I'm pinging Gengis to this because I am reasonably certain he has some links detailing the great antiquity of the Vedic culture.
Unfortunately my very limited time on FR is stolen from my other life (in fact, I have to get off right now), and mostly my info is from books, not the 'net. But if Gengis doesn't show up with links, freepmail and I'll get you some info.
Here's one hint: Most languages evolved from Sanskrit. It's amazing how much is from Sanskrit, and dictionaries do not state this. They'll say Old French, or Latin, or something. But my primitive knowledge of Sanskrit informs me otherwise, plus there is much documentation of this that I have read.
My understanding is that Basque and Sumerian, among others, are independent of the indo-european cluster. Same for Turkish/Hungarian/Finnish
"Here's one hint: Most languages evolved from Sanskrit. It's amazing how much is from Sanskrit, and dictionaries do not state this. They'll say Old French, or Latin, or something. But my primitive knowledge of Sanskrit informs me otherwise, plus there is much documentation of this that I have read."
It would be better to say that Sanskrit and the Western Indo-European languages are both Indo-European, and devolved from the same parent tongue or tongues. Yes, Sanskrit and Latin have similarities. So do Latin, Greek and Gaelic. Part is no doubt influence of neighbors (the Romans sucked up Greek culture like Californians suck up Italian leather goods), but with the Hindus and the Gaels, who obviously didn't have any meaningful contact until recent times, that their languages are related is evidence of the common parentage.
Nor is it really difficult to see how that parentage came about. North of India and east of Europe is a great sweeping plain, "The Steppe". Now, the Steppe is a crappy place to live, but absent Gengis Khan and his horse armies, it's a real easy place to cross, much easier than climbing mountains or wading through primeval forests. And if you look, that plain that contains the Steppe sweeps from Flanders all the way to the Tarim Basin of China.
It isn't really surprising that the languages of the people on the OTHER SIDE of the mountains from the step all show common roots (Tocharian in the Chinese Basin), Sanskrit and Hindi in India, Hittite in old Anatolia, Iranian (Aryan), and of course all of the Western languages at the European end of that plain.
If one follows the logic, an original linguistic family lived there and migrated and spread out across it, but then their own population pressure (the Steppe is great superhighway in an age without roads, but it's not a very pleasant place to live) and eventually the pressure of people behind them...the Altaic peoples (Mongols and the like) who live on the Steppe NOW ... drove the Indo-Europeans across the respective mountains rimming the step and sundered them one from the other. 'Twas the 19th Century linguists of the European Empires who noticed the striking similarities between Sanskrit and Latin and Greek.
But we should not go too far and suggest that Western languages CAME FROM Sanskrit. They are, rather, cousins of a common parent, long sundered by vast distances and interposing peoples.