The term 'INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES' refers to a group of languages that are spoken in South Asia and the Indian subcontinent. These languages are descended from an ancient language known as Proto-Indo-ARYAN, which is believed to have been spoken around 2000 BCE. The Indo-ARYAN languages are divided into two main branches: the Indo-Iranian branch, which includes languages such as Hindi, Bengali, and Punjabi; and the Indo-ARYAN branch, which includes languages such as Gujarati, Marathi, and Nepali. The Indo-ARYAN languages are some of the most widely spoken languages in the world, with over 800 million native speakers.