A long and complex history of cultural interactions, migrations, trade, shared ethnic propensities, and linguistic evolution characterises Indo-Iranian ties. These spread across an extensive Indo-Iranian contact-zone, beginning from the Russian steppes, via Bactria (Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan), the Iranian plateau, and ending in north-western India. Interspersed across the banks of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers of Central Asia, Indo-Iranian peoples were actors in a huge cultural landscape that linked the Indus Valley Civilisation with eastern Iran and Central Asia. Indus Valley’s merchants appear to have travelled widely across the Iranian plateau and into Mesopotamia. Such commercial networks created a cosmopolitan environment in which languages and cultural practices circulated widely. The mobility of merchants and pastoral groups, thus, facilitated cultural exchange across the Indo-Iranian frontier. Shared linguistic and religious heritage Distinguished Parsi archaeologist J M Unvala, in his study of the longue durée (long duration) history of Indo-Iranian ties, pointed to archaeological parallels uncovered at Susa (Shush, in the Kuzestan province of Iran) and at the Indus Valley sites of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, noting …