GREATER INDIA OUTSIDE INDIA
 

UTTARA KURU : WESTERN SIBERIA (A HYPOTHESIS)
Dr. G.V. TAGARE

   Puranas mention "Uttara Kuru" as the northern-most part of Jambu Dvipa, lying between the "Northern  Sea" and latitudinal mountain chains of the S'rngavan and Jarudhi. It is a grassy land, a home of wild horses. It is watered by a big river flowing northward in the Northern Sea.

   S.M.Ali has shown that the S'rngavan is the Kara-Tau-Kirghiz-Ketman chain of mountains and the Jarudhi is the Kirghiz-Zaila Ala-Tau-Ketman range. A glance at the physical map of Asia shows that these two ranges often meet and merge in one range the Kirghiz-Ketman range. The big river is identified with the Irtysh. If these identifications are correct, we can explain the rich forest and grassy lands of that ancient period when climatically, the region was warmer.

   The claim that Western Siberia is "India outside India" appears to be plausible on the anthropological grounds also. The Yakuts, the natives of the land are Mongoloid in appearance. They speak a language of the Turkic family. Their folklore shows Aryan traces. But the most surprising factor is the preservation in their blood of the "Europoid" antigen HLA-A1 in combination with another antigen HLA-B17 (the unbalanced linkage in genetics) found in Hindus of North India.

  As Igor Dykonov, a leading Soviet Orientalist points out, foreign invasions and migrations do not much affect ethnogenesis of the people.

   S.B.Boyeva of D.N. Anuchin Research Institute of Anthropology does not deny the plausibility of this hypothesis, but "A final verdict on the sources of ancient Europoidness in the anthropological composition of the Yakuts needs more research". Hence I call this a HYPOTHESIS and present it to the learned assembly hereof.

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