Native Name: kalaSa. The kalaSa comprise at least three ontologically distinct peoples: the väi, vai or vä (also called varjan 'Upper People'), the cima-nišei, and the vâ˜tä. In addition, the name "KalaSa" is used for other peoples of the region who do not speak KalaSa-alâ, including speakers of Nuristâni languages from grâmsaNâ grâm and sâma in the middle Pech Valley, and speakers of the Indo-Aryan kal'aSa-m'un in Chitrâl.
Other Names: "Waigali" (from wâigal, the Pashto-Persian name of the valley), "Wai" (from the name of the largest ethnic group).
Location: the väigal (Wâigal) Valley (a tributary of the lower Pech), over the upper watershed to the east into the veligal (Helgal) and ćüki Valleys (tributary to the Kunar), and over the watershed to the west into the upper Pech and lower Pârun Valleys. The upper basin of the šigal Valley is traditional väi territory, but is mostly occupied by Afghâns and Gujars. In addition, the village of zamiâ in the capadara Valley (a southern tributary of the middle Pech) contains kalaSa emigrants from the Wâigal Valley. The kalaSa call their land kalaSüm.
Population: perhaps 10,000 – 30,000.
Settlements:
Multi-Ethnic Language Name: kalaSa-alâ. Village dialects include väi-alâ, ameš-alâ, Zö˜ci-alâ, nišei-alâ, cimi-alâ (covering the speech of müldeš, kegal, and akuN). A non-native name is "Waigali", from the Pashto-Persian name of the valley.
Linguistic Position of KalaSa-alâ: KalaSa-alâ forms with Ashkun and Tregâmi the Southern Group of Nuristâni languages (see the Table of Languages). A major dialect division exists between the väi and the cima-nišei. Minor variations within these dialects occur from village to village. The dialect of the vâ˜tä is probably that of nišei-alâ. Morgenstierne's earlier field data (1954) have been superseded by those of Buddruss, as analyzed by Degener (1998; see also Strand's [1999a] review of Degener). Strand's field data on the nišei-alâ dialect appear in the Comparative Lexicon on this site.
History: According to their traditions, the Väi fled the Ghaznavid invasion of Kâma, following the Kunar up to mâdeš and samâlâm in the Shigal Valley and thence over the watershed to their main community of väigal. Accounts of the Gahwâr people state that the Väi expropriated the current site of Väigal from the Gahwâr, who fled to the Kunar Valley. As the Väi expanded, they established the communities listed above.
At a probable later time, ÂSkuNu-speaking immigrants from the community of Nakara in the Titin Valley in Laghmân migrated eastward, settled the community of grâmsaNâ grâm in the middle Pech Valley, and thence moved further on into the lower Wâigal basin. There they established the community of nišeigrâm and gradually settled the district of cimi, which includes the communities of müldeš, kegal, and akuN. The cima-nišei, as these people call themselves, drove out the native prejvRe˜ inhabitants to the neighboring valley of Tregâm. They apparently adopted the language, väi-alâ, of the upper valley inhabitants (varjan); so that today both the Cima-Nišei and the Väi speak KalaSa-alâ, although with a distinct division of dialects.
The inhabitants of the hamlet of vâ˜t were originally refugees from later Muslim invaders in Tregâm; they speak KalaSa-alâ but are not reckonned as either Väi or Cima-Nišei.
Because the appellation "KalaSa" applies to peoples of diverse origin over a wide area, we may infer that the name originally designated some multi-ethnic regional political movement. It may have been that "KalaSa-ism" originally represented a cult of the Hindu god Indra, centering on sâma with its famous orchard reputedly planted by Indra himself, in contrast to a northern cult of the god Yama Raja (Kâmviri imr'o) with its center at üš'üt in Vâsi Gul (Pârun). Both these cults may have been millenarian responses of refugee Hindu communities to the impact of Islâm brought by encroaching Afghâns. "Kalasha-ism" may then have been carried from its Pech Valley homeland into the southern Wâigal basin by the Cima-Nišei, and thence to the Väi.
The Väi expanded eastward to Veligal and apparently into the LanDai Sin Valley as far as the present site of Pitigal, judging by the distinctively KalaSa-alâ sounding place names in that region that begin with the prefix a- ‘at' or end with deš ‘community'. Such expansion put them in direct contact with the ancestors of the present-day Indo-Aryan speaking KalaSa of southern Chitrâl, who were exploiting upland portions of the LanDai Sin basin for summer pastureland. One group of KalaSa from Väigal apparently invaded lower Chitrâl in the fifteenth century A.D. and set up a ruling dynasty that gained hegemony over the indigenous population, imparting to them the name kalaSa, which in the local Indo-Aryan language came to be pronounced with accent on the second rather than the last syllable. The names kâsv'o and kâsi'o, used respectively by the Kâta and Kom for the KalaSa of Chitrâl, may reflect an earlier name (*kâs'ivo) of those people before they became "KalaSa."
During one period the Väi made yearly raids across the Kunar on the people of the present site of Râmrâm in southernmost Chitrâl. According to one tradition that I heard in Väigal,
"The god de lived in erâmgal [cf. Kâmviri âromgal ‘Râmrâm']. Every year men from Väigal would go there and come back with a golden bird on one of their quivers. One year they couldn't find the bird, so they settled there to await its return. They are still there, but now they speak Gahwâr-bati."The bygone intrusion of immigrant Väi communities into southernmost Chitrâl may explain in part the significant stratum of early Nuristâni loanwords (e.g., ćuna ‘dog', current KalaSa-alâ ću˜) in the Indo-Aryan language currently spoken in dåman (Khowar dam'eL) in southern Chitrâl.