Indo-Aryan

The Indo-Aryan group gathers the Indo-Aryan speakers of northern India and Sri Lanka: Bengalis, Punjabis, Marathis, Gujaratis, Sindhis, Odias, Rajasthani Marwaris and Mewaris, the Hindi-belt peoples such as the Awadhi and Bhojpuri, and the Sinhalese. Their languages came with groups who migrated from Central Asia into the northern subcontinent, among them the Vedic people.

After the Delhi Sultanate was founded in 1206, Persian-using sultans ruled most of the north, and Bengal and Gujarat later formed their own sultanates. Rajput states such as Mewar held out against Delhi. The Mughals took the north from 1526, and in the Punjab the Sikh state of Ranjit Singh arose in 1799. In Sri Lanka the Sinhalese kingdom of Kandy survived until 1815.