India.[18][5] The migration of the Indo-Aryans was part of the larger diffusion of Indo-European
languages from the Proto-Indo-European homeland at the Pontic–Caspian steppe which started in the
4th millennia BCE.[5][19][20] The GGC, Cemetery H, Copper Hoard, OCP, and PGW cultures are candidates
for cultures associated with Indo-Aryans.
The Indo-Aryans were united by shared cultural norms and language, referred to as aryā 'noble'. Over
the last four millennia, the Indo-Aryan culture has evolved particularly inside India itself, but its origins
are in the conflation of values and heritage of the Indo-Aryan and indigenous people groups of
India.[21] Diffusion of this culture and language took place by patron-client systems, which allowed for
the absorption and acculturation of other groups into this culture, and explains the strong influence on
other cultures with which it interacted.
While the Indo-Aryan linguistic group occupies mainly northern parts of India, genetically, all South
Asians across the Indian subcontinent are descendants of a mix of South Asian hunter-gatherers, Iranian
hunter-gatherers, and Central Asian steppe pastoralists in varying proportion.[22][23] Additionally,
Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burmese speaking people contributed to the genetic make-up of South Asia.[24]
Indigenous Aryanism propagates the idea that the Indo-Aryans were indigenous to the Indian
subcontinent, and that the Indo-European languages spread from there to central Asia and Europe.
Contemporary support for this idea is ideologically driven, and has no basis in objective data and
mainstream scholarship.[25][26][27][28][29]
List of historical Indo-Aryan peoples
See also: List of ancient Indo-Aryan peoples and tribes
Anga Bahlikas
Bharatas Caidyas
Dewa Gāndhārīs
Gangaridai Kambojas
Kalinga Kasmira
Kekaya Khasas
Kikata Koliya
Kosala