[[File:From Corded Ware to SintashtaMap of Aryan migration into India.jpggif|thumb|Relationship between The Aryans entered India from Central Asia. They went through the Yamnya and Corded Ware culturesKhyber Pass, which cuts through the Hindu Kush mountain range.]]The '''Aryans''', Sanskrit ''Ārya'', were a group who invaded India from the north around 1500 BC as recorded in the ''Rigveda'', the earliest Indian literary work. They are thought to be an offshoot of the Corded Ware people of northern Europe. They may have spoken an Indo-European language ancestral to Sanskrit and to other Indian languages of the Indo-Iranian language family.
In Sanskrit, the language of the Indian classics, ''Ārya'' means noble. Sanskrit is the ancestral language of most modern Indian languages and a member of the Indo-Iranian language family. The word ''Ārya'' is cognate with ''Ariya'', a native name for Iran.<ref>"[https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/1.5127018 How 'Iran' and 'Aryan' Are Related]," ''Haartz''</ref>
==Yamnaya and Corded Ware cultures==
[[File:From Corded Ware to Sintashta.jpg|thumb|left|The Indo-European languages spread across northern Europe due to a mass migration of the Corded Ware people that occurred around 2900 BC.]]
Genetic studies show that the Brahmin caste, the highest Indian caste, has a higher portion of DNA related to the Yamnaya Culture found north of the Black Sea.<ref>Daniyal, Shoaib, "[https://scroll.in/article/936872/two-new-genetic-studies-upheld-aryan-migration-theory-so-why-did-indian-media-report-the-opposite Two new genetic studies upheld Indo-Aryan migration. So why did Indian media report the opposite?]"</ref> The Yamnaya flourished from 3300–2600 BC. They are thought to have spoken Proto-Indo-European, the ancestral language of the Indo-European language family.
[[File:Yamna Man.jpg|thumb|left|A reconstruction of a Yamnaya man. The Yamnaya are thought have been speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language]]
The Yamnaya and related peoples on the eastern European steppe were pastoralists who conquered various farming peoples of eastern Europe. They likely slaughtered the men of the farming communities and married, raped, or enslaved the women, as their Y-DNA is dominant in Europe. This resulted in the creation of the Corded Ware culture, which lasted from 2900 – 2350 BC. The Yamnaya do not have the same Y-DNA makeup as the Corded Ware and Bell Beaker Cultures, suggesting that the Yamnaya were related to these groups only in terms of male ancestry.
The Yamnaya and related peoples on the eastern European steppe were pastoralists who conquered various farming peoples of eastern Europe. They likely slaughtered the men of the farming communities and married, raped, or enslaved the women, as their Y-DNA is dominant in Europe. This resulted in the creation of the Corded Ware culture, which lasted from 2900 – 2350 BC.
[[File:Yamna Man.jpg|thumb|right|A reconstruction of a Yamnaya man. The Yamnaya are thought have been speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language]]
The two cultures are easily distinguished archeologically because the Yamnaya entombed their dead in mounds while the Corded Ware people dug pits. Reconstructions based on skeletal remains suggest that the Yamnaya had black hair and olive skin, like modern southern Europeans. The Corded Ware people had blonde hair and lighter pigmentation. That is to say, these features are a result of intermarriage between the Yamnaya and the Neolithic farming community. The Sintashta and Andronovo peoples had even lighter pigmentation.
Corded Ware culture spread widely, both eastward into the Asian steppe and westward into central Europe. This caused Proto-Indo-European to fracture into proto-Germanic, proto-Baltic, and other pre-historic ancestor languages. The easternmost branch of the Corded Ware became the Andronovo (2000–900 BC), an archaeological culture of the central Asian steppe. This group is thought to have spoken Proto-Indo-Iranian and entered India by way of the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor.
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==A master race?==
In 1786, Sir William Jones showed that Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit were members of a single language family, now called Indo-European. This finding suggested that the Aryans who invaded India in vedic times had a European origin.