The Gandhara grave people have been associated by most scholars with early Indo-Aryan speakers, and the Indo-Aryan migration into the Indian Subcontinent, that, fused with indigenous elements of the remnants of the Indus Valley Civilization (OCP, Cemetery H), gave rise to the Vedic Civilization.
The Gandhara grave culture people shared biological affinities with the population of Neolithic Mehrgarh, which suggests a "biological continuum" between the ancient populations of Tiargarha and Mehrgarh.
This is however not the opinion of Elena E. Kuz'mina, who notes remains similar to some from Central Asian populations.
Asko Parpola (1993: 54), argues that the Gandhara grave culture is "by no means identical with the Bronze Age Culture of Bactria and Margiana". Tulsa (1977: 690-692) argues that this culture and its "new contributions" are "nevertheless in line with the cultural traditions of the previous period", and remarks that "to attribute a historical value to ... the slender links with northwestern Iran and northern Afghanistan ... is a mistake", since "it could well be the spread of particular objects and, as such, objects that could circulate more easily quite apart from any real contacts." Antonini (1973), Stacul and other scholars argue that this culture is not related with the Beshkent culture of Kyrgyzstan and Vakhsh culture of Tajikistan (Bryant 2001).
However, E. Kuz'mina, in her book "The origin of the Indo-Iranians, volume 3" (2007) argues the opposite on the basis of both archeology and the human remains from the sepultures.
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