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Gypsy History

Dom Gypsy History

(source: Encyclopedia Americana,
copyright 1992,
and various websites, information
libraries and anthropological papers)

Defining the Gypsies

throughout history, it has long been
an issue of just WHO the true Gypsies were.....
by using linguistic techniques, we are
able to establish their presence in India
in the Sind Area, ending in a primary
exodus, circa 1100 AD, driven out
by Afghanistan, Mahmud of Ghanzi

one source i read, stated that this
presence seemed hard to trace
backwards to its definite beginnings,
because of the nomadic lifestyle
and trades of the Gypsies inside
India, itself....

obviously, the Gypsies had to come
FROM somewhere, but, judging
from all of the evidence, let's
FIRST concede that India
was their proper "homeland"

NEXT... since they were nomadic
INSIDE of their "homeland"
they OBVIOUSLY had to be
well able to defend themselves,
lest they could no longer
continue travelling...

let's also concede that we do NOT
know how far and how wide or
how long they had BEEN travelling
outside of their "homeland"
BUT... if the Euphrates river forms
the TRUE "cradle of civilization",
then trade routes FROM that area
would certainly have been established
INTO India FROM the general
area of what HAD been Babylon....

OBVIOUSLY, being tradesmen,
merchants, warriors AND "travellers"
it is INCONCEIVABLE that the Gypsy
people would have been IGNORANT
of those trade routes....

and, given their professions
and natural tendencies, would they
NOT have travelled those trade routes
to an EVER expanding degree?

also, just as obviously, they could
NOT have been true Dom people
from India, because they possessed
skills and talents and POSSESSIONS
beyond what mere "slave class" people
are ALLOWED to amass...

besides... who ever heard of SLAVES
BEING ALLOWED to travel extensively
or make a living?

therefore, the Gypsie people WERE
the Rom of India, who had many
trades and talents, and made
their livings travelling to apply
those lucrative skills, not the least
of which, again, was blacksmithing

by the means of HAVING to defend
themselves as they travelled, and
by means of being able to make their
own tools and weapons, they WERE
classified as a "warrior class"

at SOME point in antiquity,
they seem to have "settled" on the
high plateaus of Afghanistan

these are pretty baren and desolate
areas, compared to the southern
areas of Asia, but, because of the need
to feed ever-increasing numbers
and still remain nomadic,
the idea that they never PLIED
the trade routes through south central
Asia is ridiculous.

Evidence of Gypsy people has
even been found in Tibet and China
not only ethnic pockets, but
shared linguistics....

now... position these people
along two major trade routes,
namely from Turkey to
southern India
and from China, through Afghanistan,
to Turkey AGAIN....

we KNOW that it was most
probable that some of these people
were BROUGHT from India to
BE "entertaining slaves"
in Turkey, circa 600 AD

how did those people of that
area know about them?

now, you may ask yourself,
why would the rulers of Turkey
want Gypsies as slaves from India,
if there were already Gypsy Caravans
IN THE AREA...

but.. you must remember that THOSE
Gypsies living outside of India
were still pretty much "warrior class"

they HAD to be, to travel there....

so.. WHO was brought from India?

Rom turned INTO Dom
OR.... "enslaved warriors"

ok... so... let's concede that
it was PLAUSIBLE to find
Rom Gypsies scattered throughout
the Middle East and southern Asia....

is it such a stretch of imagination
that when Pharoh conquored these
lands, that he found them
adversaries worthy to provide
female material FIT for Pharoh?

after all, we KNOW that
Cleopatra had lineage ties to several
different nationalities, beginning
with Greece, then Macedonia
and ENDING in IRAN...

(it would be interesting to know
just what PART of Iran
>snicker<)

THEN, for reasons we can only
speculate about, Gypsie culture
APPEARS to have RE-centralized
BACK into India until 1100 AD

mysterious? no....

they were fleeing the Romans...

and, since the ROOT WORD
"Dom" means "to dominate"
in Latin, AND since they were
NOW being somewhat
ENSLAVED in India,
even to the point of being
GIVEN away to foreign sovereigns,
is it NOT easy to see how
Rom and Dom would be
confused and, sometimes,
used ALMOST together?

even the Gypies use the WORD
Dom, just as other cultures
use the word MASTER...

"MASTER" is a shared word
brought from other cultures
and SPREAD by the Gypsies...

nonetheless....

eventually the Gypsies were driven
OUT of India, circa 1100, their
NOW "former" "homeland",
the Sind Area....

a Rom can be called a Dom
legitimately, OUTSIDE of India
without insult...

that migration and subsequent
ones, sent the Gypsy people
wandering far and wide again...

until they begin showing up,
POSSIBLY once again
in Europe....

beginning in Turkey,
following the southern route
across Europe, and then
circling around, back up to
Northern Europe....

now... this is all pretty simplified...
in SOME cases, these migrations
took CENTURIES and, of course,
were probably more complex
and compounded, in real life...

but.. that is the BASIC
trace of their passage....

now..... as for ME, the Gypsy Dom...

i have been able to trace my
families roots back to the Holy Lands
NEAR the time of Christ...

using, again, both linguistic
and geneological evidence,
AS WELL AS, taking "family
lore" more seriously....

and... it would appear that
my speculations concerning
the presence of Gypsies along
the trade routes, through the
Middle east, from China to Egypt
and from India to Turkey....
DURING the years of Cleopatra
(and even before)
up TO the time of Christ,
but not much afterwards until
circa 600 AD, when they were
brought there as slaves....
and from 1100 AD onward...

MY FAMILY appears to have
somehow been connected with
the primary group of Gypsies
escaping Roman rule under Octavius,
and associated with Mark Antony's
and Cleopatra's children....

HOWEVER... there appears to
have been a "split" in the
"leadership" of the Gypsy people,
as a whole, in southern Turkey,
not many years after the time of Christ...

MY FAMILY seems to have
split with the "main camp" and
ventured north and westward,
eventually reaching Germany and
the surrounding area, while the REST
appear to have gone back to India,
being afraid of, and not trusting
Roman Rule

now... the "difference of opinion",
which appears to have caused this
"split" between MY FAMILY and
the main Gypsy culture, seems to have
been TWO-FOLD....

climate (north and west were cold)

and
POLITICS

"let's run home"

"let's KINDA STAY, and fight"

MY FAMILY
appears to have
mingled COMPLETELY
with German, Austrian and Polish
culture culture, in order to
EVENTUALLY pursuade
the "barbarians"
to go back and CONQUOR Rome

now... don't get me wrong....
my family appears to have abided
by Gypsy Law and Custom
PRIVATELY

but, to all outward appearances,
they were more or less NORMAL
"citizens" of those areas they
finally settled in, KEEPING
their TRUE identity a secret,
but still practicing most of the
TRADES of the Gypsies,
and their heritage intact

the fact that SOMEONE
had to SUGGEST to the
Barbarians that Rome should
fall, and that it would be
PROFITABLE to be the ones
to cause it, is proof enough,
since it happened

the migration of my people
to America during the middle
and late 1800's and continuing
thereafter, is only logical, too,
since we stil had the "wanderlust",
the trades to back it up,
and the opportunities....

we saw many of the rest of the
Gypsy families doing the same thing

we just kept our mouths shut
about who we REALLY were....

FINALLY....

please don't misunderstand
my motivation in all of this....

were i DIRECTLY related to
Mark Antony and Cleopatra,
AND the original Rom
what difference would it make?

i am no better than anyone else

it only serves to answer
a few family riddles,
legends and stories....
and give me a clue as to
why certain "karmic" and "mystic"
things, occurrences, "powers",
and "coincidences"
seem to be present in my life

e.g. the initials RAM
are a family tradition in males

not to mention certain, uh...

"strange powers"

>wink<
the Gypsy Dom