There are many theories across the net explaining whom and where the Roms came from. If truth were known many of the so-called scholars have little clues to go by and much is concluded through romanticism.

It is not until recent times that people have began to get an indication into where and whom the Roms derive. This is due to an increase of interest, collaborated with the larger availability of information due to modern times. It has become possible for experts within the relevant fields to come together and narrow down the possibilities of the Rommany origin.

It is without doubt that the Roms have an Indian root. This can be proved with a thorough and in-depth study using a combination of language, customs, belief and DNA.

It is from these sources that we must look into to get any true idea.

Language

The Indian origin of Roms

To understand the Indian origin of the Rommany language it is necessary to look at the evolution of languages within India itself. There are two major language types within India, the first, Dravidian, was once spoken over most of India but is now used more significantly in the southern regions. The other, Indo-Aryan, is believed to have had its origin from the Northwest as both its formation and vocabulary are closely related to the ancient Iranian languages. The newer Indo-Aryan languages from the Northwest of India have now replaced much of the older Dravidian languages in most regions of India especially in the North. This process of changeover started happening thousands of years ago.

The Indian words that feature within the Romani vocabulary originate from the Indo-Aryan language type. The earliest Indo-Aryan language recorded within India is Sanskrit. There are different stages of Sanskrit according to its time period, the oldest known being Vedic Sanskrit. All the present Indo-Aryan languages have derived from Sanskrit via Prakrit. Prakrit was the spoken Indo-Aryan language and any adaptations within the language or changes were unique to region. In time the changes became so great that they became identified as separate regional languages such as Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati and Urdu. Hindi is now the primary national language that is identified over most of India. Although Hindi is very similar to all the other Indo-Aryan languages, it is recognised across regions, whereas most of the other dialects are only recognised within specific regions and states.

Learning from the Words and Grammar of the Rommany language

Looking at the words within the Rommany language it is viable to say that much of them have their origin from Prakrit that is unique to the Punjabi region of Northwest India and Northern Pakistan.

The quickest way to confirm that the Rommany language is greatly influenced by Punjabi regional Prakrit is to compare it to modern Punjabi, which has also derived from the same Prakrit. There are certain words within Punjabi that are of Sanskrit origin but have changes unique only to Punjabi. Examples of these words are Phrah meaning ‘brother’, Phehn meaning ‘sister’, Khar meaning ‘house’, Kura meaning ‘horse’ and Oteh meaning ‘over there’. [‘Ph’ is pronounced as ‘p’ with a slight ‘h’ after it and not as the English ‘ph’ that has a similar sound as ‘f’]

The equivalent words in Hindi and most other Indo Aryan languages are Bhai, Bahin, Ghar, Gura and Udahr.

Now if we look at the same words in the Rommany language then they are Phrahl, Phehn, Kher, Kuro (meaning ‘Colt’) and lastly Oteh.

From this we can observe that the Rommany words are the same as the words that are unique to Punjabi and therefore must have come via Prakrit of the region in which Punjabi developed.

The Romani language is a two gender language as it has masculine and feminine which supports claims that the Roms must have left India after 1000ad. This will be explained in greater depth later on.

Punjabi / Panjabi
As already mentioned above, there are words within the Rommany language that are only also spoken by speakers of Panjabi. Speakers of the Rommany language will find they have many similarities with speakers of Punjabi.

Pothohari
Pothohari is a language spoken by the inhabitants of the Pothohar region which is a section of the Panjab that is now Northern Pakistan. The term 'Pahahri' in Panjabi, Hindi, or Urdu means "of the mountain people”. Much of the language is like Panjabi. The Pothari word for three is tri unlike Panjabi which is ten. Romani for three is trin.

Hindi
Some words within the Rommany language are present within modern day Hindi, yet they are not spoken in Panjabi. This is probably due to either the ancestors of the Roms coming from different regions and incorporated the words into the language alongside the many Panjabi regional words or these words were spoken in the earlier Punjabi region yet were lost or replaced in the later years.

Words such as hahmahra (Rommany is Ahmahro) meaning ‘our’ or rhuk meaning ‘tree’ are still spoken in Hindi.

Dardic
In addition to the Panjabi & Hindi words we must also observe the Rommany word for white, which is ‘Parno’, apparently this word is from a Dardic word, though I must confess that I myself am not familiar with this language. According to one source the dardic word for white is ‘parna’.

Dardic like Panjabi is a language that is again spoken within the far Northwest of India and Northern Pakistan. The main region that it is spoken is Kashmir and Jammu, which is the region neighbouring to the North of the Punjab.

Sanskrit
As mentioned earlier Sanskrit is an old language and had the largest hand in contributing to the making of the newer Indo-Aryan languages, so it is easy to understand how there are words directly from Sanskrit present in the Rommany language. Shahveh meaning ‘children’ is from Sahveh meaning ‘youth’. Kahm meaning ‘love’ and Dev meaning ‘God’ are also examples of words that have arrived directly from Sanskrit.

Singhalese
In one recent report, it states that the Rommany language is closely related to Sinhala, the Singhalese language spoken in Sri Lanka. I myself am sceptical of this comment as it may be that the same similarities can be drawn with most Indo-Aryan languages and from my own experience when talking to Singhalese, I didn’t find a large deal of exchange when comparing language unlike when with Panjabis who I usually find are shocked with disbelief with some of our words.

The Singhalese people who are the largest percentage of the people living on the Island of Sri Lanka are like the Romani people as much as it is a mystery to how they arrived to being where they are today. Their origins are unclear but it is absolute certain that they came from Northern India as can been seen by genetic makeup and also there beliefs, customs and language and they are believed to have arrived around 5bc. The language itself has many loan words from the Dravidian language group that is spoken by their Tamil neighbours whom they share the island of Sri Lanka with and Pali also influences it, which is a language similar to Sanskrit that was invented by Buddhists for use with Buddhism, which is the main Singhalese religion. Like the Rommany language, Singhalese has its earliest roots and influences from Sanskrit; however it does not share a common likeness with the Rommany language by having many Panjabi spoken words.

Persian & Urdu
There are also a lot of Persian words that are absorbed into the Rommany language. Interestingly there is a large match with the Persian words within Rommany to that of the Persian words within Urdu. So great is the match that it could suggest that many of the Persian words within the Rommany language were picked up whilst still living within India. This could suggest that many of the ancestors of the Roma had lived towards the border region of India that had previously had much Persian influence such as towards the Northwest frontier region prior to having any Arabic rule and influence taken place.

Other Indian Languages

Someone comparing the Rommany language with someone who speaks Bengali will discover that there are many similar words such as pahni meaning ‘water’. This does not mean the Romani language has come from Bengali as the same word is also used in many Indian languages. Bengali has many words like Hindi & Panjabi that are from Sanskrit. Bangali may use mahtol meaning ‘drunk’ which is like the Rommany word mahto meaning the same but it was from Sanskrit that both languages got the word. Bengali uses the word mahs for fish whereas in Rommany mahs means ‘meat’. The purist Rommany word for fish is mahtchi which is the same in Panjabi & Hindi.

Another language which is similar is Gujarati. Gujarati is very close to Hindi but has its own regional changes that are not seen in Rommany. Gujarati uses the Sanskrit Divas meaning ‘day’. Rommany for day is also divas whereas in Panjabi it is den. Diva is an older word and probably was widely used predating den.

Words that have been absorbed into Rommany after leaving India

According to some of the leading professors of Rommany history and language studies, such as Dr. Ian Hancock, Dr W.R. Rishi and Ronald Lee, the Roms left India at a time after 1000ad. One reason to confirm this conclusion is that Rommany dialects have two genders as do the Indian languages related to them. These Indian languages originally had three genders prior to the switch to two genders which took place and was only completed by around 1000ad. All former neuter nouns are masculine in related Indian languages and Rommany except one, yahg for fire, which is feminine in Indian languages and Rommany.

Around the time of 1000ad, northwest India was under immense attack from Muslim Afghans and Turks which would explain the possibility of population upheaval. The Islamic empire at this time was invading many nations on all sides forcing them to submit to the following and teachings of Islam. A many number of major attacks pushed across the Eastern side into northwest India.

Whether the Roms were from one group of people or from many groups of people has not yet truly been proven, however there is evidence to suggest the Rommany people have a military connection. This is due to the many military styled words that have survived within their language. DNA testing has also confirmed a connection amongst Roma and the Kshatriya military castes of India such as Rajputs.

From these facts it is possible that the Roms left India as captives as a result of a defeat in battle or possibly just fleeing as they were unable to seek safety in what was previously their home.

Looking at the modern dialects of the Rommany language, it seems that they only pick up occasional words or adaptations in the language from environments that they have stayed and intermingled with for a considerable time period. Even though the English Roms did pass through France for a time, they don’t have any recognisable French words picked up. They do however have some Romanian and Slavic words, which suggest a more substantial influence from that region. According to recorded history, upon entering into Europe, many Roms did spend time in that region and were employed and even forced into slavery by the Romanian and Hungarian rulers to manufacture artillery.

After the vast number of words and grammar that are of Indian origin, the next largest influence is from the Anatolian region of the Byzantium time period (now know as Turkey).

There are a considerable number of words that are of Byzantine Greek and Armenian which are both languages spoken within the Anatolian region of the Byzantine Empire. Armenian was the language of Armenia which was to the far northeast of the Anatolian region of the Byzantines.

There are two reasonable explanations as to why and how the Roms came to being in Anatolia; firstly it is known that the Islamic invaders of India recruited ‘ghulam’ who were slave soldiers employed into their armies from the enemies after defeating them. It is much the same as when the British army employed Sikhs and Ghurkhas into their army years later when Britain occupied India.

These ghalam may have used in battle whilst Islam invaded into the Anatolian region hence the population upheaval. Movement of the troops accompanied by their wives and children would have taken place.

The other theory is that upon defeat of battle with the Ghaznavid invaders, the families of the armies of India took up flight and followed the well known trade roads called the ‘silk route’ west into the Anatolia region which was the first place not under Islamic oppression as it was under Byzantium rule.

The Byzantine Empire, of which the area of Anatolia was part of, was founded when the capital of the Roman Empire was transferred from Rome to Constantinople in 324ad and it existed in the eastern Mediterranean area until the fifteenth century. The common language of the Byzantine Empire was Byzantine Greek.

As it is accepted that the Roms left India in the 11th century, it is reasonable that we research the Byzantine Empire after this date.

The empire of Byzantine in the early 11th century was at its apogee and the empire covered all of the Balkan countries of Southeast Europe and stretched across to the lands of Armenia and Northern Iraq. In 1071 Muslim Seljuk Turks under Alp Arslan went to battle with the Byzantines at Mantzikert near Lake Van in modern Turkey. The Byzantine army under Romanus IV Diogenes were defeated leading to a Seljuks win and them taking from the Byzantines parts of Asia Minor, including Armenia.

Armenia was strong in its Christian faith and suffered greatly at the hands of the Muslim Turks. At this time many Armenians fled and formed expatriate communities elsewhere, the greatest being the new independent Armenian state, the Kingdom of Cilicia in Byzantine southern Turkey.

Cilicia had so many Armenians that it became known as ‘lesser Armenia’ or ‘little Armenia’. Armenian became greatly spoken in regions where Byzantine Greek was the native language.

Whether the Roms entered Armenia as militia for Islam or whether they entered a land such as Cilicia seeking refuge, both these places would present the perfect environment for the Roms to absorb the many Greek and Armenian words and are of the correct time period.

One thing for sure is that upon reaching this new world, once loosing their military status, the Roms would have had to sell much of their wealth and military related property and would have had to adapt to other means to make a living and support their families. Trades such as metal work and carpentry were such options. Interestingly all the Romani words associated with travel or trades such as metal work are all Armenian or Greek. The word for caravan – Vardon is Armenian and words such as Amoňis – ‘Anvil’, Charkum – ‘Copper’, Charťas – ‘Blacksmith’, Choveľi – ‘Glowing ashes’ and Petalos – ‘Horseshoe’ are all Byzantine Greek which all points to an adaptation of lifestyle after arriving in Byzantine lands. All Romani words associated with military are still from the Indian source. Khuro meaning colt is Indic because horses were only used by mounted soldiers in India and by the nobility. The beast of burden was the ox since horses do not generally thrive in most regions of India. In eastern Anatolia, the Roms picked up grast for horse as a beast of burden/work horse from Armenian, also petalo from Greek for horseshoe. There were no roads worthy of the name in India and thus no need for horse shoes on their previous routes.

In 1375, this last period of Cilician independence came to an end, when the country also became part of the Ottoman Empire. According to European records, the first Romani groups were recorded as being in Europe during the 1300s. In 1417, a group of about 200 Roms, led by a man called Andrew, approached the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in Germany and claimed to be Christians who had fled from Muslims who were forcing them to give up their faith in the way of Islam.

They came from ‘little Egypt’ which according to some sources, was the name used for the area of Turkey and the Middle East.

Titles used by Roms for themselves:
Rom, Roma, Roman & Romani

The word Rom within the Rommany language refers to a respected married man within the group. The wife of the Rom is a ‘Romni’. The plural to Rom is Roma which is the title most Rommany groups go under. In the English languages they would be calling themselves ‘Roms’.

The word Rom within the Rommany language is also connected to marriage. According to Manfri Frederick Wood’s ‘In the life of a Romany Gypsy’ an old word for marriage amongst the Romanichal Roms of Britain is ‘Ramado’. Alternatively, the more modern ‘Didikai’ broken language where Romani is mixed with English, the word is ‘Rommered’.

Roms in Sweden say ‘Romnyadino’, which means ‘a wife has been given he’.

The origin of the word ‘Rom’ has two possible sources; the first possible source is from the Sultanate of Roum in Eastern Anatolia. The Sultanate of Roum is a location that the Roms could have been stationed if once employed as part of the Islamic army.

The second possible source is from the Sanskrit word Raman (pronounced ‘Rahman’). The verb Raman either means ‘one who is delighted by i.e. a husband’ or it can mean ‘touring’ or ‘to travel around’.

Both versions of the verb Raman comes from the verb root Ram (pronounced ‘Rahmh’) meaning either to ‘enjoy’ or ‘delight in’ or to mean ‘travel’.

The greatly respected Indian linguist W.R. Rishi, states that in Panjabi, Ramta Ram means ‘one who roams about’. Mr Rishi also states that in Sanskrit, virama means ‘to stop’ and viramati means ‘he takes rest’. Like in Romani ‘bi’ is a negative prefix, the same is with ‘vi’ in Sanskrit. If the prefix ‘vi’ is removed then, rama has the opposite meaning of 'non-stop and moving'. Alternatively Ramate in Sanskrit can also mean ‘to rest’ or ‘to stay / stop’, again connected to Ram meaning travel.

In the Sanskrit that the many Indo-Aryan language evolved from, the vowels that are in the middle of a word are not always strongly spoken and sometimes are not written in i.e. the word that Sanskrit come from meaning ‘refined, consecrated sanctified’, is written as Sarnskta. Kar meaning ‘make, do’ becomes ‘kr’ in more modern Indian languages, an ‘a’ is put in place and is spoken as ‘ah’.

Something else that occurred to me is the Hindi / Panjabi word ‘Piyari’ meaning ‘lover’ if broken down then Yari means ‘friend’. Pi would then have a root connected to love. If this is the case then if the same is done with the Rommany equivalent ‘Piramni’ then pi is for ‘love’ then we are left with Ramni which would be like the Rommany word Romni. Possibly again this is suggesting a vowel change making Ram as Rom. It could seem that the original name used for the Roma was actually Rama.

To expand the word Raman using the Romani grammar or the related Indian grammar, then the feminine of Raman would be ‘Ramani’ and the plural would be ‘Ramaneh’. Romani and Romaneh are used in all Romani dialects.

Sinte
Sinte is the title used by a branch off from the Roms that live mostly in France and Germany. During the Second World War, thousands of Sinte were executed at the hands of Hitler and his Nazis. The Jazz guitarist Django Rienhardt (1910-53) famous for playing American Jazz and adapted American Jazz to be the founder of Gypsy styled Jazz was a Sinto.

It is likely that the word Sinte is from the ancient Sanskrit word Sin meaning ‘water’, which then can become Sindhu meaning ‘river’. Sind is still an area in what is now Southern Pakistan; however it was once a word used to mean much of the Northwest India. It seems variants of this title have been connected with the Indian subcontinent for a long time. Even to this day we all say ‘Indians’ which is also a word that has its roots from Sin / Sindhi.

An inscription dated to 518bc, was found at Persepolis, the capital of the Persian & Achaemenid empire of Darius the 1st and listed amongst his numerous domains that of ‘Hindu’. Ancient Persian is a close relative of Sanskrit and has much in common. Words such as the hallucinogenic drink ‘Soma’ in Sanskrit were called Haoma in the Persian. Sindhu likewise becomes Hindu.

The Greek it seems uses both Indian and Persian influenced words such as ‘Sindoi’ and ‘Indoi’. The ‘h’ of the Persian ‘Hind’ gets lost in Greek giving ‘Ind’. It is from the Greek that we get Indus and India.

People from the Indian region that lived further a field, it seems also used a form of the word ‘Sindhu’. There are a few occasions in the ancient world of people of possible Indian decent using the title ‘Sindhi’. There are mentions in Herotot’s ‘Historia’ of a people called the indoi living on the shores north of the Black Sea. Other references by ancient sources refer to these people as Sindhi.

There is a possibility that people living in Eastern Turkey. One of the largest family names amongst the Kurds is also ‘Sindhi’ and many believe these to be of an Indian ancestry from a very early time period.

Manush
Manush, which is spelt ‘Manouche’ by the French, is an alternative title used by the Sinte. Manush is a word within the Rommany language meaning ‘man’ and the feminine variation of the word is Manushi.

The origin of this word is from the Sanskrit word ‘Manus’ meaning ‘people’. According the Sanskrit scripture Manu was a character much like Noah in the Judo-Christian scriptures. In Hinduism, Manu was the progenitor of humankind and first king to rule this earth, who saved mankind from the universal flood.

There are many words and ways amongst the Roms that suggest they once were heavily influenced and strict with the teachings of the Hindu faith.

Kale
Kale which literally means ‘blacks’, is a title used by some Rommany groups and also the Gitanos of Spain and Portugal. The Kale who are predominantly in Spain are the group responsible for giving the world flamenco. Some of the world’s greatest guitarists are of Kalo decent.

It has previously been argued that the Kale split from the main bulk of Roms and travelled via North Africa, yet to me it seems more feasible that they broke away from the other Rommany people whilst travelling through Europe. The only Rommany people that are present in North Africa today seem to have come via Europe and at a much later date.

Many of the Kale in Spain are Catholic and have their own Saint known as ‘Sara-e-Kali’ (Black Sara). It has often been noted that Sara-e-Kali is identified with the Indian goddess Kali. It has been said that the ceremonies performed in France at the shrine of Sainte Sara can be compared with those to Kali in India. Statues of the Indian goddess Durga, also named Kali, are immersed into water. Durga, the consort of Shiva, usually represented with a black face, is the goddess of creation, sickness and death. In France 24th May is the official day of her pilgrimage to the country. On this day her statue is carried down to the sea as a reenact of her arrival.

According to the web site Wikipedia, a quote by Franz de Ville (Tziganes, Brussels 1956) says Sara was Romani:

One of our people who received the first Revelation was Sara the Kali. She was of noble birth and was chief of her tribe on the banks of the Rhone. She knew the secrets that had been transmitted to her....The Rom at that period practiced a polytheistic religion, and once a year they took out on their shoulders the statue of Ishtari and went into the sea to receive benediction there. One day Sara had visions which informed her that the Saints who had been present at the death of Jesus would come, and that she must help them. Sara saw them arrive in a boat. The sea was rough, and the boat threatened to founder. Mary Salome threw her cloak on the waves and, using it as a raft, Sarah floated towards the Saints and helped them reach land by praying.

Tsigan
Variations of the title Tsigan are used by many groups of Roms, Cale and Sinte. Tsigan is believed to have it root as ‘Atsinganoi’, a Greek word meaning ‘those that do not want to be touched’. The earliest recorded use of the word was in 1054 when it is used with reference to a group of evil sorcerers who visited the Emperor Constantine IX Monomachus. It is recorded that they were employed to poison the wild animals that were entering into the emperor’s garden by use of magic. The emperor then invited them to do the same with his favourite dog, but a Christian saint intervened and the magic did not work.

Due to the early date, it is highly likely that this reference is to a different people to that of the Romani people. Whether this was a Greek reference to a different Indian people of a similar ways or whether it is a reference to some religious sect that has nothing to do with Indian people is not known. Indian people at that time as do the Indian people of today have usually had two major religious influences. The first being Hinduism which promotes cleanliness and the purity of blood lineage, the other is spirit believing superstition that fears curses and bad or good luck.

The fact that these people did not want to be touched implies a possible Hindu attitude and the case of them using a so called magic is much like the Indian superstitions. Both suggest that these people may have been an Indic people. Indian people would have been present in the Middle Eastern regions at this time such as possibly mercenaries, traders or the Domari / Zott nomadic people and any of these could have been possible candidates. It is possible that if the Romani people arrived a few years later, then an obvious connection would have been seen, hence the adapted use of the title.


© CJ Eastwood 2006