Major migrations in India
Toba eruption 75k years back restricted spread of humans and caused brief pause in human activity in South Asia. The study, published in Nature Communications, suggests Homo sapiens were present in Asia earlier than expected and that the Toba super-eruption was not as apocalyptic as first believed. It describes a unique 80,000 year-long record of rock layers from the Dhaba site in northern India’s Middle Son Valley. Stone tools uncovered at Dhaba in association with the timing of the Toba event indicate that Middle Palaeolithic tool-using populations were present in India prior to and after 74,000 years ago. Professor Jagannath Pal, from the University of Allahabad in India, said: “Although Toba ash was first identified in the Son Valley back in the 1980s, until now we did not have associated archaeological evidence, so the Dhaba site fills in a major chronological gap.” There was 1000 year cooling of earth following this eruption.
Theories had previously suggested the eruption would have led to major catastrophes, including the decimation of hominin populations and mammal populations in Asia. Hominins are members of the human family tree more closely related to one another than to apes. Today, only one species of this group remains – Homo sapiens, to which everyone on Earth belongs. After the eruption, the few surviving Homo sapiens in Africa were believed to have survived by developing sophisticated social, symbolic and economic strategies that enabled them to eventually re-expand and populate Asia 60,000 years ago. The earliest humans were probably C and D haplogroup Andaman islanders like. The initial settlement of South Asia, between 40,000 and 70,000 years ago, was most likely over the southern route from Africa major expansion of haplogroup M, which is the most frequent mtDNA component in India, is virtually absent in the Near East and Southwest Asia.
Michael Petraglia and his team of archeologists discovered stone tools at Jwalapuram in Andhra Pradesh, South India, above and below a thick layer of ash from the Toba eruption. These tools match those used in Africa from the same period and suggested the presence of modern humans in India at the time of the Toba event. A recent theory from Mellors et all refutes this research and contends that these were prehuman species.
Archaeologists recently discovered Homo sapiens balangodensis (Balangoda man) in Sri Lanka, dated to ~37 kya. Other findings include the prehistoric rock shelters of Bhimbetka near Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, India, which date back to 30,000 BCE. These rock shelters served as habitation sites during the lower Paleolithic period. There are more than 700 caves with more than 400 paintings carved in stone, which makes them one of the oldest known rock art sites in the world. These cave paintings probably point to the earliest H1/F1 migrations into the subcontinent.
After the Holocene there was migrations of all kinds of farmers in South Asia due to availability of perennial rivers. A model of admixture covering most South Asians developed by Shinde shows there was addition of Iran farmer like genome into Andaman tribe like people in antiquity and starting Holocene we can see various new streams of people from West mixing into Indians depending upon social status. There are many Neolithic farmer settlements found in India that correspond to J2a people from Iran. Worldwide spatial distribution of haplogroup (HG) J2a-M410 coincides with presence of archaeological records of painted pottery and ceramic figurine culture. Similar material culture dating ~9 KYA has been recovered from the Neolithic sites of Mehrgarh located West of Indus Valley (now in Pakistan). High frequencies of J2a-M410 (17–50% in Toda, Chenchu, Banjara, Kamboj, Lohana and Kashmiri Muslims etc.) and J2b-M102 (15–35% in Asur, Narikuravar, Pichakuntla, Shikari and Mondi, etc.) in several tribal populations show that there were ancient migrations from Iran which is dissipated now.
Together, haplogroups R1, R2, L, O, H, J2, and C characterize >90% of the Y-chromosomal variation in all socio-linguistic groups of India. There are major clusters of expansion associated with haplogroups starting from H1 in 30k-3k ybp, L1 in 5k-3k, R2 in 3.5k-1k, R1 in 3.5k-1k, J2 in 9k-1k and O in 14k-1k. Each of these major haplogroups have expanded in different fashion in different areas and in different times.
The earliest of these people associated with the H1 haplogroup who are present widely among Tribals and Caste population have built huge number of Megalithic monuments all over South Asia which share many features with the similar monuments world wide. 15 The Chitrolekha Journal on Art and Design, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2018 perhaps is because that the subject has not received as much academic attention and discussion as it deserves, especially in recent times, when our understanding of megaliths, especially in the subcontinent of India, has grown tremendously. The hypothesis that India, UK and Europe during the Neolithic or Metal Ages had perhaps established a connection among themselves which resulted in the construction of the similar megalithic architectures has been snubbed. But a profound study indeed suggests that such a contact did really transpire between these places which could have led to the creation of the matching megalithic structures both in Europe and India. Terence Meaden considers that “Neolithic India bore similarities with Neolithic Britain and Ireland…” (Meaden 1992). Quite a few Indian scholars too find this similarity of megaliths to be quite remarkable which they believe “…point out towards a cultural link in the distant past.” (Thapar & Sharma 1994). That India and UK had an alliance in the prehistoric times was also perceived by many Indian scholars of the colonial era.
Scholars have learnt that megaliths of the Neolithic times were temples of the now obsolete fertility cult of the ubiquitous Mother Goddess. Mother tribes all over ancient Britain, Europe and the Middle East raised megaliths in honour of the Great Goddess (Gimbutas 1991). The burial practices of megalithic tribes across India also reveal fertility customs (van Exem 1982)(Das 2018) and their traditions show their conviction towards the Mother Goddesses. These burials also disclose that akin to corresponding monuments in the British Isles and France these were also built as symbols of the Great Goddesses’ wombs, hence were shrines that also celebrated her glory (Das 2009). Pit burials are referred to in the Rig Veda as “mrinmayam graham” with an appeal (RV X; 18, 11) to Mother Earth to rise up and cover the dead with her garment like a mother to a child (Sundara 1975). Akin to many megaliths of Britain as Newgrange, Stonehenge and Callanish etc, several of these monuments in India too have been found to be oriented towards the significant sunrises and sets and the cardinal points. In 1956 F. R. Allchin, the noted archaeologist authored a ground-breaking paper called “Stone Alignments of Hyderabad” (Allchin 1956) which mentioned 40 megaliths including Nilurallu, Hanamsagar and Vibhuthihalli etc in the region of South Hyderabad that verified astronomical alignments. Gordon quite aware of astronomical significance and the measurements of many megaliths in UK was startled to see precise dimensions of the similar kind of a few stone circles in Deosa in Rajasthan of which no trace now remains (Gordon 1960). The author’s discoveries of a several megaliths also reveal alignments towards sunrises and sets of the equinoxes and the solstices much similar to several archaeoastronomical megaliths in Britain and Europe (Das 2018)
The Gonds, Bhils, Mundas and the Santals are the largest tribes of India among numerous others. Anthropologically speaking the former two are Dravidian whereas the remaining two are labelled as proto austroloid Kolarian tribes speaking the different austric Mundari languages (Verma 1990) The Mundas are a megalithic tribe who still build megaliths on their dead since the Neolithic/Chalcolithic era. Their sister tribes the Sabara, Baiga, Ho, Birhor, Santhals and the iron smelting Asura et al speak separate variants of the austric Mundari language. However among these tribes today only a few have retained megalithic burial practices. Prior to the Aryanisation of India the various Kolarian Mundari tribes were such a predominant force in prehistoric India that S.C.Roy, the doyen of Indian anthropology and ethnography insisted that ancient India should have been named Kolvrata instead or the Aryan Aryavrata (owing to the predominance of the Kolarian tribes in ancient India) (Roy 1912). The eminent linguist Suniti Kr. Chatterjee determinedly believed that the tribal Mundari speech extended from the Ganges valley and the Himalayan slopes though Bengal right up to the Mekong valley.
The Earliest Neolithic movements prior to formation of these tribal groups after the initial dispersion of H1 haplogroup in Paleolithic times probably led to the formation of the Yogic god found in many initial Indus valley seals.
The movement of Lord Shiva which probably formed from the Paleolithic era settlements and the domestication of the Bull and Yogic meditating posture. The earliest H1a y-dna and U2a mtdna probably corresponds to the Lord Shiva and Parvati. The presence of H1a y-dna and upper among the Mesolithic Europe samples indicates there was a cline of Basal European genome prior to the movement of CHG mixed groups into Europe. The earliest H samples in Europe as shown below show heavy presence of Paleolithic and Basal Eurasian mtDNA clades. This was probably the autosomal admixture of these earliest H1a/F people present in South Asia. The mtDNA prior to arrival of these people was mtDNA M which is ubiquitous today in South Asia, SE Asia, E Asia, C Asia and NE Africa. The earliest Andaman tribal people possesed this mtDNA, which has coalescence time of 65k-70k years before present. Even today the H clades form close to 25-30% of the y-dna in South Asia and the Upper paleolithic mtdna clades form close to 5-10% in South Asia. Previously, the macrohaplogroup, GHIJK, descended from F in India around 45 to 50 Kya (https://isogg.org). H and J haplogroups radiated out from GHIJK at different times and locations within Asia. The split of y-dna H from the HIJK clades in West Asia to H1, H2 and H3 was around 45k Years before present. Then the H2 stayed in that area and later expanded into Europe during Mesolithic time, whereas the H1/H3 clades expanded into South Asia during Paleolithic times where many Settlements indicate presence of humans from that time. The autosomal mix of these people which probably was Upper Paleolthic mtDNA and Basal Eurasian mtDNA stayed so until the arrival of farmers from North Africa/Iran/Levant/Anatolia around Holocene time. These people made lot of impact on the early group since today more than 75% of the autosome of the native South Asians are considered sourced from Iran Neolithic. Also some of the tribal people who lack the autosome of later farmers in Neolithic and Chalcolithic display extra Basal Eurasian affinity.
| UC_HGL_905 – | HIJK-PF3494 (HIJ) | W6a | 1174 | Czech Republic – Warrior/Viking_Bohemia | |
| UC_HGL_908 – Burial102: The Diva | HIJK-PF3494 (HIJ) | U5a2a1b | 900 | Czech Republic – Bohemian_Nobility | |
| UZZ33 – Grotta dell’Uzzo, Sicily | H-L901 (H) | U8b1b1 | 7325 | Italy – Stentinello I | |
| I2376 – Tiszadob-Ókenéz | H-L901 (H) | HV0a | 7200 | Hungary – ALPc_Tiszadob_Bükk_MN | |
| I2352 – Veszprém Jutasi út | H-L901 (H) | U8b1a2b | 6600 | Hungary – Lengyel_LN | |
| san216 – San Quílez, Basque country | H-L901 (H) | X2b | 5657 | Spain – Iberia LN | |
| SB460A2_lib.SG | H3a2 | Wales_Mesolithic_lc.SG | |||
| SCH011.A0101 | F or H1a2a | Germany_LBK_SCH | |||
| I2335 | H3 | Iran_C_TepeHissar_lc |
Then H2 clade had rapid expansion during Magdalenian time in Europe and in Near East as part of Mesolithic movements where even today small percent of population has that y-dna.
| Brillenhohle – Swabian Jura, Baden-Württemberg, Germany | H-P96 (H2) | U8a | 14817 | Germany – Magdalenian |
| I1700 – ‘Ain Ghazal | H-P96 (H2) | T1a2 | 10050 | Jordan – PPNB |
| I0867 – Motza | H-P96 (H2) | K1a4b | 8700 | Israel – PPNB |
| I1101 – Barcın Höyük | H-P96* (H2*) | T2b | 8300 | Turkey – Northwest_Anatolia_N (Ceramic) |
| I0745 – Barcın Höyük | H-SK1180 (H2m) | U8b1b1 | 8243 | Turkey – Northwest_Anatolia_N (Ceramic) |
| I0709 – Barcın Höyük | H-BY102409 (H2m) | U3 | 8085 | Turkey – Northwest_Anatolia_N (Ceramic) |
| I1878 – Alsónyék-Bátaszék, Mérnöki telep | H-FT1572 (H2d) | T1a2 | 7687 | Hungary – Starcevo_EN |
| KRD001 – Hatay Province | H-Z15373 (H2d) | .. | 7629 | Turkey – TellKurdu_EC |
| I0174 – Alsonyek-Bataszek | H-FT69183 (H2.) | N1a1a1 | 7558 | Hungary – Starcevo_EN |
| ARO008 – Aruchlo | H-P96* (H2*) | n/a | 7463 | Georgia – NA |
| I2382 – Mezőkövesd-Mocsolyás | H-P96 (H2) | U8b1b | 7350 | Hungary – ALPc_Szatmar_MN |
| UZZ33 – Grotta dell’Uzzo, Sicily | H-L901 (H) | U8b1b1 | 7325 | Italy – Stentinello I |
| UZZ033 – Grotta dell’Uzzo | H-P96 (H2) | U8b1b1 | 7325 | Italy – Sicily_EN |
There was addition of maternal lineages from early Basal Eurasians to Upper Paleolithic and then Iran Farmer to huge AustroAsiatic expansion just before IA coinciding with end of the Harappan culture due to climate change
Lack of Central Asian-derived NRY haplogroups (C3, DE, J*, I, G, N, O) along with R1a expansion in Middle Late Bronze Age shows some event triggered very rapid movement of R1a into South Asia and mixed with existing population. Expansion of R2a in most cases is correlated with expansion of R1a in South Asia with the establishment of fishing and agriculture colonies. There is a recent late IA R2b expansion in NW part which probably during the expansion of Indian rule in South Asia after the Mauryan expansion.
Bibliography
- Das, Subhashis. (2019). Mystery of the Similarities of Indian, European and British Megaliths: a Consideration of Possible Influences in Antiquity. Chitrolekha Journal on Art and Design. Vol 2. 14 – 30. 10.21659/cjad.23.v2n302.
- David Mahal. Front. Genet., 23 January 2018 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2018.00004
- Sanghamitra Sahoo Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 2006, 103 (4) 843-848; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0507714103
