History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAPTER YV. INTERNAL GOVERNMENT AND LAWS.

Internal government—The Panchayet—Ignorance of the past—Missions to Persia—Books of religion brought from Persia—The first Panchayet—The priests of Navsari—The Panchayet as a court of justice—The penalty of excommunication— Beating with a shoe—Sanction of Governor of Bombay —Internal disputes—The priests pass a law in their own favour, and ovyerreach themselves—The firmness of the laity—Supported by the English Government—A committee of affairs—The first twelye—A new Panchayet—Decline in efficiency—The practice of polygamy—Law against bigamy—Growth of the evil—The case of Jamnshedji Beramji LaskariLaw to prevent women going out unattended—Prohibition of offerings to Hindu temples—Decay of the Panchayet—A law for the rich and for the poor—Framji Kavasji—A Parsi petition—Parsi charitable fundsThe trusteeship of the Panchayet—The present trustees—A state of confusion—The want of a distinct law—The rule of custom—Question of succession—Intestate properties—The law in Bombay and in the Mofussil—‘‘ The nature of chattels real” —A code of inheritance drawn up—A commission appointed—A code of betrothal, etc.—Various questions and considerations—The resolutions of the commissioners—Action of the Government—Substitution of courts for the Panchayet—Those to whom the credit of the new order of things was due.

As there is no authentic record of the early history of the Parsis after they left their mother-country and took up their abode in India, we are in ignorance as to the particular laws by which they were guided, and also of the manner in which their religious, social, and other disputes were decided in the earliest years of their exile. But it can well be imagined that, as

is the case in all small and large communities, the