The Roma & the origins of our ethnic name - the Roma

 Introduction

As I mentioned in earlier article History of the Ḍom People (ancestors of the Roma) within the South Asia (and partly beyond) our ethnic name, the Roma, comes from the Ḍom and the Ḍom(a) are connected to the drumming nomadic community, etymology of that caste name comes from the Dravidian origins - the ṭamaṭama (where ṭ reads close to Indo-Aryan Ḍ, it means retroflexed R) and ṭamaṭama is a type of drum "tomtom".

Why ethnic name Roma comes from Ḍom(a) & who are the Ḍom(a)?

The Ḍom(a) are the nomadic group, the Ḍom(a) is same as the case of the Roma in Europe a umbrella ethnic term, which in fact contains various Jatis (castes) ranging from ritually clean Śudra (almost Vaish-like Varna), via the ritually unclean Śudra to straight-up Dalits (ritually unclean untouchables).

The Ḍom(a) are often misunderstood by the Gora (Whites) and by the Indians (or by other South Asians as a whole), where they (non-Ḍoma) claim that all the Ḍom are Dalits, which is not true at all. The Dalit Ḍom are only those who work with dead bodies, i.e. those working on the Cremation Ghats.

Most of the Ḍom(a) are as I mentioned belonging to the Śudra Varna. This my claim is based on the observation of similarities between the Jatis and Varnas in the Indian Subcontinent and the Roma here in Europe, be it Romipen/Romanipe/Romimo (among the Roma) and the traditional work.

Why various groups originating from the Ḍom(a) can be seen as genetical "cousins" of the Roma and not as one and only monolithic group?

• The Proto-Roma were mostly fully-Sanskritized group, which more heavily mixed with the Northern-Indian Indo-Aryan groups of which some had higher social status, as proven by the fact we call mother "daj" (read: dai), which means nanny and nannies were caring for the kids of the higher-status people. Which proves that the Proto-Roma mostly had origins from the ritually clean Śudra Varna and probably some mixed heavily with the Vaish Varna Jatis like Bania.
• The Domari from Middle East seem to have origins mostly among the ritually unclean Śudra Varna and Dalits Ḍom(a). As per DNA testing, their origins are yet more AASI-shifted than among the Roma from Europe, which shows that there was not admixture with the Northern-Indian Indo-Aryan groups occuring. And this AASI-shift still remains even after admixture with the locals, where among the DNA TESTED Domari individuals on average is reaching more than 40% AASI. (AASI on my calculator, which I can label as "very strict AASI sim"). Note: I wrote "DNA TESTED" with caps-lock just to point out that my claim is mostly based on available DNA samples. Note 2: Among the Domari exist the Banu Sassán tribes/castes which have very similar traditions to the Roma from Europe (with small differences), and nope, these people didn't moved to Europe and came back to Asia, the Banu Sassán Domari are apparently a part of the Ḍom(a) migration which was gathered from among the similar Ḍom(a) Jatis like those of the Roma, or even come from the Proto-Roma who remained in Asia. As per genetical results (I have unfortunately seen only results of one individual) they're very Indic, clustering with Northern-Indians mostly, yet they lost their language and speak Persian-like dialects of their own. In India (where they came back very late are known as "Irani Gang" and most are Muslim nowadays (yet they prefer own culture over Islam).
• The origin of the Lom who settled down in the Caucasus is not known, as their culture is heavily Armenianised, but apparently was not very high, as they mixed with the locals heavily and even had unwritten policy about total inmixing with the locals, which in many cases ended that they totally disappeared among the Armenians and only remnants exist nowadays. This fact show
• Also, among the Ḍom(a) in the Indian Subcontinent are differences and the umbrella term the Ḍom(a) contains various Jatis and Tribes.

Another unproven and improbable origin of the ethnic name the Roma;

Some started pointing to the fact that Lord Rama who is seen as an ancestor of all the Indic people gave his name to the Roma. A lot people claim it because of the greeting among the Hindus which is "Ram Ram" and in some variations even "Rom Rom", so some of the Roma claim this is the origin of the name, the Roma.

But this claim has some very serious problems;

• The Roma are known to have originally retroflex in their ethnic name, as till our day come in some Romani dialects some remnants. Be it Ghoma, Rhoma or Rroma, which reflects the retroflexed pronounciation in history.
• There is no proof that the Proto-Roma were in touch with the populations who nowadays say "Rom Rom", instead of "Ram Ram", as even the Proto-Roma could be in touch with such populations, they (the populations in question) spoke early stage of their dialect, thus there were no pronounciation changes probably such great to make it "Rom Rom" back then, as Prakrits were not so heavily crystalised.