India's caste system goes back 2,000 years, genetic study finds - NBC News.com
The caste system in South Asia — which rigidly separates people into high, middle and lower classes — may have been firmly entrenched by about 2,000 years ago, a new genetic analysis suggests.
Researchers found that people from different genetic populations in India began mixing about 4,200 years ago, but the mingling stopped around 1,900 years ago, according to the analysis published Thursday in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
Combining this new genetic information with ancient texts, the results suggest that class distinctions emerged 3,000 to 3,500 years ago, and caste divisions became strict roughly two millennia ago.
The only thing this proves is that Hindus practiced the social class structure based on individual guna i.e. Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. The system practiced by Hindus 4,200 years ago was NON DISCRIMINATORY and allowed social mobility and inter mixing.
The social system got distorted after manusmriti was written about 2100 years back and after it was implemented. i.e. 100 BC
Now if we look back at history at possible events that destroyed the original Hindu culture and social structure there are a few things that come to mind.
1. First invasion of India by Alaxander in 300 BC and resulting chaos and intermixing of alien thought and non hindu ethics. e.g wars fought by disregarding Hindu rules of combat etc.. This is the first document instance of an outside alien culture first invading the fortress called India (crossing the Himalayas)
2. Scythians (Turkey, central asia, partial Iranian) invasion of India and subsequent rule in 7st BC to 100 BC. 44
One can only speculate the possible reasons for the regressive direction of the Hindus of that age. But usually regression in humans (and their societies) happens during times of High Stress (war, death, poverty, etc.). You can compare this to regression in christianity and Islam and their resulting perversions i.e dark age, witch hunt, islamic terrorism etc..
Though relationships between people of different social groups was once common, there was a "transformation where most groups now practice endogamy," or marry within their group, said study co-author Priya Moorjani, a geneticist at Harvard University.
As mentioned above.
Ancestral populations
Hindus in India have historically been born into one of four major castes, with myriad subdivisions within each caste. Even today, in some parts of the country, marriage outside of one's caste is forbidden and those in the outcast, or "untouchable" group are discriminated against and prohibited from participating in religious rituals. (The Indian government has outlawed certain types of discrimination against the lowest classes.)
NOTE the 'christian' propaganda ..........'Hindu' India has outlawed ALL kinds of discrimination...not 'certain' kind.
But when and why this system evolved has always been a bit murky, said Michael Witzel, a South Asian studies researcher at Harvard University, who was not involved in the work.
Not murky at all for any hindu who combine the date of the manusmriti and recent results of genetic studies.
Moorjani's past research revealed that all people in India trace their heritage to two genetic groups: An ancestral North Indian group originally from the Near East and the Caucasus region, and another South Indian group that was more closely related to people on the Andaman Islands.
Again NOTE the propaganda that state North Indian group orinate from Near East and Caucasus region. I am quoting directly from the research paper .....
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002929713003248#gr2
The Principal component analysis (PCA) of 70 of 73 groups with non-Indians (European Americans [CEU], Georgian, Iranian, Basque, and Han Chinese [CHB]) highlights the “
Indian cline,” a gradient of West Eurasian relatedness. (
This means Non Indians have Indian genes rather than the other way round ........indicate its Indians who went out and populated europe and near east
)
The Great Andamanese and Siddi are not included because of their evidence of relatively recent admixture with non-Indian groups, and central_mix1_nihali7 is not included because it includes multiple ethno-linguistic groups under one label.
Today, everyone in India has DNA from both groups. "It's just the proportion of ancestry that you have that varies across India," Moorjani told LiveScience.
To determine exactly when these ancient groups mixed, the team analyzed DNA from 371 people who were members of 73 groups throughout the subcontinent.
Aside from finding when the mixing started and stopped, the researchers also found the mixing was thorough, with even the most isolated tribes showing ancestry from both groups.
This again shows ALL Indian, Irrespective of Caste have the same genes. This is in line with the actual Hindu class and social structure again highlighting the manusmriti was a abeeration from the original Hindu social structure.
Period of transition
Researchers aren't sure which groups of ancient people lived in India prior to 4,200 years ago, but Moorjani suspects the two groups lived side by side for centuries without intermarrying.
Archaeological evidence indicates that the groups began intermarrying during a time of great upheaval. The Indus Valley civilization, which spanned much of modern-day North India and Pakistan, was waning, and huge migrations were occurring across North India. [History's Most Overlooked Mysteries]
Actually the facts all point to the intermarrying STOPPING during time of great upheaval. No idea why indus valley is mentioned here. It has no relevance to anything.
Ancient texts also reveal clues about the period.
The Rigveda, a nearly 3,500-year-old collection of hymns written in Sanskrit, a North Indian language, mentions chieftains with South Indian names.
"So there is some sort of mixture or intermarriage," Witzel told LiveScience.
Early on, there were distinct classes of people — the priests, the nobility and the common people — but no mention of segregation or occupational restrictions. By about 3,000 years ago, the texts mention a fourth, lowest class: the Sudras. But it wasn't until about 100 B.C. that a holy text called the Manusmruti explicitly forbade intermarriage across castes.
The study doesn't suggest that either the ancestral North or South Indian group formed the bulk of the upper or lower castes, Witzel said.
Rather, when caste divisions hardened, any type of intermarriage was sharply curtailed, leading to much less mixing overall.
Actually Rigveda mention chieftain with 'Indian' names ....... the names are as much 'south Indian' as they are 'north Indian'. Again its sounds like propaganda .....an illusionary north south divide.
