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

216 HISTORY OF THE PARSIS. [CHAP. Vv.

on these subjects they had no alternative but to refer to their brethren in Persia. The necessity for such inquiry having presented itself about the end of the fifteenth century, an influential and wealthy Parsi resident of Navsari named Changa Asa deputed at his own expense, on behalf of the Zoroastrians of Naysari, Surat, Broach, Cambay, and Anklesvar, a talented “behdin” (layman) of the name of Nariman Hoshang to proceed to Persia. He was instructed to obtain answers to a number of questions relating to their religion. Nariman Hoshang was thus the first Parsi who went to Persia after the exodus of the Parsis from that country. After an absence of some years he came back to India with replies to the questions mooted, but he returned eight years later on a similar errand to Persia. He brought back with him from this second visit all the further information that he could gather.

Again, in the year 1527, a Parsi named Kama Asa of Cambay went to Persia with certain questions affecting the Parsi religion, and brought with him to India a complete copy of the well-known Arda-virafnama. We also find that in the year 1626 the Parsis of Broach, Surat, and Navsari deputed a learned man of Surat, named Behman Aspandiar, to Persia as the bearer of a number of interrogations. On his return to India with the replies he also brought with

1 An account of this work will be found in the chapters on Religion.