Chapter 7 Religion, Skin Colour and Language: Arya and Non-Arya Identity in the Vedic Period 1 The story of the early migrations into the northwest of the Indian subcontinent of the peoples who called themselves ‘Aryas’ is probably the most ideologically charged topic in the ancient history of the region. 2 Within this much disputed field, a particularly sensitive issue has been that of how the early Aryas marked off the ethnic boundary between themselves and the already existing populations that they encountered in the Punjab. Before about 1975, most Vedic scholars claimed that skin colour was the key marker used by the Aryas to distinguish themselves from the local peoples called ‘Dasas’ or ‘Dasyus’. After 1 The essay is a considerably revised version of papers earlier presented in the Madison South Asia Conference, October 2002, and at the École de Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, March 2004. Scholars who contributed helpful suggestions include Catherine Clémentin-Ojha, Madhav Deshpande, Timothy Lubin, and Thomas Trautmann. Since much of this essay deals with textual materials in Vedic Sanskrit, I have employed diacritics throughout (without the Vedic accents) except for anglicized words like ‘Shudra’ and ‘Upanishad’. 2 As this sentence indirectly indicates, I am convinced that recent theories about the original Indian home of the Aryas are highly implausible and not worthy of serious consideration. Nonetheless, one does have to admit that the Rg-veda, the earliest written source that associated with the Aryas, does not directly refer to the presumed migration of the Aryas into the northwestern South Asia from Afghanistan. The absence of any such references make both the date and the modus operandi of the migration subject to much speculation, as will be seen from the discussion that follows. Nonetheless, the linguistic, archaeological and genetic evidence that there was such a migration is overwhelming.