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

222 AUISTORY OF THE PARSIS. [CHAP. Vv.

the priesthood, whose selfish designs had necessitated the adoption of such a resolution.

In order to prevent the recurrence of these disputes, and to preserve peace and good order for the future, the commissioners recommended that the Panchayet should be formed upon a more equitable basis, and that its authority, which seemed to them to have been rather assumed than conferred, should be defined by Government, which would thus invest it with a formal sanction. In order to effect this, they recommended that some instrument should be expressly drawn up which would have the effect of giving more weight and efficacy to the decisions of the Panchayet. They further advised that the Panchayet, thus constituted on a new basis, should have powers given to it for settling petty disputes and matters of religious form and ceremony. But they likewise gave it as their opinion that the power of punishing with the shoe, which the Panchayet had exercised by special permission, was objectionable, and recommended that it should be withdrawn.

With the general tenor of this report the Governor in Council concurred. It was decided that the Panchayet, or general assembly of the Parsis, had a right to make regulations for the common benefit and good of the community, as is customary with the races of every denomination living under the protection of

the British Government.