Banyan Leaves. Gypsies and Travellers

INTRODUCTION

Gypsies are the people originated from Central and North regions of Indian subcontinent. The word “Gypsy” is an exonym, like “tsigane”, “gitano” and many other names connected with Greek “athinganos” (“untouchable”), which based on “athinganoi” – the name of a Christian sect with whom gypsies were associated. The English term “Gypsy” originates from the Middle English “Gypcian”, short form of “Egipcien”, which ascend from Greek “Aigyptioi” meaning “Egyptian”. This name was given because of the common belief that gypsies are from Egypt. Self-designation varies but “Roma” is the most common.

Who were the ancestors of the Gypsies? Genetics proved that modern gypsies are descendants of the comparatively small and homogeneous group which has emigrated or been captured from South Asia (North-West India and North Pakistan) (Martínez-Cruz et al. 2016; Gresham et al. 2001; Kalaydjieva et al. 2001). Linguistic analyzes of self-designation and language make a theory that “Roma” originate from “Domba” (“Dom”) people (Matras 1995).

It is almost impossible to say who the “Domba” were at the period when the ancestors of the “Roma” left India, but now this is a widespread ethnic group scattered across India and Nepal. The term “Domba” may be connected with the analogs in Indian Hindu and Buddhist literature for a segregated and enslaved population. It can also be associated with “damara” (Sanskrit term for the “drum”).

Nowadays “Dom” can be found in Himachal Pradesh (former hunter-gatherers indigenous groups), Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Nepal where they are agricultural workers, basket weavers and small scale agriculturalists. They speak Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages and show very few connections with modern or ancient “Roma” people except low social level. Very few groups of modern “Dom” have any elements of semi-sedentary lifestyle, but some former hunter-gatherers groups of honey-hunters in Nepal and Himachal Pradesh. I’ve been in villages in Nepal (Far West and Chitwan regions) and Himachal Pradesh (Dharamsala region) inhabited by different ethnic groups (“Tharu” and “Magar” in Chitwan, “Kangri” in India) but in “Dom” cast division. In all regions they were small-scale agriculturalists, with spear-fishing of “Tharu” and honey-hunting of “Kangri”.

There are several nomadic gypsy-like groups in modern Europe who have no connections with “Roma” (“Yenish”) or absorbed a few amount of “Roma” in recent times (“Pavee”, “an lucht siúil” in Irish, or “Irish Travelers” in English). Some of not well-received names of Travelers is “Pikey”. It is a slang word, used in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales to refer to Irish or Scottish “Travelers” and gypsies. In a pejorative sense it means “a lower-class person”, perhaps “coarse” or “disreputable”. In this case it is very important to say some words about modern nomadic gypsy-like groups of Rajasthan.

Actually, they are not pure “nomadic”, because “nomadism” based upon livestock’s pasture and non-sedentary lifestyle of nomads is strongly non-random and systematically necessitated. Rajasthani gypsy-like groups can wander very randomly, they have no nature or animal caused “seasons” of movements, so they are “wandering”, “non-” or “semi-sedentary groups” (or “groups with flexible sedentarism”).

Trying to find any connections and relationships between modern semi-sedentary groups and castes of Rajasthan with the gypsies is completely mistakable. What should we based on? Languages and self-designations are different. Occupations and lifestyles? But how can we compare “Roma” with the modern non-sedentary peoples and groups like “Sansi” or “Banjara” (both are wandering traders)? Other gypsy-like groups of Rajasthan demonstrate higher percent of sedentarism (like castes of professional singers and musicians “Langa” / “Manganiyar”) and change their place of living very seldom (for example occasionally to some religious festivals or fairs like Pushkar camel fair). Non-sedentary wandering blacksmiths “Gadia Lohar” (“gadi” means “cart”, and “lohar” is a “blacksmith”) may consist of different ethnic groups.

Gypsies of Middle East call themselves “Dom” and their language is “Domari”. Recent researches suggest that the differences between “Domari” and “Romani” are significant enough to treat them as two separate languages. The “Dom” and the “Roma” are therefore likely to be descendants of two different migration waves from the Indian subcontinent, separated by several centuries.

As we’ve known from publications of Nazarov (Назаров 1980) and Oranski (Оранский 1983), there were many waves of arriving of gypsies and gypsy-like groups in Central Asia, and now there are (or were in recent past time) “Mughati tubzhon” (“local gypsies”), “Hindusthoni Mughat” (“Indian gypsies”), “Agha” (gypsies from Kashgar), “Mazang” and “Kavol” (probably from “city of Kabul”, wandering cosmetics and haberdashery traders), “Parya” (sedentary small-scale agriculturalists and workers), and “Tavoktarosh” / “Sogutarosh” / “Kosatarosh” (semi-sedentary wooden bowls makers). The last group names reflect the main occupation of the community, making of wooden kitchen utensils: “tavok” (different types of plates); “sogu” (storage containers); “kosa” (bowls). In the past, they led a semi-nomadic way of life; in winter they lived in villages and in the warm season arranged their camps along rivers with lots of trees, which were used for producing the utensils sold afterwards in nearby villages.

In the past there was also a very small group of wandering monkey-trainers in Fergana valley – “Balyuj” (distinguish themselves quite clearly from the “true Baloch” or Baluch, some of whom had migrated from Baluchistan to Central Asia) (Marushiakova & Popov 2016).

The designation “Mazang” (translated as dark, dark-faced) often leads to confusion, because the “Parya” and the “Jughi” (“Mughat”), living in Hissar valley, call each other by this same name (Оранский 1971), which makes it necessary to distinguish clearly between these two communities and the “real” Mazang. The same problem arises when the Parya and the Kavol call each other “Chachgarak” / “Shashgorak” (Marushiakova & Popov 2016; Оранский 1977).

Very interesting group of semi-sedentary “Chistoni” (probably from the Sistan region in Iran and Afghanistan), who were robbers (“xalq-i kisabur”) and killers (“mardum-i kalabur”), that makes a distant parallel with a “Thuggee” of India. The “Kavol” and “Chistoni” had been semi-nomadic, with winter settlements and longer or shorter travels during the warm season. The “Kavol” made a living by peddling small wares and cosmetics and producing and selling homemade jewelry. The Chistoni’s livelihood depended on various occupations, including begging and basket-making (Marushiakova & Popov 2016; Хакимов 2010).

“Dom” people now can be found also in Azerbaijan (where they have the exonym “Karachi”), in neighboring Armenia their name changed to “Lom” (with the Armenian exonym “Bosha”), who spread to South Georgia also. “Dom” and “Lom” are mostly basket-weavers, musicians and fortune-tellers, in big cities begging is widespread. Their migration route didn’t go further north (though there are some theories of arriving of gypsies to Crimea peninsula from West Caucasus through the Kerch strait (Торопов 2004), but in 20th century two groups of “Roma” came from Russia to Abkhazia and then to Georgia. They were Muslim Crimean gypsies (“Krimi”, “Krimurja”, descendants of Romanian bear-trainers “Ursar” gypsies) and Orthodox “Vlax” (“Vlaxurja”), who were (and somewhere still are) blacksmiths, fortune-tellers and traders. Two great routes of gypsies’ migrations met after a big circle.

In many countries “Dom” have different external names, which became their endonyms. One of them is “Nawar”, which is well-known because of their “ghawazee” traveling dancers groups in Egypt. Most of “Nawar” in Middle East were musicians, fortune-tellers, sorcerers and animal-trainers with a low social status in the society. Now there is a strong tendency of losing traditional occupations and marginalization. “Nawar” is an Arabic “umbrella” -term to non-Dom who share a wandering lifestyle and the same social status – Kurds, Turkmen, and Bedouin.

GADIA LOHAR

Gadia Lohar is a group of wandering (“lohar” means “blacksmith” and “gadia” means “cart” and this is the brightness identificational sign which marks them as a non-sedentary group) blacksmiths who move between villages and towns in search of job from Rajasthan to as far as Karnataka. According to their own oral tradition, the ancestors of Gadia Lohar were settled artisans till the Mughals defeated their ruler, Maharana Pratap of Chittorgarh. When their legend ruler Rana Pratap of Chittorgarh was defeated by the Mughals, Gadia Lohar followed him and vowed not to return till it was recaptured by the Rajputs. Their various synonyms are “Lohpitt”, “Chittoriya Lohar”, “Bhubalia”, “Belani”, “Ghisadi”, “Dhumkuria” and “Kunwar Khati”. Probably, they were Rajputs, but fell in the Hindu social scale because of their wanderings, intermarriage with other castes, their practice of remarriage of widows and divorced women (which most wanderers have to do, having an adverse male-female ratio), their trade, which at times includes the castrating of bulls, poverty and illiteracy. They observe caste endogamy but clan exogamy.

They have their own dialect called “Farasi”, which is a mixture of Marwari, Malwi and Gujarati languages along with some words of their own creation.

Gadia Lohar have very organized movements: after reaching a central place they scatter, each cart going separately to one or more villages, searching for job (making and mostly repairing any metal utensils). Later, at a predetermined place and day, they will assemble again and the caravan of carts will then move on.

The full caravan consists not only from relatives but from people from different families and even ethnic groups. Gadia Lohar, as a part of “Lohar” caste, is much more a professional unity than an ethnic group. While wandering in many regions they’ve created their own language (argot) from different languages and absorbed individuals from surrounding populations with the same social status.

The tent is installed by attaching the canvas by one of its sides to the side of the carriage and to the ground by another. Nowadays many types of tents are used depending on period of staying in the camping place, and modern materials are widely used also. The place under the cart is used for living and keeping chattels: few cook clay pots, simple wood-rope beds, forging instruments. Even a baby-cradle can be suspended between the drawbars of the carriage.

“Lohar” is a term for a blacksmith. You can meet “Lohar” in Tamilnadu or in West Bengalia. In Rajasthan there is a degree of specialization: “Gadia Lohar” are forging experts, “Nagauri Lohar” are best known for reveting and metal beating and “Multani Lohar” specialize in making dies and tools; the “Siyahmaliya” are specialists in black iron work and the “Kachboyiha” work in unpurified iron. It is noteworthy that the term “Multan” (related to the city in Pakistan) is still used sometimes by some “Mughat” to name themselves.

Forging process based on the heating of the workpiece by the mining and further processing with a hammer in places indicated by the blacksmith. In near past time they used a pare of hand forged blowers made from goat skin and wooden hull, but now they use manufactured forge blowers with an inner rotor fan rotating by one hand. Working on goat-skin blowers was only a women job (as hammer-beating still today). Due to Gadia Lohars’ explains it is so because heavy-beating need no special skills and knowledge which have blacksmiths who points the places on the workpiece to beat at.

Gadia Lohar consider their anvil holy and say that it was given to them by Lord Shiva when they wandered away from the fort of Chittorgarh. They worship their forging instruments when first made and give them a ceremonial wash. As they are constantly on the move and not always within easy access of their temples and shrines, they find it convenient to carry portable idols of their deities – a small cupboard at the front of their carts with little statuettes. By religion they are Hindus and worship Vishwakarma, Durga, Sheetla Mata and Bhaironji. They also venerate certain local deities, saints and deified ancestors.

Their caravans of bullock-carts contain all belongings, victuals, cooking vessels and implements. They make articles needed in the rural areas: agricultural implements, ploughshares, tin lamps, buckets, pots and pans, axe-heads, scythes, knives. Now their carts can be seen in industrial towns, a few also trade in bullocks.

After marriage, a son sets up a separate bullock-cart. They have a group council, “panchayat”, which deals with internal group issues: social disputes, customary etiquette and group policy.

BHOPA

Since ancient times in India there has been a tradition of itinerant performers narrating stories with the aid of painted scrolls. Such scroll named “phada” and those who tell stories behind the “phada” called “Bhopa”.

Bhopa assert that they please the gods by wandering from village to village and singing religious hymns. They immerse their “phada” in the holy Pushkar lake (those who live in that area and have such an opportunity).

The painted scrolls of Rajasthan, the “phada”, are more on heroic cavaliers and tales of chivalry and valour rather than on purely religious themes. They are done on cloth 4 to 6 feet in width and 10 to 20 feet in length, the smaller ones being called “phadki”. The most popular themes for the “phada” have been the heroic lives of Pabuji, Dev Narayan, Gogaji, Prithviraj Chaugan and Tejaji.

The hero occupies the central place in the “phada”, surrounded by his generals, nobles and other characters. The illustrations are not arranged in any sequence, pictures of bits of the story being scattered all over the “phada”, which makes for a very dynamic performance, with the story-teller and his assistant darting, to the strains of music, song and narration, from one corner to another. Often, there are representations of gods and incidents from the epics on the border of the “phada” and stories about them are interwoven with the legend. The story-tellers are Bhopa (“Nayak”) and once they start performing, the story has to be told completely; it is inauspicious to leave it unfinished.

Often the Bhopa is assisted by his wife, usually veiled, who, with an oil lamp, lights up the “phada” to highlight only that part of the picture which is under narration, at times singing with the Bhopa at important points where emphasis is called for. The main narration does by the Bhopa in song and verse, while at the same time dancing and playing a string instrument, a “ravanhatta” or “jantara”, perhaps with an additional musician on “daffa” (small frame drum). Very seldom a female impersonator can swirl and dance to the music and narration – Bhopa women do not normally dance themselves.

LANGA – MANGANIYAR

“Manganiyar” (“one who begs”) and “Langa” (“song giver”) are two close-related communities of Muslim minstrels of Rajasthan. They have very strong sedentary with quarters like the “Kalakar” in Jaisalmer and wander very seldom – to big fairs (like Pushkar camel fair) and religious festivals (like Kumbh Mela).

Despite their conversion to Islam, “Manganiyar” (not “Langa”) have retained certain Hindu practices. In Jaisalmer they did service for Rajput kings, entertaining them before and after battles. These Muslim retainers stayed with their Hindu ruler when he died and would accompany the cortege for cremation and keep vigil till the ceremonies and mourning period were over.

While “Bhopa” is a group targeting to rural areas with villagers, “Manganiyar” and “Langa” entertain town’s areas (former Raja’s areas) and have much deeper educational process and very rich repertoire of songs and instrumental compositions. They have high skills of improvisation and performing in big ensembles.

Being both Muslim, “Manganiyar” and “Langa” have “patrons” from different religions – “Langa” from Islam community and Manganiyar from Hindu society. The Manganiyar would be careful to string their “sarangi” with steel while the Langa would use gut strings freely.