Vasant Shinde speaks about Rakhigarhi excavation from Indus Valley Civilization

Prof. Vasant Shinde, currently the Vice-Chancellor of the Deccan College, Post-Graduate and Research Institute in Pune, is an Internationally renowned Archaeologist who is an expert on Indus Valley Civilization.

He was one of the scientists who worked on recovering the DNA material from Rakhigarhi woman and studying her DNA and compare that with the DNA material from remains of people from Iran and Turkmenistan.

The scientists had found that her DNA indigenous and matched the genealogical structure of the South Asians.

In fact, it was also found that some of the Harappan DNA had earlier been found in Iran and Gonur, Turkmenistan showing that Harappans were travelling the world 4500 years back. Please read our article – Genome sequence of skeleton from Rakhigarhi of Harappan civilization raises amazing questions!

What does DNA say about the Indus Valley Civilization (Harappan society)

Some of the important things that Dr. Shinde says are:

• They have been working in Rakhigarhi for 7 years. The samples of various kinds have been recovered samples for 2 years. However, they did not provide proper DNA material.
• Dr. Shinde’s team discussed the methodology with Koreans and Japanese who advised him to use a better methodology for recovering DNA from one skeleton remains. There were signatures in 5 skeletons, but this woman provided a big sample of DNA material. This woman lived 4500 years old from Harappa.
• The Indus Valley Civilization (or Harappan) woman’s DNA was very different from the DNA material found from Iran and Steppe region and middle east. Her DNA material, in fact, was very similar to the genes of ‘hunter-gatherers’ from Andaman.
• These people had established a village life.
• The DNA also clearly indicates the ancestry of the people is different from Iran and Central Asian and is certainly South Asian.
• Also indicates that the civilizational development did not come from West or Central Asia. In fact, also have found Harappan materials and DNA in Gonur in Turkmenistan. These people from Indus Valley Civilization (or Harappan society) had started moving out to different parts of the world.
• A lot of our educational material and studies are based on guesswork and conjectures. Going forward, information based on scientific data should be the basis of our studies and education.
• Mehrgarh had earlier produced evidence of development. The combined Indus Valley Civilization (Harappan sites) Indicate local origin and growth. There was a continuous development of Harappan civilization. And, we know that Andaman to Kashmir is one civilization.
• Finally, most importantly – South Asians do not have any division of Aryan and Dravidians but instead have one ancestry.

Conclusion

It is becoming more and more clear based on scientific evidence that Indus Valley Civilization or Harappan Civilization is after all linked to the DNA of modern Indians. Not just that, there is enough evidence that these Indus Valley people also ventured out to other parts of the world across the Himalayas. And, that is quite remarkable!

Featured Image: Sciencemag