Before the publication of two iconic research papers in top science Journals Science and Cell, some scholars believed that most of the early cultural developments such as domestication, settled way of life, introduction of basic crafts and technologies, formation of villages and development of urban life in India took place primarily due to the advent of people from outside the subcontinent. Also, it is hypothesized that the invaders or migrants (called Aryans) either from Steppe region or the West displaced the Dravidian Harappans to the south or decimated them and established Vedic culture and introduced Indo-Aryan languages in the Subcontinent.

 

The recent scientific analysis of archaeological, DNA and Craniofacial data from Rakhigarhi have seriously challenged earlier held hypotheses mentioned. The archaeological data clearly indicates indigenous development of domestication, basic crafts, village, and urban life, gradually by the indigenous people of South Asia. The DNA data shows an emergence of South Asian ancestry around 12000 BCE, which continues till date through the Harappan Civilization. The Craniofacial Reconstruction of some Harappan individuals is remarkably similar to the modern people of Haryana and Punjab. There is a strong possibility of the indigenous Harappans being mentioned in the Rgvedic text as Vedic Aryans and they could have introduced an early form of Sanskrit language. These technologically advanced people first began to move outside the Subcontinent and there is a strong possibility that the culture and language spread beyond South Asia with their dispersal The remarkable cultural and genetic continuity for almost 14000 years in South Asia negates possibilities of migration or invasion. Of course, throughout the period from the beginning of the settled life to date, the mixing of populations from different regions is visible.