Indo-Europeans in Ancient India

About 1500 BC, India was invaded by Indo-European people. These people came from the area between the Black Sea and the Caspian sea. Between 2500 and 2000 BC, many Indo-Europeans migrated all over Eurasia. Some went to Europe and became the Romans and the Greeks, some settled in Turkey and became the Hittites. Others migrated south-east instead. Some of them stopped in Iran, while others continued south-east to Pakistan and India. The slow migration did not arrive in northern India until about 1500 BC. In India, the Indo-Europeans are usually called the Aryans.

The Aryans first settled along the Indus River, in the same place where the Harappa people had lived. They settled down and mixed with the local Indian people. They lived there from about 1500 BC to about 800 BC. It seems to be at this time that the caste system got started in India.

About 800 BC, the Aryans learned how to use iron for weapons and tools. They probably learned to work iron from the people of West Asia, the Assyrians, who had learned it from the Indo-European Hittites. Once the Aryans learned how to use iron, they used their new weapons to conquer more of India, and moved to the south and east into the Ganges river valley. They settled there not long after 800 BC.

Ancient Languages and Literature

Two major language groups were spoken in the Mediterranean and Western Asian areas in the ancient and medieval periods. These are Indo-European and Semitic. In southern Africa, most people spoke either a Bantu language or a Khoisan language. Indo-European languages came to be spoken in India as well, but other languages also were spoken. In Central Asia, most people spoke variations of Turkic languages. And in China, people spoke different variants of Chinese.

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