.dombii as scavenger woman (Romani)

[Yashwant Malaiya]

Michael Witzel wrote:

>And the word is supposed to be the origin of the self-designation of
>European Gypsies,
>Roma; Rom, fem. Romni,
>(who seem to be first recorded as wandering musicians at the court of a
>Persian king, on their way westwards to N.Africa/Europe).

The trail of the Romani (Gypsy) can be established with considerable
certainly starting with about 1342. They appear to have been
concentrated  in the region now Bulgaria and Romania, where they
first appear as slaves. Even now they form a substantial fraction
of the population in that region.

The people mentioned by a Mount Ethos monk in 1100, may or may
not be Romani.

In Europe they have a clear identity. The ones in Turkey too are
also clearly of the same kind. However people who can be clearly
associated with European Gypsies in Iran are the ones that have
migrated back from Europe. The supposedly related tribes that are
thought to mark trail further back to India, appear to have
questionable relationship.

A possible guess is that in their current form, Gypsies have
emanated from region near the second Rome (Constantinople),
termed Romania. It is the second Rome that gave Jalauddin Rumi
his name.

It is not clear to me why derivation of the term Roma from
the Constantinople region is often ruled out. If the bulk
of the Gypsies are largely the descendants of the slaves taken
by Turks, the slaves must be largely descendants of the farmers,
a large  number of them being Jat in NW India, and not Dom.

Yashwant

http://www.unionromani.org/puebloin.htm
Gypsies: Wanderers of the world: B. McDowell
The Pariah Syndrome: An Account of Gypsy Slavery and Persecution:
I. Hancock