However, some scholars now surmise that the Indus people could have spoken a language related to tribal languages of eastern India that are connected to Mon-Khmer languages in Southeast Asia.•Some Hindu Sanskritists in northern India, guided by the belief that Sanskrit and its culture is veryold, even claim that this language was already used in India before the time of Harappa. Thus, they say, the Harappans were actually speakers of a form of Sanskrit, and their religion was a precursor of classical Hinduism