Ancestry of Indians

Do you know what is the ancestral origin of modern day Indians? Is it Arya(ns) or Dravidians? Did prehistoric Indians emigrate in large-scale towards the West spreading culture and language? Or did they immigrate and bring their language and traditions to the subcontinent?

Are you curious to know the latest scientific findings on these questions? A recent paper [1] published in Science journal used ancient DNA to address these questions.

Key findings:

• Harappans were a mix of First Indians (Hunter-Gatherers migrants from Africa who first settled in India 65,000 years ago) and Iranians who spoke a pre-Arya language. They created the agricultural revolution in northwestern India and then built the Indus Valley civilisation.
   
• Arya were central Asian Steppe pastoralists who arrived in India after decline of Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), and brought Indo-European languages to the subcontinent
   
• After the decline of Indus Valley Civilization, Harappans mixed with First Indians in the southeast of IVC to form "Ancestral South Indians", whose direct descendants live in southern India. Simultaneously, Harappans mixed with descendants of Arya who had spread to North India via Central Asia to form "Ancestral North Indians".

Myths busted:

• 'Out of India' migration theory does not have a shred of evidence, genetic or otherwise. So no, there was no large-scale migration of prehistoric Indians towards the West spreading culture and language.
   
• Harappans spoke dravidian language and not arya language (indo-european). So what does that imply for the origin of Sanskrit language?

Bottom line:
Indians are a multi-source civilisation drawing from many cultural traditions and practices. Indians are all migrants. And Indians are all mixed.

Reference:

1. Narasimhan, Vagheesh M., et al. "The formation of human populations in South and Central Asia." Science 365.6457 (2019): eaat7487.
   https://science.sciencemag.org/content/365/6457/eaat7487