An Explosive Truth!

The findings of a highly anticipated study of ancient dna from the graveyard of the historic indian town of rakhigarhi reveal evidence that will unsettle many hindutva nationalists.

- Kai Friese

The ‘petrous bone’ is an inelegant but useful chunk of the human skull— basically it protects your inner ear. But that’s not all it protects. In recent years, genetic scientists working to extract DNA from ancient skeletons have discovered that, thanks to the extreme density of a particular region of the petrous bone (the bit shielding the cochlea, since you ask), they could sometimes harvest 100 times more DNA from it than from any other remaining tissue. Now this somewhat macabre innovation may well resolve one of the most heated debates about the history of India. When the dust of the petrous bones of a 4,500-year-old skeleton from Rakhigarhi, Haryana, settles, we should have the answer to a few questions that have vexed some of the best minds in history and science—and a lot of politicians along the way: Q: Were the people of the Harappan civilisation the original source of the Sanskritic language and culture of Vedic Hinduism? A: No. Q: Do their genes survive as a significant component in India’s current population? A: Most definitely. Q: Were they closer to popular perceptions of ‘Aryans’ or of ‘Dravidians’? A: Dravidians. Q: Were they more akin to the South Indians or North Indians of today? A: South Indians. All loaded questions, of course. A paper suggesting these conclusions is likely to be online this month and later published in the journal Science.