iScience (Oct 2023)

Reconstructing the population history of the Sinhalese, the major ethnic group in Śrī Laṅkā

  • Prajjval Pratap Singh,
  • Sachin Kumar,
  • Nagarjuna Pasupuleti,
  • P.R. Weerasooriya,
  • George van Driem,
  • Kamani H. Tennekoon,
  • Niraj Rai,
  • Gyaneshwer Chaubey,
  • R. Ranasinghe

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 26, no. 10
p. 107797

Abstract

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Summary: The Sinhalese are the major ethnic group in Śrī Laṅkā, inhabiting nearly the whole length and breadth of the island. They speak an Indo-European language of the Indo-Iranian branch, which is held to originate in northwestern India, going back to at least the fifth century BC. Previous genetic studies on low-resolution markers failed to infer the genomic history of the Sinhalese population. Therefore, we have performed a high-resolution fine-grained genetic study of the Sinhalese population and, in the broader context, we attempted to reconstruct the genetic history of Śrī Laṅkā. Our allele-frequency-based analysis showed a tight cluster of Sinhalese and Tamil populations, suggesting strong gene flow beyond the boundary of ethnicity and language. Interestingly, the haplotype-based analysis preserved a trace of the North Indian affiliation to the Sinhalese population. Overall, in the South Asian context, Śrī Laṅkān ethnic groups are genetically more homogeneous than others.

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