SINDHI LANGUAGE

The word ‘Sindhi’ is an adjective, and means ‘of’ or ‘belonging to Sindh’, or so to say, the language of Sindh - the country on each side of the River Indus, commencing about latitude 29 N and stretching thence down to the Arabian sea in the South. In written history, the word “Sindhi” is found recorded first time in rock inscriptions around 2500 years ago: 

“The Aryans were settled in a vast region: in sixteen lands in Avestan period. In addition to their patronymic and tribal names, they must have had a way to designate each other collectively by the names of their respective lands. This is why we find that the Achaemenian Shahs of 2500 years ago provide us, in their rock inscriptions, with some thirty names of sixteen Aryan provinces. Among them, we have Hindu (Sindhu) and its adjective Hinduya (Sindhi). This is the first time on record that the name “Sindhi” was employed to designate the people of the valley. The word ‘Sindhu’ in Sanskrit, in plural, meaning ‘men from Sindh’, occurs first in the Mahabharta. Following the Iranian pronunciation, the contemporary Greek writers use 'Indos', ‘India’ and ‘Indioi’, and are therefore the second on record to call the people ‘Sindhi’ (Jafarey: 1981:65).

It is presumed, therefore, that ‘Sindhi’ as a name of a language might have come in effect first time around the same period, e-g 2500 years ago. But, it cannot be ruled out at the same time that the Sindhi language was in vogue in the Indus Civilization of the 3rd millennium B.C. and its age encompasses a period of about six millennia.