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

CHAP, 11] MR. NASARVANJI PETIT. 139

of the Bombay native dispensary, and a further large sum for the maintenance of the dispensary at Khergam. He also bestowed Rs.25,000 on a boardingschool in Persia. His private charities are believed to be very extensive.

Mr. Nasarvanji is a large mill-owner, and has the entire management and control of the Oriental spinning and weaving mills established by his father Manakji.

Among the Parsis who have been celebrated for their extensive charities no name will be held in greater veneration in that community than that of Mervanji Framji Panday, an enterprising and energetic merchant who died in the year 1876. He was the founder of Mervan Bag, the convalescent home for Parsis. In times of long-continued sickness and tardy convalescence the poor Parsis had no place to go to for a change from their own homes and crowded and ill-ventilated rooms. The need of such an institution had therefore been lone felt, and Mervanji Panday’s kind and merciful heart was moved to supply this want. He gave Rs.425,000 for buildig a sanitarium in one of the healthiest parts of Bombay, and Rs.40,000 as an endowment fund. The building was completed in 1865, and contains sixty-eight well-ventilated apartments. Admission is granted to convalescents on production of medical certificates. It is said that about a thousand