The modern population of Iran and India is mostly ethnically descended from a special branch of Indo-Europeans - speakers of the languages of the so-called Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages, which, in turn, is divided into two subgroups - Iranian and Indo-Aryan. Elucidation of the ancestral home of the common Indo-Iranian unity, the history of its disintegration into communities of Indo-Aryans and Iranian-speaking tribes, their habitat and the course of settlement is one of the most difficult problems in the history of antiquity. There is currently no generally accepted and fully proven solution to these problems. Quite confidently we can only say that by the end of the III millennium BC. e. Indo-Iranian ethno-linguistic unity still existed and occupied vast areas of the steppes stretching from the Danube to Altai through the Northern Black Sea region and modern Kazakhstan.
At the end of the III - beginning of the II millennium BC. e. within this unity, the Proto-Iranian and Proto-Indo-Aryan tribal communities separated from each other, as a result of which their languages by the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. finally divided into Indian and Iranian. The common self-name of the Indo-Iranians, preserved in both branches, was arias, which means "ritually pure, the best person." Many ethnic groups of antiquity took such terms with the literal meaning "real people" as their self-designation.
The ancient Aryans of this time were herders at the pre-state stage of development. Previously, their main occupation was agriculture, as evidenced by the Indo-European agricultural terminology, which they retained for a long time. But due to climatic changes, it faded into the background.
During the II millennium BC. e. the Aryan tribes settled in several waves to the south, occupying the territories of Iran and Northern India. Archaeological and linguistic materials allow researchers to argue that the Iranians came to Iran through the Caucasus rather than from Central Asia. Apparently, at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. the ancestors of the Indo-Aryans settled in the western part of the steppes, in the Ciscaucasia, and the ancestors of the Iranian-speaking tribes - in the east. Judging by the relict notions that survived in the "Avesta" - the sacred book of Zoroastrianism - the late religion of the Iranians, the world originally known in the Iranian-speaking tradition stretched from Altai and Tien Shan to the Volga basin from east to west and from the West Siberian plain to the Amu Darya from north to south … This huge space was divided into seven parts, the central of which was Hvanirata - the homeland of the Iranians themselves. Archeologically, this is the time of the dominance of the catacomb culture between the Dnieper and the Caucasus.
In the XVIII-XVII centuries. BC e., as the data of the excavations show, there is a mass migration of tribes through the Caucasus to the south, along the route Ciscaucasia - Northern Iran - further eastward up to the Indus. The decisive role in it was apparently played by the protoindoarians of the Ciscaucasia. On their way, they ruined the natives of Iran, they, in turn, shifted to the east, crowding each other and causing new resettlement chains. As a result, a zone of Indo-Aryan settlement emerged, stretching from the Caucasus through north-central Iran and Afghanistan to the borders of India, which were reached by the advanced detachments of Indo-Aryan migration.
On the way, some groups of Indo-Aryans lagged behind the main stream. In particular, one of them at this time came to the Armenian Highlands and settled on the Upper Euphrates, near the borders of Upper Mesopotamia. Near Eastern sources of the XVIII-XVII centuries. BC e. they call it "Manda warriors" (in science they are known as the Near Asian Aryans). From here the Manda Aryans, merging with the Hurrians, penetrated the Hurrian world. Among them in the XVII-XVI centuries. BC e. the dynasts of Mitanni and some kingdoms of Hurrian Palestine came out. For the Upper Euphrates region of the Aryans, the name "Manda" was preserved, and the Armenian princely family that ruled it many centuries later was called Mandakuni after it. A part of the Indo-Aryans remained in the Ciscaucasia and existed there even in the ancient era (as the studies of ON Trubachev showed, the relict Indo-Aryans turned out to be the Sindi and Meots, well known from ancient sources).
As a result, in the 2nd quarter - the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. the zone of proto-Indo-Aryan settlement lay mainly to the south of the Caucasus-Caspian line, and the proto-Iranian zone to the north of this line, so that a significant territorial gap formed between them. It was at this time that their languages, apparently, diverged completely. For the steppe, this was the time of the existence of two main archaeological cultures: the multi-roller in the steppes to the west of the Urals - the Volga and Andronovskaya in Kazakhstan. There is every reason to associate the Andronovo culture with the common Iranian ethnocultural unity.
In the XVI / XV-XIV centuries. BC e. the second major migration of the ancient Aryans takes place along approximately the same route as the first. The Hadronov tribes move westward from across the Volga and, mixing with the local tribes, form a special Srubna culture here, while the Andronovo tradition itself continues to the east of the Volga.
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At the same time, Iranian-speaking tribes are spreading from across the Caucasus to Northwestern and Northern Iran. These tribes already know iron, and they are characterized by a special gray pottery. At the end of this period of migrations, the Iranian-speaking tribes moved eastward through Iran up to the later Bactria and the Amu Darya valley inclusive. (The very name "Bactria" possibly means "eastern country" in Iranian, since the Iranians came here from the west.) Probably, it was under their gradually increasing pressure that the Indo-Aryans were shifting to North India in the XIV-XIII centuries. BC e.
In Iran, the Indo-Aryans were mainly displaced or assimilated by their alien-speaking Iranian-speaking relatives, although at the junction of their areas a certain area of mixed Iranian-Indo-Aryan settlement remained, which occupied a significant part of modern Afghanistan. So, one and the same territory centered in the later Kandahar is known from Indian sources as the Indo-Aryan kingdom of Cambodia, and according to Iranian sources as a country with the Iranian name Kharavati (ancient Arachosia). According to the Indo-Aryan nominative basis "Cambodia", it is generally possible to identify the route of Indo-Aryan migrations (cf. the region of Cambisenu in Eastern Transcaucasia, mentioned by ancient authors, the royal name Cambujia [Kambiz] among the Persians and the mentioned kingdom of Cambodia in the territory of modern Afghanistan by the colonists, not to mention the introduction this name to the territory of Indochina,where does the modern use of this name come from).
As a result of the second cycle of Aryan migrations, the settlement of the Iranian-speaking tribes took the following form, which remained in general terms at the end of the 2nd - the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. BC: 1) to the east of the Ural and Volga rivers lived the bearers of the Andronovo culture - the ancestors of the Scythian-Saka tribes, known primarily from ancient data, and the Tur tribes, about which the Avesta narrates; 2) the steppe to the west of the Urals and the Volga was occupied by the bearers of the Timber culture - the direct ancestors of the tribes, which the Greeks collectively called "Cimmerians"; 3) most of the west-central and northern Iran was occupied by a community, from which the Median and Persian (Western Iranian) tribes later emerged; 4) under the Amu Darya - Hilmand, a group of tribes separated, which received the name Avestan Aryans in science (they called themselves "Arya", their territory - "Aryanam-Vaija", literally "Aryan space",and Aryosyana, lit. "Country of the Aryans", and it was with them that the events reflected in the "Avesta" took place, the core of which was formed in their own environment).
The Avestan Aryans were descendants of the avant-garde part of the same migratory stream that advanced farthest to the east, the main part of which, which remained in Central Iran, was represented by the Medo-Persian tribes. However, the Avestian Aryans, moving eastward, broke away from their Western Iranian relatives and were separated from them by the regions of the Southeastern Caspian Sea (Varna in the Avestan terminology), where the aborigines lived, whom the Avestan tradition describes as terrible and powerful enemies, and the salt desert of Desht-i -Kevir. This did not allow the Avestan Aryans to maintain contact with the Iranian-speaking tribes of the Iranian plateau and led to the fact that in the following centuries they developed independently of each other.
As a result of the gradual assimilation of the indigenous population of Iran by the Iranian-speaking tribes, the entire space between the Tigris, Indus and Amu Darya around the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. began to be called Aryana (lit. "Aryan [land]"; the later form of this word is the modern "Iran").
The early Iranian (as well as Indo-Aryan) societies are characterized by the same three-class organization dating back to common Indo-Iranian practice: the society was divided into hereditary estates of priests, warriors and ordinary communes - cattle breeders and farmers. At the level of tribal unions, corresponding roles were often assigned to entire tribes: for example, in the six-tribal union of the Medes, priestly functions were monopolized by the tribe of magicians (hence the meaning of the word "magician" in European languages).
The Indo-Iranian mentality was characterized by a ritual-linguistic ethnic self-identification: those who carried out correct rituals in a pure language, honoring the corresponding gods, were considered ethnically “their own”, regardless of consanguinity. This greatly facilitated the assimilation of the aboriginal population. The priests were the most revered class, but the power of the leader (later the king), according to the normative code, was to be exercised by someone from the class of warriors. The leader and was considered primarily as the head of the military organization of the tribe.
The religious beliefs of the Indo-Iranians are reconstructed according to the data on the beliefs of individual Indo-Iranian peoples. The gods were divided into two "classes" - daivas and ahur (Indian asuras), to some extent opposed to each other. A similar division is known in many mythologies, including the Sumerian-Akkadian. By the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. among the Indo-Aryans and, independently of them, among the Iranians, this division was rethought as a value: the gods of one of the "classes" began to be considered as "good" (spreading joy, life, creation), and the other - as "evil" (instilling death, suffering and destruction). At the same time, the Iranians considered the Ahur to be good gods, and the dives to be evil, while the Indo-Aryans considered it the other way around. Accordingly, the most powerful and unambiguously beneficent gods, such as Mithra, the god of the sun and human justice, the guardian of oaths,were enlisted by different peoples in different categories: among the Iranians, Mitra - akhura, among the Indo-Aryans - daiva. All Indo-Iranians worshiped Yama (Yima), the forefather of humanity and the ruler of the Kingdom of the dead, and also worshiped the wind, sun, moon and fire. Exceptional importance was attached to ritual formulas and their correct pronunciation.
From the book: "History of the Ancient East"