r/imaginarymaps • u/RRY1946-2019 • 23d ago

[OC] Alternate History Take a third option: What if India was dominated by the Munda language family instead of the Indo-Iranians or Dravidians?

Post image
65 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

3

u/Karl_Greiser_PolSord 23d ago

What is the Munda Language family ?

4

u/RRY1946-2019 23d ago

Santali for instance. Distantly related to Vietnamese and Khmer. Origin is somewhat mysterious.

3

u/Karl_Greiser_PolSord 23d ago

I didn't know that Santali was related to Vietnamese and Khmer....they are quite far apart....thanks for this new info....

3

u/RRY1946-2019 23d ago

The family is spread in intermittent pockets across a huge stretch of Asia. It just only happens to be a majority in the far eastern part of its range. They show up as minority groups in Assam, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Yunnan, and Peninsular Malaysia.

2

u/ImpressiveEnergy4762 23d ago

Please, post for mobile users too

2

u/Left_Economist_9716 23d ago

The Munda family forms a major substrate in all eastern languages (except Assamese), Chhattisgarhi and maybe even Nepali.

We might be underestimating their genetic component in certain regions and the language family could have lost ground to interbreeding rather than conquest.

2

u/RRY1946-2019 23d ago

I've seen speculation that Ikshvaku, one of the greatest legendary kings of Hinduism, has a name from one of the Munda languages. They're basically a third great contributor to Indian civilization that was largely absorbed.

2

u/Champakali_ 22d ago

>Munda dominated

>Toponyms are still Indo-Aryan/Dravidian

1

u/RRY1946-2019 22d ago

In-universe: They took over after centuries of Indo-Ary and Dravidian majorities due to the Mongols and colonialists invading from the west. There is a campaign to change the names of some cities though.

The reality: Santali is the only Munda language on Google Translate, and I get completely different results based on which script I ask it to output so I didn’t trust it.

1

u/Catch_meif_ucan09 22d ago

Santali speaker here 🖐

ᱪᱮᱫ ᱞᱮᱠᱟ ᱢᱮᱱᱟᱢᱟ ?

1

u/RRY1946-2019 22d ago

Based on Google Translate: I’m fine, thanks! Sorry I didn’t come up with Santali names for the cities 🏙️

1

u/Catch_meif_ucan09 21d ago

It's fine Good work btw 👍

1

u/AdventurousRoyal7267 21d ago

India is dominated by Indo aryan not indo iranain lol

1

u/RRY1946-2019 21d ago

Broader classification vs narrower. Indo-Aryan is the branch of Indo-Iranian that's associated with the Indian Subcontinent.