What I said was that Vedic Aryans were not a race as Rig Veda does not state this as a race or a tribe etc. There is no archeological find in Indus valley Civilization which could in any form qualify that there ever was an invasion of this part of the land. Harappa and Mohenjodaro are void of any war fighting material zilch. There was no horse that was discovered and neither a chariot. Of-course there are many more details which can be cited to qualify the defunct nature of any Aryan Invasion theory in the area occupied by the Meluhhans representing the present day land mass of Pakistan.
Also, a thing one may like to keep in mind and the linguists confirm this fact is that the languages do not necessarily travel and migrate with the people. The linkages of genetic admix which takes place over thousands of years of movement may not be related to an identifiable timeframe which the Aryan Invasion Theory propagates and has to be event related within a restrictive and identifiable timeframe. And within this restrictive timeframe no such invasion has been archeologically and historically identified and proven beyond reasonable doubt.
The Vedic Aryans themselves weren't a race. They were a group of Indo-European tribes, & those collective tribes originally constituted a race. By their description, they were fair skinned, good looking, tall, & well built people. There are multiple tribes mentioned in the Vedic scriptures, such as Ikshvaku, Ayu, & the Alina people, etc. The Indus Valley Civilization was already destroyed with its population being severely reduced by climatic conditions according to modern accounts. You seem to have a wrong idea of the term "Aryan Invasion". Aryan invasion does not mean that massive hordes just attacked out of nowhere & shook the whole Sub-Continent. It was most likely a minor invasion in the beginning as described in the Vedic scriptures themselves, & after that period the Indo-Aryan tribes migrated in groups towards the Indus. Based on my readings, it seems more likely that their arrival was a combination of invasions & migrations.
Archaeological finds of chariots maybe few for now, but that itself isn't enough to discredit the invasion. The fact that the Aryans are associated with horses & chariots is a flawed analogy because the Harappans were aware of horses. The Vedic people did not discriminate between the kind of equus animals used to draw chariots, & that they used other equus animals besides horses is consistent with archaeological findings as far as I know. As for wheels, the Harappans themselves were aware of them as known through their symbolism & the Vedic tribes knew of them as well. A lack of archaeological findings of wheels is discredited by the fact that the concept of the wheel dates back to the pre-Aryan period. Another important point to note is that at the moment our knowledge of both the Aryans & particularly the Harappans is severely lacking due to our failure at decrypting the Indus script. By the way, there is evidence of regular horses being used by Aryans, & the horse burial style is similar to that described in the Vedas. I will add some interesting information related to this topic & the overall subject of the Indo-Aryans towards the end.
By the way, excavation of some Indus Valley sites shows evidence of large scale massacres & killings. Many scholars have considered that itself to be proof of the Aryan invasion. Similarly, I have also read accounts that challenge the authenticity of the Vedas today, at this point we do not know how much of the Vedas were corrupted. Remember that the Vedas is to Aryans as the Pentateuch is to the Children of Israel, it isn't too far fetched to assume that both have been corrupted over generations. Sometimes I myself get the feeling that certain dates or stories presented in the Vedas seem extremely exaggerated, including the stories referring to the Gods aiding Aryan conquests. My advice would be to not consider the Vedas as authentic as the Quran. Another factor to take in to consideration is that, what reason do the Vedas have to lie about the conquest carried out by fair skinned people? If it had not taken place, why would the people of that time come up with such a story?
Speaking of cultural continuity, the Vedic Aryans adopted many of the customs & traditions of the Harappan people, & to some extent managed to corrupt their own cultures over time. A similar thing occurred when the Persians & Medians arrived to the Iranian plateau & were influenced by Semitic cultures. Remember, the Aryans were initially nomadic tribes, & even the Sanskrit language at that point was unwritten. Other civilizations such as the Greeks adopted & modified the scripts developed by others such as the Phoenicians. Sanskrit is the oldest surviving Indo-European language in existence, how do you explain its existence in the Sub-Continent knowing that the only other related language called Avestan was spoken in the Iranian plateau? Similarly, its other sister Indo-European languages were spoken in Europe, what were they doing there & how did Sanskrit arrive in the Sub-Continent if no ancient Indo-European people once came to the Sub-Continent? The fact is that all sister languages were originally sprouted from a group of related people, similar to case of Arabic, Hebrew, Phoenician, etc.
I have already mentioned the similarity between the Aryan & Greek Pantheon. The Persians & Medians themselves are historically known to have referred to the Aryans of the Indus. Alexander the Great or should I say the Hellenic people knew about them as well. The Sanskrit language & Aryan culture is Indo-European. One important point that I want to make here is that many people hate the Aryan invasion theory because of ideological reasons, they feel it causes divisions & is a remnant of British colonialism. I am strongly against that view, the truth will remain the truth regardless of how much someone wishes to deny it.
Let's move on to genetic evidence. As I recall the haplogroup R1a is prevalent in most Pakistani people, particularly in the northern regions. That same haplogroup & its branches are present in some regions of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, etc. In some ways, this proves their migration from Central Asia.
Map of Haplogroup R1a of Y-DNA
R1a is a Y-chromosome haplogroup - It is believed by some scientists that all males that have this haplogroup in their Y-Chromosome are descendants of a few men that wintered the Last Ice Age or Last Maximum Glaciation in Ukraine, the Black Sea or a place near these areas.
Others dispute this theory and vote for an Eastern Origin. Some believe that the Indoeuropean or the "Aryans" had this haplogroup, but the same existence of the "Aryans" is disputed. It is possessed by some White Looking Populations in the North of India.
That is genetic evidence of the existence of the Indo-Aryan people. So far cultural, linguistic, historical, & genetic evidence point to their existence. Let me bring up the subject of race in this discussion. It is pointless to assume that the only difference between the Vedic people & the indigenous people is skin color. Race is not just about skin color, but takes in to consideration other phenotypes such as skull shape, body structure, etc. Race does exist, & that itself is evidence of the difference between the various ethnic groups in the Sub-Continent.
Finally, here is an article about unearthed Aryan cities that finally manages to change our perception of history. This new evidence points to the existence of the historical homeland of the Aryans called Andronovo & proves that the references present in the Vedas of the Aryan invasion were indeed accurate.
I have quoted some relevant portions of the article below.
Unearthed Aryan cities rewrite history
BRONZE Age cities archaeologists say could be the precursor of Western civilisation are being uncovered in excavations on the Russian steppe.
Twenty of the spiral-shaped settlements, believed to be the original home of the Aryan people, have been identified, and there are about 50 more suspected sites. They all lie buried in a region more than 640km long near Russia's border with Kazakhstan.
If archeologists confirm the cities as Aryan, they could be the remnants of a civilisation that spread through Europe and much of Asia. Their language has been identified as the precursor of modern Indo-European tongues, including English. Words such as brother, guest and oxen have been traced back to this prototype.
"We are all told that there is this kind of mother tongue, proto-Indo-European, from which all the languages we know emerge.
"Every now and again you suddenly notice these ghostly shapes of fortresses and cattle sheds and homes and religious sites. I would not have known these had he not shown them to me."
The shape of each of the cities, which are mainly in the Chelyabinsk district, resembles an ammonite fossil, divided into segments with a spiral street plan. The settlements, which would each have housed about 2000 people -- the same as an ancient Greek city such as Mycenae -- are all surrounded by a ditch and have a square in the middle.
The full extent of the remains is only now becoming apparent. Items that have so far been dug up include many pieces of pottery covered in swastikas, which were widely used ancient symbols of the sun and eternal life. The Nazis appropriated the Aryans and the swastika as symbols of their so-called master race. Ms Hughes believes that some of the strongest evidence that the cities could be the home of the Aryans comes from a series of horse burials.
Several ancient Indian texts believed to have been written by Aryans recount similar rituals. "These ancient Indian texts and hymns describe sacrifices of horses and burials and the way the meat is cut off and the way the horse is buried with its master," she said. "If you match this with the way the skeletons and the graves are being dug up in Russia, they are a millimetre-perfect match."
I think this should be more than enough evidence that a group of Indo-European tribes that referred to themselves as Aryans did indeed settle in the Indus, & they spoke their own Indo-European language called Sanskrit.
The Aryan presence in European continent is a different matter and not related to the sub-continental Aryan Invasion Theory.
I never brought up the Europeans, but the fact remains that some Indo-European tribes in Andronovo migrated towards Europe as well.
Below is another link I just discovered. I didn't get time to go through it, but I will post it anyway.
Recent Archeological Finds Confirming Vedic History
Additional evidence of the truths of Vedic culture is continually being uncovered. So this is a new project in which we will list some of the most noteworthy archeological finds that tend to confirm the Vedic descriptions of world history. There are also other papers that are included in which new developments or research are discussed. We will continue to update this information as new discoveries are developed, or as additional news is sent in to us. So if you learn of anything newsworthy in this regard, feel free to send it in to us so we might include it on this page.
