Few years ago, when the Roma (Gypsy) Taxi driver in Frankfurt to my amazement almost understood my conversation with my wife in the native tongue of Rajasthan, a north western state in India, I decided to work on this and find out how.
Since the Taxi Driver understood the language of Rajasthan, I went through the history of Rajasthan or Rajputana as it was originally called and discovered that there was a huge exodus of the tired soldiers of the army of great Rajput King Prithviraj Chauhan around 1050 AD who, as the history says, fought 17 wars with Mohammed Ghauri. Most left with women folks leaving empty villages. Most Roma belong to the fine Rajput warrior caste and others were farmers called Jat who also were in the army.
While the great king was keen on continuing battles, many soldiers did not want to fight more wars and stayed at home. For a Rajput staying at home during war was a stigma. They were taunted for staying home at the time of war.
Therefore, as a folk song of Rajasthan says, they left their native land in groups. They left from no other part of India. Some went west and are called Gypsies or Roma now and some went down to south India where they still are in their red and yellow color clothes and with huge moustache. You can see them on google by clicking “Lambada in south India ". I am from Rajasthan but live in south Indian city of Hyderabad and hence see Lambadas daily.
I was further shocked again when our Gypsy (Lambada) maid mostly understood an old Hungarian Roma lady talking in Romani about Nazi atrocities on a BBC program on TV while I understood it by reading the English captions. Apparently, the two ladies 9000 miles away now spoke same language spoken about 1000 years ago in their land of origin. We being from Rajasthan still use many of their words.
On the way to west, Roma took words from Persian like bibi and many other tongues including Greek (drost for road) and from Armenian and so on. Also, few joined them on the way from Sindh, another Indian province, now in Pakistan. They are still called Sinti within Roma and words like laklo, lakli, chavo are from Sindhi.
They somehow lost their surnames of fine Rajput warrior clans. Roma may try to find surnames like Sisodia, Chauhan, Shekhawat, Nainavat Rathore, etc. However, I found only one exception in Poland. One Roma has Mirga as surname which he said was not Polish but Roma. Rajputs have a surname, Mirdha. I am sure this must be same. But they kept first Indian names until 19th century like Amos Bihari and his daughter Panna Cinkova, both great Roma musicians from Hungary. Panna meaning Emerald is a pure Rajasthani name not used in other parts of India. You may look in Google for “Panna Cinka . If they were not Indians, why otherwise would they have Indian names in Europe in the year 1711?
Today Roma use many of the words from Rajasthani (or Marwari) and Hindi, both of Sanskrit origin. Few are ek do trin nak(nose) bal(hair) angusth(finger) bersh(year) diwas(day), prabhat(morning), gandh( smell)sassu,sussro ( mother and father in law, from rajasthani) saalo , Sali (brother and sister in law) from Rajasthani) chora(boy) chori(girl) cior(chor, meaning thief)) gia sov, thalle, upral purano( old) dukh, kasht, tato, langhal(lame) maang, des, lajja and so on. About half are from Rajasthani and rest from Hindi both of which originate from Sanskrit. I know hundreds. There are thousands. Luis Mori, another Roma has sent me a huge list of Romani words which I match with my Roma maid's vocabulary. Sometimes grammar has changed to European style, like we would say sov gia and Roma would say gia sov. Same meaning though. Has slept. Also, all Indian languages including today's Rajasthani has two yous, one for Junior and one for senior. Romani and the language of Lambada even today have only one you which is "tu "used for Juniors and for very close ones which must have been so 1000 years ago.
Romani words are from pre-Muslim era in India and hence pure Sanskrit like hiv (him in Sanskrit) for snow or ice is used while we in India now say barf which is Persian. Please go to the following in to see more. “Romani an Indian lost Language by Adriano, an Italian Roma from whom I have learned much and also“Roma girl from Kosovo goes to India"
All Roma had mustache which was necessary for Rajput warriors. Purity codes of Roma were till recently practiced in India like Roma breaking the plate if animal licked it. My mother used to give the plates to beggars if our dog ever licked it even once. Also, food once served on table but not eaten does not go back to Fridge or saved for eating later. That is why death rate within Roma during great European plague was so low as claimed by scholars.
Roma had also carried our proverbs like "while choosing a daughter in law, believe your ears more than eyes” meaning reputation of the girl's family was more important than her beauty. Another common proverb is “If the road is crooked, you can't walk straight.
Roma eventually lost their religion, quite understandably but Sara kali of southern France is a Hindu deity of Goddess kali favourite of Rajputs. The deity is immersed in water body every year like we do in India. The Vatican has not recognized this deity as it has no link to Christianity. Romani also has an unusual word & quot;trishul & quot; from Sanskrit and Hindi meaning a spear with three fingers. This spear is associated with Hindu God Mahadev or Shiva and the war cry of Rajputs Regiment in India till today is & quot; Har har Mahadev.
Please see on You tube "Dr. Ian Hancock: Keynote Address at Romani Studies Conference Dr. Hancock who is a Roma makes very scholastic analysis of Romani history from European side. He successfully dismantles myths like Roma are old Jews or from Egypt or came from within the earth. He establishes that Roma indeed came from India. However he has not said much about which part of India are they from and which language from India they speak. He only mentions "Indian Language" while there is nothing like Indian Language. We have hundreds of languages. India had hundreds of independent kingdoms. Rajputana, as Rajasthan was called then had many kingdoms too. Prithviraj Chauhan was the king of Ajmer in central Rajasthan from whose army Roma came.
He also links Romani with Sanskrit while truth is that Romani has words from Rajasthani and Hindi alone both of which originate from Sanskrit. Romani is made of languages which have Sanskrit base and not directly from Sanskrit. There are many words in Romani which none else from India except those from Rajasthan will understand like tato meaning hot. He also says Roma are Doms who burn dead bodies which is certainly not true. Doms live about 1000 miles away from Rajasthan and are dark skinned.
Many Roma have come to Delhi and Jaipur in Rajasthan to get their DNA tested and were doubly assured of their Rajasthan roots. Also, one may see Romani Dances in India-Kalbelia of Rajasthan which is same as Flamingo dance of the Roma. Even the dress of the dancers are same.
As a student in the US during seventies, I saw some slightly brown students speaking language somewhat familiar to me. They said they were new Roma migrants to the US from Spain but I did not know about Roma at that time.
I have received many mails from some Roma stating Roma were Doms and untouchables from India and so on. This should not be true. First, there are no Doms in Rajasthan. Second, Roma who came to south still have mostly Rajput surnames or Gotra and very few Bhil (a jungle tribe, but soldiers too) surnames. Gotras or lineages dont change in India. Third, down trodden and timid would not venture leaving home to travel thousands of miles and fourth, Doms are very dark even for Indian standards while Roma are not. Fifth, Romani has many war related words including a word for prisoner of war as Dr. Hancock says. Only a martial clan would use and keep alive these words.
There should be no doubt that Roma are our lost pral and Pena (We would say pra and behna). Hats off to them to keep the language and culture alive even after 50 generations while humanity in the entire world now melts away in two generations.
I am in contact with many European Roma from whom I gather some new facts time to time. I have also gathered the above information from history of Rajasthan. For more information you can what’s app me on +91-9440805300.
Few years ago, when the Roma (Gypsy) Taxi driver in Frankfurt to my amazement almost understood my conversation with my wife in the native tongue of Rajasthan, a north western state in India, I decided to work on this and find out how.
Since the Taxi Driver understood the language of Rajasthan, I went through the history of Rajasthan or Rajputana as it was originally called and discovered that there was a huge exodus of the tired soldiers of the army of great Rajput King Prithviraj Chauhan around 1050 AD who, as the history says, fought 17 wars with Mohammed Ghauri. Most left with women folks leaving empty villages. Most Roma belong to the fine Rajput warrior caste and others were farmers called Jat who also were in the army.
While the great king was keen on continuing battles, many soldiers did not want to fight more wars and stayed at home. For a Rajput staying at home during war was a stigma. They were taunted for staying home at the time of war.
Therefore, as a folk song of Rajasthan says, they left their native land in groups. They left from no other part of India. Some went west and are called Gypsies or Roma now and some went down to south India where they still are in their red and yellow color clothes and with huge moustache. You can see them on google by clicking “Lambada in south India ". I am from Rajasthan but live in south Indian city of Hyderabad and hence see Lambadas daily.
I was further shocked again when our Gypsy (Lambada) maid mostly understood an old Hungarian Roma lady talking in Romani about Nazi atrocities on a BBC program on TV while I understood it by reading the English captions. Apparently, the two ladies 9000 miles away now spoke same language spoken about 1000 years ago in their land of origin. We being from Rajasthan still use many of their words.
On the way to west, Roma took words from Persian like bibi and many other tongues including Greek (drost for road) and from Armenian and so on. Also, few joined them on the way from Sindh, another Indian province, now in Pakistan. They are still called Sinti within Roma and words like laklo, lakli, chavo are from Sindhi.
They somehow lost their surnames of fine Rajput warrior clans. Roma may try to find surnames like Sisodia, Chauhan, Shekhawat, Nainavat Rathore, etc. However, I found only one exception in Poland. One Roma has Mirga as surname which he said was not Polish but Roma. Rajputs have a surname, Mirdha. I am sure this must be same.
But they kept first Indian names until 19th century like Amos Bihari and his daughter Panna Cinkova, both great Roma musicians from Hungary. Panna meaning Emerald is a pure Rajasthani name not used in other parts of India. You may look in Google for “Panna Cinka . If they were not Indians, why otherwise would they have Indian names in Europe in the year 1711?
Today Roma use many of the words from Rajasthani (or Marwari) and Hindi, both of Sanskrit origin. Few are ek do trin nak(nose) bal(hair) angusth(finger) bersh(year) diwas(day), prabhat(morning), gandh( smell)sassu,sussro ( mother and father in law, from rajasthani) saalo , Sali (brother and sister in law) from Rajasthani) chora(boy) chori(girl) cior(chor, meaning thief)) gia sov, thalle, upral purano( old) dukh, kasht, tato, langhal(lame) maang, des, lajja and so on. About half are from Rajasthani and rest from Hindi both of which originate from Sanskrit. I know hundreds. There are thousands. Luis Mori, another Roma has sent me a huge list of Romani words which I match with my Roma maid's vocabulary. Sometimes grammar has changed to European style, like we would say sov gia and Roma would say gia sov. Same meaning though. Has slept. Also, all Indian languages including today's Rajasthani has two yous, one for Junior and one for senior. Romani and the language of Lambada even today have only one you which is "tu "used for Juniors and for very close ones which must have been so 1000 years ago.
Romani words are from pre-Muslim era in India and hence pure Sanskrit like hiv (him in
Sanskrit) for snow or ice is used while we in India now say barf which is Persian. Please go to the following in to see more. “Romani an Indian lost Language by Adriano, an Italian Roma from whom I have learned much and also“Roma girl from Kosovo goes to India"
All Roma had mustache which was necessary for Rajput warriors. Purity codes of Roma were till recently practiced in India like Roma breaking the plate if animal licked it. My mother used to give the plates to beggars if our dog ever licked it even once. Also, food once served on table but not eaten does not go back to Fridge or saved for eating later. That is why death rate within Roma during great European plague was so low as claimed by scholars.
Roma had also carried our proverbs like "while choosing a daughter in law, believe your ears more than eyes” meaning reputation of the girl's family was more important than her beauty. Another common proverb is “If the road is crooked, you can't walk straight.
Roma eventually lost their religion, quite understandably but Sara kali of southern France is a Hindu deity of Goddess kali favourite of Rajputs. The deity is immersed in water body every year like we do in India. The Vatican has not recognized this deity as it has no link to Christianity. Romani also has an unusual word & quot;trishul & quot; from Sanskrit and Hindi meaning a spear with three fingers. This spear is associated with Hindu God Mahadev or Shiva and the war cry of Rajputs Regiment in India till today is & quot; Har har Mahadev.
Please see on You tube "Dr. Ian Hancock: Keynote Address at Romani Studies Conference Dr. Hancock who is a Roma makes very scholastic analysis of Romani history from European side. He successfully dismantles myths like Roma are old Jews or from Egypt or came from within the earth. He establishes that Roma indeed came from India. However he has not said much about which part of India are they from and which language from India they speak. He only mentions "Indian Language" while there is nothing like Indian Language. We have hundreds of languages. India had hundreds of independent kingdoms. Rajputana, as Rajasthan was called then had many kingdoms too. Prithviraj Chauhan was the king of Ajmer in central Rajasthan from whose army Roma came.
He also links Romani with Sanskrit while truth is that Romani has words from Rajasthani and Hindi alone both of which originate from Sanskrit. Romani is made of languages which have Sanskrit base and not directly from Sanskrit. There are many words in Romani which none else from India except those from Rajasthan will understand like tato meaning hot. He also says Roma are Doms who burn dead bodies which is certainly not true. Doms live about 1000 miles away from Rajasthan and are dark skinned.
Many Roma have come to Delhi and Jaipur in Rajasthan to get their DNA tested and were doubly assured of their Rajasthan roots. Also, one may see Romani Dances in India-Kalbelia of Rajasthan which is same as Flamingo dance of the Roma. Even the dress of the dancers are same.
As a student in the US during seventies, I saw some slightly brown students speaking language somewhat familiar to me. They said they were new Roma migrants to the US from Spain but I did not know about Roma at that time.
I have received many mails from some Roma stating Roma were Doms and untouchables from India and so on. This should not be true. First, there are no Doms in Rajasthan. Second, Roma who came to south still have mostly Rajput surnames or Gotra and very few Bhil (a jungle tribe, but soldiers too) surnames. Gotras or lineages dont change in India. Third, down trodden and timid would not venture leaving home to travel thousands of miles and fourth, Doms are very dark even for Indian standards while Roma are not. Fifth, Romani has many war related words including a word for prisoner of war as Dr. Hancock says. Only a martial clan would use and keep alive these words.
There should be no doubt that Roma are our lost pral and Pena (We would say pra and behna). Hats off to them to keep the language and culture alive even after 50 generations while humanity in the entire world now melts away in two generations.
I am in contact with many European Roma from whom I gather some new facts time to time. I have also gathered the above information from history of Rajasthan. For more information you can what’s app me on +91-9440805300.
Shriprakash Loya
Very good and talented! 👏🏻👏🏻
Beautiful dance!
Arrasou❤ feliz natal ❤
Oyun sanattır güzel oynuyor
Beautiful.
Where can I learn it from?
Can you suggest some youtube channel where I can learn the steps?
What is the name of this song?