, we encounter them as the Apasiaki, first east and later southwest of Lake Aral. They must be situated along the ancient lower reaches of the Amudar'ya.
    • The tribe that Herodotus calls 'Massagetes' must have been called something like Mâh-Sakâ in Persian, which means 'Moon Sacae', but this is confusing. Ma-Sakâ means Moon Sacae, and it is known that the Massagetes venerated only one god, the Sun. The Massagetes were responsible for the death of the Persian king Cyrus the Great (in December 530). From Herodotus' description, it is clear that they lived along the Syrdar'ya (Jaxartes). 
       
    • The nomad tribe known as Dahâ, which means 'robbers', is mentioned for the first time in the Daiva inscription of Xerxes; he must have subjected them. Herodotus calls the Dai a Persian nomad tribe (above), but they can not have lived in Persia proper, because they are mentioned in the Anabasis of Arrian as living along the lower reaches of the Syrdar'ya. In the days of the Macedonian king Alexander the Great, they were famous for their mounted archers. It is possible that this tribe desintegrated after the fall of the Achaemenid empire; one of the tribes that came into being, was that of the Parni, who went south in the third century BCE and founded the Parthian empire.
    • The Sakâ paradrayâ ('Sacae across the sea') were living in Ukraine. These are the nomads that the Greeks called Scythians. In (514 or) 513 BCE, king Darius launched a disastrous campaign against the Sakâ paradrayâ. Herodotus gives a long description of their way of life and discerns many tribes in the neighborhood.

      • The Royal Scythians lived in the southern part of Ukraine, immediately north of the Greek towns.
      • The Scythian-Farmers seem to be identical with the archaeological culture known as Chernoles, which has been identified with the Iron Age Slavs.
      • Probably, we may identify the Neuri with the so-called Milograd culture, the archaeological remains of which have been found on the confluence of the rivers Dnepr and Pripyat, north of modern Kiev. They may be the ancestors of the Balts.
      • Herodotus' story about the Man-eaters received some confirmation with the excavation of human remains that were gnawed at by human jaws; these excavations were along the river Sula, to the southeast of Kiev.

      • The Argippaeans are sometimes identified with the ancestors of the Calmucs.
      • The Issedones may be identical to the Wu-sun who (according to Chinese texts) lived on the shore of Lake Balchash.
    • The Sauromatae are mentioned by Herodotus as the descendants of Scythian fathers and Amazon mothers. Of course, this is a legend, but the tribe did exist and was to move to the west after 130 BCE. In the process, they assimilated the Royal Scythians (above). In the late first century BCE, the Sarmatian coalition consisted of four tribes:

      • The Iazyges, which had once lived on the shores of the Sea of Azov, were now living on the northern bank of the Danube. They were to move to what is now eastern Hungary, where they settled in c.50 CE. They were defeated by the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (in 175).
      • The Urgi lived on the banks of the Dnepr, south of Kiev.
      • The Royal Scythians were still living in the south of Ukraine and had become the most important Sarmatian tribe. They and the Urgi became known as the Sarmati. The Romans seem to have accepted their settlement in Hungary, but the situation was sometimes tense. The Sarmati were, for example, responsible for the destruction of the Twenty-first legion Rapax in 92.
      • The Roxolani initially lived between the Don and the Dnepr but settled on the lower reaches of the Danube, where the Iazyges had been living before they migrated to Hungary.

    The steppe nomads frequently attacked the urbanized regions to the east, south or west. Usually, this created great havoc, but after some time, they went back to their homeland. However, it was necessary for the attacked states to defend themselves. The Indians thought that they did not need walls because they were was protected by the Himalayas; c.110 BCE, the valley of the Indus was run over. The Chinese built the 'Wall of ten thousand miles' to protect themselves. The rulers of the Achaemenid empire, from Cyrus the Great to Alexander the Great, may have built walls as well. These walls are mentioned in the eighteenth sura of the Quran and in medieval legend, but cannot be identified with known archaeological remains. It is certain, however, that both Cyrus and Alexander built garrison towns along the river Syrdar'ya or Jaxartes; our sources call them Cyreschata and Alexandria Eschatê.

    Nomadism continued to exist into the first and second millennium CE. Several tribes may be mentioned. The Alani -whose language lives on in modern Ossetian- are known from the first century CE; they lived in modern Kazakhstan. Later, they moved to the west, being pushed forward by the Huns, which are known from Chinese texts as the Xiung-nu. Later tribal formations were the Avars, the Chasars, the Bulgars, the Turks, the Magyars, the Cumans, the Tatars, the Mongols and the Cossacks. 


    Literature:

    • J. Harmatta, 'Herodotus, historian of the Cimmerians and the Scythians' in: Hérodote et les peuples non Grecs. Neuf exposés suivis de discussions (Entretiens sur l' Antiquité classique, tome XXV) (1990 Genève), pages 115-130.
    • Renate Rolle, Die Welt der Skythen. Stutenmelker und Pferdebogner: ein antikes Reitervolk in neuer Sicht, 1980 Lucerne.
    • T. Sulimivski, 'The Scyths' in: Ilya Gershevitch (ed.): The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. II: The Median and Achaemenian Periods, 1985 Cambridge, pages 149-199.
    • Stephanie West, "Scythians" in: Egbert Bakker, Irene de Jong and Hans van Wees (eds.), Brill's Companion to Herodotus (2002 Leiden), pages 437-456.  

    • Little Scythia or Scythia Minor, now Dobrudja, Romania

  • In [email protected], "Sunny" <[email protected]> wrote:

     Q&A: According to Leake, the area around Thrace was called "Little-
    Scythia" by the classical writers, is this true?

    Francisc Czobor answers:

    Little Scythia (Scythia Minor) was in the late antiquity the name of the area between the Lower Danube and the Black Sea, that is called now Dobrudja (In Romanian: Dobrogea) and is shared between Romania (the northern part) and Bulgaria (the southern part). Before "Scythia Minor", this area was called "Moesia Inferior", and this was its name also as a province of the Roman Empire. Later, when some Scythian tribes settled there coming from North-East (the "great" Scythia, where today is Ukraine), the region used to be called also "Little
    Scythia".

     I agree that the Dacians were the same or similar to the Getae.  Leake writes, "From Strabo's time on, the Getae and Daci were  considered to the same people and their names were used   interchangeably (Leake 1967: 22)." Mircea Elaide, in his book  Zalmoxis, equates the Dacians with the Dahae branch of Sakas:
     According to Strabo (304: 7, 3, 12), the original name of the Dacians  was daoi…certain nomadic Scythians to the east of the Caspian Sea  were also called daoi. The Latin authors called them Dahae, and  some  Greek historians daai…At first the name "Dacians" were referred to   one of the Thracian tribes in Northwestern Dacia (Strabo 304: 7. 3.  12). In general the name "Getae" occurs more commonly toward the   Black Sea, from the Balkans to the Dniester, whereas, the   name "Dacians" is more frequent in the northwest, west, and the   south…. (Eliade 1970: 1-2,12).

    This is exactly what I also wrote. The Daci and Getae were considered
    the same people, the name "Daci" being applied more commonly to the
    tribes of NW Dacia (todays Transylvania) and "Getae" to those along
    the Lower Danube and towards the Black Sea.

     Now Arnold Toynbee, believed the Thracian Getae to be an early   splinter groups of the Eastern Scythians, he wrote, "It is, however,   perhaps more likely that the European Getae and Davi (Daci), like  their homonyms east of the Volga, were a pair of the original Iranian   speaking hordes who gradually became assimilated to the sedentary  Thracian-speaking populations whom they conquered (Toynbee 1934:435 (vII))."
    So were the Daco-Getans originally the Dahae and Massagetae found
    east of the Caspian Sea?
    In the past, it was this view that the Daco-Getae where related to
    some eastern Iranic tribes, based on name ressemblances like Daci -
    Dahae and Getae - Massagetae - Thyssagetae. In the XIXth century it
    was generally considered that the Thracians were very close
    linguistically to the Iranic language group, or even members of this
    group. Based on such name ressemblances, some considered that even
    the African Getuli were related to the Getae. But today sych views
    are no more shared, at least by the mainstream of the Romanian
    historians and linguists.
    As far as I remeber, the name Dahae is put in connection with the
    Sanskrit word dasa "slave" and with the Modern Persian word
    deh "village". The name of the Daci is considered to be derived from
    a putative Thracic word *dak = "wolf", based also on the fact that
    the wolf was a sort of totemic animal for the Daci (the war banners
    of the Daci represented an animal with a wolf head and a snake body).
    But, as far as I know, the name Getae, both in the case of the proper
    Getae and in the case of Iranic tribes like Massagetae, Thyssagetae,
    remains unexplained (I have read somewhere that Massagetae could be
    interpreted as "fish eating Getae", Massa- being put in connectin
    with the Sanskritic word matsya "fish").


  •  http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/gothic-l/message/7134

  • Dahae from http://www.reference.com/browse/Dahae

     

     

    •
     Y-DNA-HAPLOGROUP-G

     Y-DNA-HAPLOGROUP-G


  • http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/th/read/Y-DNA-HAPLOGROUP-G/2007-09/1190416050

  •  

    From: Ted Kandell < [email protected]>
    Subject: [Y-DNA-HAPLOGROUP-G] Possible ancient ancestors for a large part ofG2
    Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:07:30 -0700 (PDT)
    G2 has a very large number of relatively closely related haplotypes, that when drawn in a network, look like a large "star" - they all radiate out from a central area (a small set of possible ancestral haplotypes). This is a sure sign of a large number of men being descended from a single ancestor who had many sons, who in turn had many sons.

    The G SNP Project also found a large number of G2 haplotypes that all share a particular new SNP, which they call U8, but who don't have any of the additional SNPs that are are found in later branches. (This doesn't include G2a, and of course doesn't include G1 and G5.)

    I would like to propose an origin for the large G2 U8+ star cluster that we've been seeing.

    As I've said, there are clear signs of elite dominance here - a single ancestor, who
    fathered a large elite of men who were able to command resources that allowed them to have many sons, particularly women in a polygamous society. This is precisely parallel to the famous cases of Niall of the Nine Hostages and Genghis Khan,which however are much more recent in origin than the U8+ star cluster.
    To find the group that could have been the ancestors of this star cluster, we have to look in Classical times, the latter half of the 1st millenium BCE. This group would have originated much earlier, but almost certainly were still in existence at that time.

    The criteria for finding this group are the following:
    1. They must (of course) have left numerous descendants in Western Europe, especially in Spain, with some in France (and other descendants migrating to the British Isles at a later period), and the parts of Germany, Switzerland and Austria along or just outside the borders of the Roman Empire, but generally not in the eastern areas of Germany, or for the most part further north.
    2. Some had to have entered Northern Italy.
    3. They must have been present in Eastern Europe, including central Romania in particular, the adjacent areas of Poland, and also in Ukraine and Crimea
    4. This group must have numerous descendants in the northern Caucasus.
    5. Some of them must have entered eastern    Anatolia (Turkey).
    6.     They had to have been present in northern Iran.
    7. Relatively large numbers must have entered the northwest areas of the Indian sub-Continent (Pakistan), with some descendants in parts of India.
    8. Some of them must have lived in western Uzbekistan, with others in parts of Central Asia further east, all the way out to Uzbekistan, Western Mongolia, and with a few descendants in Northern China.

    There is only one possible group that meets all of these criteria: The Scythians, and the closely related peoples, the Sarmatians, and their branches the Alans and the Roxolani, among others. The Scythians were known in their own language as "Aryana" - not "Aryans" in the more general term, but rather meaning "noble [warriors]" - this name survives in the names Alan and "Iron" (the native name of the present-day Alans / Ossetians) but they were more generally known both in their own language northwest India. However, we must note that most of the Alans of thand and Iranian as the Sakas. The Sakas created an empire in what is now Pakistan and Afghanistan in the 1st century BCE, and to this day leave descendants in these areas and e Caucasus most likely don't belong to this star cluster, but rather to what has been known up till now as "G2a". The Scythians were the dominant ethnic group in Central Asia until the coming of the Turks from further east starting around 650 CE.

  • It was the Mongols with their mostly Turkish armies that completely Turkified Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kirghizstan, and Sinkiang China ("East Turkistan" where the Uighurs live), but most of the people in these areas are the descendant of the pre-Turkish Scythians. A very small group in Uzbekistan today, the Yaghnobis, still speak a descendant of the Scythian language which is the only other close relative of Ossetian.

    None of this is incompatible with some Germanic tribes being the
    descendants of these Scythians. When the Romans broke the power  of the Sarmatian Roxolani in 68 CE and the related Iazyges in 180 CE in Romania, many were deported to the Roman Empire to serve as soldiers along the borders, while the all the rest assimilated to their Germanic allies, the Marcomanni and the Quadi, who later became part of the Suebi (aka the Alemanni) tribal confederation. The Marcomanni and Quadi first migrated along the borders of the Roman Empire in what is now Austria, and then these Suebi setted in what is now Western Germany, Swabia, which included Switzerland and also created a kingdom in what is not Galicia in Spain.
    Some others remained in Eastern Europe, particularly central Romania, and Others, the Alans, maintained their Iranic identity, and settled in France and Spain and North Africa. Later, some of their descendants, now assiimilated to the French, would have become part of the Normans who conquered and settled in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.

    Some of these Iranian nomads also assimilated to the Huns, and the direct successors to the Huns were the Bulgars and the Khazars. So, this Iranic origin is also not inconsistent with an origin among the Huns, either. BTW, we should expect Atilla to be the origin of a star cluster in one or another haplogroup. It all depends on the tMRCA - and I can't quite say we have such a recent tMRCA in any part of G at this point.

    There are exceptions to this, in particular, the Jews who are present in G2 U8+. The Khazars remain a realistic possiblity for the entry of Jews into G2 U8+, but what seems more likely is that this is represented by what has been called "G2a" - if these have matches in the Caucasus. It now seems that the Jews in G2 U8* cluster together with Spaniards, so G2 U8* among Jews could have originated with Iberian admixture.

    Another exception to this are the G2s of Sicily, Southern Italy, and Greece. It's hard to say whether the Greek G2s belong to the U8+ star cluster, but clearly some Sicilians and Calabrians do. There could be many sources for Sicilian G2 U8* haplotypes: In 827, a Muslim fleet of 100 ships landed an army of 10,000 troops, who while mostly Arabs and North African Berbers, also included Spanish Muslims and Persians as well. This force conquered Palermo in 831 and established the Arab Emirate of Sicily. Under Muslim rule Sicily attracted immigrants from all over the Muslim world, including from Syria, Iraq, and Iran, and also large numbers of Jews as well. Later, after the Norman conquest in 1081, Sicily was actively colonized by North Italians and later under the Angevins by French as well. Sicilian G2s could have a very large possible number of geographic origins, with some G2 U8* haplotypes arriving from any one of the regions where it was present at many different times in Sicily's history.

    It's important to note that no one ethnic group except some very isolated ones belong only one single Y haplogroup. Based on geography, most of the Scythians would have belonged to haplogroup R1a. However, a certain particular lineage among the Scythians could have belonged to much more rare haplogroup, and were carried along in their widespread migrations. This particular lineage would have had to have been an elite, and a very successful one.

    Remember, that the following is all very speculative, but I think I've found a good candidate for elite dominance among the ancient Scythians in the 1st millenium BCE:

    The ancient Greek historian Herodotus devoted a section of his History to the Scythians, who were important neighbors of the Greek colonies in Crimea.

    Here is a translation of the relevant part Herodotus' History (written c. 450 BCE):

    The History of Herodotus ; translated into English by G. C. Macaulay, M.A. Book IV

    Herodotus, History, Book IV

    "5. Now the Scythians say that their nation is the youngest of
    all nations, and that this came to pass as follows: ... The elder brothers then, acknowledging the significance of
    this thing, delivered the whole of the kingly power to the
    youngest. 6. From Lixopais, they say, are descended those Scythians
    who are called the race of the Auchatai; from the middle brother
    Arpoxais those who are called Catiaroi and Traspians, and from the
    youngest of them the “Royal” tribe,558 who are called Paralatai: and the whole
    together are called, they say, Scolotoi, after the name of their
    king; but the Hellenes gave them
    the name of Scythians. 7. Thus the Scythians say they were
    produced; and from the time of their origin, that is to say from
    the first king Targitaos, to the passing over of Dareios against
    them, they say that there is a period of a thousand years and no
    more." [Darius the Great, King of Persia, attacked the Scythians both in the Balkans and Central Asia in 512 BCE.]

    "20. Then on the other side of the Gerros [Molochna River, Ukraine] we have those
    parts which are called the “Royal” lands and those Scythians who are the bravest and most numerous and who esteem the other Scythians their slaves. "

    Apparently the dynastic / clan name of these Royal Scythians was the "Paralatai", which may be related to a root meaning "first". Herodotus relates the legendary origins of the Scythians, including a legend of divine descent (very typical of tribal groups). However, the Scythians clearly had a powerful, dominating elite, who claimed to belong to a single patrilineal lineage. We know that this lineage was present in Ukraine, but also were claimed by other authors to have been present in what is now Turkestan, under the name of the "Royal Dahae". We find the kurgans, the royal burial mounds of the Scythian kings, from Ukraine eastward through Central Asia as far as what is now Sinkiang, China. The royal elite of the Sakas of India also originated in what is now Turkestan, north of Iran and east of the Caspian Sea. The Roxolani of Eastern Europe also were said to have been a branch of the Massagetae.     They were  also known as the "Royal Dahae".
    They may have also been known as the "Parni" and interestingly "Parni" was said to have been the original Scythian tribal name of the Parthian royal dynasty of the Arsacids before it was changed to "Parthi".


    J. Harmatta - 1.2  History of Iran: Parthian History and Language

    Parth province also called Parthuh (Pahlu, Pahelh, Falheh) in ancient
    Persian inscriptions was one of the royal provinces of the Achaemenid
    dynasty that included today's northern Khorasan and parts of today's
    Turkmenistan. After Alexandria overthrew the Achaemenid dynasty in 330
    BC, Parth went under the control of Selukis until the year 247 BC when
    Arsac revolted against the Saluki king with the help of his brother,
    Tirdad, and founded the Arsacide dynasty. The Arsacides were a clan
    from the Parni or Eprani tribe, a member of Daheh tribe union, which
    before settling in Parth province lived as nomads in plains between
    Jeyhoun River and the Caspian Sea.

    The Beginnings of the Arsacids - (The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies - CAIS)©


    Justin, History of the World, Book XLI

    I. The Parthians in whose hands the empire of the east now is,
    having divided the world, as it were, with the Romans, were originally
    exiles from Scythia. This is apparent from their very name; for in the
    Scythian language exiles are called Parthi.
    ... The Parthians, being forced to quit Scythia by discord at home,
    gradually settled in the deserts betwin Hyrcania, the Dahae, the Arei,
    the Sparni and Marsiani.

    And the Parthians were polygamous, as it seems that most of the Scythians were as well:

    III. Each man has several wives, for the sake of gratifying
    desire with different objects. They punish no crime more severely than
    adultery, and accordingly they not only exclude their women from
    entertainments, but forbid them the very sight of men.

    Also a younger branch of the Arsacids ruled Armenia from 54-428 CE.

    Arsacid Dynasty of Armenia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    So, perhaps we could expect to see some subsidiary clusters within U8* from parts of Iran and Armenia, which would be the result of the expansion of this later dynasty, the Arsacids, that is if indeed they were also G2 and U8+ (and we can't know this for sure of course, since there is no one today who can trace their patrilineal ancestry back directly to them).

    Not to make too much of Scythian origin myths ... but I would see their dating as being in the right order of magnitude - the attack by Darius the Great of Persian against the Scythians took place in 512 BCE. Again, this is more or less in accord with archaeology, which shows the earliest appearance of the Scythians and related peoples with the start of the Andronovo culture, around 2200 BCE.

    Now what we need to do is map this larger cluster as closely as possible, which would include most, but not all, of the G2 subclades. The most tanatalizing possibility is that not only does the main European U8* cluster exist in Western Europe, Central Romania (Dacia) but also over in Iran as well.

    If there is some connection here, we could expect to find various clades of U8* not only in Western Europe and Romania, but also Armenia, Kurdistan, parts of Iran, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan (Khorasan).

    Having more 67 STR haplotypes could also help get us a better tMRCA for the entire U8* star cluster, and also make more clear the boundaries of the star cluster and any sub-clades within it.

    -ted

    DQ377992 in GenBank Nucleotide
    YGYTX in ySearch / DNA-Fingerprint user: 5136.70 / G SNP Project ID Y-106
    CiteULike - Archaeogenetics
    Flickr: Images from Archaeogenetics

    • Dasa

  •  Dasa

     from http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Dasa

      (Sanskrit for "servant") is a Hindu term with two primary usages: Originally, "Dasa" denoted enemies of the ancient Aryan peoples described in the Rig Veda. Secondly, the term in later times, acquired the a meaning of "servant" in subordination to a God. Today, many Hindu names incorporate the word "dasa" to indicate their devoted relationship to God, such as the famous "Mohandas Gandhi."

  • The primary association of the word Dasa, however, is with the controversial Aryan Invasion Theory that connects the Dasa with the darker Dravidian-speaking peoples. Recently, scholars have suggested that the original Dasa were Indo-Iranians, who initially rejected Aryan religious practices but were later merged with them. The identity of the Dasa continues to generate much debate among scholars today.

    Central to the idea of Dasa is the concept of "slavery." This concept has been understood both as referring to a historical reality or a metaphysical relationship to divinity, which expresses utter submission to God.

    Etymology
    The meaning of the word dāsa, which has been long preserved in the Khotanese dialect, is "man." Two words that contain "dasa" are the Vedic names Divodās (meaning "divine man") and Sudās (meaning "good man"). Dasa is also in Iranian "Daha." "Dah-" means "male, man" in Iranian. The "dahyu-pati" was the head of the tribe. The Greek "des-potes and the English "despot" correspond to this term.[1]

    The Iranian term Daha was also known to Graeco-Roman authors as the Dahae (Daai), designating Iranian tribes. The term Daha occurs in a Persepolis inscription of Xerxes.[2] Daha also referred to a dasyu tribe in Margiana. Dahistan (east of the Caspian Sea) derives its name from this tribe.[1] The Greek historians Q. Curtius Rufus (8,3) and Ptolemy (Geography: 6,10,2) located the region of the Dahas on the river Margos (modern Murghab) or in Margiana (Parpola 1988). The Dahas are also mentioned by Pomponius Mela (3,42)[3] and Tacitus (Ann. 11,10).[4]

    Strabo wrote about the Dahae the following: "Most of the Scythians, beginning from the Caspian Sea, are called Dahae Scythae, and those situated more towards the east Massagetae and Sacae."

    Strabo's description places Dahae nomads in the area around modern Turkmenistan. Tacitus, in the Annals, writes of the Parthian king Vardanes I that he subdued "the intermediate tribes as far as the river Sindes, which is the boundary between the Dahae and the Arians."[5]


    Religious beliefs
    According to the earliest scriptures of Hinduism, known as the [Rig Veda]], the main difference between the Aryas and the Dasas is their religious beliefs.[6] The Dasas and Dasyus are also described as brahma-dvisah,[7] which Ralph T.H. Griffith translates as "those who hate devotion" or "prayer haters." Rig Veda 10.22.8 also describes the Dasa-Dasyus as a-karman (non-performers of Aryan sacrifices), anya-vrata (observers of other rites) and in Rig Veda 10.105.8, they are described as anrc (non-singer of laudatory hymns). In Rig Veda 8.70.11, they are described as a-deva-yu (not regarding Deva ).[8]

    Interestingly, the word anasa ("noseless") is used in connection with the Dasyus (Rig Veda 5.29.10). Although there is only one instance in the Rig Veda where this word occurs, this has led to belief that the Dasyus were "flat-nosed" people. But the classical commentator Sayana translated anasa as "without mouth or face" (anas = an "negative" + as "mouth"). Sayana's translation is supported by the occurrence of the word mrdhravacah in the same verse. Sayana explains the word mrdhravacah as "having defective organs of speech" (Rig Veda 1854-57:3.276).

    Dasyu is also a term that could also be applied to Vedic kings. In the battle of the Ten Kings (Dasarajna) in the Rig Veda the king Sudas calls his enemies "Dasyu," which included Vedic peoples like the Anus, Druhyus, Turvashas, and even Purus (Rig Veda 7.6, 12-14, 18).


    Symbolical and spiritual interpretations
    Religious Hindu authors like Sri Aurobindo believe that words like Dasa are used in the Rig Veda symbolically and should be interpreted spiritually, and that Dasa does not refer to human beings, but rather to demons who hinder the spiritual attainment of the mystic. Many Dasas are purely mythical and can only refer to demons. There is, for example, a Dasa called Urana with 99 arms (Rig Veda II.14.4), and a Dasa with six eyes and three heads in the Rig Veda.[9]

    According to Aurobindo (The Secret of the Veda), Rig Veda 5.14.4 is a key for understanding the character of the Dasyus: "Agni born shone out slaying the Dasyus, the darkness by the light, he found the Cows, the Waters, Swar" (trans. Aurobindo).[10]

    Aurobindo explains that in this verse the struggle between light and darkness, truth and falsehood, divine and undivine is described.[11] It is through the shining light created by Agni, god of fire, that the Dasyus, who are identified with the darkness, are slain. The Dasyus are also described in the Rig Veda as intercepting and withholding the Cows, the Waters and Swar ("heavenly world") (Rig Veda 5.34.9; 8.68.9). It is not difficult, of course, to find very similar metaphors, equating political or military opponents with evil and darkness, even in contemporary propaganda.

    According to Koenraad Elst:

    When it is said that Agni, the fire, “puts the dark demons to flight,” one should keep in mind that the darkness was thought to be filled with ghosts or ghouls, so that making light frees the atmosphere of their presence. And when Usha, the dawn, is said to chase the "dark skin" or "the black monster" away, it obviously refers to the cover of nightly darkness over the surface of the earth.[12]
    The Dasas/Dasyus and krsna or asikni
    In the Rig Veda, Dasa, Dasyu and similar terms (for example, Pani) occur sometimes in conjunction with the terms krsna ("black") or asikni ("black"). This was often the basis for a "racial" interpretation of the Vedic texts. However, Sanskrit is a language that uses many metaphors. The word "cow," for example, can mean Mother Earth, sunshine, wealth, language, Aum, and so on. Words like "black" have similarly many different meanings in Sanskrit, as it is in fact the case in most languages. Thus, "black" has many symbolical, mythological, psychological, and other uses that are simply unrelated to human appearance.

    Iyengar (1914) commented on such interpretations: "The only other trace of racial reference in the Vedic hymns is the occurrence of two words, one 'krishna' in seven passages and the other 'asikini' in two passages. In all the passages, the words have been interpreted as referring to black clouds, a demon whose name was Krishna, or the powers of darkness."[13]

    The term "krsnavonih" in Rig Veda 2.20.7 has been interpreted by Asko Parpola as meaning "which in their wombs hid the black people." Sethna (1992) writes, referring to a comment by Richard Hartz, that "there is no need to follow Parpola in assuming a further unexpressed word meaning "people" in the middle of the compound krsnayonih, and the better known translation by Ralph T.H. Griffith, "who dwelt in darkness," can be considered as essentially correct.[14] Another scholar, Hans Hock (1999), finds Karl Friedrich Geldner's translation of krsnayonih (RV 2.20.7) as "Blacks in their wombs" and of krsnagarbha (RV 1.101.1) as "pregnant with the Blacks," "quite recherché," and thinks that it could refer to the "dark world" of the Dasas.

    In Rig Veda 4.16.13, Geldner has assumed that "krsna" refers to "sahasra" (thousands). However, this would be grammatically incorrect. If krsna would refer to "sahasra," it should be written as krsnan (acc. pl. masc.). Hans Hock (1999) suggests that "krsna" refers to "puro" (forts) in this verse.

    There are three instances in the Rig Veda where the phrase krsna (or ashikni) tvac occurs, literally translating to "black (or swarthy) skin:"

    1.130.8de "Plaguing the lawless he [Indra] gave up to Manu's seed the dusky skin" (trans. Griffith).
    9.41.1 "active and bright have they come forth, impetuous in speed like bulls, Driving the black skin far away" (trans. Griffith).
    9.73.5cd "Blowing away with supernatural might from earth and from the heavens the swarthy skin which Indra hates" (trans. Griffith).
    Tvac "skin" does, however, also take a secondary, more general meaning of "surface, cover" in the Rigveda, in particular referring to the Earth's surface. For this reason, there can be debate on whether instances of krsna tvac should be taken to refer literally to a "black skinned people." Maria Schetelich (1990) considers it a symbolic expression for darkness. Similary, Michael Witzel (1995b) writes about terms like krsna tvac that "while it would be easy to assume reference to skin color, this would go against the spirit of the hymns: For Vedic poets, black always signifies evil, and any other meaning would be secondary in these contexts." Hans Hock argues along similar lines.[15] This interpretation could also be viewed as nothing more than political bias against the suggestion of racism.

    The Rig Vedic commentator Sayana explains the word tvacam krsna (RV 1.130.8) as referring to an asura (demon) called Krsna whose skin was torn apart by Indra.

    Dasa, in Hinduism
    The present day usage of Dasa in Hinduism has respectful connotation and not derogatory. It always means "slave of god." In the past, many saints from all castes added it in their names, signifying their total devotion to god. An example is Mohandas Gandhi. Another example is Surdas, the blind Brahmin poet. "Das" is one of the common surnames of Brahmins, especially in East India. As any other proper word to translate the word "slave" is absent in Sanskritized Hindi, the word Dāsa is used for the same. Furthermore, in bhakti yoga a person can be in a relationship with God called Dasyu-bhakta, meaning being a "slave of God." Initiated male members of ISKCON have the word "dasa" at the end of their initiated names, meaning "servant," and initiated female members of ISKCON have the words "devi dasi," which means "goddess servantess" (dasi is the feminine form of das).

    Guru, or Sat guru in various traditions of Hinduism, is given the name Dasa, Servant of God, as, for example, the pure teacher, also called Uda ka Das, meaning "the servant of the one God."[16] The other Sanskrit word meaning of servant, is retained in all Indian languages where monotheistic devotion to personal God is practiced. In Tamil tontai, dasa, servant or "slave," commonly used to refer to devotees of Vishnu or Krishna.[17] According to Gaudiya Vaishnava theology Smriti statement dāsa-bhūto harer eva nānyasvaiva kadācana means that living entities (bhuto) are eternally in the service (dasa) of the Supreme Lord (Vishnu).[18] Thus, designation for Vaishnava followers of svayam bhagavan Krishna was the status title dasa as part of their names as in Hari dasa.[19]

    There is also a Dasa Balbutha Taruksa in Rig Veda 6.45.31 who is a patron of a seer and who is distinguished by his generosity (Rig Veda 8.46.32). There are several hymns in the Rigveda that refer to Dasa and Aryan enemies[20] and to related (jami) and unrelated (ajami) enemies (1.111.3, 4.4.5); still, in the battle of the ten kings, there are Dasas and Aryas on both sides of the battlefield and in some Rigvedic verses, the Aryas and Dasas stood united against their enemies.[21]

    Notes
    1.↑ 1.0 1.1 G.L. Windfuhr, in Bronkhorst & Desphande (eds.), Aryan and Non-Aryan in South Asia (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999).
    2.↑ Parpola (1988), 220-21.
    3.↑ Parpola 1988.
    4.↑ Parpola 1988.
    5.↑ MIT, Tacitus (109 C.E.), Book XI. Retrieved July 7, 2008.
    6.↑ R.C. Majumdar and A.D. Pusalker (eds), The History and Culture of the Indian People (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1951).
    7.↑ Rig Veda 5.42.9; 8.45.23; 10.36.9; 10.160.4; 10.182.3.
    8.↑ Sethna 1992.
    9.↑ Parpola 1988.
    10.↑ Sethna (1992), 114-115 and 348-349.
    11.↑ Sethna (1992), 114-115 and 348-349.
    12.↑ Elst 1999.
    13.↑ Iyengar (Srinivas, 1914), 6-7.
    14.↑ Sethna (1992), 337-338.
    15.↑ Hock 1999.
    16.↑ Essays And Lectures On The Religions Of The Hindus: Religious Sects of the Hindus V1 (Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2006, ISBN 1-4286-1308-0).
    17.↑ Steven P. Hopkins, An Ornament for Jewels: Love Poems for the Lord of Gods (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-19-532639-3).
    18.↑ A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, The Bhagavad-gita As It Is (New York: Macmillan Publishers, 1972).
    19.↑ Cynthia Talbot, Precolonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra (Oxford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-19-513661-6).
    20.↑ Rig Veda 6.22.10, 6.33.3, 6.60.6.
    21.↑ Rig Veda 6.33.3, 7.83.1, 8.51.9, 10.102.3.
    References
    Bronkhorst, J., and M.M. Deshpande. 1999. Aryan and Non-Aryan in South Asia. Harvard Univ Dept of Sanskrit, 1996. ISBN 978-1888789041.
    Bryant, Edwin. The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture. Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-19-513777-9.
    Elst, Koenraad. Update on the Aryan Invasion Debate. 1999. ISBN 81-86471-77-4.
    Frawley, David. The Myth of the Aryan Invasion of India. New Delhi: Voice of India; In Search of the Cradle of Civilization, 1995. ISBN 978-8185990200.
    Hock, Hans. "Through a Glass Darkly: Modern "Racial" Interpretations vs. Textual and General Prehistoric Evidence on Arya and Dasa/Dasyu in Vedic Indo-Aryan Society." In Madhav Deshpande and Peter Hook (eds.). Aryan and Non-Aryan in South Asia. Centers for South and Southeast Asia, 1999. ISBN 978-0891480143.
    Iyengar, Srinivas. 1914. "Did the Dravidians of India Obtain Their Culture from Aran Immigrant [sic]." Anthropos 1-15.
    Khuhro, Hamida. Sind Through the Centuries. Oxford University Press, 1982. ISBN 978-0195772500.
    Parpola, Asko. 1988. "The Coming of the Aryans to Iran and India and the Cultural and Ethnic Identity of the Dasas; The problem of the Aryans and the Soma." Studia Orientalia 4: 195-302.
    Schetelich, Maria. 1990, "The problem ot the "Dark Skin" (Krsna Tvac) in the Rgveda." Visva Bharati Annals 3:244-249.
    Sethna, K.D. 1992. The Problem of Aryan Origins. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. ISBN 978-8185179674.
    Talbot, Cynthia. Precolonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-19-513661-6.
    External Links
    Talageri, Shrikant G. 2000. The Rig Veda—A historical analysis Retrieved July 7, 2008.

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    • The Jatts Descendents of the Getae?

    Name

    A Scythian horseman from the general area of the Ili river, Pazyryk, c 300 BCE.

    The name Jat has frequently been connected to the names of the Getae and Massagetae, beginning with James Tod in 1829.[2] This suggests an ultimate origin of the Jat tribal group in the Indo-Scythian period of roughly 200 BC to AD 400. Alexander Cunningham connected it with the name of the Xanthii.[3]

    The tribal name Jat is first mentioned in the Mahabharata. Jat historian Thakur Deshraj suggested that Jat is a Prakrit derivation from Sanskrit jñāta, based on Panini's mention of Aṣṭādhyāyī in the form of shloka as जट झट सङ्घाते jat jhat sanghate.[4][5]

    Deshraj further supposes that the name originates with the jñātisaṃgha (ज्ञातिसंघ) that according to the Mahabharata was formed by Krishna as a federation of Vrishni and Andhaka clans.[6]

    Jats are further mentioned in a 5th century grammar treatise by Chandra, in the phrase अजय जर्टो हुणान ajaya jarto huṇān”, which refers to the defeat of Huns by two Jat rulers under the leadership of Yasodharman.[7][page needed][verification needed]

    G. C. Dwivedi writes that the Persian Majmal-ut-Tawarikh mentions Jats and Meds as the descendants of Ham (son of Noah), living in Sind on the banks of the river Bahar.[8][9] S.M. Yunus Jaffery believes that the Jat people have been mentioned in Shāhnāma, a well-known Persian epic.[10]

    The Aryan Trail. Caucasian descent druhyu.

     https://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&source=hp&q=caucasian+descent+druhyu&btnK=Google+Search&psj=1&oq=&aq=&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=3b6976d17058900d&biw=819&bih=436

    http://northernway.org/school/onwarticles.html 

     

    Migrations Out of India or Central Asia

    We have noted Danu or Danava as a term for an inimical people or even an anti-god, like Deva and Asura, probably reflects some split in the Aryan peoples. This could be the conflict the Purus, the main Rig Vedic people located on the Sarasvati river near Delhi, and the Druhyus, who were located in the northwest by Afganistan, who fought quite early in the Rig Vedic period.

    Certainly we can only equate the Proto-Europeans with the northwest of India or greater India that extends into Afghanistan and Central Asia. If they can be connected to any group among the five Vedic peoples it must be the Druhyus.

    However, we do find Druhyu kingdoms continuing for some time in India and giving names to regions like Gandhara (Afghanistan) and Aratta (Panjab) connected more with Iranian or Scythian people. Yet, we do note a connection between the Scythians and the Celts, whose Druid priests connect themselves with the Scythians at an early period. The Scythians also maintained a trade from India to Europe that continued for many centuries. In this regard the Proto-Europeans could have been a derivation of Aryan India by migration, cultural diffusion, or what is more likely, a combination of both.

    Though the Druhyus and Proto-Europeans may be connected, it is difficult to confirm particularly as the Europeans were a very different ethnic type (Nordic and Alpine) than most of the Indians and Iranians, who were of the Mediterranean branch of the Caucasian race. T

    However, it is possible that European ethnic types were living in ancient Afghanistan or Central Asia, even Kashmir, where we do find some of these types even today. The evidence of the Tokharians suggests this. The Tokharians (Tusharas) were a people speaking an Indo-European language closer to the European (a kentum-based language), and also demonstrate Nordic or Alpine, blond and red-haired ethnic traits. They lived in the Tarim Basin of western China that dominated the region to the Muslim invasion up to the eighth century AD, by which time they had become Buddhists. They may be related to the European featured mummies found in that area dating back to 1500 BCE7. They were also present in Western China around Langchou in the early centuries BCE. The Tokharian language is possibly related to the Celtic and Italic branches, just as their physical features resemble northern Europeans. The Tarim Basin region was later regarded as the land of the Uttara Kurus and as a land of the gods. So such groups were not always censured as barbarians at the borders but were sometimes honored as highly advanced and spiritual.

    The evidence does not show an Aryan invasion/migration into India in ancient times, certainly not after the Harappan era (c. 3000 BCE) and probably not before. No genetic or skeletal or other hard evidence has been found to prove this. Similarly, we do not find evidence of migration of interior Indic peoples West, the dark-skinned people that were prominent on the subcontinent to the northwest. But if the same ethnic types as the Europeans were present in Western China, Afghanistan or in northwest Iran, like the Fergana Valley (Sogdia), such a migration west would be possible, particularly given their familiarity with horses. In this case the commonality of Indo-European languages would not rest upon a common ethnicity with the interior Indo-Aryans but on a common ethnicity with peripheral Aryans on the northwest of India.

    It is also possible that the European people derived their Aryan culture from the influence of Vedic peoples, probably mainly Druhyus but also Scythians (who might themselves be Druhyus), who migrated to Central Asia and brought their culture to larger groups of Europeans already living in Europe and Central Asia. The Europeans could have picked up an Aryan influence indirectly from the contact with various rishis, princes or merchants, without any significant genetic or familial linkage with Indic peoples. Or some combination may have existed. Such peoples with more Vedic cultures like the Celts could derive mainly from migration, while those others like the Germans might derive mainly from cultural diffusion. In any case, various means of Aryanization existed that can explain the spread of Vedic culture from the Himalayas to Europe, of which actual migration of people from the interior of India need not be the only or even primary factor.

    We do note the names of rivers like the Don, Dneiper, Dneister, Donets and Danube to the north of the Black are largely cognate with Danu. This could reflect such a movement of peoples from West or Central Asia, including migrants originally from regions of greater India and Iran. At the end of the Ice Age, as Europe became warmer, it became a suitable land for agriculture. This would have made it a desirable place of migration for people from the east and the south which were drying up.

    http://www.vedanet.com

     

    View The Aryan Trail in a larger map

    The Aryan Trail, the actual path by which the Aryans came to India, is a very controversial topic. For that matter the original homeland of the Indo Europeans, the predecessors of all the later Indo European peoples like the Greeks, Persians, Germans, Slavs and the Aryans (Indo Aryans), is also a very controversial thing. For centuries people have misinterpreted history and come up with various theories of Urheimat, original homeland. There's no doubt that the original Indo European peoples, or the Proto Indo Europeans as the historians and linguists say, were the progenitor of some of the best races and cultures of the world. So many people across ages have tried to claim themselves as the original Indo Europeans and establish their supremacy over other races. One extreme instance of such an attempt was the Nazism that claimed the supremacy of an Aryan race. Even many Indian historians believe that the Aryans originated from India and eventually moved to the west creating the Iranians, Greek, Latin, German and Slavic cultures and languages.

    The proto Indo European peoples are often wrongly designated as Aryans. Truly speaking the Aryans along with the Iranians belong to the eastern branch of the Indo Europeans. This group, the common ancestors of both the Aryans and the Iranians, is referred to as the Indo Iranians or the proto Indo Iranians. They are also designated as proto Aryans at times because of the close similarities between the Aryan and Iranian cultures. We'll stick to the following designations
    1. Proto Indo European (PIE) - the original Indo European peoples, the progenitor of all the Indo European peoples
    2. Proto Indo Iranians (PII) - the eastern branch of the Indo Europeans (IE), and the progenitor of the Indo Aryans and Iranians. The prefix proto in both the above cases may be missed at many places.
    3. Aryans or Indo Aryans - the Rig Vedic Aryans who entered India
    4. Iranians - the Persians, Avestans, Scythians, Parthians and all other peoples of Iranian descent.

    As we've mentioned, coming up with an Aryan Trail is not simple. We'd like to stick to one school of thought that believes that the Indo European Urheimat is somewhere in the Eurasian Steppe, north of Azov Sea. We find reasons to believe that the researches done by people like Witzel, Asko Parpola, J P Mallory and their likes are more credible than that of others who espouse to other theories. For a detailed list of related references please refer to this site.

    The Various Phases of the Aryan Trail

    Legends
    1. Pit Grave Culture or Kurgan Culture (3500 - 2800 BC): The Pit Grave Culture extends over the entire Pontic Steppe. This is the late PIE (Proto Indo European) phase of Indo European unity where the PIE peoples stayed together prior to their disintegration and movement towards various destinations.
    2. Catacomb, Hut Grave Culture (2800 - 2000 BC): This is the Proto Indo Iranian (PII) Bronze Age culture that existed in the Ukrainian Steppes. Relics of the culture are widespread in the region along the Dnieper River, the coastal region the Sea of Azov, Crimea and along the Don River.
    3. Timber Grave Culture (2000 - 800 BC): Around Samara on the Volga Basin, this is the Proto Iranian Culture. The Proto Indo Iranian peoples arrived here from Azov Sea. The Iranians stayed back and the Indo Aryans proceeded further east to Arkaim-Sintashta.
    4. Andronovo Culture, Arkaim-Sintashta (1800 - 900 BC): South of the Ural Mountains this is an Indo Aryan Culture. The Indo-Aryans, the eastern branch of the Indo-Iranians eventually reached Northern Iran, Afghanistan and Indian subcontinent in the next few centuries.
    5. Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, BMAC Culture (2200 - 1700 BC): This is an Indo Aryan Culture in Central Asia. It's contemporary to the northern Andronovo Culture (1800 - 900 BC). From here the Indo-Aryans moved to northern Iran, Afghanistan and India.
    6. Vakhsh - Biskent Culture: Contemporary to BMAC & Andronovo, it's an Indo Aryan Culture. The last segment of the Aryan trail to India may be through through Vakhsh, via Vakshu or Oxus/Vakhsh, Kabul, Swat rivers.
    7. Kalash Culture (1600 BC till date): A very unique group of Indo-Aryans in Hindukush have preserved many of the Rig Vedic and early Indo-Aryan features including language and culture. Kalash is the last place in the Aryan trail before entering into the final destination of Punjab.
    8. Gandhara Grave Culture (1700 - 1400 BC): Rig Vedic Culture in Punjab in Pakistan & India

    1. Kurgan Culture: 3500 - 2800 BC

    This is the beginning of the Aryan Trail. This can be treated as one of the original homelands, Urheimat, of the Indo European peoples. The Anatolian and the Tocharian branches of the Indo European peoples had already separated by this time. This culture is characterized by kurgan or burial mounds near rivers. Burial mounds may not be a unique thing but burial near rivers is something that perhaps has reference only in the Vedic texts. Though burial is not common among the Hindus but in early Rig Vedic days burial was a common thing. In one Rig Vedic hymn there's a reference to going to the house of clay, mrinmayam griham.

    In the kurgans the corpses were covered with red ocher and laid either in supine position or on their sides with flexed legs. The excavated grave goods provide important information about the socio-economic structures of the culture. Their major economic occupation was animal husbandry. Agriculture, hunting and fishing were of secondary importance. They usually lived in surface dwellings, often on high hills, in fortified settlements. Oval houses were secured with walls and moats. Fortification may imply conflicts. The houses were constructed with clay and reeds. Extensive copper items were found in the settlements. Excavations at kurgans revealed primitive carts pulled by oxen. Incidentally the area north of Azov Sea in Ukraine is the site where horse was first domesticated during the Srendy Stog Culture between 4500 and 3500 BC. As horses are the trademarks of the Aryans and the Indo Europeans many scholars espouse to the Kurgan Theory of identifying the Kurgan Culture with the proto Indo Europeans.

    An interesting linguistic observation is that all Indo European languages have cognates for various parts of a solid wheel like the wheel itself, the axle and the nave, center of the wheel. But there's no cognate for chariot and spoked wheel. This may imply that when all the Indo European peoples stayed together a chariot and a spoked wheel was unknown. All they knew was the ancient cart with solid wheel and accordingly they had words only for that.

    The Latin colus, Greek kuklos, Persian charkh, Sanskrit chakra all come from the Indo European keklo, meaning wheel. The cognate of the Sanskrit ratha, meaning chariot, is Latin rota, which comes from the Indo European roto meaning wheel and not chariot. The cognates for axle are aksha in Sanskrit, axis in Latin, akson in Greek, all coming from Indo European aks. Similarly nave, the center of the wheel, comes from Indo European nebh and has Sanskrit nabhi, Avestan naba, Persian naf, Latin umbilicus, Greek omphalos and German nabel as cognates.

    But on the other hand the Sanskrit ratha for chariot doesn't have any cognate in any other IE languages with the same meaning. Interesting is also the word ara in Sanskrit, meaning spoke. It comes from the IE root ero, meaning to move. Incidentally the Sanskrit root ri comes from the same root and has the same meaning, to move. It's very likely that both ratha and ara for chariot and spoke are later creations of the Aryans after the chariot and spoked wheels were discovered later. Interestingly the first remains of chariot and spoked wheel appear much later around 2000 BC near Arkaim-Sintashta, mentioned below.

    Storozhova Mohyla, a place in Dnepropetrovsk, is one of the sites for kurgan or burial mounds. It dates back to 3000 BC.

    2. Catacomb Culture: 2800 - 2000 BC

    It was a continuation of the Pit Grave Culture. It's the first place where the Iranian branch of the Indo European peoples were separated from the PIE peoples. Eventually these proto Indo Iranian peoples moved further east and finally entered into Iran and India. The Indo Iranian branch is at times referred to as the Aryan branch by many scholars.

    The area of Catacomb culture is very adjacent to the original homeland of the Indo Europeans. It's believed that the while Indo Iranian peoples stayed back at their original homeland the other branches of the Indo European peoples left them. An immediate linguistic impact of this separation was the Centum-Satem split in the Indo European languages around 2500 BC. This refers to the two types of evolution of the original proto Indo European word kemtom, meaning hundred, in the various Indo European languages. The evolution of kemtom to centum in Latin represents a type of phonetic change that's seen in almost all the western branches of Indo European like German, Greek and Latin. In Greek it evolves to hekaton. On the other hand the evolution of kemtom to satem in Avesta represents the change that's seen in almost all the eastern Indo European branches like Persian, Sanskrit and Russian. In the eastern branch the original consonant ke changes to ca and we have catam as the proto Indo Iranian word for hundred. Eventually catam evolves to shatam in Sanskrit, satem in Avestan and sad in Persian.


    Many of these reconstructions of ancient events can be done using linguistic palaeontology. In this case the Indo European loan words in the Finno Ugric languages spoken in north eastern Europe. Finnish is one of the Finno Ugric languages. Indo European loan words in Finno Ugric languages mean that the ancient Finno Urgic peoples stayed close to the Indo Europeans. It's beyond any contention that the ancient Finno Ugric peoples always stayed in north eastern Europe. If they had to stay adjacent to the Indo Europeans then the sites of Kurgan and Catacomb Cultures in Steppe do seem logical to be the homelands of the latter.


    A very important Indo European loan word is the Finnish orja, that's akin to Sanskrit Arya, which along with its cognates like the German Ehre, the Irish Erin, the Persian Ariya are the self designation of Indo Europeans in many languages. The names of the countries Ireland and Iran bear traces of these cognates. Iran comes from Ariyanam, meaning of the Aryas. The English word Aryan also comes from Ariyanam. The corresponding proto Indo European root is ar. The Finnish word orja is no doubt a loan from the Indo Iranian arya and not from any of its other cognates. Similarly Finnish sata for hundred is again a loan from the Indo Iranian cata/sata. But on the other hand the Finnish kehra, meaning spindle, seems to have come from the proto Indo European kettro and not from the Aryan branch where it's cattra in Sanskrit. This means that the Finno Ugric peoples stayed adjacent to the proto Indo Europeans, from whom they took the loan kehra, and they also stayed adjacent to the Aryan branch, from whom they took the loan orja and sata. This is possible if we believe that the eastern Aryan branch (who had satem, arya) stayed back in the original Indo European homeland north of Azov Sea and the western branch (who had centum, kettra) separated from them along with the centum-satem split.


    Another interesting reconstruction is possible from the Finnish word orja which means slave, unlike the Indo European meaning of master or lord. This can only mean that the Finno Ugric people defeated the Aryas and hence arya became synonymous to subjugation or slave.


    It's very intriguing that Don, Donets, Dnieper, Dniester and Danube – the names of the main rivers here have all come from the Indo-European danus, which means river, stream or fluid. It’s danu in Persian and Sanskrit and danus and damosin Latin and Greek. The etymology of Dnieper and Dniester is interesting. Coming from west and travelling towards east first you get Dniester and then Dnieper – so Dniester is the anterior and Dnieper the posterior river. The older name of Dniester is actually Danastius which comes from Iranian Danu nazdya meaning anterior river. Similarly the older name of Dnieper is Danapris which comes from Iranian Danu apara meaning posterior river.


    The people of the Catacomb Culture practiced herding and primitive subsistence farming and produced metal objects. During its existence the patriarchal system replaced the matriarchal order. The dead were usually buried in a crouched position in catacomb niches of burial pits and sprinkled with red ocher dye. Excavations of the graves goods reveal three social groups similar to the later Aryan Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya - the priests, the warriors and the traders. Major excavations took place in the 1950s at the Kut burial site, which is now inundated by the Kakhivka Reservoir on the Dnieper River. The tribes of the culture are known to have had cultural and trade relations with the peoples of northern Caucasia. Later stages are marked with conflicts for lands, cattle and water.


    3. Timber Grave: 2000 - 800 BC


    From the coastal area of Sea of Azov the Indo Iranians might have moved along the Don and Volga rivers till they reached the Big Crescent, the Samara Bend near Samara. Eventually the Indo Aryans separated from the Iranians and moved eastward to Arkaim and Sintashta in search of more minerals. Timber Grave Culture may be initially Indo Iranian and then Iranian. An important site is Potapovka near Samara on the Sok river.


    Excavations conducted from 1985-1988 in Potapovka exposed four burial mounds, or kurgans, dated between 2200-2000 BC. Beneath kurgan 3 the central grave pit had remains of a man buried with at least two horse heads and the head of a sheep, in addition to pottery vessels and weapons. After the grave pit was filled, a human male was decapitated, his head was replaced with the head of a horse, and he was laid down over the filled grave shaft. This unique ritual provides a convincing antecedent for the Rig Vedic myth of Dadhyac Atharvan who knows the secret of making Soma juice, the nectar of immortality. The Asvins insists that Dadhyac tell them the secret. He refuses. They cut off his head and replaces it with the head of a horse, through which he becomes an oracle and tells them the secret.


    4. Andronovo Culture, Arkaim Sintashta: 1800 - 900 BC


    East of Potapovka near the Ural Mountains is the Arkaim-Sintashta where the earliest known chariot was discovered at Krivoye Lake (a small lake in the Chelyabinsk Oblast of Russia, southeast of Magnitogorsk, near the Kazakhstan border) and dates to around 2000 BC. This settlement is a part of the large Andronovo Culture that spreads across a wide area of Russia and Kazakhstan.


    Funeral rites of Andronovo include kurgan graves in wooden lining or stone box. Grave items may be horse, ox, ram, hand made and potter wheel based pottery items, good metallurgical works and even chariots. They invented the light weight chariots with spoked wheels. It's evident that horse and chariots are very special to this culture. This is a very strong connection to the Rig Vedic Aryans who have horse, spoked wheel and chariot. There are horse hymns in Rig Veda. Spokes, wheels, chariots appear in multiple places in Rig Veda as metaphors. For example, in the verse 1.32.15 (15th verse of 32nd hymn of the 1st book or Rig Veda) it's said that Indra protects the world like a wheel encircling the spokes. Each and every part of a spoked wheel of a chariot - the rim nemi; spoke ara; axle aksha; center of the wheel, nabha; even the peg of the axle, dhura - appear in hymns.


    As discussed earlier, the chariots and spoked wheels being much later creation than the age of Indo European unity there is no cognate for either chariot and spoke across various IE languages.


    Social structure here is again stratified. Very much like an Aryan society they have elites and commoners, as evident from grave goods.


    Sintashta settlements are square, oval or round layouts fortified with two concentric walls built from clay, sometimes with stone base. It's further fortified by a wooden fence or wall or a moat. In the center is a common square. Small trapezoidal or rectangular lodgings are enclosed between the walls and the central square. Copper is smelted in the center. Each house can also have provision for smelting. Metallurgy is a very important aspect of this culture. The settlements are not far from sources of copper and tin or fertile plots. Fortified settlements imply conflicts.


    The settlement at Arkaim is very well preserved. It resembles the Vedic tripura, the three fold fort. It also resembles a spoked wheel.


    Layout of settlement at Arkaim

    There's an Indar Lake in this region on the South Ural river. The Rig Vedic God Indra might have been already known to these people. The ancient Greek name of Volga is Rha, a cognate of Indo Iranian rasa or raha and Latin ros meaning moisture. There's a mythical river Rasa in RV.     The name Volga comes from the Slavic words vlaga and vologa meaning wetness and humidity. Even now the small group of people who speak the Mordvinic languages in the Volga basin refer to Volga as Rav, surely a cognate of rasa.


    5. BMAC Culture: 2200 - 1700 BC


    This is a very crucial phase of the Aryan Trail. It's quite close to India and also quite young compared to the other cultures. But still it's equally mysterious to historians due to the lack of proper linguistic and archaeological evidences. We'll present a very interesting scenario proposed by Asko Parpola and J P Mallory.


    In Rig Veda (RV) it's mentioned that the Panis steal the cows and imprison them in a cave. The cows are freed by the Angirasa seers. The Panis are said to be miser, niggards and envious demons watching over wealth. They are shown as enemies. Another group of people inimical to the Aryans are the Dasas. Indra kills many Dasa Kings, one of whom is Pipru. The Gods of the Dasas are called asuras, generally considered demons by the Aryans whose Gods are called devas. The Dasas have forts with concentric, often multiple concentric walls. Moreover the Dasa forts are not regularly inhabited cities but were temporary shelters, especially for the protection of the cattle. Indra is often called the slayer of asuras. A very confusing thing in RV is that though the Dasas are held as enemies and their Gods asuras demon, there are also instances where asuras and devas are both treated as Gods. The Monier Williams Sanskrit dictionary states one of the meanings of asura as the supreme spirit, said of Varuna and Varun is indeed the highest God of the Dasas, like Indra is of the Rig Vedic Aryans. In one instance it's mentioned in RV that a Dasa King Balbutha Taruksha starts worshiping Indra. Similarly Varuna is elevated to

    the ranks of one of the RV Gods.


    The names Dasa and Pipru seem to be Indo European - dasa coming from the Sanskrit root das and Pipru from pri. Also asura and Varuna are Indo European words. Asura comes from the Sanskrit root as meaning to become, to dwell and is akin to Latin est and English is. Etymologically asura can't be associated with demon. Asura also has an Iranian cognate, Ahura (Ahura Mazda), the highest God of east Iranian Zoroastrians. Varuna is one of the oldest Indo European Gods akin to the Greek Uranos. So it's evident that none of the words dasa and asura means enemies or demons.


    Interestingly Ptolemy's Geography written in 2nd century AD talks about a North Iranian tribe called Daha (Daai in Greek texts and Dahi in Latin) who lived in the lower course of Margos (Murghab River). The 1st century Greek historian Strabo mentions Parnoi (Iranian Parna) as one of the Daha tribes. Daha is a cognate of Dasa and Pani can be a derivative of Prini, a low grade variant of Parnoi. Prini like Pipru should come from the root pri.


    The Wakhi language of Iranian origin spoken in the Pamirs has a word dai that means a man, a male person. A related but now extinct Khotanese language of the ancient Khotan Kingdom in the nearby Xinjiang province of China had the noun daha that also meant man. Many people call themselves by their native word for man or human beings. A very common example is the word arya that means a noble man and which along with its cognates have been self designations of many IE peoples. This means that Daha or Dasa, which also means man, might have been the self designation of the tribe known by that name. This also means that the Wakhi language has preserved the original meaning of dasa, that has nothing to do with enemies or demons. Wakhi and the Rig Vedic Sanskrit descend from the same Indo Iranian branch of IE. This implies that the meaning of dasa got changed in the branch that's perpetuated through the Rig Vedic Aryans. So now the question comes - why did it happen.


    That's where scholars have reconstructed a scenario that clarifies all the confusions. It's possible that the Indo Aryans from Sintashta and Arkaim came to Central Asia where already a civilization of fortified towns, something similar to and contemporaneous to the last phase of Indus Valley Civilization, had flourished since long.


    This civilization that stretched between the ancient Bactria (modern Balkh in northern Afghanistan) and Margiana (around modern Mary in Turkmenistan) is called Bactria Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC). The remnants of BMAC have been excavated recently at Gonur and Togolok near Mary and Dashly near Balk. At all these places fortified temple forts with protected by three walls have been excavated. The most striking among these is the complex with circular walls which resemble closely with the definition of tripura, forts protected by three walls.


    Tripura at Dashly


    This structure no doubts reminds us of the structure at Arkaim. More interestingly traces of ephedra, a candidate for the Rig Vedic Soma plant, have been found at many of these temples. All these connect them both to Arkaim and also the Rig Veda where the Soma is a very important aspect.


    There was a sudden surge of wealth in BMAC around 1900 BC. This could have been due to the arrival of the sophisticated Indo Aryans from the northern Arkaim-Sintashta settlements. It's seen that the structured society of Arkaim with very good leadership from the elites helped them to exploit the abundant natural resources and create a prosperous culture. A similar leadership and direction lead to a very effective use of the natural resources and made the people of BMAC prosperous. They happily accepted the leadership of the Indo Aryan elites, who could have been the Dasas or the Panis (or Prini or Greek Parnoi or Iranian Parna). Pipru could have been one of the Dasa or Pani Kings. Eventually the BMAC natives adopted the language and culture of the Dasas whole heartedly. Interestingly there are quite a few Central Asian loan words in Sanskrit and Iranian languages. There are no corresponding IE cognates in any other IE languages for these words. Some of these words are Sanskrit ishtaka and Persian hist meaning bricks, Sanskrit kadru and Persian qahd meaning brown, Skt. ushtra and Per. ushtur meaning camel, khar meaning donkey in both Skt. and Per., Skt. bhang and Per. bang meaning marijuana, Skt. kapota and Per. kabutar meaning pigeon, Skt. kashyap and Per. kashaf meaning tortoise (later kashyap

    became kacchap in Skt.), etc. As there were no corresponding words for these things in vocabulary of the Indo Aryans the BMAC people retained their native words.


    After a hundred years or so (around 1700 BC) a second lot of Indo Aryans from the north would have again arrived in BMAC. This lot of Indo Aryans, who eventually composed the Rig Veda, can be called Rig Vedic Aryans and the older Indo Aryans Dasas. It's very likely that the RV Aryans fought with the Dasas and also the other BMAC natives. That was when the defeated Dasas came to be known as slaves and their Gods demons to the RV Aryans who had to fight against the rich Dasa kings staying in tripura like forts. The Panis surely tried to protect their wealth and hence came to be known as envious demons watching over their wealth. But eventually the RV Aryans would have figured out continuous warfares were not good for prosperity and made a compromise. That was when the asura became a RV God and Varuna promoted to the same rank as Indra's.


    Central Asia is extensively mentioned in the Avesta, the Zoroastrian texts written in a language that's surreptitiously similar to the Rig Vedic Sanskrit. Complete verses in Avesta can be converted to Rig Vedic Sanskrit by virtually transliterating each word.


    The Zoroastrians were among the Indo Aryans who stayed back in Central Asia and Afghanistan. Eventually they separated from the Vedic Aryan peoples and moved to Iran. Thereafter they stayed close to the Iranian peoples immigrating from middle Volga areas (Timber Grave Culture). During the time frame of BMAC Culture the predecessors of Zarathrustra, whose followers were later known as Zoroastrians, and those of the Rig Vedic Aryans were the same lot. The separation of the Zoroastrians and the Vedic Aryans (few hundred years later than RV, sometimg around 1000 BC during the time frame of Atharva Veda) might have been due to intellectual conflict between them. There are enough indications (both in the Vedas and the Zoroastrian texts) to believe that Zarathrustra might have risen against the Vedic cult of worshiping Deva Indra, something that's referred to in Zoroastrian texts as Deva Yasna, yasna being an Avestan cognate of Skt. yajna, the Vedic sacrificial ritual, and Persian yashn meaning celebration. Zarathrustra propagated the cult of worshiping Ahur Varun or Ahur Mazda, something that's referred to as Ahur Yasna. It lay importance on moral character and righteousness and stuck to monotheism, where as Deva Yasna supposedly paid less importance to morality in religion. More details of the early Zoroastrians and the Avestan language can be found in the discussion on Atharva Veda.


    Avesta talk about an Airyanem Vaejo, the Aryan expanse, surrounded by fifteen Aryan countries, all of which are in Central Asia. The names of the fifteen Aryan countries seem to be enumerated in an anti clock-wise manner. The commonly identified places from the list are as follows:

    • Sughdha - modern Sughd Province in Tajikistan and ancient Sogdiana
    • Bakhdi - modern Balkh in Afghanistan and ancient Bactria, Skt. Vahlika
    • Mouru - ancient Margiana, areas around modern day Mary/Merv in Turkmenistan. Mouru may be a cognate of Skt. maru meaning desert and also mountain.
    • Vehrkana - modern day Gorgan in Iran, Skt. Vrika
    • Haroyu - modern day area around Herat in Afghanistan, Skt. Sarayu, Persian Harirud River.
    • Haraxvaiti - cognate of Vedic Saraswati, modern Arghandab, Greek Arachosia, a tributary of Helmand.
    • Haetumant - modern Helmand River in Afghanistan. Though Arghandab matches etymologically with Saraswati, but Helmand basin is generally identified with Saraswati.
    • Varena - modern Bannu, Skt. Varnu
    • Hapta Hindu - Skt. Sapta Sindhu or the land of the Seven Rivers, that's the Punjab.
    Central Asia as depicted in Zoroastrian text Avesta

    6. Vakhsh Biskent Culture (~ 1700 BC)

    This is often considered a part of Andronovo Culture that extended across a wide area of Russia and Kazakhstan. Areas around modern day Vakhsh in Tajikistan (ancient Skt. Vakshu) are the sites where cremation rites came into existence for the first time. The cemeteries here are of Kurgan type, as found in Arkaim-Sintashta and other places of Andronovo Culture, but the pottery, grave goods, are of contemporary Bactria. It's believed that the Indo Aryans of BMAC passed through Vakhsh before entering India.

    Apart from the various Avestan places or Aryan countries of Central Asia there seems to be another important country during the BMAC or even earlier time frame - that's the country of the Kom tribes. Thekam in Kamboj is of obscure origin, may be a substrate of an older Central Asian language that existed before the arrival of the Indo Iranian languages – this ancient language can very well be the proto Burushaski language, lingua franca of the big stretch of Central Asia from Caspian to Pamir. Kamboj is a later formation, but four thousand years ago, the time period of BMAC, it could have been known as just the country of Kam or Kom. Ptolemy mentions a tribe variously called as Komaroi, Komedai, Khomaroi, Komoi and Tambyzoi that was wide spread in the Highlands of Bactriana and Sogdiana. Spread across Central Asia the names like Karakum and Kyzylkum may carry the same kam till date. The Kam people should have been very powerful because the name Kamboj has spread quite far. Many Persian kings had the name Cambyses, a cognate of Kamboj. Between Central Asia and Caucasus many places and rivers bore the name Cambyses across ages. A probable epicenter of the Kom people may be north of Pamir, a probable location of Parama Kamboja, one of the distant countries mentioned in Indian epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata. The Kom people might not have been Indo Europeans originally (unlike the Dasas and Parnas) but adapted an Iranian language later.

    7 & 8. Rig Vedic Culture, Kalash & India: 1700 BC onwards

    Kalash is a very interesting place that has preserved till date vestiges of some ancient Rig Vedic traditions that have disappeared from any where else. Kalash people presently stay only in the three valleys of Bumboret, Rumbur and Birir in Hindukush in the Chitral district of Pakistan. For details of the Kalash religion and the Rig Vedic connections please refer to this paper by Witzel.

    Recent excavations in Chitral are unearthing innumerable Aryan graves. These graves are little older or contemporaneous to the Gandhara Grave Culture (since 1500 BC) which is considered the entry of the Aryans in India. On their way to Punjab from BMAC and Vakhsh some Indo Aryans would have stayed back in the Hindukush and preserved some aspects of the pre Rig Vedic culture. The present Kalash people may be direct descendants of either the first lot (Dasa peoples of BMAC) or the second lot (Rig Vedic peoples) of immigrating Indo Aryans.

    The two different lots of Indo Aryans (Dasa and the Rig Vedic peoples) of BMAC would have logically entered India in two separate waves. The first lot (Dasa peoples) would have left BMAC around 1700 BC with the arrival of the second lot. The former would have reached India around the same time. Few centuries later when the Rig Vedic Aryans entered India they came across the ancient Aryans from the first lot.

    In the Battle of Ten Kings Kavasha is referred to as famed and ancient - śrutaṃ, vṛddham. He may be a Druhyu King and one of the leaders of the enemies. The reference to famed and ancient Kavasha may hint at the reputation of the Druhyus as a powerful and strong race of ancient times. Together, with the reference to the Druhyus also as distant people, it may be implied that they might have been a group of powerful and famous people much older than the composers of Rig Veda. None of the ten Kings, who are fighting against Sudas, is referred to as non-Aryan. Druhyu is in fact one of the 'five peoples' or Panajana or Pancakrishti (Yadu, Turvasha, Anu, Druhyu & Puru) of the Aryans. But still some of these tribes or peoples are considered to be older and distant compared to the others. This may imply that the Aryans migrated to India in waves - some came late and some early.

    Around 1500 BC the Dravidian peoples arrived in Punjab and started interacting with the Indo Aryans. That was when many Dravidian words started appearing in the middle Rig Vedic books (3, 7, 8 & 9). It's not unlikely that the Rig Vedic Aryans of the second wave would be little averse to the newer Dravidian peoples and the older Aryans of the first wave. Eventually they pushed both of them to the periphery of their settlement. In Atharva Veda, composed around 1000 BC, the people of Magadha Gandhara, Anga and Mujavat are referred to as despised. Magadha and Anga are peripheral areas around Vanga. Gandhara is another peripheral area around Punjab.

    The following diagram depicts a probable scenario in India around 1000 BC where the Rig Vedic Aryans are settled in the Gangetic plains and the older Aryans along with the Dravidian peoples pushed to Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, Maratha, Dravida, Utkal (Orissa) and Vanga (Bengal). Doesn't this diagram look like the sixteen Aryan countries mentioned in Avesta? Here also the central core area of Aryan settlement is surrounded by peripheral countries.

    Language Map in 1000 BC

    There are good linguistic evidences in favor of the scenario depicted in the above diagram. The peripheral IA languages (Punjabi, Sindhi, Gujarati, Marathi, Oriya and Bengali) are the ones that have more Dravidian influence than Hindi. Incidentally Hindi is spoken precisely in the area shown in the diagram as the locus of the Rig Vedic Aryans.

    It's quite interesting that among all the Indo Aryan languages Bengali perhaps is influenced the most by Dravidian language. This means that there was a considerable Dravidian population in Bengal where Bengali developed. This might be really the case if we believe that the oldest lot of Aryans, along with a considerable number of Dravidian peoples, left (or were driven out of) Punjab soon after the arrival of the Rig Vedic Aryans. They eventually moved to the eastern part of India and settled in the ancient Vanga and Magadha regions. Close association with a good number of Dravidian peoples for a very long time induced strong Dravidian aspects into the Magadha Prakrit (the predecessor of Bengali) and the Bengali language.

    1000 BC is also the time when the Avestan peoples separated from the Indo Aryans. They settled in the Airyanem Vaejo surrounded by the fifteen Aryan countries in Central Asia. The speakers of Burushaski languages (Mruza) reduced considerably with the decline of BMAC Culture. The Dardic branch (Kashmiri, Khowar, Kalash) of Indo Aryan languages started shaping up in the Himalayas and Hindukush.

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    Languages of Aryan Trail

    Most of the Aryan Trail has been deciphered using linguistic palaeontology extensively. In fact some reconstructions of the ancient past of the Indo European peoples are can't be supported explicitly by archaeological evidences. In such a scenario the different other languages that have influenced or have been influenced by the Indo European languages are very important to us. In the discussions on Aryan Trail we've seen how the IE loan words in Fino Ugric languages divulge interesting information about the early stages of the migrations of the IE peoples.

    In this section we'll see how many other languages have preserved linguistic fossils of the ancient Aryan trail.

    Below is the Aryan Trail that we're considering for all our discussions.

    Legends
    1. Pit Grave Culture or Kurgan Culture (3500 - 2800 BC): The Pit Grave Culture extends over the entire Pontic Steppe. This is the late PIE (Proto Indo European) phase of Indo European unity where the PIE peoples stayed together prior to their disintegration and movement towards various destinations.
    2. Catacomb, Hut Grave Culture (2800 - 2000 BC): This is the Proto Indo Iranian (PII) Bronze Age culture that existed in the Ukrainian Steppes. Relics of the culture are widespread in the region along the Dnieper River, the coastal region the Sea of Azov, Crimea and along the Don River.
    3. Timber Grave Culture (2000 - 800 BC): Around Samara on the Volga Basin, this is the Proto Iranian Culture. The Proto Indo Iranian peoples arrived here from Azov Sea. The Iranians stayed back and the Indo Aryans proceeded further east to Arkaim-Sintashta.
    4. Andronovo Culture, Arkaim-Sintashta (1800 - 900 BC): South of the Ural Mountains this is an Indo Aryan Culture. The Indo-Aryans, the eastern branch of the Indo-Iranians eventually reached Northern Iran, Afghanistan and Indian subcontinent in the next few centuries.
    5. Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, BMAC Culture (2200 - 1700 BC): This is an Indo Aryan Culture in Central Asia. It's contemporary to the northern Andronovo Culture (1800 - 900 BC). From here the Indo-Aryans moved to northern Iran, Afghanistan and India.
    6. Vakhsh - Biskent Culture: Contemporary to BMAC & Andronovo, it's an Indo Aryan Culture. The last segment of the Aryan trail to India may be through through Vakhsh, via Vakshu or Oxus/Vakhsh, Kabul, Swat rivers.
    7. Kalash Culture (1600 BC till date): A very unique group of Indo-Aryans in Hindukush have preserved many of the Rig Vedic and early Indo-Aryan features including language and culture. Kalash is the last place in the Aryan trail before entering into the final destination of Punjab.
    8. Gandhara Grave Culture (1700 - 1400 BC): Rig Vedic Culture in Punjab in Pakistan & India
      Main Languages of Aryan Trail till 1500 BC
    As it can be seen from the above diagram the Fino Ugric people stayed to the north of the locus of the early Indo European and Indo Iranian peoples. The diagram is a snapshot of the spread of the IE peoples around 1500 BC. At this point of time the Indo Aryans have already reached India, passing through the Arkaim-Sintashta, BMAC and Vakhsh-Biskent Cultures. Central Asia, the locus of the BMAC Culture, plays a very important role in the Iranian and Indic languages. In the discussions on Aryan Trail we've mentioned that there are quite a few loan words in Iranian and Indic languages from Central Asia. But we don't know what language was spoken in Central Asia during that time. It's possible that multiple languages were spoken by the various peoples between Caspian Sea and Pamir but still it's likely that there was a lingua franca, which, we've reasons (discussed later) to believe, may be proto Burushaski. Now Burushaski, the language of the Burushos, is a language isolate spoken in isolated pockets of Hunza, Nagyr and Yasin, all in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

    Not very far from the BMAC, to its south along the coast of Arabian Sea, are the Indus Valley, Elamite and Sumerian settlements stretching from east to west. The Sumerian name for the southern Indus Valley settlement (Mohenjo-daro) in Sind and Baluchistan is Meluhha. To its west is an area referred to as Marhashi by the Sumerians. Further west is the Elamite settlement of Shimashki (refer to the diagram below). The languages of Meluhha and Marhashi are believed to be the same - we call it Meluhhan. The language of Shimashki is Elamite. BMAC artifacts have been found in all these places and also in the northern Indus areas (Harappa). This implies that there were trade links between these areas. Hence the languages of these areas are likely to have some common loan words between them. As the Indo Aryans were present in Central Asia for a considerable amount of time before moving into India it's likely that their language (Rig Vedic Sanskrit) would have substrates from all these older native languages from the areas around.

    On linguistics terms the Rig Vedas can be categorized into three classes
    1. Early (1700 - 1500 BC) - Books 6, 4, 2 & 5
    2. Middle (1500 - 1350 BC) - Books 3, 7 & 8
    3. Late (1350 - 1200 BC) - Books 1 & 10
    Apart from Burushaski RV has, from the earliest books, lot of substrates of a language which has similarities with the present day Munda languages. This should be the language of the northern Indus peoples with whom the Rig Vedic Aryans are likely to have lot of interaction since their early days of settlement in India. We call it a para Munda language.

    RV suddenly has lot of Dravidian substrates / loan words in the books of Middle Age, especially in books 7 & 8. The books of Early Age have virtually no Dravidian substrate. This implies that the Dravidian peoples would have reached Punjab and started interacting with the Rig Vedic Aryans only around 1500 BC - the time period of the Middle Age books.

    So there seems to be another language in this area - a proto Dravidian language. Many place names in Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat and Maharashtra still bear the Dravidian palli, meaning village. Palli has become wala in Punjab (Jallianwala, Gujranwala, Dogarwala), vali in Maharashtra (Borovali, Saravali) and wari/wadi in Gujarat (Chandawari, Ambawadi, Dangrawadi) & Sindh (Kadanwari, Shanhwari, Bathewari, Fatehwari, Kardewari) - p changes to v/w and l to r. This implies that Sindh, Punjab, Gujarat and Maharashtra are within the locus of the Dravidian peoples. It's highly possible that they were among the Indus peoples in Sindh during the last phase of Indus Valley civilization (1900 - 1500 BC) and migrated to Punjab in the north and Gujarat / Maharashtra in south around 1500 BC.

    Based on the above discussions a plausible language map of Central Asia and Western India in 1900 BC, just before the arrival of the Indo Aryans, would be something like this.
    Language Map in 1900 BC

    The Meluhhan language of Sindh is still an elusive thing to us. The Indus scripts are yet to be deciphered. But Sumerian records have some words which are believed to be Meluhhan. These words have striking similarities with the present day Burushaski language. Such a connection is possible only if we assume that Burushaski or a related language was spoken in BMAC, whose connection with Indus peoples is supported by archaeology. Hence a proto Burushaski language is considered as the lingua franca of Central Asia before the arrival of the Indo Aryans.

    In Sumerian records there are names of persons with Meluhha as personal names. Urkal and Urdlama are called son of Meluhha. There's also a village called Meluhha. The products of Meluhha include gis-ab-ba-me-lu-hha (abba wood from Meluhha), si-in-da (Sindh wood), gis-ha-lu-ub (haluppu wood), gis-gisimmar (shimmar/shimmal wood), etc. The word Sinda is quite interesting. Burushaski has the word sinda for river. It's possible that during the timeline we're talking about the proto Burushaski language, the lingua franca of BMAC peoples, had a similar word from which came the Skt. Sindhu, the name of the river that gave the identity to a country, religion and civilization. Monier Williams, in his Skt. dictionary, mentions the word Sindhu is of improbable origin. The shimmar of gis-gisimmar seems to be related to Skt. shalmali (a tree, shimul in bengali) which seems to be Munda and hence from the North Indus language.

    Now let's move on to a little later period of time - 1700 BC. The diagram below shows the language map during this time. The Indo Aryans have arrived in BMAC and reached the north western fringes of India, may be Kalash in the Hindukush Mountains.

    Language Map: 1700 BC

    This is the early Rig Vedic period where the early books (6, 4, & 2) are being composed. The BMAC substrates have already appeared in Sanskrit. Similarly the Burushaski and para Munda (Northern Indus Language) substrates are also visible. The Hindukush is probably the place where retroflexion appears for the first time in Sanskrit. This may be an influence of the Burushaski spoken in the Pamir areas north of Hindukush.

    Retroflexion has been always considered an Indian phenomenon that differentiates the Indo Aryan languages from the other members of the Indo European languages. The t in vrishti and the d in pinda need the tip of the tongue to be curled and touched against the top of the mouth to produce the correct sound. It's close to the t in street and the d in donkey as pronounced by an English rather than a French. Most of the European languages don't have these sounds.

    Following are some probable Burushaski (Bur.) substrates in Skt.
    • Skt. mesha, ram ~ Bur. mesh
    • Skt. kuhu, new moon ~ Bur. kuha
    • Skt. karpasa, cotton ~ Bur. gupas
    • Skt. Sindhu, Indus River ~ Bur. sinda
    • Skt. kilala (amrita) and kilata (cheese) ~ Bur. kilay, sweet drink ~ Tamil kilan, curd
    • Skt. muja, people and also the Mujavat Mountain, the Meru Mountain ~ Mruza, the ancient self designation of the Burusho people who speak Burushaski now ~ Avestan Muza ~ Tibetan Bruza ~ Skt. Purusha, another name for Mount Meru. Muja, Muza, Purusha and Burusho all have come from the original word Mruza.
    Following are some probable Munda substrates in Skt.

    Names of people
    • Kavasha, son of a slave girl elevated to the rank of Rishi - reminiscent of absorption of local people
    • Shambara, name of a chieftain of enemy
    • Kushika, name of a lineage of poets
    • Kulitara, name of a chieftain of enemy
    • Kikata, name of a place despised of in Rig veda. Interestingly ki in Suremian means country.
    • Srinjaya, King
    • Sribinda, demon; related is Vindhya Mountains; both may be from the same root *bind
    • Kurunga, name of a chieftain of Turvasha, one of the Pancha Krishti, the Five Peoples of Rig Veda.
    Names of places & rivers
    • Rivers Ganga, Gandaki & place names Magadha, Gandhar - all may have come from Munda *gad/gand
    • Shatadru (Sutlej) River - old name Shutudri may have come from she-tu-da, tu means float in Munda
    • Vipasha (Beas) River - old name Vipash may have come from Munda vipaz/vibal. There's a Vibali River of indefinite origin in RV. The name Vishpala may also be related
    • Kubha & Krumu, modern Kabul & Kurram rivers
    Other words, mainly related to plants, animals, agriculture, food & local traditions
    • kimshuka, name of a flower/tree
    • kinash, cultivator of land, niggard
    • karambha, a food
    • shalmali, tree
    • shakunta / shakuntaka, bird. Also related is Kunti, a tribal name
    • kaparda, hair knot in the shape of cowrie shell
    • kumara, boy
    • kurira, woman's head dress
    • kulaya, nest
    • sharvari, night
    There is no direct Meluhhan substrate in Sanskrit. But the Skt. mlechchha (or even mridhra) meaning out-caste, may be a derivative of meluhha. The reason why it means out-caste is also understandable - the same reason why Finnish orja, derived from arya, means slave.

    Now let's consider the etymology of two words: langala meaning sickle and godhuma meaning wheat in Skt.

    The words meaning sickle or 'to reap' in various languages seem to be similar. It's niggal in Sumerian, nigal in Afro-Asiatic (Egyptian), nankal in Proto Dravidian, nakel in Proto Munda, nahel in Santal (a Munda language spoken by some tribes in eastern India), ankal in Khmer and tengala in Malay.

    Referring to the diagram below it's not unlikely that the languages of Sumerian, Egyptian, Hittite, BMAC and Indus Valley would have many loan words related to agriculture, plants and animals because these are the terms that are transmitted through trade and commerce. The Dravidian peoples of Sindh would have taken the word nankal from the Meluhhans (south Indus). The Aryans, few centuries later, took the word langal from the north Indus peoples who spoke a para Munda language. The Khmer and Munda are both members of the same Austroasiatic language family that might have originated in India. How and when the Khmer peoples reached present day Cambodia and Vietnam are not clear.

    Language Map of Asia: 1900 BC

    Similarly, the words for wheat are similar across various languages - Hittite kant, Old Egyptian xnd, BMAC gantum, Dravidian godi, Avestan gantuma, Persian gandum and Rig Vedic godhuma. The Avestan, Persian and Sanskrit words have surely come from BMAC. The Dravidian godi might have come from Meluhhan.

    Tracking the etymologies of words like these are classic examples of how linguistic palaeontology can help us reconstruct some obscure ancient past which otherwise hasn't left much in 'pots and pans', that's archaeology.

    Next we fast forward another two centuries and we're in 1500 BC - middle Rig Vedic Age. Here suddenly we see a surge of words of Dravidian origin.
    • Skt. phala, fruit ~ Tamil (Tam.) palu
    • Skt. pinda, dympling ~ Tam. pinti, flour
    • Skt. mayura, peacock ~ Tam. mayil [The Proto Munda *mara is related]
    • Skt. danda, stick ~ Telegu danda [The Santal (one of the Munda languages) danta is related]
    • Skt. ulukhala, mortar ~ Tam. ulukkai
    • Skt. path, read ~ Tam. patu, sing
    • Skt. nagara, city ~ Tam. nakar
    • Skt. kuta, hammer
    • Skt. kunda, vessel ~ Tam. kuttam
    Language Map: 1500 BC
    In general the Aryans picked mostly names of places (Gandhar, Kikata), rivers (Sindhu, Vipash, Shutudri) and peoples (Shambar, Pramaganda, Kulitara) and words of local plants (shalmali), animals and large number of agricultural terms (phala, ulukhala, langal) from local languages and retained only a few from PIE vocabulary for agriculture like krish, sa (sow), sita (furrow) and sira (plough). This is quite natural for immigrating peoples like the Aryans.

    As seen in the Aryan Trail the Aryans entered India in two waves. It's not unlikely that the Rig Vedic Aryans of the second wave would be little averse to the newer Dravidian peoples and the older Aryans of the first wave. Eventually they pushed both of them to the periphery of their settlement.

    In Atharva Veda, composed around 1000 BC, the peoples of Magadha, Gandhara, Anga and Mujavat are referred to as despised. Magadha and Anga are areas around Vanga - to the east. With respect to the early Aryan settlement in India (Punjab) Gandhara is a peripheral area to the west and Mujavat, the land of the Mruza peoples who speak Burushaski, to the north. It's possible that the earliest of the Aryans (along with the Dravidian peoples in Punjab) were the first to make way for the younger Rig Vedic Aryans and move out to the peripheries to west (Gandhar peoples) and east (proto Bengali and Magadhan peoples) quite early, may be sometime around 1500 BC. Eventually more such batches moved out to south west towards Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat and Maharashtra. This implies that the proto Bengali and Magadhan peoples and the Gandhar peoples were all the same folks thousands of years back. Gandhar falls in the area marked 'Other Indo Aryan and Indo Iranian' in the above diagram. People here now speak mainly Pashto (East Iranian branch of Iranian), Nuristani (Iranian branch) & Khowar and Kalash (Dardic branch of Indo Aryan).

    Not all the Indo Aryans (from both the batches/waves - early and late) left the BMAC and Vakhsh areas in Central Asia and Afghanistan and entered India. Lot of them stayed back there. They are the peoples who later became Zoroastrians - in the Rig Vedic time frame we can call them proto Avestan peoples.

    The following diagram depicts the above scenario little after 1500 BC.
    Scenario after 1500 BC

    In the years after Rig Veda the proto Avestan peoples gradually separated from the Vedic Aryans due to intellectual conflict between the two groups of the Aryans. Zarathrustra, the first Prophet of the world and the founder of the Zoroastrian religion, belonged to the former group. The language of Avesta, the earliest texts of the Zoroastrians, has surreptitious similarities to the Rig Vedic language. Most of the philosophic concepts of Avesta more or less have corresponding counterparts in Rig Veda. So it's apt to consider Avestan in the repository of the languages of Aryan Trail.

    The following diagram depicts a probable scenario in India around 1000 BC where the Rig Vedic Aryans are settled in the Gangetic plains and the older Aryans along with the Dravidian peoples pushed to Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, Maratha, Dravida, Utkal (Orissa) and Vanga (Bengal). There are good linguistic evidences in favor of such an scenario.

    The peripheral IA languages (Punjabi, Sindhi, Gujarati, Marathi, Oriya and Bengali) are the ones that have more Dravidian influence than Hindi. Incidentally Hindi is spoken precisely in the area shown in the diagram as the locus of the Aryans since the Late Rig Vedic period.

    Language Map: 1000 BC

    It's quite interesting that among all the Indo Aryan languages Bengali perhaps is influenced the most by Dravidian language. This means that there was a considerable Dravidian population in Bengal where Bengali developed. This might be really the case if we believe that the oldest lot of Aryans (may be the Dasa peoples of BMAC who entered India before the Rig Vedic Aryans), along with a considerable number of Dravidian peoples, left (or were driven out of) Punjab soon after the arrival of the Rig Vedic Aryans. They eventually moved to the eastern part of India and settled in the ancient Vanga and Magadha regions. Close association with a good number of Dravidian peoples for a very long time induced strong Dravidian aspects into the Magadha Prakrit (the predecessor of Bengali) and the Bengali language.

    Following are some of the commonalities between Bangali (Beng.) and Dravidian languages
    • Bengali is the only Indo European language where the negation is applied after the verb. For example in English we always say 'I'll not go' - here the negation 'not' appears before the verb 'go'. Same is with all Indo Aryan languages. In Hindi we say 'Hum nahin jayenge' - the negation 'nahin' is applied before the verb 'jayenge'. But in Bengali we say 'Ami jabo na' - the negation 'na' is applied after the verb 'jabo'. All Dravidian languages have the same structure for negation.
    • Similarly the plural forming suffix ra in Bengali comes directly from Tamil ar. For example pola means a boy and pola ra means boys - both pola and ra are of Dravidian origin.
    • Pali, the language of Buddhist scriptures, and the neighboring Magadha Prakrit languages showed some peculiarities from an early age (since the time of Buddha in 6th century BC) that are no doubt Dravidian. We see dhamma in place of dharma, kamma in place of karma, Pukkusathi in place of Pushkalavati. Buddhist scriptures are full of such derivatives of the original Sanskrit names or words. Bengali still uses these forms in colloquial conversations. It's surely a Dravidian phenomenon where two consonants can be joined only when they belong to the same varga, class. In dharma r and m, belonging to different varga were joined in Sanskrit. Following the Dravidian phonology of joining consonants of same varga, dharma is converted to dhamma. Same is true for the other words.
    In all the above three cases the structure of a language itself is changed by another language. Such changes require very long and extensive interaction between the speakers of the two languages. In all other Indo Aryan languages the Dravidian influence is restricted only to loan words - mainly names of places, rivers and peoples and agricultural terms. This implies that the interaction with Dravidian peoples in all these cases has been quite limited. But in case of Bengali there are Dravidian words for a very wide range of things.
    • gurra, horse in Telegu ~ ghoda in Beng., Hindi ~ in Barishal district of Bangladesh ghoda is pronounced almost like gurra
    • akali, hunger in Telegu, Tamil ~ akal in Beng.
    • koka/kuki, son/daughter in Tamil ~ khoka/khuki in Beng.
    • khadal, sea in Tamil ~ khadi in Beng.
    • khattai, a piece of wood in Tamil ~ khonta, peg in Beng.
    • kutta, to pick, gather in Tamil ~ khonta, to pick up in Beng.
    • gandra gol in Telegu ~ gando gol, problem, commotion in Beng.
    • goda, wall in Telegu ~ goda means base or foundation in Beng.
    • pillai, son in Tamil ~ pile in Beng.
    • ban, rain in Tamil ~ ban in Beng.
    • mot, heavy luggage in Telegu ~ mot in Beng.
    • tandu, central stem like the solid portion of banana plant ~ thod in Beng. Interestingly the banana flower and the tandu or thod are used as vegetables only among the Bengalis and Tamilians.
    • palli, village in Tamil ~ palli in Beng. In Sindh, Punjab, Gujarat and Maharashtra palli is changed to vali, wara, wada/wadi, wala etc. But in Beng. it's exactly same.
    It has been mentioned earlier that the people of Bengal may be the Dasa peoples of BMAC who were first to enter into India and eventually pushed out later to the east by the Rig Vedic Aryans. There's a striking aspect in Bengal that links the Bengali peoples to BMAC.

    Below is a seal found from BMAC. It's a Goddess sitting on a lion. Doesn't it look like the Goddess Durga worshiped mainly in the eastern India, especially Bengal & Assam.

    BMAC seal of a Goddess on lion: Proto Durga ??

    The word durga comes from durga meaning stronghold, fort. It's also the name of an asura slain by the goddess Durga, More intriguing is the fact that Durga is also known as Tripura, the protector of the fort, durga, the tripur of the Dasas of BMAC.

    In Rig Veda asura is mentioned as the God of the Dasa peoples. Subsequently the Rig Vedic Aryans make truce with the Dasas and asura is promoted to the ranks of deva, the Gods. The term tripur is not present in Rig Veda. It appears in the Brahmanas, written some thousand years later than the encounter with the actual tripur and Dasas of BMAC. By that time asura has again become a demon. But the question is who has kept the memories of tripur alive after thousand years? It has to be the Dasa peoples, the proto Bengali and the Magadhans, who still remember their ancient religious traditions of BMAC. By this time Anga has again become despised peoples and hence their God asura again becoming a demon is understandable.

    1000 BC is also the time when the Avestan peoples separated from the Indo Aryans. They settled in the Airyanem Vaejo surrounded by the fifteen Aryan countries in Central Asia. The speakers of Burushaski languages reduced considerably with the decline of BMAC Culture. The Dardic branch (Kashmiri, Khowar, Kalash) of Indo Aryan languages started shaping up in the Himalayas and Hindukush.


     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Jats, Getae.

    Page 3

     http://www.jatland.com/home/Jats_the_Ancient_Rulers_(A_clan_study)/The_Jats

    These Thracian Getae, must, as a northern race of individual proprietors, have held their lands on the tenure existing in the Jat villages and these Indian Jats or Getae, have not degenerated from the military prowess of their forefathers, for the Jats who have become Sikhs, in the Punjab, are known as some of the best and most reliable Indian soldiers." 2

    With their irresistible might, they earned the name 'Massa Getae' from the ancient Greeks, and Ta-Yue-che from the Chinese both words meaning “the Great Jats”. Massa in Pehlavi language means 'Great' and the Chinese word 'Ta' also means 'Great'.

    The destroyers of Cyrus the Great, the scourge of Chinese Han emperors, who were forced to build the Great wall in order to escape them, they lived but a simple, down-to-earth, practical life. Inseparable from their horses, riding them awake and asleep, the first bowmen to shoot accurately from the horsebacks, they defeated Tamerlane the Great (Taimur Lung) whom they forced to become the "adviser" of their crown Prince, Khoja Oghlan-A Jat from the Ojhlan clan.

    Born rulers, haters of dependence" quick-tempered, an odd mixture of happy-go-lucky and the sanguinary talents, they adopted but Royal names-all their clan names mean, 'royal', 'prince', 'head', 'high' or 'chief'. Breathing war and battle every moment of their life, they had no time to mourn their dead. They deliberately hid and covered the graves of their kings so that nobody could know their burial place and it was for this purpose that they sometimes killed the grave diggers and made rivers flow over the sacred graves of their kings. Like the Great Pandava, Prince Bhima (who vowed to drink the blood of Dusasana and did so), they vowed to drink blood from cups made out of their enemies' skulls, and to be constantly reminded of their vows, they mixed their own blood with the blood of their dead.

    Most secular and open-minded people in the world, their lack of religious fanaticism is reflected in their easy adoption of Mithraism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, and Christianity. Their coins, too reflect the symbols of practically all these religions of the world. From Ashtavegu to Attila to Akun to Ellok, from Balameer to Basana, from Maodun to Mihirkula, from Hapthal Katariya to

    Thr Dacians

  • The Dacians (Lat. Daci, Gr. Dákai) were an Indo-European people, the ancient inhabitants of Dacia (located in the area in and around the Carpathian mountains and east of there to the Black Sea), present-day Romania and Moldova, parts of Sarmatia (mostly in eastern Ukraine) and Scythia Minor in southeastern Europe (Romania and Bulgaria). They spoke the Dacian language, believed related to Thracian, but were influenced culturally by the neighbouring Scythians and by the Celtic invaders of the 4th century BC.[

    The first mention of the Dacians is in Roman sources, but classical authors are unanimous in considering them a branch of the Getae, a Thracian people known from Greek writings. Strabo specified that the Daci are the Getae who lived in the area towards the Pannonian plain (Transylvania), while the Getae proper gravitated towards the Black Sea coast (Scythia Minor).
     
     The Dacian kingdom reached its maximum extent under king Burebista (ruled 82 - 44 BC). One important city was  Argedava (also called Sargedava in some historical writings) situated close to the river Danube.

    A Dacian Kingdom was in existence at least as early as the beginning of the 2nd century BC under  king Oroles. In the late 2nd Century BC, conflicts with the Bastarnae and alliances with the Scordisci and Dardani in Illyricum and Pannonia against Rome had greatly weakened the resources of the Dacians. Burebista becomes king around the year 82 BCE. In short time, with the help of the high priest Deceneu, he managed to unify all the Geto-Dacian tribes, creating a powerful state. The Dacian army was completely reorganized and he raised the moral standard of the people. The limits of the kingdom were extended forming a Dacian empire; the Bastarnae and Boii were conquered, and several Greek cities on the Euxine fell into his hands. The Dacians appeared so formidable that Caesar contemplated an expedition against them, which was prevented by his death in 44 BC. About the same time Boerebista himself was murdered, and the kingdom was divided into four or five parts under separate rulers. With the rise of Augustus and Roman conquests in the Balkans, the Dacians recognized Roman supremacy and became foedus. They were by no means subdued, however, and took every opportunity to cross the frozen Danube and ravage the province of Moesia, trying to re-conqer their ancestral land now under the Romans

    http://zoom.jurnalul.ro/stire-zoom-plus/scripturile-dacilor-317301.html

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