Note 458 — Chapter I · (continued 2)

The Viraf nameh terminates by these words: “The Masdian religion became more firmly established than ever, and continued in all its purity until the Mahomedan conquest dispersed its votaries, and forced those who persevered in it to abandon the tombs of their ancestors, and to fly for refuge to distant countries. A small number fled to, and were kindly received on, the shores of western India, and the present Parsees of Bombay and Surat are their descendants.” That is to say, it was a short time after Yezdejerd’s death that, persecuted by the Muhammedans, a number of Persians, to preserve their ancient religion, fled to Kohistan, from whence after a century they descended to Ormuz on the Persian gulf, and after a stay there of fifteen years landed at Diu on the Indian coast. Nineteen years later they established themselves in the Guzerat; thence, after the lapse of three hundred years, they dispersed to the north and south of Surat. They had been five centuries in India when they fought with the Indians against the Muhammedans, and were again obliged to fly before the enemies of their faith. They maintained themselves, however, in different places of the province of Aurungabad. Having gradually increased in numbers to about 150,000 families (in 1816), they live dispersed in villages from Diu to Bombay, in which place about 24,000 of them reside (Zend Av., t. I. 1. P. p. cccxviii; and Pope’s Engl. transl. of the Viraf-nameh, p. 118).—A. T.