Domba

The Domba or Dom (Sanskrit ḍoma, dialectally also Domaki, Dombo, Domra, Domaka, Dombar, Dombari and variants) are an ethnic or social group, or groups, scattered across India. In North India, the preferred self-designation is Dom.

The form ḍomba Prakrit, while ḍoma and ḍumba are encountered in Kashmiri Sanskrit texts. Derived from ḍoma is ḍomākī, the name of a language spoken in a small enclave in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. It is also believed that the Dom or Domi people of the Middle East, in addition to the Roma of Europe, are descendants of Domba, who were taken, or traveled, to Sassanid Persia as servants and musicians.

The term ḍoma or ḍomba is extensively used in Indian Hindu and Buddhist literature for a segregated and enslaved population.

Origin of the word Dom

Its presumed root, ḍom, which is connected with drumming, is linked to damara and damaru, Sanskrit terms for "drum" and the Sanskrit verbal root डम् ḍam- 'to sound (as a drum)', perhaps a loan from Dravidian, e.g. Kannada ḍamāra 'a pair of kettle-drums', and Telugu ṭamaṭama 'a drum, tomtom'.