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

4 HISTORY OF THE PARSIS. [CHAP. I.

ordered a further free grant of one hundred acres of

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land at Navsari to the “dastur’s” son, Kaikobad Mahyar, who had succeeded his father on his death. That Akbar was very anxious to know all he could learn about the Parsi religion is further shown by the fact that a Parsi ‘“ dastur” from Kerman, in Persia, had visited Delhi in 1597 to unfold to him the mysteries of the Zoroastrian religion. The emperor learned from him and Merji Rana the peculiar terms, ordinances, rites, and ceremonies of the Parsi religion, and ordered his faithful minister, Abu Fazal, to build a temple in which the sacred fire was to be kept constantly burning day and night. The emperor is also said to have assumed the ‘“sudra” and “ kusti,” the badges of the Zoroastrian religion.

From the commencement of the fifteenth century the career of certain Parsis at Navsari was most distinguished. They were known as the “desais” of Navysari; they were farmers of large territories, and enjoyed great influence under the successive Mussulman and Maratha Governments. Changa Asa, a wealthy Parsi of Navsari, was the first ‘‘desai.” He was appointed to that office in the year 1419, and his influence with the authorities was so great as to be practically unbounded. He was a man of eminent piety, and spared neither time nor resources in promoting such objects as he considered were calculated to better the social and religious condition of