A HISTORY OF THE PARSIS.* MR. DosABUAI FRAMJI is certainly
one of the most distinguished native members of that uncovenanted branch of the Indian Civil Service which has contributed so much in times past to lighten the labours of the English administrators of the country; and it is only natural that, with the taste for literary pursuits which revealed itself at an early period of his career, he should desire to be the historian of the remarkable people of whom he may fairly claim to be one of the foremost representatives. The Parsis have exceptional claims to the consideration of Englishmen. Their ancestry is most distinguished. As the descendants of the Persians who conquered Egypt and invaded Greece, who were in turn attacked and overthrown by the Greeks under Alexander, and who, at a still later period, repelled, under the Sassanian Kings, the encroachments of Rome, they appeal to classical associations in a manner that no other Asiatic people can pretend to do. After their expulsion from Persia by the Arabs they disappear from history for more than ten centuries. It was known, indeed, that they founded some settlements in Guzerat and other parts of Western India, that they lived on good terms with the Hindoos, that in common with them they entertained a marked aversion for the Mahommedans, and that the earlier European traders found them exceedingly useful as intermediaries in their dealings with the other races. But although Mr. Dosabhai Framji has succeeded in preserving several incidents of a graphic character during this period,—as, for instance, the episode of the Hero Ardeshir and the visit of Merji Rana to the Court of Akbar the Great,—it is unquestionably the fact that the Parsis rose to fame as the factories at Surat and Bombay gradually absorbed the whole of the trade of Western India. On this point no one can write with better knowledge than the author of these volumes :—
" The Parsis came and settled in Bombay, where they are mostly congregated at the present day, a little before the island was ceded to the British by the King of Portugal as the dowry of Catherine, Princess of Braganza, when she married Charles II. of England in the year 1668. There is no doubt on the point that they arrived in Bombay before the British had taken possession of it, because we find that in 1665 one Kharshedji Pochaji Paaday contracted with the Portuguese authorities for the supply of men and materials for the
building of the fortifications The arrival of Europeans and the establishment of trading-factories in Western India, and especially at Surat, opened up an unexpected field for the energy, industry, and enterprise of the Persia, and from that time the commercial activity by which they have made a name may be said to take its date. No doubt the shrewd ' Bania ' of Surat, of whom European travellers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries speak, possessed all the commercial instincts of his race ; but he seldom sought any scope for them beyond the wall of the town where he carried on business. The spirit of foreign adventure was almost wholly absent. The oppression and rapacity of the conquering races who swayed the country in turn had diminished that spirit, if at any time it existed. Again, the barriers of caste and custom, which even a century and more of British role has not availed to demolish, acted as a formidable
.4 History of the Parsis, including their Manners, Customs, Religion, and Present Posi!ion. By Dosabhai Framji Karaka, C.S.I. With Coloured and other Illustrations. 2 vols. London : Macmillan and Co. 1884.
obstruction. The Parsis, however, had always been free from caste prejudices, and on the advent of Europeans soon betook themselves to occupations they had never attempted before. In the factories of the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French, and the English, the chief native agents were Parsis, acting as middle-men between the Europeans and natives. In this capacity a field for commercial enterprise was opened to them of which they were not slow to take advantage. Niebuhr has made mention of them. Anquetil du Perron has remarked on their enterprise from personal experience acquired during a stay of some years in the city of Surat. After the decadence of Surat as a commercial centre, the Parsis came to Bombay, and there found increased opportunity for the employment of their energy, as the biographical sketches of the most prominent of them show. Lavji and some of his descendants continued their connection with the Government dockyard ; but members of the other branches of his family established themselves as merchants. A large number of Panda also began business as merchants, traders, shopkeepers and contractors. The business of commission-agents to the European merchantmen, which used to arrive annually in Bombay, was entirely monopolised by them. The Persia were foremost to seize and take advantage of every opening created by the increase of British power and the advent of British merchants."
Mr. Dosabhai Framji has naturally a great deal to say about the prominent position which the Persia have gained in the commerce of Western India ; and in the first two chapters of his second volume he gives biographical sketches of the distinguished men who have contributed most to the prosperity of their com munity. Most of the names and of the details of their careers will fail to offer much attraction to the English reader; but there are one or two exceptions which may prove of more general interest. Perhaps the most striking cases are those of Rastam Manak, who went to the Court of Aurungzeb to plead the case of the English merchants at Surat, when ill-treated by the Mogul's officers ; of Sorabji Kavasji, who gained a highsounding title for repairing the Emperor's clock; and of Dhanjisha Beheremandkhan, who was killed at the head of English troops in an engagement with a Mandi or False Prophet near Surat. These three individuals and many others come under the head of Guzerat ; but the distinguished Parsis of Bombay present a more interesting group. Of these the late Sit Jamshedji Jeejeebhoy, who, as the author proudly informs us, was the first native to be knighted, and the only native to receive the dignity of a baronetcy, was by far the most distinguished and the widest known ; but there were many others only slightly less honourably known than he was. Among the earliest Parsis to make a name by their attachment to the English was Rastamji Dorabji :—
" In the year 1692 a severe plague broke out in Bombay, when most of the Europeans of the place and the soldiers in the garrison fell victims to the disease. Taking advantage of this unfortunate circumstance, the Sidis of Janjira, who were then a powerful and independent people, organised bands of pirates along the Malabar coast, and invaded Bombay with a large force. They took possession of the island and Dungry Fort (now called Fort George). The few Englishmen who had survived the plague were so exhausted as to bo quite unable to drive the Sidis away. But Rastamji Dorabji, who had in his veins the blood of the ancient warlike Persians, undertook to repel the enemy. He raised a militia from among the fishermen of the population, fought the invaders, and defeated them. He then despatched messengers with the news of the victory to the chief of the English factory at Surat, who soon after arrived in Bombay, and took charge of the Government."
But by far the most remarkable, and probably the least known, of all these Parsi worthies of Bombay, were the different members of the Wadia family, who followed the craft of shipbuilders with great assiduity and success during more than a century and a half. We may quote what Mr. Dosabhai Framji says of Jamshedji Bamanji, perhaps the chief representative of this family :
" He was the first of the Parsi master-builders to be entr rested by the Lords of the Admiralty with the building of men-of-war in India. About this time, numerous offers were sent to the Admiralty for building line-of-battle ships ; but Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Trowbridge, who held at one time the command of his Majesty's squadron in Indian waters, had a very poor opinion of the people who had to perform the work, and also of the Pegn teak with which ships were constructed in Bengal. He strongly recommended the Lords of the Admiralty to cause the work to be done at Bombay under the entire supervision of Jamshedji without any European aid or direction. The reputation of Bombay-built ships had forcibly attracted the attention of the Lords of the Admiralty, who, having seen and admired the Cornwallis,' a frigate of fifty guns, built at Bombay, determined on the construction (Amenof-war in India. It was at first suggested to their lordships to send
out a European builder and shipwrights; Sir Thomas Trowbridge, who was then a member of the Board of Admiralty, and was intimately acquainted with the character and merits of Jamshedji, pledged his word to the Government that he would build, not only frigates, but ships-of-the-line, to their perfect satisfaction, without the least European assistance, and orders were issued for the construction of two frigates and a seventy-four. In England, the opinion about the vessels built by Jamshedji was highly gratifying to him, and exceedingly creditable to his merit and ability. Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Pellew, Bart., wrote to the Superintendent of Marine at Bombay to beg him to tell Jamshedji that he ought to be proud of his frigates."
Mr. Dosabhai Framji gives a very complete and not less interesting account of the social customs of his people. Beginning with the practices attending a birth in a family, he traces the whole course of human life until it ceases with the Parsis in their Dokhmas, or Towers of Silence. The ceremonies in con nection with a birth, both as regards the mother and the child, are characteristic of the sense of decorum general among the
Parsis. Few can dispute that the regulations and observances which they have inherited from their ancestors are based on a
sound perception of the most necessary sanitary precautions. Side by side with much of a practical nature, there is not wanting evidence of the lingering influence of superstition, which is proved by the influence of the " joshi," and the manner of choosing names. A still more important ceremony than even the naming of a child is his or her investiture with the sudra and kusti, or sacred shirt and thread. This investiture takes place any time after the age of six years and three months. The practice of early marriages—which the Parsis must have borrowed from the Hindoos, as it is opposed to the teaching of Zoroaster, who forbade marriage at an earlier age than fifteen— is gradually dying-out, as the perception of its evil consequences grows clearer among the intelligent members of the community. Weddings are made among the Parsis the excuse for a great display in respect of hospitality and present-making, which is carried to such excess in many cases as to constitute a social evil. The extent to which marriage-feasts are carried among all classes may be inferred from the fact that one of the reputed Parsi benefactors has erected a hall iu Bombay for the special purpose of allowing the gratuitous celebration of these events. We cannot afford space to quote Mr. Dosabhai's interesting and graphic description of the social and religious observances which accompany this important event in a man's life. Our author has naturally a great deal to say about the manner in which the Parsis dispose of their dead ; and he writes with considerable warmth of feeling on the question of the exposal of their dead bodies in the towers of silence, where they are devoured by the vultures, which are the satellites and custodians even of those gloomy buildings. It is only fair to say that he makes the best of his case, and that he produces no small amount of independent testimony to the fact that, however objectionable to the sentiment this mode of disposing of one's dead relatives and friends may appear, it works
little or no evil in practice. It seems, however, as if there were some ground for supposing that there is a growing feeling among the Parsis themselves that this manner of disposing of the dead is hardly consistent with a very advanced civilisation ; and it may not be a dangerous prophecy to say that the time is not far distant when the Parsis will abandon their present system for that of cremation. Mr. Dosabhai defends his people against any charge that might be made against the Persia of being cold-hearted or devoid of affection : " It should be stated that the Persia do not forget their deceased relations who have quitted this sublunary world for another. Ceremonies are performed by the well-to-do on every day during the first year, and on every anniversary of the melancholy event. The last ten days of the Parsi year are specially dedicated to the memory of the dead, and the ceremonies then performed are known as the Fravardigan ' or Muktad,' as they are popularly called. According to the thirteenth section of the Fravardin Yueht, the souls of the departed desire to be remembered during these days by those whom they lived with and left behind in this world. They are said to express their desire in the following words,—' Who will praise us ? Who will offer to us ? Who will consider us his own ? Who will bless us ? Who will receive us with hands bearing food and bearing clothes ? And who will pray for us ?' " In conclusion, we can cordially recommend Mr. Dosabhai's handsome volumes to the attention of the reader. They give a very full and, on the whole, a very well-written account of an interesting people. Mr. Dosabhai has evidently spared no pains to make his history complete ; and he has placed it before the English public in a very attractive form. The work is a model of printing, the illustrations are very effective, the binding and other minor details show great taste and care, and the work has been carefully edited, and is supplied with an excellent index of subjects. The Parsis deserved a good history, and Mr. Dosabhai Framji has provided it.
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