My ancestry

27.06.17

I took a DNA ancestry test (Ancestry DNA) recently. I thought I should share it with you. I am a Bengali Brahmin from West Bengal, India.

The DNA test look at the 23 autosomal DNA (which comes from both parents), Sex chromosome (XY for male and XX for female. X comes from the mother. Women get another X from the father, men get Y from the father instead) and mitochondrial DNA (we get it from the mother). I used Ancestry DNA, and it doesn't unfortunately test for mitochondrial DNA.

The ancestry DNA analyses autosomal DNA mainly to assess what sort of genetic mixture you have. They don’t report any information from the Y chromosome, but it is possible to extract the data using some other software.

Ancestry DNA analyses the DNA and matches it with its DNA database. So if you are a European or American, you have a better chance of finding more information as many Europeans or Americans take this test than Indians. So my result was not very exciting.

The ancestry DNA analysis told me that my ancestry is

  • 86% Asia South

  • 9% Asia East

  • 5% other region

Ancestry DNA keep reassessing the DNA based on the data they have. as of 2022 it has become

Northern Indian - 81%

Southern Indian - 19%

Exciting?

However, ancestry DNA is not the only DNA test; many other DNA tests are available like MyHeritage DNA which may provide you with more information.

There is also a community database where you can submit your DNA data and compare it with the larger pooled database.


Ancestry DNA allows you to download the raw DNA data. I collected my raw DNA data and uploaded it to a community website called Gedmatch. It allows you to get a better break up of the ancestry using a separate database.

Harappaworld database is best for South Asians. But there are other calculators, like MDLP which you can use as well.


So this is my analysis of my ancestry keeping my Indian heritage in the background.

Harappaworld (and other databases) estimated that my ancestry as

  • S-Indian 44.82

  • Baloch 33.6

  • Caucasian 2.78

  • NE-Euro 8.2

  • SE-Asian 3.06

  • Siberian 1.53

  • Beringian 2.05

  • Mediterranean 2.52

There is another calculator called MDLP that put my ancestry like this

  • Ancient South Indian (ASI) - 53.7%

  • Eastern Hunter Gatherer (EHG) - 26.53%

  • Western Hunter Gatheter (WHG) - 6.48%

I received a report from Genomelink, which simplifies these assessments in an easy to understand format. They suggest I have

  • South Asian 45%

  • Steppe Pastolalis 26%

  • East Asian 11%

  • First Farmers 10%

So if I see all these calculations - it appears to me that I have

  1. South Asian/ South Indian/ Ancient South Indian - approx 50%

  2. Steppe pastoralis/ EHG / Baloch - approx 30%

  3. And some other pointing towards - NE Europe, Eastern Europe (WHG), Siberian etc.

These are two major ancestral origins. - ASI and Steppe pastoralists

It is not surprising as the recent concept of the origin of the Indian population is that all the Indians are an admixture of two ancient groups of people ANI (Ancestral North Indian) and ASI (Ancestral South Indian). Other ancestral groups like Tibeto-Burman in eastern India, have not contributed to my ancestry much, so I shall keep them out of this discussion.

What are these two groups actually?

A recent publication on a genetic analysis obtained from the bones of a >4000 year-old-woman from Rakhigarhi, an Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC) site has shown how the Indian population evolved. They have provided a chart on which I added Steppe people.

The genetic analysis found that the Indus valley people had a mixture of people from the ancient Iranian plateau and people who were already living in India, the same people from whom the current Andamanese hunter-gatherers originated.

These Iranian people were not the Indo-Iranian or Aryan people. These people were those who used to live there >10000 years back, even before farming was discovered in Mesopotamia.

This paper suggested that contrary to popular belief, farming was not brought to India from the middle east, but discovered in India independently.


Around 1500-1200 BC, people from Steppe, Aryans, started coming to the Indian subcontinent. These are Steppe pastoralists or herders, as they preferred animal husbandry, over farming/hunting. They also tamed horses making them extremely mobile.

The current theory is that they did not invade and destroy the Indus Valley Civilisation. By the time they started coming to India IVC was already declining (most likely due to environmental changes). Aryans settled in and started mixing with the people of IVC.

The mixing gave rise to two groups of people - ancient north Indian (ANI) and ancient south Indian (ASI).

ANI tend to have a higher percentage of Steppe ancestry.

Current Indian population is an admixture of ANI and ASI. So we all carry many genes from people from the Indus valley civilisation and the Steppe people.

People from certain parts of India may have other ancestries as well.

So it makes sense that I have about 50% ASI.


Let's look at a little more detail into my Steppe ancestry part. To look at this I run my ancestry DNA via a software to find information about the Y chromosome.

Y chromosome is useful to learn where your paternal lineage - where your fathers, his father, his father and so on came from.

What about Y chromosome?

Y chromosome analysis is useful, but only men can have this analysis done for obvious reasons. Ancestry DNA hides Y DNA data, but it can be extracted with the help of some software. I did that and analysed it.

It looks like this -

* R1a1a1b2a1a1 [R1a-Y7]

* R1a1a1b2 [R1a-Z93]

* K [K-PF5504 (K-PF5493, K-PF5480)]

* N1a [N-M96 (N-CTS7095, N-P189)]

* A1 [A-CTS3331 (A-P305, A-V168)]

What is the story of R1A1A? This map from EUPEDIA tells the whole story -

R1A1A came to India from the Caucasus region, travelling eastward, spending time in the Steppe forming the Sintashta/Andronovo culture and travelling southward, mixing with the BMAC culture, before entering India.

Somewhere during or before this group mixed with the BMAC culture, an offshoot went to Iran forming the proto-Iranian population and the Mitanni empire.

How is the R1a1a distributed in some Indian (and nearby) population groups?


  • West Bengal brahmins – 72% (I belong to this group).

  • Mohanna tribe of Sindh –71% (found in Makran area in Baluchistan but also in Punjab and Khybar region. They are believed to be originated from Scythian tribes of the Steppe and have been near the river Indus for thousands of years. They are endogamous.)

  • Chitwan Hindu's in Terai, Nepal – 69%

  • Khatris – 67% (claim pure origin from Vedic people and Kshatriyas)

  • Pashtuns, Afghanistan – 51% (Likely mixed origin – later eastern Iranian and white Huns, but also other groups of people – Scythian, Greeks, Ancient Indian, Arabs, Mongols).

  • Manipuri – 50%

  • Kyrgyz – 50%

  • Konkan Brahmins – 48%

  • Punjabi – 47%

  • Baltis of Gilgit-Baltistan – 46%

  • Iyenger Brahmins 31%

  • Tajiks 30%

  • Uzbeks – 18%

  • Hazaras – 7%


So the high percentage of R1A1A is in those populations that were probably a little conservative in mixing with other population groups. Why do Bangali Brahmins have such a high percentage? I believe it is due to centuries of kulin system that existed in Bengal, making Bengali brahmins very conservative regarding marriage.

Bengali Brahmins also trace their ancestry to northern India and were specially chosen by a Bengali King to promote religious practice in Bengal. So there was a selection process as well.

Note: I am not promoting kulin system or any such caste-based system - it is a good thing that the kulin system was abolished.