Gypsies
Among
India's many gifts to the world, we must include the Gypsies, who, with their
music and dancing, have formed a romantic and colourful element in European
life for over five centuries. The relationship of Romani to the languages of
Northern India is obvious, even to those with no linguistic training, for many
of the commonest words of Romani are little different from those of India.
The European Gypsies
have no recollection of their Indian origin but have generally claimed to be
Egyptians. The Russian Gypsies, it is said, even declare that their ancestors
were a single soldier of the army of Pharaoh and a young girl, who escaped drowning
when Moses led the Israelites over the Red Sea. This tradition of the Gypsies'
Egyptian origin was for long taken at its face value, until 1763 AD.
In 1763 a Hungarian
spiritual student, Stefan Vályi, published a brief paper pointing to the close
similarity between the language of the Gypsies of his native plains and that of
three Indians whom he had met at the University of Leyden. It was long before
the true significance of this fact was recognized, but it is now universally
agreed that the Gypsy language or Romani is an Indo-Aryan one and that the fact
can only be accounted for by claiming that the Gypsies came from India.
Philology is the study of language in oral and written
historical sources. Philologists
have shown by the comparison of Romani with the Prakrits and
modern Indian languages that the Gypsies originated in the Ganga basin, which
they left before the time of Aśoka (3rd century B.C.E.), to reside for several
centuries in North-Western India. Probably even at this time they were
wandering musicians and entertainers. In modern India there is a lowly caste of
such people called Doms, or Dombs, attested since the early Middle Ages, and
with this word the word Rom, by which the Gypsies universally designate
themselves, is probably connected. In Syrian Romani it occurs as Doum, very
close to the Indian form.
According to the 11th
c. Persian poet Firdausi, who collected many legends and traditions of
pre-Muslim Persia in his "Book of Kings" (Shah-namah), the
5th-century Sasanian king Bahram Gür invited ten thousand Indian musicians to
his kingdom, and gave them cattle, and asses, so that they might settle in the
land and entertain his poorer subjects, who had been complaining that the
pleasures of music and dance were reserved for the rich. But the musicians
refused to settle; they ate the cattle and seed-corn which the king had given
them and wandered about the land like wolves or wild dogs.
Though Firdausi’s story
may not be wholly accurate, it shows that low caste Indian musicians were well
known in the Middle East at a very early time. With the Arab conquest of Sind
in the early 8th century further groups of Indian entertainers may have found
their way westwards and later have moved on to Africa and Europe.
Folk called Athinganoi
(Ancient Greek, gypsies, untouchables) are recorded as living in
Constantinople in A.D. 810, and later Byzantine records refer to these
Athinganoi as magicians and conjurors. These words are taken from Serboianu's
grammar and glossary of Rumanian Romani (Les Triganes, Paris, 1990).
These were probably the
ancestors of a group of people who appeared in Central and Western Europe in
the late Middle Ages. The earliest evidence of Gypsies in Europe other than in
the Balkans comes from the German city of Hildesheim, where a passing band is
recorded in 1407. A great multitude of Gypsies passed through Basel in
1422, under a chief who called himself Michael, Prince of Egypt. (Basel is a city on the Rhine River in
northwest Switzerland, close to the country’s borders with France and Germany.)
Within a few decades
they had overrun all Europe; the earliest records show that they had all the
characteristics of their descendants-they were careless, lazy, dirty and
cheerful, skilled in metal work and tinkering, splendid musicians and dancers,
their bodies decorated with bright garments and jewellery, their menfolk
cunning horse-dealers, their womenfolk telling fortunes, and both sexes losing
no opportunity to steal and rob from the unsuspecting people. It was not long
before the Gypsies began to feel the fierce persecution that they were to
suffer in most parts of Europe down to recent times when many Gypsies perished
in the gas chambers of the Third Reich.
Little but their
language remains to connect the Gypsies with their original home, and even
their speech is full of borrowings from almost every tongue of Europe and many
of Asia. Though the Gypsies have always tended to marry their kind, centuries
of wandering have left their mark on the Gypsy type and there are now many fair
Gypsies, though others, if suitably attired, would not seem out of place in a
modern North Indian city. On analysis, their music is that of the lands in
which they dwell. Whether in Hungary, Romania, or Spain, it is based on local folk
song and dance.
Unfortunately, the
English Gypsies have largely forgotten their traditional art, but when they
sing, they sing folk songs and music-hall ballads; in Ireland, the tinkers sing
Irish folk songs. Yet, wherever the Gypsies go, their musicians tend to give
their music a character of its own. A predilection for ornamentation of the
melody, especially with quartertones, a preference for the minor mode, a
tendency to introduce progressions by augmented whole tones into their
melodies, and a love of complex rhythm, are perhaps survivals of the Indian
musical tradition which the first Romanis brought with them from their
homeland. Some Gypsy folktales resemble those of India, but the same may be
said of the traditional tales of every country of Europe. A few Gypsy customs
and beliefs may be genuine Indian survivals. Though by no means a hygienically
inclined people, the Gypsies have ideas of ritual purity and birth and death
taboos which remind us of those of Hinduism. Thus, a woman in childbirth is
impure, and must bear her child outside her caravan or tent lest she pollute
it, Gypsy midwives are impure throughout their lives, and are taboo to all
respectable Gypsies, like the outcast village midwives of India. Corpses are
also impure, and dying Gypsies are carried from their caravans to end their
lives in the open air, for fear of pollution. The Gypsy taboo on horse
slaughterers may have an Indian origin. But all these resemblances might well
be accounted for otherwise.
The Gypsies have
forgotten their ancestry. In one respect, however, they have kept to the
traditions of their homeland. Though they have adapted their ways to time and
place, and have always been open to new influences, they are still governed by
their laws and their code of morality. They have staunchly retained their
individuality against persecution and persuasion like an independent social
group, excelling within regional and national boundaries, knit together by
common customs, common means of livelihood, and common blood. In this respect
they are Indian. They are a caste, as their Indian counterparts, the Doms, are
a caste, and even the innovations of the Twentieth Century have not been able
to destroy their caste solidarity.
The image of a gipsy
raises a sense of mystery and desire to travel, an example of freedom etched in
vibrant colours and swirling skirts. With a heritage rich in tradition and
folklore, gipsies, also known as Romani people, weave tales of ancient wisdom
and nomadic journeys. Their nomadic lifestyle reflects a deep connection to the
earth and a profound appreciation for the beauty found in diversity. Through
their music, dance, and intricate crafts, gipsies celebrate life's vibrant
tapestry, embracing both its joys and sorrows with a strong spirit. Amidst the
flickering flames of campfires and the melodies of their soulful songs, the
essence of the gypsy beckons, inviting us to explore the world with open hearts
and embrace the magic that surrounds us.
