The Relevant Aspects of Studying the Early History of Gypsies (Proto-Gypsies) in the General Indological and Roma Studies Field

Abstract

The article offers a brief survey of issues in the study of origin and development of Gypsies’ Indian ancestors (proto-Gypsies and proto-Roma) and their culture, as well as of methods and outcomes of this study. The author draws on Late Antiquity and Middle Ages Indian sources which have not been up until recently employed in research on the genesis of proto-Roma and their cultural core, and discusses the methodological factors that impeded their employment. She suggests interdisciplinary approaches for the study of the subject and examines the ethnosociological data that emerge out of ethnolinguistic and linguistic-cultural explorations. The author outlines the Indological-Roma studies field in the course of elaborating on her arguments.