Harappan site of Rakhigarhi: DNA study finds no Central Asian trace, junks Aryan invasion theory

jayyogeswarusa

I found very interesting article about Rakhigarhi DNA and Aryan Invasion theory on "The Economic Times" subsidary of The India Times. I thought It would be good share with the people with the history zeal.

The much-awaited DNAstudy of the skeletal remains found at the Harappan site of Rakhigarhi,Haryana, shows no Central Asian trace, indicating the Aryan invasion theory wasflawed and Vedic evolution was through indigenous people.
The lead researchers of this soon-tobe published study — Vasant Shinde andNeeraj Rai — told ETthat this establishes the knowledge ecosystem in the Vedicera was guided by “fully indigenous” people with limited “externalcontact”.

“The Rakhigarhi humanDNA clearly shows a predominant local element — the mitochondrial DNA is verystrong in it. There is some minor foreign element which shows some mixing upwith a foreign population, but the DNA is clearly local,” Shinde told ET. Hewent on to add: “This indicates quite clearly, through archeological data, thatthe Vedic era that followed was a fully indigenous period with some externalcontact.”

According to Shinde’s findings, the manner of burial is quite similar to theearly Vedic period, also known as the Rigvedic Era. The pottery, the brick typeused for construction and the general ‘good health’ of the people ascertainedthrough the skeletal remains in Rakhigarhi, he said, pointed to awell-developed knowledge system that evolved further into the Vedic era. Thestudy has, in fact, noted that some burial rituals observed in the Rakhigarhinecropolis prevail even now in some communities, showing a remarkable continuityover thousands of years.

Shinde, who is the vice-chancellor of the Deccan College, Pune, was the leadarchaeologist in the study while Rai, who is the head of the ancient DNAlaboratory at Lucknow’s Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, did the DNAstudy.

MINOR TRACES OF IRANIANSTRAINS
According to Rai, the evidence points to a predominantly indigenous culturethat voluntarily spread across other areas, not displaced or overrun by anAryan invasion. “The condition of the human skeletons, the burial...all showabsence of palaeo-pathology symptoms which could indicate ailments due to lackof medical care. The persons here were healthy; denture morphology showed teethfree of any infection; bones are healthy, as is the cranium," Rai told ET

He also discounted thenotion of any violent conflict. “There are no cuts and marks which would beassociated with a population subjected to warfare. All this indicates that thepeople were receiving well-developed healthcare and had full-fledged knowledgesystems.” The excavations in Rigvedic phase, he said, corroborate this. “Thispoints to greater continuity rather than to a new Aryan race descending andbringing superior knowledge systems to the region,” Rai said.

The Rakhigarhi study, he said, while showing absence of any CentralAsian/Steppe element in the genetic make-up of the Harappan people, doesindicate minor traces of Iranian strains which may point to contact, notinvasion.

The Aryan invasiontheory holds forth that a set of migrants came from Central Asia armed withsuperior knowledge and arms and invaded the existing settlements to establish amore sophisticated civilisation in India and pushed the original inhabitantsdown south. Rakhigarhi is one of the biggest Harappan civilisation sites spreadacross 300 hectares in Hisar, Haryana. It’s estimated to be 6,000 years old andwas part of the mature phase of the Harappan period

Rai disclosed that 148 independent skeletal elements from Rakhigarhi were screenedfor the presence of DNA molecules at the Centre for Cellular and MolecularBiology in Hyderabad. Of the 148 skeletal remains, only two samples yielded anyrelevant DNA material.

Meanwhile, hectic last-minute efforts are on to get additional genetic detailsof the DNA material. One of the DNA samples recently faced contamination in aSeoul laboratory and efforts are on to segregate it. Samples were sent tolaboratories in Seoul and Harvard for establishing accuracy. The contamination,Rai said, is unlikely to have any major bearing on the study’s primaryfindings.

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//economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/64565413.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

bsk

interesting

pgalmora

I am still waiting the full scientific paper to be published. So far, they are just throwing data by the means of news papers. We have to wait untill the full paper comes in black and white.