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

236 HISTORY OF THE PARSTS. [CHAP. V.

establishment of the “ Mulla Firoz Madressa” under the superintendence of competent teachers of Zend, Pehlevi, and Persian. This “madressa” has, we are glad to say, done good work, and the sons of many Parsi priests as well as laymen are studying their ancient religion and literature under the headmastership of Ervad Kavasji Edalji Kanga, the translator of the Vendidad and the Khordeh-Avesta.

There is another “madressa” in Bombay, the “ Sir Jamshedji Jijibhai Zend and Pehlevi Madressa,’ founded to commemorate the name of the first Parsi baronet. Here the Pehlevi studies are superintended by the learned principal, Dastur Peshotanji, and the Zend studies by Ervad Edalji Antia, a learned scholar who had gained a fellowship in this very “madressa” for his proficiency in the study of Oriental languages. All the young Ervad authors, except Mr. Kavasji Kanga, were at one time students at this institution. There is a third ‘‘madressa” in Bombay known as Seth Jijibhai Dadabhai Madressa. Here also instruction in the Avesta is imparted, but

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not philologically. This “madressa” is supported out of the funds left by the late well-known Jijibhai Dadabhai, whose charity still supports several schools in Bombay and the Mofussil and a fire-temple in the former place.

There is a fourth “madressa” at Navsari known by

the name of the late Sir Kavasji Jehangir Readymoney.