Note 21 — Chapter I · The Exodus of the Parsis

For nearly three hundred years the Parsis lived peacefully at Sanjan; but with time, their numbers having increased, some emigrated to other places: in the north, to Cambay,21 Ankleswar,22 Variav, Vankaner and Surat; in the south, to Thana23 and Chaul, places still to be found on the map of India. Their first migration from Sanjan seems to have been to Cambay (942–997). Several considerations attracted them to this place, and, besides, they seem to have prospered there.24 The settlement of Variav seems to have been as old as that of Cambay. A Pehlvi inscription on the sides of the Kanheri caves, tells us that a certain number of Parsis visited them on the 2nd of December, 999, and according to another similar Pehlvi inscription, other Parsis seem to have visited them on the 5th of November, 1021.25