Romano Them

Roma are called by a variety of names of which “Cigani”, “Gypsies”, and “Gitanos” are the most common. The representatives of this population call themselves Roma (Rom, Roma), or Sinti (Sinto, Sinti). The name is an expression of ethnic belonging, but also used with the meaning, “husband” or “spouse” or “human being” and “people”. With this the name “Rom” shows similarities with the names of many other primitive communities.

Bonaventura Vulkanius, professor for Greek language in Leiden, where he died in 1614, is considered as the first researcher of the Roma. Later, Albert Kranz, Sebastian Münster, and others wrote about Roma, and the first doctoral thesis was defended in Leipzig in 1652. The thesis with the title “Dissertatio philosophica de Cingaris” was written and defended by Jacobus Thomasius (1622-1684), who is also known as of the teacher of Leibniz and author of numerous studies in the fields of the history of philosophy, classical literature and the history of the ChurchHowever,  of these scientists, neither anyone else succeeded in explaining the origin of Roma.  only Jakob Karl Christoph Rüdiger, whose book was published in Leipzig in 1782. His discovery is partly attributed to Stefan Vali, a Hungarian priest, who observed during his studies in Leiden, where he had the opportunity to meet Indian students similarities between the Indian and Romani language. Heinrich Moritz Gotlieb Grelman has  definitively refuted any doubts regarding the Indian origins of the Roma. In his book “Cigani”, which was in 1783, he irrefutably demonstrated that Roma come from India, and that the Romani language is very close to the Hindi language. After Grelman’s work, many bigger and more elaborated books were written without providing any major new findings.

This is the case for August Friedrich Pott’s book “Gypsies in Europe and Asia”. Pott was a student of Franz Bopp, who was considered to be the most knowlegable person on Sanskrit at that time and to whom the book is dedicated. As a sign of gratitude, Pott also refers to Lorenz Diefenbach and Graffunder, who helped him a lot in the writing of this piece with their knowledge of the Romani language, where all the dialects are presented, which in spite of their diversity and the influence of other languages,have a common base. After his discovered the relationship between the Romani language and Sanskrit, Pott concluded that the Roma language (romani chib) is one of many new Indian dialects, which most close to the Hindi and Urdu languages.

The respected teacher, Franc Miklosic, aworld famous linguist, studied the “Indian origin of the gypsies and their emigration from India”. Miklosic’ work, which was published by the Vienna Academy of Science between 1872-1881, occupied a central place in the scholarly literature on Roma.In the conclusion to his work, Miklosic wrote in 1881: “The rich, very rich material from all the countries where Gypsies lived, allowed me to come closer to this language … .”

On the basis of the results of his findings he concluded that the Romani language must be “situated” in the North Western area of India, the Indian Kaukasus (Kafiristan, Dardistan, Kashmir, Little Tibet), which means thatit belongs to the Dardu language group. On that basis he condluded that the homeland of Roma must befound in North West India, where it is necessary to consider the changes which have taken place in the meantime. Comparing the Romani languages with Indian languages of the first group the (middle-Indian and new Indian dialects), Miklosic considered that the Roma left the Indian Caucasus language group long time ago, at the time when the vocal groups “st” (from the old Indian) had not yet changed into “ht, the” (in the new dialects). But Miklosic warned that, these changes did not affect all Indian languages and dialects, a lack of knowledge which indicates the need for deeper analysis.

Analysing the Romani language, Miklosic drew also conclusions about the migration of Roma. He thought that the Roma travelled trough Kabulistan, Iran, and Armenia from where they arrived via Frigija and Lakonija to the Byzantium empire. Some groups settled in the Arab lands, whereas other smaller groups reached Egypt and Northern Africa via Syria.The Roma stayed long time in Armenia, a fact which is proven by the existence of a large number of Armenian words which have been preserved in the Romani language until today. The same element also proves that the Roma lived long time, perhaps several centuries, in Greece, before moving to the centre of Europe.

Michael Jan de Goje (1862-1909), a well-known expert of Arabian culture, asserted that the Roma are descendant of the Gjats. Who are the Gjats? In India, the Gjats are large farmer castes, whereasin Pakistan several farmer and animal breeding groups are are called Gjats. In Afghanistan, Gjat is a label used for six groups of Roma and corresponds to the European names “Cigani” and “Gypsies”. De Goje’s hypothesis has been accepted by some Indian researchers, who went a step further and asserted of the descent from the Gjats. M.S.I. Divana, for instance, believes that the Gjats are descendants of the Jadavas, who are mentionned in the Mahabharata. Others, referring to the narration, believe that the Gjats originate from intermarriages between Brahmas and other groups, which explains why they have a different outlook and physiognomy. Still others believe that the Gjats came to India during the VI^th century B.C.E and that they assimilated into Indian society.

Modern Indian linguists and researchers such as V.R. Rishi, Gj. S. Patania, Pjer Lal Sharma and others represent an opinion about the Roma which is either close to the former ones or differs from them to a smaller or larger extent. (…) The Pakistani researcher Kurshid A. Khan believes that the Romani language is the most close to the Maravari dialect, which is spoken in Rajasthan.

Linguistic research was followed by anthropological research. It is significant that the the antrophologists made the or more or less correct observations as the linguists. The famous German anthropologist, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, for instance, states that the skull of the Roma “ressembles much more the bone head one of the Egyptian mummies” whereas Weissbach said on the basis of his physyonomic research about Roma: “If we could judge from the first glance, I would say that Roma are similar to Egyptians; and the skull of the Roma is closer to that of Egyptians than to bigger and larger heads of the Hindus.” Isidor Kopernicki, on the basis of the comparative research, concluded on the unrefutable existence of relations between Roma and Hindus and added that “the head of the Roma in its constitution is hardly different from the Indian type”.A similar opinion was expressed by A. Olevak whereas the Indian anthropologist Babu Radjendral la Mitra believed that the “Roma are the most close to Bengal people called Bedia (Bedya)”.

Eugène Pittard, professor of anthropology at the university of Genevawhose work “Les Tsiganes ou Bohémiens” occupied an important place in anthropological research about Roma, conducted a much deeper research on the basis of which he concluded that the Roma belong to the dolioceohalic type. On the basis of comparisions, he concluded that the Roma are an ethnic group of Indian origin.

The Indian origin of Roma, which nobody questions anymore, is confirmed by other research, including ethnographic, mythological, sociological studies. But nevertheless we do not yet know for certain where the Roma lived in India and when, why, and how they left India. Besides there are many other questions as for instance who belongs to the Roma group and who to the Sinti and Kale. This is why there many unresolved questions and doubts are arising as regards to the use of names in old literature and historic sources - Sinti, Singini, Luri, Kuri, Ashkali, which are either identical or similar to Roma castes. And finally the question emerges as regards to the present days castes in India which researchers treat as Roma or which call themselves Roma.

If the Roma are of Indian origin it is logical that they are part of the history of India, as well as of Iran (Persia), and of the Arabian, Byzantium and Ottoman empires. Therefore, it is necessary to study the history of India and highlight events that may have been of crucial importance for the destiny of European Roma.

Rajko Đurić: Seobe Roma - Krugovi pakla i venac sreće, Belgrade 1987 (translation)