For "What is this" a Chakma would say "Yian ki?" in Rohingyalish, it is the same "Yian ki." Were the Chakma and the Rohingya ancestors the citizens of the ancient Chandra kingdom of Arakan?
CHAPTER 4
Mystery behind the Chakma and the Rohingya’s linguistic similarities
(This excerpt is from Abid Bahar’s book Burma’s Missing Dots-the Emerging Face of Genocide, Ch. 4)
Chakmas are the largest racially Mongoloid people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. Thanchingya’s are the close cousin of the Chakmas. Both of the above tribal groups speak in Chittagonian dialect. There is Chakma population also in Burma’s Arakan who also speak in Chittagonian dialect. History of the Chittagonian Chakma shows that they originally arrived from Arakan to Chittagong in the 14th century during the Sultani period. Due to their origin in Arakan, the language was believed to be influenced by Rakhine or the Burmese language, but surprisingly it is a corrupted Chittagonian Bangali.
There is also research done on Rohingya language, a language spoken by the Muslim people of North Western Burma which shows the language is also closer to Chittagonian Bengali than the Rakhine or the Burmese. In the absence of an adequate explanation, there seem to be confusion about why these people of Arakani origin in common speak in a language closer to Chittagonian Bengali but not in Rakhine or in Burmese. Rakhine explanation to the Rohingya language is simply that Rohingyas are Chittagonian people, migrated to Arakan during the Btitish period and Rakhines have been living in Arakan from the time of the Buddha. To most Arakani scholars, Buddha even visited Arakan. The Rakhine explanation to the above question seems more simplistic because the pieces of the puzzle to the answer are scattered all over this region. This confusion was further complicated by the fact that after the Burmese occupation of Arakan in 1784, Arakan’s history was rewritten by racially motivated Burmese proto-historians. In addition, there has not been enough research done on the origins of these people and their languages before the British occupation of Chittagong and Arakan. However, based on our research of the Chakma and Rohingya’s linguistic similarities, place names, racial differences and cross-cultural checking of events, one probable answer to the broad question why both the Chakma people and the Rohingya people each from different racial background speak the same language could be that historically they were the citizens of the Chandra Indian Mohayana Buddhist kingdom; Rakhines arrived late in Arakan with their Hinayana (Theraveda) Buddhist tradition and replaced the Chandras. As for language, Chandra language was Sanskrit, the proto-Chittagonian Bengali, different from the Pali influenced Tibeto-Burman Rakhine language.
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The land between Fani River of Bangladesh and Cape Nigra of Burma is geographically more like one territory. Historically speaking, for a long time this remained a "no man's land." It constantly changed hand between Monipuri, Arakanese Mogh and the Bengali Sultanite rulers. These kings and rulers of different races and cultures fought for its lordship and now the region became part of at least two different countries; Burma and Bangladesh; the northern region now called Chittagong became part of Bangladesh and the southern region, called Arakan now became part of Burma. Despite that this region for its past history, is now lived racially both by Indo-Semitic and Mongoloid population. Among these varieties of people, Chakmas and the Rohingyas are two interesting but different racial groups scattered both in Chittagong and Arakan kept their unanticipated similarities that derived from their historic roots. History shows both Chakmas and the Rohingyas lived on the line of fire but tried to escape from trouble. While the Chakmas in their escape finally settled in the north east of Chittagong and now are Bangladeshi citizens, Rohingyas are still fleeing the Burmese military oppression; in 1982 they were being declared as the stateless people of Burma. What is the mystery behind the Chakmas and the Rohingyas while different in race and religion speak the same language called Chittagonian? To the Rakhine historians like Aye Chan and the military rulers “Rohingya” is a newly coined term came into existence during the 50’s but Francis Buchanan met some Burmese people in Burma in 1799 who called themselves as the Rohingyas.1 What is the explanation to the conflicting claims?
The entire region of Arakan changed in 957 A.D. when the Rakhines, (Mogh) a cousin tribe of the Burmans attacked Arakan and conquered the existing Chandra dynasty. A Chronological account will show the trend that developed ever since.
In 957 A.D. Tibeto- Burman Mogh invasions of Arakan and the beginning of the absorption of Arakan’s Chandra Mohayana Indian Buddhist kingdom into a Buddhist Hinayana (Theraveda Buddhist) Tibeto- Burman kingdom.
1044 A.D. Burmese king Anawrahta invaded Arakan and claimed the northern Arakan for himself.
1208 A. D. Muslims first occupied Bengal. During the time of Fakaruddin Mubarak Shah (1338-1349) of Gaur, under the command of Kadal Khan Gazi and with help from Pir Badar Alam, Chittagong came under the direct control of Gaur. Two Arabs named Haji Khalil pir and Mahi Aswar as missionaries took the task of spreading Islam among Buddhist, and Hindu population of Chittagong.2
In 1406 due to a Burmese invasion of Arakan by King Min Kuaung Yaza, led to Arakani king Noromi-kla with his large followers taking shelter at Gaur. The Chakmas, who are Mongoloid by race but speaking a non Burmese dialect, must have felt threatned in Arakan from the new rulers left for Chittagong.
During Sultani period, the northern part of Chittagong was populated by Indo-Semitic Bengalis. In the north, the settlers were mostly the soldiers of the Muslim army. Historical records also show that during Nasrat Shah’s(1518-32) rule he settled a colony in Chittagong with a Mosque and a tank at Fatabad.3 These activities were taking place mostly in northern Chittagong. In southern Chittagong there had been some Arab, Persian and Bengali settlement particularly in the coastal areas. Enamul Haque considers that at this time, there was an Arab Sultanate in Chittagong. In the present Chakaria Thana of Southern Chittagong, there is a village called Kakara. In the middle of the village there is a huge tank called Baro Kamoner Dighi and royal gates and a compound floor full of baked Brick known as the Gazzali compound with a huge Mosque and nearby the mausoleum of a pir Shah Omar seem very likely to be the place of the ancient Arab Kingdom in Southern Chittagong.4
In 1430 A.D. the Arakani king was reinstated by the Muslim Sultan of Bengal with "30,000 Muslim army" headed by General Sandi Khan. For the next two hundred years Arabs, Persians and Bengali Muslims settled both in Arakan and in its adjacent area in southern Chittagong.
1538 A.D. We also see big geopolitical changes when Nasarat Shah was expelled from Gaur by Sher Shah. After this event Arakani Moghs denied their allegiance to Bengal Sultanate in Gaur. We also see the Arakani king by defeating Jamal Khan took over Chittagong. During the hundred years of Mogh rule, the people of Indo-Semitic background in southern Chittagong either left their settlements or were captured by the Moghs to be forcefully employed in Agricultural activities in the Arakan proper. There had been a great number of people captured and taken to Arakan. These captives no doubt formed the bulk of today’s Muslim Rohingya people of Arakan with their Bengali physical features. The general character of the Arakanese Mogh rule during this time is described vividly by Shihab-ud-din Talish "The Mogh did not leave a bird in the air, or a beast on the land from Chatgaon to Jagdia, the frontier of Bengal, increased the desolation, thickened the jungles, destroyed the land, closed the road so well that even the snake and the wild could not pass through.” 5 During this time, Mogh oppression was so unbearable that Chakma ballads, "Ghorae Thaiekle Moghe pai, Birai galee Bighai Khai" (If you stay home Moghs will get you and if you go out to the forest, the tiger will kill you) truly depicts the condition of Chittagong during the hundred years of Mogh rule. 6 It was during this time that Rohingya poet Alaol (original name in Arabic, Al Awwal) along with his father were captured by the Moghs from northern Chittagong. His father was killed and he was captured and taken as a slave to Arakan. 7 To escape from this constant “Mogh terror” during this time of their rule, majority of the Chakmas slowly moved from Southern Chittagong to the north to Raozan then to East of Chittagong Hill Tracts where they live today. It appears that Chakmas already lived in Chittagong during the Mogh rule but they have earlier entered Chittagong from Arakan during the Sultani period.
1666 A.D. 26 January, Moghul governor Shaista Khan by defeating the Moghs and the Portuguage, took over Chittagong which is now a part of Bangladesh.
1784 Burmese invasion and conquest of Arakan and the Burmese King Budapawa carried with him the Mahayana Buddha Maha Muni statue. It is important to note that the statue was built during the reign of Indian Chandra king, Sanda Suriya, in keeping with the Mohayana tradition in approximately B.C. 554 has no direct connection with the racially mongoloid and Buddhist Rakhine Theravada tradition arrived in the 19th century. Mohayana, a more liberal Buddhist tradition was also followed in Bengal before it was converted to Islam.
Chakma-Rohingya similarities
Chakmas are a racially Mongoloid people but speak a proto-Bengali called Chittagonian. Rohingyas of Burma also speak a similar language. When and where they have learnt Chittagonian? Loofler's assumption directs to this end that Chakmas adopted Chittagonian Bengali during the 15th to 17th century 8 Chakmas lived in southern Chittagon attested by the fact that in Ramu there is still a place called Chakmarkul. 9 But if they lived in southern Chittagong during this Mogh rule of Chittagong, how could they have learnt Chittagonian when there was no such Chittagonian Bengali settlement there at the time. One possibility that the Rohingyas and the Chakams were the citizens of the Chandra kingdom of Arakan where they had already learnt Sanskrit zed Bengali prior to the establishment of the Mogh rule in Arakan, but subsequently, Chakma’s and the Rohingya’s common living in southern Chittagong only sharpened the practice. This appear more probable because Chakmas began to live in southern Chittagong during the Sultani period especially from 1430 when Arakan became a province of Bengal, and southern Chittagong were also inhabited by the soldiers of Bengali sultanate of Gaur who went to Arakan to help reinstead the Noromikhla’s regime. There is no doubt that at the time, those soldiers formed part of the later Rohingya Muslim population. This assertion seems more probable because Chittagonianin language is a Sanskrit based proto Bengali with heavy Persian influence. It appears that in the beginning, the proto-Chittagonian was the language of the Chandra kingdom also known as Arakkha desa. Chandras were racially and linguistically Indo-Semitic and spoke a language similar to Chittagonian dialect. It seems that the subsequent addition of Arabic and Persian with the original Sanskrit formed the basis of the original language of the Indian Chandras of Arakan. In the following a sample of Chakma and Rohingya words are presented showing their high degree of similarities:
For "what is this"in English, Chakma would say "Yian ki?" in Rohingyalish, it is the same "Yian ki." However, in Bengali “Eta Ki?” In the same way, “they” in Chakma is "onora" and Rohingya is also "onora." The similarities in the language of the Chakmas of Chittagong Hill Tracts and the Rohingyas of Arakan are striking. See below for more details:
Rohingyalish English Chakma
Onora You Onora
______________________________
Thara They hara
______________________________
Sail Trick Sail
______________________________
Jadi Quick Duadi
______________________________
Zii Daughter Zii
______________________________
Muu Face Muu
______________________________
Nai Not there Nai
______________________________
Sai Ashes Sai
______________________________
Sol goat Chagol
______________________________
Nun Sault Nun
______________________________
Khuda God Khuda
______________________________
Mura Jungle Mura
______________________________
Doro Hard Doro
______________________________
Boin Sister Boin
______________________________
Aura Coal Aura
______________________________
Bal Sun Bail
___________________________________
Bara Chicken Kura
___________________________________
Mouog Wife Begum/Mouog
___________________________________
Despite their racial differences, it is interesting to see similarities and differences in the Rohingya and Chakma grammar and vocabularies. Such as
Chakma English Rohingyalish
Moi no jaim I will not go Ai no jiam
There are interesting differences as well:
Boda Egg Anda
___________________________________
Gura Baby Fulu
___________________________________
Dhar Sharp Moinna
____________________________________ 10
Apart from the above, it is interesting to note that there are other similarities between the Chakmas and the Rohingyas referring to their origin in Arakan. Unlike Bengali women who wear sari, both Rohingya and Chakma women put on two piece cloths, different from the Bengali Chittagonian women wearing Sari.
The similarities between the Rohingyas of Arakan and the Rohingyas of southern Chittagong are strikingly closer and the these similarities in the common vocabulary and gramer demonstrate compelling evidences that the inhabitants of the ancient Mohayana Buddhist kingdom of Arakan spoke Sanskrit; a proto Bengali language which was continued to be practiced in Arakan among the Rohingyas and the Diagnet Chakmas of Arakan and in Chittagong among the Chakmas and the Chittagonians till today. This understanding is highly probable; after all the Chandra was an Indian kingdom in Arakan uprooted by the Mongoloid invasion but in Chittagong, with continued Semitic influence has developed the modern Chittagonian language.
Another mystery that supports this hypothesis is the Chakma legend, (Chakma Bijak, the oral tradition) claims that Chakmas "migrated from a place called Champknager (now Bihar) in India. It says, once the Chakmas had a king named Shakhya from a Kshatriya Royal lineage." 11 It is impossible that Chakmas came from Bihar. It could be that their Buddhist evangelists originated from Bihar. But the Champaknager could have been confused with the Chandra kingdom in Arakan. As for their lineage to a Kshatrya Royality surely is not about the Buddhist Arakan of the Moghs but it must be the Chakma’s historic association with the Hindu influenced Chandras with Kshatrya strata that was eventually absorbed into a Buddhist Mogh kingdom. From the above, it appears that neither the Chakmas, nor the Rohingyas nor the Chittagonians have learned Bengali from Bangladeshi Bengalis. It seems more likely that before the Mongoloid Mogh (Tibeto- Burman) invasion of Arakan in 957 A.D. the language of Arakkhadesa was proto-Chittagonian which the Chakmas and the Rohingyas as the aborigines of Arakan had learned in Arakan. From this understanding one can surmise that despite the gradual taking over of Arakan by the Moghs, Chakmas and the Chandra Rohingyas continued to speak Chittagonian, the language of the Chandras.
Chakma differences with Rakhines
While Chakmas are racially similar with the Moghs, they have had sharp differences with Moghs (Rakhines). Chakmas speak Chittagonan and Rakhines speak an archaic version of Burmese. Chakmas are darker in complexion compared to the Moghs so are the Rohingyas. Rohingyas for their darker complexion are called by the Moghs as the “kulas” (black people). The question is when Chakmas and the Moghs are racially Mongoloid and speak a sharply different language than Chittagonian; it confirms that Moghs are the late comers to Arakan. Compared to the Moghs, Chakma and Rohingya’s relative darker complexion also testify that both must have intermixture with the local dark skinned so-called Rakkusha (bilu) Mohayana Buddhist Chandra population of Arakan. Rakhines idea of bilu seems to have come with the Hinayana tradition of Buddhism imported from Sri-Lanka through the Burmese Buddhist missionaries. This is because Rakhasa (demon) idea is very predominant in the Southern states of India and very dominant in Sri Lankan Buddhist tradition.
About the ethnic origins of Chakmas, it is likely that Chakmas were the distant cousins of the Mon tribes of southern Burma lived in Burma before the Tibeto- Burman invasion from the north. It is to note that Mons were the first Mongoloid settlers in Burma who had adopted Theravada Buddhism from Sri Lanka. Chakmas as the ancient Mon settlers of Arakan must have been Buddhists for a long time. With Burmese invasion from the North of Burma, it appears that most of the Mon tribes were pushed down to the South where they live today and Chakmas as a subgroup first took shelter in Arakan and subsequently to Chittagong. As mentioned earlier, during the Chandra period some of these fleeing tribes from Burma took shelter in Arakan where they had learned Chandra language (now called Chittagonian.) Despite their racial similarities, the expulsion of the Chakmas from Arakan must be for no other reason then to their speaking of a non Burmese but an original Arakani language.
1044 A.D. First Burmese invasion of Arakan
It appears that as a result of the first Burmese invasion, among the largely Indian Chandra population, Chakmas began to concentrate in northern Arakan and had the social pressure to abandon their original Mon language altogether and had to learn the Chandra Chittagonian language. Therefore, Chakma’s differences in language with the Arakani Moghs suggest that Chakmas lived in Arakan before the beginning Mongoloid Mogh invasion of Arakan in 957 A.D.
Chandra Muslim vs. Chandra Buddhist synthesis
One might wonder the unique nature of the Chandra kingdom. As a Mohayana Buddhist kingdom with its very much caste hierarchy, and the existence of the untouchables, Arakani Chandra rule in the city of Vassali seems to be no different from the Hindu kingdoms in Thaton of the time (a centre of Indian civilization in lower Burma). We also see similar centers of Hindu kingdoms in lower Thiland, is a place now inhabited largely by Thai Muslims who like Chittagonian population were originally converted to Islam by the Arabs and the Persians. There were other Mohayana based Hindu kingdoms of similar type in Cambodia before most of those lands were converted either to Theraveda Buddhism or to Islam. 12
As for Arakan, we know that the Chandras of Arakan in the south began to be heavily inhabited and absorbed into Mogh’s Theraveda Buddhism and the north have subsequent Muslim influence from especially Persian and Bengali culture that continued more vigorously when in 1430 Arakan became a province of Bengal. This was possible in the north because of the continued presence of Muslim population. The dominance of both Fersi (Persian) in Rohingya and Chakma is visible in their use of their “no” expression before verb. “Aei no Jaium”(I will not go.) In Bengali it would be “Ami Jabo Na.” (I go not).This Rohingya and Chakma style to place no before a verb is from Persian language. An example of Persian is “"ne mitounam" means "I can't" and in Rohingyalish, Chakma and Chittagonian language it is “no Pairgom.”
Persian played a significant role in Arakan and Chittagong for a long time. It appears that even after the annexation of Arakan by Burma, the official language of Arakan still remained Persian. Persian influence in the region was so predominant that after the Burman invasion of Arakan, Vu Ama, an Arakanese wrote a letter in Persian to the English Commissioner of Chittagong, dated the 24th of April, 1787 in which he mentioned that the Chakmas fled to the jungles."13 The name Akyab in Arakan is also Persian. Akk means one and abb means water.
From the above discussion, both similarities and differences among the groups seem compelling. However, it is important that further research should be done to find out the historic truth behind these similarities in language between the two racially different groups, Rohingyas and the Chakmas speaking the same language called Chittagonian. For the strong similarities in their languages, one can say with some certainty that it is their common Arakani Chandra background not the racial origins that holds the key to Chakma and Rohingya history. From this perspective, what is more probable is that in Arakan Chandra and Arab/Persian Muslim intermixture led to the Rohingyas and the Chandra Buddhist synthesis led to the Moghs (Rakhines).
Research findings show that Rohingyas are not the only people who speak in a language similar to Chittagonian; there is a racially Mongoloid group a subgroup of the Chakmas called Tanchangyas (Tan-chang-gya) who have the same last part of the name “gya”as the Rohingyas (Rohin-gya). Lately, they have changed their name from Tanchangya into Tanchanya, in line with more of Burmanization. From the above analysis one can draw the conclusion that Rohingya people’s racial Indo-Semitic and linguistic similarity with southern Chittagonian people is not a proof of their origin in Bangladesh, Research shows that such understanding appear to be too simplistic and racially motivated. The answer seems to lie in an unfamiliar territory, in the mystery behind the Chakma and the Rohingya’s linguistic Similarities.
In retrospect, one can surmise that if Anawrahta’s historic invasion of North Arakan first initiated the expulsion of the Chittagonian speaking ancient Indo-Semitic Chandra Rohingyas and the Chakmas from North Arakan to Chittagong, it is safe to conclude that it is not a coincidence but a continuation of a despotic medieval trend in today’s Burmese society, the eviction of citizens by force for their perceived differences not due to their historic origin elsewhere than in Arakan but because of Rohingya’s racial differences. Despite all the historic blood litting continued trend of possession and dispossession in this frontier region, it appears that both the Chandra Indian population and the Rakhine Tibeto-Burman racial and cultural trends survived in Arakan until Ne Win’s military coup in 1962 which basing on propaganda began to dispossess the Rohingyas in favour the racially similar Rakhine population upto the declaration of the Rohingyas as the noncitizens of Arakan, Burma.
Endnotes
(1) Francis Buchanan, “A Comparative Vocabulary of Some of the Languages Spoken in the Burma Empire."SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research 1.1 (Spring 2003), 40-57; Also Francis Buchanon in South East Bengal (1798) His journey to Chittagong, the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Noakhali and Comilla, Edited by Willem van Schendel, Dhaka: University Press Ltd. 1992, Also in Michael Charney, “Buddhism in Arakan,: Theories of Historiography of the Religious Basis of Ethnonyms (an unpublished paper) in the Forgotten Kingdom of Arakan.
(2) Abdul Haque Chawdhury, Chattagramer Ittihas Prosongo,(the old Society and Culture of Chittagong), part 11, 1975, p2. The Eastern Bengal District Gazetteers, L.S.S O'Malley, Calcutta: The Bengal Secretariate Book Depot, 1908
(3)Enamul Hoque quoted in Abdul Haque Chawdhury, Chattagramer Ittihas Prosongo, (the old Society and Culture of Chittagong), part 11, 1975, p2., 16.
(4) Abdul Haque Chawdhury, Chattagramer Ittihas Prosongo,(the old Society and Culture of Chittagong), part 11, 1975, p2. The Eastern Bengal District Gazetteers, L.S.S O'Malley, Calcutta: The Bengal Secretariate Book Depot, 1908; Enamul Hoque quoted in Abdul Haque Chawdhury, Chattagramer Ittihas Prosongo, (the old Society and Culture of Chittagong), part 11, 1975, p2. 16.
(5) Shihab-ud-din Talish quoted in The Eastern Bengal District Gazetteers, L.S.S O'Malley, Calcutta: The Bengal Secretariate Book Depot, 1908.
(6) Aditya Dewan, a Chakma academician originally from Chittagong Hill Tracts was interviewed in Canada. He testified that in the Chakma ballet the above type of “Mogh oppression” is mentioned.
(7) Abdul Karim, The Rohingyas: A Short Account of the History and Culture, Chittagong: Arakan Historical Society,2000.
(8) Loofler quoted in Aditya Dewan, Class and Ethnicity in the Hills of Bangladesh, Department of anthropology, McGill University, 1990, An unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation.
(9) M. Habibullah, History of the Rohingyas, Bangladesh, 1995p. 40
(10) The above chart of Rohigya and Chakma vocabularies were drawn from my consultation and verification of ideas with Rohingya, Chakma and Persian speaking people.
(11) Aditya Dewan, Class and Ethnicity in the Hills of Bangladesh, Department of anthropology, McGill University, 1990, an unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation.
(12) Alexander Horstmann, Ethnohistorical Perspectives on Buddhist-Muslim Relations and Coexistence in Southern Thailand: From Shared Cosmos to the Emergence of Hatred?
(13) M. Habibullah, History of the Rohingyas, Bangladesh, 1995p. 40.
(Abid Bahar Ph.D. teaches at Dawson College, writes on India, Bangladesh and Burma is the author of novels: Rohingyamaa and Forget Me Not! and also the author of the book Burma’s Missing Dots)
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