By that time he had probably learnt to fish and he started walking along the coast at about, scientists claim, 16 kilometres a year.

Around that time, some form of mutation is believed to have occurred in the NRY chromosome.

This is the M130 marker and is found in every other aborigine in Australia, 30 per cent of the population of the Philippines, some tribal groups in Malaysia and about two per cent in Pakistan.

India had drawn a blank when it came to the study of the M130 marker. Our study was thus the first to detect the presence of the M130 in India. We were able to prove that man indeed traveled through India and reached Australia.

With the presence of the special marker ascertained, Wells wrote to Pitchappan, asking if they could locate the original migrants. That wasn't a tough task for Pitchappan, for whom record keeping is as important as the research he does.

"I went back to the records - remember the samples were collected when we had no computers. We used punched cards to store data - and found three people who carried the M130 marker," Pitchappan said.

All the three people, whose samples carried the M130 marker, were in college at the time the samples were taken. Pithcappan had to find out where they were and get in touch with them.

"I got hold of their current addresses and hopped on to a jeep and rode into the village. The first boy had gone to Gujarat and become a murukku vendor. I could not trace the whereabouts of the second. After having traveled 200 km that day, I reached the third boy's house. He was not there," recalls Pitchappan.

The professor had to leave for Delhi the next day, so he left a message for the boy, asking him to get in touch whenever he could.

Image: Virumandi in front of an idol of the guardian deity, after whom he is named.

Also read: The man the West loves to hate

Back

|

Next