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

140 HISTORY OF THE PARSIS. [CHAP. 11,

individuals enjoy annually the benefit of a change in this home, and there can be no doubt that many a life has been thus saved which would otherwise have gone to an untimely grave.

The same charitable gentleman has also founded a “dharmshala” for travellers in another locality in Bombay at a cost of about Rs.50,000. In a former chapter we have referred to some of this gentleman’s charities in Persia. He has also established a trust fund of a lakh and a half of rupees from which poor and needy Parsis receive pecuniary help. Nor were Mervanji’s charities limited to the relief of the people of his own caste. He gave largely in every direction, and for the relief of distress wherever it was to be met. But the Parsi sanitarium alone will keep his name fresh among the Parsis through all time.

The name of the late Sir Kavasji Jehangir Readymoney is well known over the whole of India, and to some extent even in Europe, on account of his princely benefactions. He belonged to the Readymoney family of whom we have made mention in previous pages. He commenced life as a godown-keeper to a European mercantile firm, and, being a man of enterprise and shrewd commercial perception, he soon raised himselt to a position of affluence. Of him it was observed on his death that “his career in the pursuit of wealth was one of uninterrupted prosperity, and it should be mentioned to his honour that all his dealings were