India’s ancestry story brings together ancient South Asian hunter-gatherers, people related to early farmers, and Bronze Age steppe herders. But the balance varies enormously.

A study of 2,679 quality-checked Indian genomes explores that history, from a major expansion out of Africa around 50,000 years ago to later migrations and marriage patterns.

Among 2,126 people in its main three-way ancestry analysis, estimates range from roughly 19–69% ancient South Asian hunter-gatherer-related, 27–68% Iranian farmer-related and 0–45% steppe-related ancestry. These are individual model ranges, not national averages or three percentages describing one person.

One striking finding: the best tested proxy for the farmer-related component is ancient Sarazm, in present-day Tajikistan. Those reference individuals lived around 3600–3500 BCE. A close genetic match does not prove that Sarazm itself was the migration source.

The hunter-gatherer-related contribution is generally higher in southern India. East and Northeast India add other histories: a sampled West Bengal group has about 5% East Asian-related ancestry, with mixing estimated around 50 generations ago.

Later marriage within communities and population founder events helped preserve differences. India therefore cannot be reduced to one ancestry recipe—or three rigid ethnic groups.

An even older legacy survives too: the sample averages about 1.43% Neanderthal and 0.10% Denisovan ancestry.

These estimates depend on the available reference populations. The cohort mainly includes older adults and cannot represent every Indian community equally. The cover portrait is contextual; Alia Bhatt’s DNA is not analyzed here.

Which part of India’s ancestry story surprised you most?

📚 Source: Kerdoncuff et al. (2025), Cell
50,000 years of evolutionary history of India: Impact on health and disease variation

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