Where Have We Come From - The Indian Story*
Oldest ancestors of modern Indians, the First Indians, were the descendants of the African hunter-gatherers, who migrated out of sub-Saharan Africa around 50,000 – 70,000 years ago, carrying the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of the African eve in their cells. They probably reached India 65,000 years ago. Evidence of their life are found in Bhimbetka caves in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh and in Jawalapuram, located in Curnool district of Andhra Pradesh. This is not to say that archaic Humans did not live in India before 65000 years. Both Bhimbetka and Jawalapuram have evidence of such life. But none of these people left any descendants among modern Indians. Indians, across the country today, have inherited about 50% of their genome from First Indians. Onge tribe of the Little Andaman Island have the maximum inheritance from the First Indians. They number about 120 today. Rest of Indians with much reduced proportion of First Indian genome number about 1,36,64,00000. Second mass