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

CHAP. V.| LHE BARESHNUM CEREMONY. 237

Zend, Pehlevi, and Persian languages are taught there under the superintendence of Ervad Sheriadji, the well-known translator of the Pandnama. Of these four institutions, the first, second, and the fourth grant scholarships to deserving students.

The present “dasturs,” or chief priests, among the Parsis in Bombay—namely, Dastur Peshotanji, the successor of the learned and renowned Edaldaru, and Dastur Jamaspji, successor of the well-known Edaldaru Jamaspasana—are intelhgent and well-informed men, possessing a considerable knowledge of their religion ; but some of the priesthood are profoundly ignorant of its first principles. As the minds of the Parsi people have now been awakened, and as active measures have been and are being devised for improvement, the darkness and gloom of the past will doubtless be succeeded by a bright dawn in the future.

We will conclude this chapter with a description of the ceremonies required to qualify a priest. He has to undergo two grades of ceremonies—those of Navar and of Maratab. For the first of these he is required to know the Yasna and the Visparad together with the five Gahs, the five Nyaishes, and a few Yashts—the knowledge of Yasna being essential. The candidate who has learnt these is first required to undergo the Bareshnum ceremony.

It will not be out of place here to say a few words