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Mittani

Intro

The Mitanni kingdom was referred to as the “Maryannu”, “Nahrin” or “Mitanni” by the Egyptians, the “Hurri” by the Hittites, and the “Hanigalbat” or “Hani-Rabbat” by the Assyrians.
The Hittite conquest of Aleppo (Yamhad), the weak middle Assyrian kings who succeeded Puzur-Ashur III, and the internal strife of the Hittites had created a power vacuum in upper Mesopotamia. This led to the formation of the kingdom of Mitanni.

IA identification

A treatise on the training of chariot horses by Kikkuli, a Mitanni writer, contains a number of Indo-Aryan glosses.
The names of the Mitanni aristocracy frequently are of Indo-Aryan origin, and their deities also show Indo-Aryan roots (Mitra, Varuna, Indra, Nasatya). These Indo Aryan deities are listed in two treaties between Mitanni and Hatti from Hattusa.
A Hurrian passage in the Amarna letters – usually composed in Akkadian, the lingua franca of the day – indicates that the royal family of Mitanni was by then speaking Hurrian as well.
Kikkuli’s horse training text includes technical terms such as aika-, tera-, panza-, satta-, nāwa-wartanna (“one, three, five, seven, nine intervals”).
- (Vedic Sanskrit eka/ aika as opposed to Indo-Iranian or early Iranian (which has *aiva; compare Vedic eva “only”)

Pre-RV

Firstly, there’s no retroflexion (mani instead of maNi). Retroflexion was an areal south asian feature that developed after the aryans reached india. Second, pre-Rigvedic forms show up (arta instead of rta, mazdha instead of medha, etc).

Absorption

As for mitanni, latest archaeology suggests that they might have ruled as much as 1700-1350 BCE. This is a fairly long presence for a rather small Indo-Aryan group – it is clear they were just superimposed on the older Hurrian population. Hence, their absorption is unsurprising given that even larger groups got absorbed on the steppes with the new expansions out of Mongolia. - MT