The Gypsies

 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.