ABOUT DOM COMMUNITY

DOM COMMUNITY

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THERE ARE SIX BASIC BRANCHES OF GYPSIES IN THE WORLD, THREE IN WESTERN-ROMA, SINTI AND LIBERIAN, THREE IN EASTERN-LOM, DOM AND LYULI.
SCIENTISTS,BELIVE THAT MORDEN GYPSIES ARE THE DESCENDANTS OF THE DOM AN INDIAN CASTE.Heinrich-Moritz Gottlieb Gellman, a German scientist, was the first to have set forth the idea about the Indian origin of the gypsies. DOMS TRADITIONAL WORK WAS SMITHCRAFT, SINGING AND DANCING.
IN INDIA DOMS ARE CATEGORIZED AS LOW CASTE, MANY OF THEM STILL MIGRATE IN MORDEN INDIA.LYULIS ARE A SUBGROUP OF THE DOM PEOPLE LIVING IN THE CENTRAL ASIA.
THE DOM OR DOMBA IN SANSKRIT DOMA, IN OTHER LANGUAGES DOMAKI, DOMBO ETC...IS A SOCILA GROUP SCATTERED IN INDIA, NEPAL EVEN IN SRILANKA.IN NORTH INDIA THEY ARE CALLED DOM.IN MAHARASTRA AND GUJARAT THEY ARE CALLED DOMBA OR DOMARI.
DOM IN NORTH INDIA PUNJAB AND HIMACHAL PARDESH ARE SMALE SCALE AGRICULTURALISTS, BASKET WEAVERS AND MUSICIAN.IN VARANASI DOM PERFORM THE TASK OF CREMATION OF DEAD BODIES.

DOM IN INDIA.

SOURCE ROMBASE:

The ancestors of the Dom belonged to the pre-Aryan population of India, which they inhabited before the Aryans invaded India in 1500 BC. At that time, the Dom did not yet use the term Dom, but the Dom physical type, their culture, their religion, etc. indisputably proves that today's Dom are descended from the Dom who lived there before the invasion of the Indo-European Aryans.

The Indus Valley civilization - or the Mohenjo-Daro or Harappo civilization - flourished in India from 3000 BC to 1500 BC. Its creators built two-storied brick houses. Every (wealthy) house had a bathroom, canalisation and wells. They even had a system of writing which no one has yet been able to decipher. It is almost certain that the ancestors of the Dom – even though we do not know what they were called – belonged to a people who lived during the Mohenjo-Daro era and worked with others to build the Mohenjo-Daro civilisation.

After the Aryan Guptas had decimated the Dom, the victors wrote about them in quite unflattering terms.

In some regions (Benares), it is the Dom whose job is to cremate the dead and, therefore, they are considered unclean. Elsewhere, on the other hand, as in the Indian states of Rajasthan, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, most Dom are traditionally musicians and, as among our Roma, many of them are outstanding. In the eleventh century, the famous Arab historian Al Bírúní mentioned Dom musicians.

The first person to point out the possible connection between Roma and Indian Dom was the German Indiologist from Leipzig, Hermann Brockhaus. August Friedrich Pott published his letter with this hypothesis in a volume which belongs to the basic Gypsyologic work of the 19th century ( "Die Zigeuner in Europa und Asien". Halle 1844). Hermann Brockhaus found the term Dom/Domba in two collections of Sanskrit literature: in the eleventh century collection by Sómadév, Kathasaritsagara ("Ocean of stories"); in the twelfth century collection by Kalhan, Rajatarangini ("Stream of Kings"). Dom as members of "lower" castes already appear in both of these collections. This is not surprising: the authors of both collections are Brahmans, representatives of the highest "varna" (class) who considered the original non-Aryan population as "antjadž" (standing outside) of the Hindu system, that was finally victorious over the rest of the original population, the descendents of the Mohenjo-Daro civilisation. Hermann Brockhaus quite correctly concludes

"Sollte dies Wort domnicht dasselbe als das Zig. Romsein? Bezeichnet dies vielleicht ursprünglich einen im nordwestlichen Indien lebenden Volksstamm, der unterjocht zu Parias entwürdigt wurde. Denn daß ein Volk sich nicht selbst einen Namen gibt, der etwas Unwürdiges bezeichnet, versteht sich von selbst. Nur durch Unterjochung kann ein Volksname bei den Siegern zum Schimpfnamen werden."

"Would the word Dom be the same as the Gyp. Rom? Does it perhaps designate a tribe living in northwestern India which were subjugated and debased as Parias, untouchables? For it is self-evident that a people would not give itself a name that means something demeaning. Only through subjugation can the victors turn the name of a people into a term of abuse." (A.F. Pott, 1844, p. 42)

Some Roma romistics experts do not acknowledge that there might have been some kind of relation between Roma and Indian Dom. We understand their feelings. Gadže experts on Gypsies always wanted to convince the world that Roma were and will always be at the bottom, poor and squalid. Therefore, they explained only half-truths about the Dom – that even they were only at the bottom. As we see, this is not the complete truth. The truth is that, during a certain era, Dom played a distinguished role in Indian history.

Legend

Some Dom still remember their own kingdom in their legends. One was related in 1969 by Dom-Mahasha from the town of Jullundur.

"Once upon a time the Dom had their own kingdom. They had a beautiful life. They were never attacked and they never waged war because the woods, waters and God gave them everything they needed. The Dom king kept an army only so he could see what handsome young men he had in his kingdom. Only "bamana" (Brahmans, the highest Aryan "varna" – caste) wanted to conquer all of India and therefore they even sent their generals and army of "Kshatrias" (the second highest Aryan "varna") to the jungle to find states that were still free. The soldiers did, indeed, find an independent Dom state. They invaded it, slaughtered everyone they could, and plundered all kinds of Dom property. Some Dom managed to hide in the woods; some ran far away in different directions, where we don't know; some became slaves to the Brahmans.Two brothers, Kalo and Bango, remained alive. They were very courageous. At night they returned to their town where now the foreign victors were ruling, and they stole back what had been stolen from them: precious jewels, gold, beautiful art works, magnificent musical instruments, statues of their Holy Mother, everything they could find. They carried their treasures far into the woods and buried them in hollows. Until today, nobody knows where everything is hidden.But once, at night, misfortune struck: Guards caught the two brothers and took them to their chief. There the brothers were interrogated as to where they had hidden the "stolen" treasures. The captors did not get one word out of the brothers. And so the new ruler had them thrown into boiling wax, and there, these two poor brothers burned and boiled to death. But even in death the brothers didn't leave the victors in peace. They haunted them. They came every night and put terror into the hearts of the new ruler and his court. They choked them and left them with bruises. The ruler no longer knew what to expect. And so the "spirits of the dead" told him to erect a monument to them in the village of Domgau, where Dom might come by and remember their distinguished past. And it was done. What else did the brothers Kalo and Bango say? That there will be no peace on earth until the Dom-Roma are treated with the same respect as other people."

 

Dom are closely related to other castes which today, however, bear different names. Earlier, they belonged to a great Dom community. Their present caste designations refer mostly to their vocations – as is the case with the Roma (Kalderaš: cauldron makers; Lovara: horse traders). In India, related to the Dom are: gade lohars (gadí: car; lohár: blacksmith), who are traveling blacksmiths; Badis (comp. ancient Roma family name Badi/Bodi), who play music and perform as acrobats, Badjos(comp. Roma family name Badžo), who are musicians; Banjaras, who are outstanding tradesmen. And so we see that the Dom-Rom relationship is not only linguistic. In addition, basic professions of both groups are identical. [Index]

Where and when the ancestors of the Roma left India is still an open question. The Roma scholar Ian Hancock le Redžosko, professor at Texas University in Austin, Texas, USA, assumes that the ancestors of the Roma fought against Arab warriers who conquered India from the eighth to the eleventh centuries and actually afterwards also. [Origin of Roma] The worst of these invaders was Muhammad Ghaznavi (11th century), who invaded and plundered India twenty-one times. It was just at that time that the ancestors of the Roma were leaving India. In Hancock's opinion, Roma ancestors were a mixed population composed of "Rajputs" (a high warrior caste) and their armies, among whom were also Dom. It is indisputable that the armies needed musicians as well as blacksmiths and tradesmen who could get them beasts of burden - horses and oxen. And those professions were those of the Dom. [Roma – Groups]

Until 1971, Roma were called Roma only among themselves. Others – except specialists – did not even know their real name (autonym). They labeled Roma with the greatest variety of appellatives (exonyms): "Cikáni" (Czech); "Tsiganye" (Russian); "Zigeuner" (German); "Zingari" (Italian); "Tsiganes" (French); "Gypsies" (English); "Gitanes" (French); "Tattare" (Swedish); "Bohémiens" (French) etc. All these appellatives show that Gadže did not know who Roma were or where they came from. Secondly, with time, these appellatives took on an ugly and erroneous sound: "Gypsy" – anyone who roams and does not live in one place; "ciganit": to lie, etc.

At the first International Congress of Roma in London, England (April 1971), the Roma announced that they wished their rightful name to be used officially, even among non-Roma. They founded the Roma organization RIJ ( Romano internacionalno jekhipen, today IRU ( Internacionalno romani unia). In 1979, the IRU became a member of ECOSOC, an organ of the UN. With it also grew international esteem for the Roma and their real name: Rom. In many countries, even non-Roma use the official autonym Rom in order to show proper respect to the Roma