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Steppe-maxima

General distribution

Seems like all savarna castes in North-Central India have 15% Steppe ancestry at minimum.

Genetic ancestry of the traditionally non-elite Kurmi tiller caste from Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh Kurmi Russia_MLBA_Sintashta: 15.7 ± 2.28% Indus_Periphery_Gonur: 46.6 ± 3.76% Onge (AASI proxy): 37.7 ± 2.41% p-value: 0.349

So-called untouchables or dalits from Uttar Pradesh have about 10% Steppe ancestry as well.

In South India and Maharashtra, it seems only Brahmins (eg. Iyer, nambUtiri), CKPs and a few castes that mixed a lot with Brahmins like Nairs have 15% Steppe. The rest (eg. Bunt, Thiyya) have about 5-8% (even some Kannadiga tribals like Hakkipikkis have 5% Steppe).

You can model Nairs as approximately 50% Namboodiri and 50% Kerala/Andhra non-Brahmins.

v1 maxima

UP Brahmins have the highest Steppe ancestry in Indian subcontinent (including Afghanistan) along with some Hindu Jats/Rors. Gangetic Rajputs, Baniyas, Kayasthas etc don’t have as high Steppe. This probably confirms the fact that Gangetic Brahmins are direct descendants of Painted Grey Ware Vedic Aryans, and have stayed extremley endogamous for 2500 plus years. Many Gujarati Brahmins also show similar ancestral profile though. … Many Tiwari Brahmins from Chattisgarh have more Aryan DNA than huge bunch of Pashtuns from Afghanistan and almost double the Aryan DNA of many Persians from Iran. This is what 2500+ years of a strict caste system looks like.

So far have seen Brahmins of India, Nepal and Sri Lanka range from 33-34% Steppe DNA to 9-10% Steppe DNA. Quite a lot of variation. The average is like 25% (not counting sub-vindhyans)

My friend @chariotcel is about 33-34% Steppe confirmed on qpAdm. He’s a Kanyakubja Brahmin whose family had actually moved to Maharashtra 3-4 centuries ago and then back up. Fascinating how they never mixed with Marathi Brahmins. If guys like these are 33-34% Steppe MLBA despite 3000-3500 years since Vedic Age, I think it’s sure shot certain that Vedic Aryans were 50-70% Steppe tier. That would mean Brahmins of Gangetic Plains, Rajasthan, Bengal, Gujarat, North etc can be upto 50-60% Rigvedic in DNA!