Aryans

Charles Allen examines the long search for the peoples later labelled Aryans, beginning with linguistic links between Sanskrit and European languages and moving through archaeology, mythology and modern genetic research. The narrative ranges from the Eurasian steppe to Iran and the Indus region, asking what can reasonably be said about migration, language and cultural change in ancient South Asia.

The book also follows the political afterlife of the Aryan idea. Scholars, nationalists and racial theorists repeatedly transformed a linguistic hypothesis into claims about ancestry and civilisation, with consequences in Europe and India. Completed after Allen's death with the assistance of David Loyn, Aryans combines intellectual history with a critique of the myths that have accumulated around one of the most contested subjects in ancient history.