r/IndoEuropean • u/UnderstandingThin40 • 21d ago

Indo-European migrations New preprint claims that the Rigveda and Mittani/Hurrian song (hymn to Nikkal) have the same cadence and are from the same musical foundation

What do you guys think?

Paper: https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202506.1669/v2

Not an expert but this seems like a stretch?

Also the author doesn’t seem to know that the Mitanni come from the steppe and not India, making him seem less credible.

The paper also in general doesn’t come off as professional.

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u/GlobalImportance5295 21d ago

Also the author doesn’t seem to know that the Mitanni come from the steppe and not India, making him seem less credible.

we actually have no evidence of this. asko parpola is pretty convinced the mitanni reached at least the BMAC (which would have had connections with the IVC) before reaching Anatolia. he is one of the leading indologists: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346469122_Royal_Chariot_Burials_of_Sanauli_near_Delhi_and_Archaeological_Correlates_of_Prehistoric_Indo-Iranian_Languages

i don't agree with him on everything but the direct origin of the Mitanni migration is not as certain as you are thinking.

Aryans also have deeper penetration into Anatolia than just Mitanni land: https://imgur.com/a/aryan-i-uwa-aram-kosyan-iran-caucasus-vol-10-no-1-2006-pp-1-6-6-pages-qIUKIhg

additionally, the fact that the extinct "Syrian elephant" is literally just the Indian elephant and only shows up in Syria during the bronze age (starting ~1800BC) is curious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_elephant

It's not the first time these theories have been alluded to: https://imgur.com/a/mittanians-peacock-b-brentjes-1981-mfllFhv

(B. BRENTJES 1981: The Mittanians and the Peacock. Brentjes, Burchard, in "Ethnic Problems of the History of Central Asia in the Early Period")

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u/00022143 21d ago

The Syrian elephant, if not indegenious to Syria, could've come from trade with the  Meluhha/Harrappans.