r/IndoEuropean • u/UnderstandingThin40 • 25d 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/UnderstandingThin40 25d ago

You didn’t answer my question: did you say that there is no evidence that the Mitanni came from the steppe? 

And yes there is indeed linguistic and dna evidence. There is even  recent archeological evidence tying the andronovo to Vedic rituals. 

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u/GlobalImportance5295 25d ago

in your OP you say

come from the steppe and not India, making him seem less credible.

when you say "come from" i took it as "directly migrated from". there is no evidence of it. there is no reason to believe the author is not credible

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u/UnderstandingThin40 25d ago

So you misinterpreted what I said then -__-

The author states “ The archaeological evidence for the Vedic language that Mitanni has left is somewhat unconventional. It is not a full text written in Vedic. Instead, only individual words have remained, and these Vedic or Old Indic words fall in a narrow list of three categories: 1.) terms related to horsemanship, 2.) Vedic names of gods, and 3.) other Vedic names (Novák, 2007; Spinney, 2025; Gernot, 1989).”

They have a profound misconception about the Mitanni. The Mitanni don’t have vedic words or rigvedic words, they have indo aryan words. Vedic and Mitanni words have the same root, they aren’t the same language. The authors consistent mistakes about how the Mitanni spoke a vedic language seems to imply they think the Mitanni came from India because those who speak Vedic languages are by definition from India or the NW of the subcontinent. The predecessor to the vedic language in the steppe is indo aryan.

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u/GlobalImportance5295 25d ago

The predecessor to the vedic language in the steppe is indo aryan

irrespective of location, i think you mean Proto-Aryan?

academics consider it plausible that the split in Indo-Iranian that became Proto-Iranian and and Proto-Aryan happened in the BMAC after Indo-Iranians left the steppe. you seem to be convinced otherwise. it's not so. i think that's the source of your misunderstanding. the soma ritual tied to praise poetry would have already been formalized before the split. the mitanni migration would have happened after that split

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u/UnderstandingThin40 25d ago

No I would agree they went to bmac first and mingled with them and then migrated out to India and Syria 

Yes I think proto ia is the official term, but no one calls it vedic( the andronovo or steppe people in general).Vedic means it’s from the area the Rigveda talks about, so like Punjab to south Afghanistan 

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u/GlobalImportance5295 25d ago

south Afghanistan

BMAC overlap

also andronovo potsherds have been found in Shortugai an IVC site in Afghanistan

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u/UnderstandingThin40 25d ago

This is irrelevant to my point 

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u/GlobalImportance5295 25d ago

how is it irrelevant when you are trying to counter that the mitanni may have been immersed in both BMAC and indian culture before migrating to Syria / Anatolia by offering absolutely no evidence. i have given you a stack of evidence against your theory that it is cut-and-dry. it is not as cut-and-dry as you assume

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u/UnderstandingThin40 25d ago edited 25d ago

You haven’t given a stack of evidence lol. Your evidence is a peacock seal and the whole Syrian /Indian elephant thing. I never said Mitanni were immersed in Indian culture, I said bmac I think they were. It’s called the Yaz and sapalli culture, which are a cultural fusion of bmac and andronovo / fedorovo. Bmac is not Indian culture (although there are some overlaps). I don’t think you understand fundamentally what I’m saying.

I said the evidence is stronger for one theory (Mitanni came from the steppe) than any theory that involves the Indian subcontinent. 

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u/GlobalImportance5295 25d ago edited 21d ago

steppe

bmac is not the steppe

Yaz and sapalli culture

also not the steppe, and associated with Iranian proper due to lake lack of burials

given a stack of evidence lol

https://old.reddit.com/r/IndoEuropean/comments/1mu0b54/new_preprint_claims_that_the_rigveda_and/n9g1vu6/

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u/UnderstandingThin40 25d ago

Sapalli and Yaz culture are a synthesis of steppe and bmac culture, it represents the steppe people migrating south. We already have concrete evidence that bmac and steppe mixed. From 2000-1500 bce, that is settled.

Yes, your comment is an asko porpola quote from a 2006 book, a Wikipedia link about elephants, and a quote from a source in 1981. As I said, if you think that’s a stack of evidence then clearly you don’t understand what that means lol

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u/GlobalImportance5295 25d ago

parpola is a 2020 article post-sanauli

you think that’s a stack of evidence then clearly you don’t understand what that means lol

you've literally provided none. you gave a murdered woman in a well, which offers no proof of the mitanni charioteers

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u/UnderstandingThin40 25d ago

Parpola doesn’t say the Mitanni came from India either, so that again proves my point lol. It’s very bizarre that you keep bringing up sources that help my theory. 

Yes we have a women dna sample in Syria with steppe dna exactly when the mitanni ruled the area. Thanks for confirming the evidence.

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u/GlobalImportance5295 25d ago

Parpola doesn’t say the Mitanni came from India either,

no one suggested this. strawman after strawman

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