The antiquity, genetic affinity among Austro-Asiatic, Dravidian and Tibeto-Burman tribes of India.

What is it about?

The publication address the intriguing question about the antiquity of Indian populations. The investigation becomes complicated because of the dichotomy between language, morphology and ethnicity. In simple, Dravidian tribes and Mundari, Santal tribes who speak Austro-Asiatic language share same physical features and geographic contiguity but speak different languages. Whereas Khasi who speak Austro-Asiatic speak language, share East Asian physical features and live in Northeast share physical features common to other Tibeto-Burman speaking languages, but speak a common language with Mundari and Santal Tribes of central India. To investigate the dichotomy, the study proposed plausible hypothesis and investigates the genetic relationship among Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic and Tibetan-Speaking tribes based on STR markers. The result of the study indicates that genetically Khasi tribe cluster with Tibeto-Burman tribes in North-East, where as Mundari, Santhal and Dravidian tribes cluster together. The results, thus indicate language sharing between Khasi and Mundari possible a case of linguistic diffusion and do not indicate common origin. Based on the results obtained the study proposes possible scenarios of antiquity and origin of Indian tribes.

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Why is it important?

This address one of the nagging and intriguing question about the origin, antiquity and affinity about tribes in India. There are diverse hypothesis, explanations and propositions about the origin and antiquity of diverse tribal population. The publication address and proposes possible scenarios (hypotheses) of antiquity and past history of Indian tribes. These hypothesis have been tested with the STR data.

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