Genetic Evidence on the Origins of Indian Caste Populations

The Indian origin of paternal haplogroup R1a1* substantiates the autochthonous origin of Brahmins and the caste system

“…6 The fifth class, 'Panchama' (standing for tribals), was added at a later date, giving them the lowest rank. 11 The co-existence of IE tribes and DR castes indicates a complex historical interaction and suggests no 'one to one correlation' between language and this social organization. 12 In spite of the consensus on the relatively uniform maternal gene pool of Indian populations and the large efforts through many philological, 13,14 archaeological 15,16 and recent molecular genetic approaches to elucidate rival models, 6,7,9,11,12,[17][18][19][20][21] the history and concepts of the origin of the caste system are still controversial and unclear.…”

“…11 The co-existence of IE tribes and DR castes indicates a complex historical interaction and suggests no 'one to one correlation' between language and this social organization. 12 In spite of the consensus on the relatively uniform maternal gene pool of Indian populations and the large efforts through many philological, 13,14 archaeological 15,16 and recent molecular genetic approaches to elucidate rival models, 6,7,9,11,12,[17][18][19][20][21] the history and concepts of the origin of the caste system are still controversial and unclear. The competing main models (the first of them based on shared IE languages) suggest that contemporary Hindu Indians are descendants of primarily West Eurasians who migrated from the Near east, Antolia and the Caucasus 3000-8000 years ago, 13,14 which has been supported by the demic diffusion model 1,22 and validated by molecular genetic data.…”

“…The competing main models (the first of them based on shared IE languages) suggest that contemporary Hindu Indians are descendants of primarily West Eurasians who migrated from the Near east, Antolia and the Caucasus 3000-8000 years ago, 13,14 which has been supported by the demic diffusion model 1,22 and validated by molecular genetic data. 7,11 The second model, based on molecular genetic data, mainly the Y-chromosomal M17 marker (R1a1 haplogroup), suggests the migration of IE people from Central Asia to India. 23 Another model suggests that later on 'not alone but a package' of Y-haplogroups migrated from Central Asia, introducing the caste system to India.…”

“…2,11,[25][26][27] To test the concepts of Central Asian introduction of the Indian caste system 7 by Indo-Aryans, who plausibly and predominantly appointed themselves to castes of higher rank to legitimize and maintain their power on land, labor and resources; 14 and to test the rank-related West Eurasian admixture, 11,21 we chose the Brahmin class, occupying similar socioeconomic upper-most caste positions, and the schedule castes and tribals, occupying the lower-most positions in the Indian caste hierarchy, irrespective of linguistic and geographic affiliations within India, for an ideal comparative study.…”

The Soliga, an isolated tribe from Southern India: genetic diversity and phylogenetic affinities

“…Several genetic studies 5,6,[32][33][34] involving Indian populations have been published but they fail to reach a consensus on the origins of castes and tribes in India. A recent genome-wide study 35 employing more than 500 000 SNPs revealed that the modern Indian populations are a mixture of two source populations, the ancestral South Indians (ASI) and the ancestral North Indians (ANI).…”