.dombii as scavenger woman

[Raveen Satkurunathan]

On Wed, 19 Apr 2000 11:29:59 +0000, Bharat Gupt <abhinav at DEL3.VSNL.NET.IN> wrote:

>Ven. Tantra wrote:
>>
>> Could any list members help me out?
>>
>> The Sanskrit term .dombii has been translated (Eliade
>> and Walker) as “washer woman.” But I cannot understand
>> how they get “washer woman” from .dombii. One list
>> member has suggested that .dombii actually refers to a
>> female member of the .Dom community. They are workers
>> at cremation places, scavengers, or weavers of ropes
>> and baskets.
>
>The association of .dom with music is well known in India. They have provided
>some good musicians in the last century. Over the centuries their
>poverty seems to have restricted them to scavenging, a case of downward caste
mobility.
>Many medieval works refer to raagas called .dombakriti, .dombakriyaa, .dombakrii,
>.dombi, and .dombikaa. A taala called .dombuli is recorded as a popular (desii)
one.
>
>A medieval history (cant recall which, right now)  also name them  as a caste
making a
>living out of music.
>
>Bharat Gupt
>Assoc. Prof Delhi Univ.

This is the sameview held by many experts on the Roma of Europe and North
America. They consider Roma to be a derivation of Doma or Domara.