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ProjECT EdUCatIon of Roma | HIstory Roma CHILdrEN COUNcil CONseil OF EUROpe de L´EUROpe IN EUropE FROM INDIA 1.0 TO EUROPE From India to Europe compiled by the editors India | Moving West | The Way to Byzantium – the Lexicon as Map? | Dom, Luri, Roma: Cousins, but not Siblings | Roma in the Byzantine Empire | The Athingani | Roma on Peloponnese According to the findings of linguistics, cultural anthropology, science of history and, in more recent years, population genetics, the Roma’s Indian origin is considered a fact. How their ancestors came from India to Europe, and when this migration took place, its reasons and who exactly these people were is, however, open to assumptions. For want of direct evidence, the pre-European history of the Roma is a matter of reconstruction. BYZANTIUM: PELOPONNESE (13th CENT.); ASIA MINOR (10-11th CENT.?) MIgratIon from IndIA to EUropE ISTANBUL BAKU Ill. 1 ANKARA ARMENIA? Areas and most likely dates of sojourn. ASHABAD TEHERAN KABUL DAMASCUS BAGHDAD PERSIA? CAIRO DELHI NORTHWEST INDIA (END OF 2nd HALF OF THE 1st MILLENNIUM C.E.) RIAD CENTRAL INDIA (1st HALF OF THE 1st MILLENNIUM C.E.) NAGPUR mECCA MUMBAI IntrodUCTIon ved in the Byzantine Empire, because Just like linguistics and genetics, all groups of Roma existing today have cultural anthropology assumes that the The Roma’s Indian origin is uncontes- a common linguistic basis, which also Roma originally came from India. It re- ted. By analysing Romani, the langua- includes parts of lexicon and grammar fers, among others, to socio-cultural insti- ge of the Roma, and comparing it with taken from Greek. tutions like the traditional form of jurisdic- other languages, it could be shown that Also according to more recent, tion, or to certain rules within the groups, the Roma migrated from Central India preliminary findings of population ge- such as the commands of cleanness. Both, to the Eastern parts of Northern India, netics, the Roma’s ancestors were In- group-internal jurisdiction and the com- and probably stayed there for some dian. These were supposedly part of a mands of cleanness, can also be found, time. Then, they possibly moved via relatively small homogenous group, as like certain religious notions of some Persia and Armenia to the Byzantine shown by analyses of blood groups. Dif- groups of Roma, on the Indian subcon- Empire, to Asia Minor and later on to ferentiations within this group probably tinent. Direct socio-cultural connections Greece. Linguistic findings point at a only occurred at the time of their arrival between the Roma and Indian groups, fairly homogenous group which arri- and their early spread into Europe. however, have so far not been established. India Moving West The Way to Byzantium – the Lexicon as Map? SomE Important LangUagES OF THE IndIan SUBContINEnt Central Indo-Aryan languages and some sorrounding other Indo-Aryan, Iranian and Dravida languages. KasHMIRI PAnjabI PasHto RajastHanI NEpaLI baLOCHI SIndHI ASSAMESE UrdU HIndI BEngaLI BIHarI GUjaratI MaratHI arabIan SEA orIya Central Indo-Aryan Languages TELUGU Other Indo-Aryan Languages Kannada bay of BEngaL Iranian Languages MALayaLam tamIL Ill. 2 Dravida Languages SINHALESE From a 16th-century Persian manuscript: Shangul of India entertained by Bahram Gur. Ill. 3 (from Fraser 1992, p. 34) Science of history has sources at and which have been equated with them us to form a picture of the nomadic popu- its disposal which do not talk about the in the past. None of these assumptions lation in those regions in which the Roma Roma, but about groups which are remi- could be proved; yet such documents travelled in all likelihood in the course of niscent of the Roma in many respects, from Persia and the Arabian region allow their migration from India to Europe. draw conclusions as to earlier origins. ded that the Roma’s ancestors originally INDIA Romani, however, cannot be classified lived in Central India. Already before easily. It has many features of the so- the Common Era, they moved to Nor- called Central Indo-Aryan languages, thwestern India, where they stayed for Linguistic methods make it possible like Hindi-Urdu, Panjabi, Gujarati or a longer period of time, before leaving to determine the spatial and temporal the Rajasthani group, but it also shares this area and moving west. This theory, origin of an Indo-Aryan language. Par- features with Northern Indo-Aryan lan- postulated in 1927 by the British speci- ticularly changes within the sound sys- guages like Kashmiri. From this, and alist in oriental studies Ralph Turner, is tem of a language make it possible to other considerations, it has been conclu- commonly accepted today. [Ills. 1, 3] “Shahnameh” (The Book of Kings), Similar legends are told by other histo- MOVING WEST written in 1011, the Persian poet Fer- riographers. [Ill. 2] dowsi mentions a legend according During Bahram V’s reign there to which the Indian King Shangul is actual evidence of the immigration of The precise time when the Roma left gave his Persian colleague Bahram V various Northern Indian groups into the India is unknown. Linguistic data can- (420-438) 10,000 so-called “Luri” as Persian area. Some researchers identi- not provide precise dates, and there are a present, to entertain the latter’s peo- fied the “Luri” (called “Zott” or “Jatt” no contemporary documents about the ple with music. Bahram gave the Luri in Arabian sources) with the Roma and Roma’s migration through the Middle crops to sow for their service; they ate consequently assumed that they had left East. It is only later writers who refer the corn and asked for more. Conse- India already in the 5th century. Thus, to events of those times, always from quently, the Shah sent the Luri out into also the lack of Arabian words in the a distance of many centuries. In his the world on the back of their animals. Romani lexicon was explained: during COUNcil OF EUROpe Roma | HIstory ProjECT EdUCatIon of Roma CHILdrEN IN EUropE FROM INDIA 1.0 TO EUROPE ROMANI – A MODERN INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGE AboUT THE Roma’S ORIGIN – ModErn LEGEnds The original Indo-Aryan words in Romani have great mor- phosyntactic potency, which means that it is possible to Quick research on the Internet shows the following: “Sin- create, with a number of specific suffixes, out of one word a ti, Roma and kin groups” originally came from “the Indian number of other words: area”, and were “abducted” by the Arabs in the 9th and 10th centuries, and, in the 11th century, taken “as prisoners” “by romanI ENGLISH the Moslems” in their campaigns (namely “about 500,000 bar-o large, big; powerful; elder ‘Gypsies’”) or immigrated – “in smaller groups” – in the th bar-ipen size, distinction, pride 14/15 century “via Northern Africa and the Balkans into bar-ikanipen pretentiousness Europe”, where they had also been “brought as slaves” bar-ikanarel pes to enlarge 200 years before that time, etc. bar-arel to primp and preen, to overdress Rather than in the “facts” they pretend to describe, bar-arel avri to raise children the value of theories or assumptions on the origin of Roma bar-arel pes to brag often lies in the motives out of which they emerge. It has to bar-uvel (barol) to grow be noted, however, that Roma themselves have no myths or bar-eder officer (literally the “bigger” one) legends about the early origins of their people. Their tradi- tion has been and to a large extent still today is preserved orally, and most Roma consider the question of their early Similar to these features, a significant part of Romani gram- origin, if anything, a political one in terms of the various mar is Indo-Aryan; today’s Romani is considered a Modern emancipation processes that started only recently. Indo-Aryan language. Ill. 5 Ill. 4 the 7th century, Persia came under Arabi- after the alleged event. The reliability on, remained Persian even under Arabi- an reign, and Romani included Persian, of such sources can be judged by loo- an reign. The Roma could just as well but no Arabian words in its lexicon. As king at the “legends” about the Roma’s have lived in Persia under Arabian reign a result, it has been concluded that the origin circulating today. If one was to without having adopted Arabian words. Roma had left Persia before the Arabi- search these legends for historical facts, [Ill. 6] an conquest. The legend about the Luri other than the fact that a long time ago a There is no doubt, however, that could thus very well refer to the Roma, then unknown people came to Europe, it already in the 3rd to 5th century mobile who left Persia already in the 5th century, would be in vain. [Ill. 5] groups with service professions came and India even earlier on their westward Also the second argument, the from India to the West. The Roma were journey. lack of Arabian words in Romani is not either among them – or they were not. These conclusions, however, do conclusive. The Arabs constituted only As a consequence, most scientists today not necessarily appear convincing. First- a very small ruling caste; the langua- assume it was over a long period of time ly, there are several versions of the Luri ge spoken in the country, particularly – between the 3rd and 10th century – du- legend, which differ in decisive issues, among the not-so-well educated and ring which the Roma left India, most and which were recorded only 500 years the less influential part of the populati- likely between the 8th and 10th century. The European lexicon was formed only Scientists often – explicitly or THE WAY TO BYZANTIUM in the course of individual groups’ migra- implicitly – correlate the relative num- – THE LEXICON AS MAP? tion to Europe to become what it is today, ber of borrowed words with the length of and thus developed differently within dif- the Roma’s stay in the various regions.

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