Note 431 — Chapter I · (continued 2)

According to another tradition Gushtasp himself had travelled in India, and had been instructed by the Brahmans. In the Desátir (English transl., Comment, pp. 185, 186), we read that, when Sekander conquered Iran, Sásán, the son of Darab, went to India, where he practised the worship of Yezdan in a cavern, and where he died. He left a son named Jivánasp, who is known as the second Sásán, equal to his father, and who took his abode in Kabulistan. Ardeshir (the son of another Sásán, of the Kayanián race, a relative of the Saint), admonished by a dream, went to Kabulistan, and by his entreaties prevailed upon the second Sásán to follow him to Istakhar, where Ardeshir erected, for the habitation of the saint, an immense monastery adorned with figures of the stars, and having fire-temples on its different sides. These and other traditions afford the inference that, in early times, a religious intercourse had taken place between India and Persia.—A. T.