The Indo-Aryan migration
Steppe-descended groups move into South Asia after the Indus cities fail.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 300 years
- Known to
- ± 100 years
- Era
- Bronze Age, Holocene
From around 1500 BCE, populations carrying steppe ancestry and speaking early Indo-Aryan enter northwest South Asia, arriving after rather than causing the decline of the Indus cities. The genetic evidence for the movement is now strong, though it remains politically contested in India. Their language becomes Sanskrit and the ancestor of most modern North Indian languages, while Dravidian languages persist in the south.