Rakhigarhi Woman and the Peopling of India

The genetic study done on Rakhgarhi fossil is finally out. The link for the two new papers are given below:

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/365/6457/eaat7487.full

https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(19)30967-5

To summarise....here is the latest story on peopling of India (considering that the major chunk of this interpretation comes from a single lady in a possible multicultural city)... lets try to fit this puzzle piece by piece...

Puzzle 1 BEFORE THE ERUPTION:

There may have been pre-Toba migration into India, but that has not left behing any significant genetic imprint.

Professor Korisettar would think otherwise. Similar stone tools have been unearthed by him below and above the Toba ash from few places in southern India like Jwalapuram. Middle Palaeolithic tools of 77,000 years old were excavated from below the Toba ash and of 35,000 years old above it. Without fossils there is no way to say they are Homo sapiens. Even if there was an older migration of Homo sapiens from Africa, and even if a lucky few survived the Toba eruption, they did not survive for long as our deadly ancestors were on their way.

Puzzle 2 AFTER THE ERUPTION:

Soon after the Toba catastrophe, the first notable flush of migration took place from Africa. It was called the Great Coastal Migration. This group of people started from East Africa and probably crossed the Bab el-Mandeb, a narrow strait at the southern end of the Red Sea. Then they rapidly migrated along the coast of Indian Ocean to reach south-eastern Asia. This process of migration is not a single journey, but a collection of short expansion from one place to another over generations that took thousands of years.

One of the reasons they stayed close to the coast is the harsh cold climate inland during the ice age. Whenever the climate warmed up these people moved inland following the rivers like Indus. This more sophisticated group of Homo sapiens replaced the ‘original Indians’. Some of the more adventurous migrants took the sub-Himalayan route, while rest kept following the coast. Few of the decedents of this new group of ‘Indians’ (will call them ‘early Indians’, distinct from the ‘original Indians’) then moved towards Southeast Asia and Australia.

Study of genetic data from Indian population reveals that modern Indians share 70 to 90 percent of their mtDNA halogroup with the ‘early Indians’. mtDNA comes from mitochondria, which we get from our mother, and hence it traces the path of the female lineage as males do not transfer the DNA of their mitochondria to their kin (apart from very rare cases). Similarly, the Y-chromosome is transferred from father to son, and traces the male lineage. Interestingly, only 10 to 40 percent of Y-chromosome halogroup comes from the ‘early Indians’. The tribes of Andaman are closest living people belonging to this group. The contribution of the later migrations to our gene pool is mostly from the males.

 Puzzle 3 BEFORE HARAPPA

The last Glacial Age lasted from 29,000 years ago to around 14,000 years ago. The dry coldness of the ice age that had forced humanity into the caves for thousands of years was melting. Out of the caves, into the land, human beings warmed up to new challenges. the earth got warmer, some of the hunters and gatherers turned to a quasi-sedentary agricultural lifestyle. Our ancestors tamed the wild and laid the foundation of our modern civilisation. This phase is known as the Neolithic revolution.

According to the new studies there was a 'second' (there must have been many such phases over such long time that might not have recognisable genetic imprint at the moment) phase of migration in Western India of Iranian hunters and gatherers around 12000 years ago. This is before agriculture was invented in the fertile crescent. They mixed with the locals, probably invented agriculture independently, and then went on the built the Harappan civilisation.

Evidence of early transition to agriculture has been reported from north-central India. State Archaeological Department excavated a mound in Lahuradeva, Uttar Pradesh, in 2006. The mound was believed to belong to local goddess Samai Mai, who helped them with good harvest. The villagers were not far off. Excavation unearthed one of the earliest evidence of agriculture that started 9,000 years ago. Rice cultivation still dominates this part of India. Evidence of early agriculture has also been found from Mehrgarh where it started independently. The early tillers practiced shifting-agriculture. It is still practiced by some tribes of Northeastern India, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh.

After the decline of Harappan Civilisation these group moved east and south and mixed with the indigenous people and forming the Ancestral South Indian group, or ASI...

Puzzle 4 AFTER HARAPPA

No civilisation can grow forever. Every civilisation has its weak points. Harappan Civilisation had many, especially the over dependence on monsoon and trading. The seed of the civilisation that was planted 9000 years ago in places like Mehrgarh, Bhirrana and Rakhigarhi have finally reached a saturation point. With the predictable monsoons becoming unpredictable, and the fall of key trading partner Mesopotamia, the weak points were giving away due to the burden of rapid urbanisation and growing population. The experiment with civilisation cannot be considered a failure as it survived for thousands of years. The Early Harappan civilisation lasted from 7500 to 4600 years before present. The peak of the civilisation was between 4600 to 3900 years ago. The record of the Mature Harappan phase can be found in the fortified cities of Kalibangan, Banawali and Rahman Dheri. The late Harappan phase lasted from 3900 to 3300 years before present. The rivers were drying up and the main trade partner Mesopotamia went into decline post Sargonic conquests. The demand for beads and shells collapsed rapidly. In Chanhu-Daro (Sindh, Pakistan), a Late Harappan site, hundreds of abandoned semi-finished long-barrel carnelian beads were unearthed. These once precious items, that were the primary drive for the local economy, have suddenly lost their worth. In Mohenjo-Daro a skeleton has been found in a street, called as Deadman Lane by archaeologists. There are many sites that have been completely abandoned. These are signs of stress in the late Harappan society indicating collapse of civil order.

According to a paper published by Dr. Anindya Sarkar in Nature in 2016, the Harappan civilisation continued to flourish even after the decline of monsoons around 7,000 years ago. The crop patterns shifted from large grained cereals like wheat and barley to drought-resistant small millets and rice. The later crops has lower yield and thus in the later stages of Harappan Civilisation the large central storages were replaced by individual household based crop processing and storage system. According to Dr. Sarkar, this might have resulted in gradual de-urbanization rather than a collapse. As the cities started to get decentralized, the western sites were abandoned, and the population started to move towards east. The people of Indus had to interact with those living in Ganges plain, incorporating their culture, pottery, and language. After a bold experiment with urbane lifestyle they turned back to more stable agriculture. They diffused with the rest of India, but their journey continued.

4000-year-old Harappan Civilisation woman did not have a particular DNA called R1a1. What is so special about this gene? This gene is common in ANI population, who received it from the pastoralists of the Central Asian Pontic steppe region, the grasslands located between the Black Sea and the Caspian. ANI is dominant in the modern North Indians. This would mean that there was another phase of migration from Iran into India after the decline of Harappan Civilisation.

Puzzle 5 MUNDA MYSTERY

This piece is related to the Austro-Asiatic group. The people speaking Austro-Asiatic language are found in both India and South-East Asia. What is the connection between the Indians and South-East Asians? Around 117 million speak Austro-Asiatic tongue. In India they live in Andaman-Nicobar, Chota-Nagpur (Munda) and North East India. This language is distinctly different from the more commonly spoken Indo-Aryan or Dravidian language. Austro-Asiatic group is genetically identified from the Y-chromosome lineage (for example O2a1-M95 if you are really interested) found on both sides of the Bay of Bengal. There are two way of explaining this distribution. Either the group originated in India and then spread towards South-East Asia and Australia. Or, alternatively, the group originated in South-East Asia around 20-40,000 years ago, within the population of people who went there during the Great Coastal migration. There was a later backflow of this group into India around 10,000 years ago, just after the Last Glacial Maximum. Some studies suggest a later migration around 4,000 years ago. Whichever story one likes to believe in, it is certain that there is an intimate relationship between the Indians and South-East Asians, a connection that will last well into the modern era.

Puzzle 6 MODERN INDIANS

Modern Indian population is a mixture of ANI and ASI, though ANI is still dominant in North and ASI in South. We are made of all those migration events, and can hardly claim to be pure race....like no one else in the world. The free mixing, however, did not last long. Caste system became rigid around 2100 years ago and people stopped mixing freely....This corresponds to the time of Saka invasion, later followed by Kushans...

There have been migration into India of different groups of people from the West, and also from the East. Whether Aryan language was brought into India, or spread from India can be debated, but not the diversity in our genetic pool. I am sure there must have been mixing of different cultures that resulted in rise of ancient India and its achievements. India assimilated the knowledge of the migrants at different phases and in turn contributed to the global knowledge. We can see the exchange of ideas in the similarity between Indian and Iranian mythologies. Indian Asura was Ahura for the Iranians. The enemy of Vedic people was the god of the Zoroastrians of Iran. Interestingly, Daevas, which sounds like Devas, are the enemies of Zoroastrians. Daevas originally meant the shining ones. Later, Daevas became younger gods or wrong gods. The English word devil has its root in the word Daevas. The cultural exchanges and migrations have made the sub-continent a melting pot of different genetic pools leading to the colourful diversity of India, something we must proudly celebrate.

Written by Subhrashis Adhikari
Author of 5 Questions of the Inquisitive Apes

"Engaging and entertaining, this page-turner is remarkable in its narration and will give you a new perspective on various aspects of life. Wellresearched and heartfelt, the encouraging tone throughout the book tries to motivate towards a happier life." - Times of India