The findings of Rakhigarhi Project can prove to be a game changer setting aside the long imposed view that Aryans were invaders and Harrapans were Dravidians killed by Aryans. Here is all that you want to know about the Rakhigarhi Project:
What is Rakihgarhi Project?
Rakhigarhi Project of International significance was established in 2011-12. It was headed by Professor Vasant Shinde of Deccan College, Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Deemed University. The Archeological excavations were conducted jointly between Deccan College and the Department of Archeology and Museums, Government of Haryana and Prof. Shinde led the team of excavators. Dr. Niraj Rai, then from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) Hyderabad and Prof. David Reich from Harvard School of Medicine, Boston, USA led the team of Genetic scientists for ancient DNA studies. Rakhigarhi in Hissar District of Haryana, is the largest city of the Harappan Civilization located almost in the middle of the Saraswati basin. Along with settlement, the Cemetery of the Harappans was also excavated and the remains from that were subjected to scientific research, including DNA studies. Though the site was under occupation from Early Harappan (5500 BCE-2600 BCE) to Mature Harappan (2600 BCE 1900 BCE), the cemetery belongs to the Mature (Urban) phase of the Harappan Culture dated from 2500-1900 BCE, based on material remains found in them.
This important research, which will change perspective of not only Indian History but also World History, was being awaited by scholars and common people alike for long.
– Researchers have successfully sequenced the first genome of an individual from the Harappan site of Rakhigarhi located in the Saraswati basin. This is the most expensive single aDNA project in the country, which has generated, for the first time, most scientific evidence about the people who initiated domestication and settled way of life in South Asia, authors of the Harappan Civilization and the Vedic people and the ancestry of the modern South Asians.
-This research has established that most of the early developments such as introduction of basic science and technology, settled way of life, domestication of plant and animal, first urban development, etc. were done by the indigenous people of South Asia.
– A mainstream view in archaeology and history has been that people from the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East- home to the earliest evidence of farming- spread across the Iranian plateau and from there into South Asia, bringing with them a new and transformative economy system. Some archaeologists and historians have neglected, intentionally or unintentionally, archaeological data from some excavated sites in the subcontinent, which strongly support indigenous development of domestication and settled way of life. The archaeological sites such as Mehrgarh in Baluchistan, Pakistan and Bhirana, Girawad, Mitathal, Farmana, Kunal, etc. in the Saraswati basin in India have provided ample convincing evidence for the indigenous origin and development starting from 7000 BCE. At most of the sites mentioned the different stages of development have been evident in their material culture, culminating and transforming into the Harappan tradition.
– The Harappan Civilization (2500-1900 BCE) was contemporary to the Mesopotamian and Egyptian Civilizations and they had regular trade contact with each other. The Harappan Civilization that laid the foundation of the Indian culture had different philosophy compared to their contemporaries. The Harappans have contributed immensely to the history of the world. They are pioneers in the development of well-planned cities and towns with perfect drainage and sewage pattern, introduced scientific construction methods, textile and silk industry, Ayurveda and Yoga sciences, scientific agriculture system and tools, etc. They were peace loving people. Basic technologies and sciences developed to manufacture a variety of tools, jewelry, domestic objects, textile, etc. continued and are in use even today and they are relevant to the South Asian Society. The South Asians have not forgotten some of the traditional Harappan agriculture system, food habits, housing pattern, health science, etc.
-Genetic Data: The genetic data comes mainly from the skeletal remains very securely and scientifically excavated from the Harappan cemetery at Rakhigarhi. The Harappans usually buried human dead in a separate cemetery, and in the case of Rakhigarhi it is located roughly one km to the west of their main city. The team of excavators took utmost precaution while excavating the cemetery to prevent any contamination. Each burial was excavated separately, which was immediately documented and the skeletal remains packed in silver foil and sent to the Deccan College lab for scientific cleaning and sampling. The skeletal remains were carefully cleaned by trained scholars in the Deccan College laboratory by taking proper precaution and then selected samples were transported to the aDNA lab of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad for sampling. Dr. Niraj Rai used clean room to collect samples mainly from the petrous bone and prepared two libraries of each sample. The prepared libraries were first analyzed and sequenced by Dr. Rai in India. The second set of the Libraries was then provided to Dr. David Reich from the Harvard Medical School, Harvard University for further sequencing, analysis and cross-checking. As the signature of the DNA in the Harappan human bones was weak, Dr. Reich carried out hundreds of different tests and finally succeeded obtaining signature of DNA from a few skeletal remains. Hot fluctuating climates like those found in many parts of lowland South Asia are detrimental to the preservation of DNA. So despite importance of the Harappan Civilization, it has been impossible until now to sequence DNA. However, one of the skeletal remains from Rakhigarhi provided very strong signature, which has thrown new light on who are the Harappan people and their relations with the contemporary world as well as modern people of South Asia.
-The DNA results of Rakhigarhi samples were compared with the modern population of South Asia. In order to check Harappan people’s relation with their contemporaries from the Steppe region and Iran comparative DNA analysis was undertaken with samples from two important archaeological sites namely Gonur in Turkmenistan, Central Asia and Sahr-i-Sokhta from Iran.
-The Genome evidence is completely complementary to the Archaeological evidence related to the population.
Conclusions:
There were many theories about the genetic origin of the people of the Harappan Civilization. “They could resemble Southeast Asian hunter-gathers or they could resemble Neolithic Iranians farmers or they could even resemble Steppe pastoralists. Sir Mortimer Wheeler, one of the excavators of the site of Harappa in Pakistan even proposed that the Harappans were Dravidians and they were killed by the invading Aryans- these all were plausible hypotheses and myths prior to the ancient DNA findings.
