Dr. Niraj Rai is a senior scientist at Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow. He did his PhD from Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad.
Dr Niraj was one of authors of consequential paper published in 2019 in one of the world’s most prestigious publication (CELL). It was based on the DNA successfully extracted by Niraj and his team from a 2500 year old woman’s skeletal found in Rakhigarhi, Haryana which was the largest site of Indus-Sarasvati Valley or Harappa Civilisation.
0:00 Intro
1:15 From Africa to Rakhigarhi
3:42 What does Rakhigarhi DNA tells us
10:18 Harappans discovered agriculture independently
11:10 ‘Out of India’ migration in 2500 BC
13:48 How DNA traces ancestry
14:50 R1a1 gene - Aryan or Indian?
26:41 From Harappa to Vedas: Sanskrit, Saraswati, Jati-Varna
30:35 Why ancient DNA is hard to find in India
33:23 Ancient DNA samples from Ladakh
34:41 One DNA sample is good enough
36:32 Ancestral North Indians & Ancestral South Indians
38:00 Why no R1a1 in Rakhigarhi DNA
41:25 How old is R1a1 gene
42:02 DNA, mutations & Covid-19 origins
44:15 What Harappans used to eat and drink
45:55 Greek DNA from Roopkund, Uttarakhand
48:26 Rakhigarhi people ate meat
50:45 Did Harappans eat beef?
53:35 What diseases did Harappans suffer from?
55:03 Dr Niraj’s upcoming research papers
59:30 DNA of Indians castes
1:02:31 Ill effects of marrying within castes for generations
1:05:50 Why inter-caste marriages on mass scale are critical for Indians
1:08:40 Funding for DNA research
1:10:52 What areas Dr Niraj wants to research on in future
1:13:30 Conclusion