![[Mehrgarh_ruins.jpg]] *Ruins of ancient [Mehrgarh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehrgarh), dated to 7,500 years ago, in what is now Pakistan.* In India, the imposition of colonial rule by the British East India Company in the eighteenth century and then the British Empire in the 19th had a long-lasting effect on interpretations of the Indian past. British linguists and historians (many of whom showed a very sincere interest in understanding Indian history) sometimes brought their ideas and assumptions about the relative values of eastern and western cultures into their histories of India. A persistent issue that has lasted to the present has been the belief that the main ancient Indian language, [Sanskrit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit), as well as most of Indian culture, had been brought to the subcontinent by "[Aryans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryan)" from the west. We have already discussed two waves of migration or cultural influence that brought agriculture to Europe about 7,000 years ago and then brought the Yamnaya and their descendant cultures between 5,500 and 4,600 years ago. Some scholars have suggested that the same influences and people may have spread in both directions, from an origin around the fertile crescent, ancient Persia (modern-day Iran), or the Middle East. And there does seem to be evidence that wheat was adopted in India beginning about 9,000 years ago and that by about 8,500 years ago, wheat cultivation had reached central India and the Ganges River valley. At about the same time, rice cultivation pioneered in China was also reaching India, so ideas from two different regions would be added to techniques the Indians developed themselves, such as growing cotton and domesticating Zebu cattle. ---- Next: [[2.13 - Sanskrit]] Back: [[2.11 - "The Kurgan" or Plague?]]