Source: www.nature.com
[HPI note: this is the study published on Nature Magazine, referenced in the article above.]
INDIA, September, 2009: To test the concepts of Central Asian introduction of the Indian caste system by Indo-Aryans, who plausibly and predominantly would have appointed themselves to castes of higher rank to legitimize and maintain their power on land, labor and resources; and to test the rank-related West Eurasian admixture, we chose the Brahmin class, occupying similar socioeconomic upper-most caste positions, and the schedule castes and tribals, occupying the lower-most positions in the Indian caste hierarchy, for an ideal comparative study.
We report our analyses based on Y-chromosomal data of 621 Brahmins and schedule caste/tribal samples and its extension with the compiled data of Brahmin, scheduled caste/tribal populations from published sources. We also attempted to assess the affinities among Brahmins from different regions speaking different languages, and evaluated the hypothesis of large migration of IE people and introduction of the caste system to India with the purpose of elucidating their genetic relationship with other Indian and worldwide populations, using the data available in the literature.
[The findings] supported the autochthonous origin and tribal links of Indian Brahmins, confronting the concepts of recent Central Asian introduction [Aryan invasion] and rank-related Eurasian contribution of the Indian caste system.