Razib @ the ever excellent Gene Expressions links to a story on the genetic structure of the Kannada-speaker – Gene Expression: Genetics of Karnataka populations
For South Asians readers, Genetic structure of four socio-culturally diversified caste populations of southwest India and their affinity with related Indian and global groups:The microsatellite study divulges a common ancestry for the four diverse populations of Karnataka, with the overall genetic differentiation among them being largely confined to intra-population variation. The practice of consanguineous marriages might have attributed to the relatively lower gene flow displayed by Gowda and Muslim as compared to Iyengar and Lyngayat….Standard caveat, don’t read too much into one study!
Consanguineous was word of the day a little while back. 😉
Aren’t the Brahmins descended from Indo-Europeans?
Aren’t the Brahmins descended from Indo-Europeans?
isn’t jesus christ born of a virgin? 🙂
short answer is that if you took a random south indian, and you were told individual A was brahmin and individual B was non-brahmin, and you would be given a monetary sum that was inverse in size to the genetic distance of your chosen individual from a north indian or persian or russian on any given locii (that is, your benefactor is going to pick a random gene to serve as the base of comparison), pick the brahmin. but, it is totally possible that the non-brahmin might work out to be genetically no further than the brahmin from your putative “indo-european” group of comparison.
i think a more complex answer is that many south indian brahmin gotras do have origins in northern india, but, there has been a lot of admixture. the key point to note is that most of the variation is intra-population, differences between the demarcated groups is not that great, and kannada speakers are a common genetic pool when compared to non-kannada speakers.
that’s a gross oversimplification, but but less gross than the norm, if i may say so….
P.S. i have noted that research that suggests an ‘indo-european’ origin for brahmins tends to be promoted by both brahmins (no doubt to show their affinity to superior non-darkie races) and dalits (to show that brahmins are aliens).
brahmins are aliens
but they are 🙂 they should all be shipped off to the land of their ancestors, or anywhere outside india – like gc’s parents thankfully were 🙂
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first of all let us go back to history also called as puranas.acharya drona hailed from south and son aswathama were brahmins too.what about agastya?what about shankaracharya?remember only brahmins are entitled to head the matha.then who hell is shankaracharya?anyone can attain the state of brahmin by his thoughts and actions.it is the karma which determines as to who should take birth as what?everyone has got a duty to perform as per his kul.have’nt you heard during olden days brahmins built houses on white soil,kshtriya on red soil,vaishya on red and yellow mixture and shudra on black soil?this was as folowed as per their gunas.
WE are Karnatic living at Uttrakhand area since ages.Can any one explain why we are Karnatic here as In don’t find any association with Karnatak state nor I do not know my relationship in south.Regards. Dr Pramod Karnatic