PARSEES

[s. 591] : A people in India, numbering le than 100,000, resident mostly in Bombay, Parsees Parvatlptir which, because of its romantic history, unique religion, commercial enterprise and fine character, is of an interest and importance beyond the expectation excited by its numbers. The Parsees, i.e., “Persians,” are descendants of the Zoroastrians who flourished in Persia until the 7th century, when the sword of the Mohammedans well nigh exterminated them, le than 10,000 of the sect, now called Guebres, surviving to-day in Persia. But a portion of the Zoroastrians escaped to India, where they settled in Gujarat as agriculturists until Muslim conquest in India again dislodged them and drove them southward. They reached Bombay between 1650-1700, about the time that this island The city was ceded to the English by Portugal. contact with Europe ans, and especially with the English, caused a wonderful transformation, awakening in this hitherto agricultural people a genius for busine which has brought them immense wealth and pres ige. They early became and have continued to be the chief factors in the English trading houses in Bombay, and succe ful as traders, shopkeepers, and contractors on their own account. Up to the middle of the 19th century, when the development of the great steamship companies changed conditions, practically the whole of the trade of Bombay and China pa ed through their hands. Much of the latter was in their own ships, and the busine was transacted through their own houses in London and the East. They also established themselves as dealers in European goods in the larger and in many of the smaller A long succe ion of master cities of India. builders in the government shipyards in Bombay have been Parsees; some have achieved succe Jamshedji as army and railway contractors, Dorabji, tho without rudimentary, and much le engineering schooling, being the builder of large sections of the great India Peninsula Railway, and of other public works to the extent of a some have established in million sterling; Bombay extensive cotton and silk mills, while others became bankers; and the Times of India, one of the leading English papers in India, owes In recent decades its origin to Parsee enterprise. they have entered the learned profe ions and held prominent positions in the Bombay government. Existing as a community by themselves in the midst of the composite ma of the Indian population, separated from others by their peculiar religion and customs, and with their own social organism, the Parsees are everywhere well to-do, intelligent, and thrifty. The average degree of wealth is probably higher among them than among any other cla in India. A Parsee beggar is never seen; the Parsee community always attends to the wants of its own poor, and suSers no members of its race to become a public burden. Their dre , dwellings, table appointments and social usages are a Hindu-European combination, in which the latter element tends to increase. Their ladies, handsomely dre ed, with faces unveiled, are seen driving in well appointed carriages and at public functions. Family life among them is generally happy. Formerly child marriages were a Parsee custom, but have now been abandoned, largely through growing appreciation of education for boys and girls. Zeal for education is a notable characteristic of the Parsees. Up to the time of their contact 574 with the English, education in their common smattering of speech, Gujarati, was rare. English was at first acquired for busine use, but the educational movement dates from the early part.of the 19th century, when Parsees chiefly took advantage of the English schools opened by Eurasians. The Bombay Native Educational Society, founded in 1820 imder the patronage of Governor Mount stuart Elphinstone, was the open door to higher education for Upon the retirement of the Parsees especially. this most emment governor of Bombay, the Parsees took a leading part in commemorating his services by raising an endowment for the Elphinstone Institute for the teaching of the higher branches of European sciences and literature, and to this institution the little Parsee community has always supplied the majority of the students and in later years occupants for important chairs. They have also been quick to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the Jesuit, and the Scotch Presbyterian Mi ionary schools and colleges, and by the English and vernacular schools, established by the government and by private individuals. But they have not been merely recipients of educational favors. In 1842, upon the knighting of one of their eminent men by the Queen, the Parsees celebrated the event by forming the Sir Jamshedji Jijibhoi Translation Fund, to be used in the translation of useful books into the Gujarati language, and the knight and his lady responded to the compliment by founding the Sir Jamshedji Jijibhoi Parsee Benevolent Institution, with an endowment providing a revenue of not le than 40,000 rupees per annum, devoted to the support of schools and maintenance of poor and aged Parsees. This and other endowments have A provided a complete system of schools, which furnishes an English education for practically the whole rising generation of Parsees, and many, continuing their studies in the technical schools of Bombay and in Europe, have attained distinction as teachers and profe ional men. The Parsee Girls’ School A ociation has made generous Gifts for eduprovisions for female education. cation have been a part of a larger benevolence, only been eminent as for the Parsees have not money-makers, but as money-givers as well, and they have set a good example to Western donors in making it their habit to give during their lifeBombay is so time, rather than by legacy. dotted with roads, bridges, wells and fountains, hospitals, asylums, and colleges given by them that the city itself may be said to be their monument. At the time of his death in 1859, Sir Jamshedji Jijibhoi bore the palm in the history of philanthropy, having given more than $1,500,000 to public charities, and he by no means stands alone as a princely Parsee giver. Their philanthropy has extended beyond their own people, and city, and country, as is evidenced in their a umption of the heavy tax imposed by Persia upon their fellow-Zoroastrians, the Guebres, and by their gifts to various funds in England and to the Sanitary Commi ion during the Civil War in the U. S. The Zoroastrian or Parsee religion is a monotheism, recognizing but one God, Ahura Mazda, or Ormuzd, the Creator, Ruler, and Preserver of the universe, without form and invisible, and to him all praise is to be given for all the good in this world and for all the ble ings we enjoy. Under him are two spirits, Spento Mainyush (the creator spirit) and Angro Main, Parsees 675 yush (the destructive spirit), througli whose agemcy and interaction he is the cause of all causes in the universe. The Parsee creed also includes beUef in guardian spirits or angels, in immortality, in the resurrection of the body, and in rewards and punishments. The Zend Avesta Zoroastrian Scripture), written in the Bactrian branch of the Iranian language, is free from immorality and cruelty, both in its characterization of deity and its directions for worIt counsels resistance to all the activities ship. of the evil spirit, and predicts the final triumph of good over evil. Parsee temples are small, simple buildings, and contain no idcis or other sacred objects except the ever-burning fire. The priesthood is hereditary. Worship consists in reading the Zend Avesta, adoring the sacred fire as the fittest symbol of Ahura Mazda, to whom, and the good spirits, prayer is offered, sprinkling with consecrated water, partaking in common of bread and wine, and offering up the juice of the Homa plant, which is done not only in the temples but m the houses twice a day. Magiism has influenced the development of the religious system, and astrology is practised in connection with all important events of life. The Parsees are frequently called fire-worshipers, but they resent this appellation, and claim that they use fire as the (the best symbol through which to worship deity, just as the Roman Catholics claim to use images, with probably a similar measure of truth. Reverence for the four elements, earth, air, fire, and water, is a part of their faith and has induced that peculiar method of disposing of the dead which IS their most commonly known peculiarity. According to their belief, a dead body, the result of the working of the powers of evil, is unclean, and must not be allowed to contaminate by its Eresence any of the elements; it can neither be uried nor burnt nor thrown into the water, for in that way one of the elements would be defiled. It is therefore exposed in a circular structure without a roof, round the interior of which runs a shelf slightly sloping toward an opening at the center. After being deposited in this place the vultures make swift work with it, and the bones, stripped of flesh, are afterward swept down through the central aperture into a cavity below. These structures are called “towers of silence,” and by their use the elements are saved from contamination and sanitation is maintained. The study of the Parsee faith and people invites the judgment “not far from the kingdom of God.” Their outward life and demeanor is always respectable and decorous. It is to be feared that their religion exerts but small influence over them, and that it has deteriorated to the level of a merely perfunctory formalism. Practically they are materialists or at least secularists, given up to the enjoyment of the good things of this world and satisfied with the practise of the ordinary secular virtues. And their succe in securing riches and station has induced a pride that makes them little acce ible to the Gospel. The Parsee community was greatly stirred and made formal protest to the government when in 1839 two Parsee youths, who afterward served long as Christian ministers, were converted through the teaching of Dr. Wilson. Tho this resentment quickly subsided, and gave place to marked affection for that distinguished mi ionary, few Parsees have been converted since; and because the other inhabitants of Bombay present — Parvatipnra so much more promising field, little mi ionary work has been done among.them. But their close and intelligent contact with the people and literature of Christen dom has already modified With their readine to profit by the adoption of foreign usages in other departments of life, the hope is not groundle that they mav yet, like their M.agi of old, be drawn to Christ and prove a power in establishing His kingdom in the East. their belief. Dosabhai Franji Karaka’s History of the Parais, 2 vols. Bom PARSONS, Justin Wright at West hampton, Ma ., U. S. A., April 26, 1824; graduated at Williams College 1848; sailed April 24, 1850, as a mi ionary of the ABCFM, for Turkev. He was stationed at Nicomedia and Bardezag. For thirty years he labored with unflagging zeal, never so well contented as when upon tours among the hills and valleys of the district he traversed so often, that he might preach Christ to the villagers, who learned to love him and heed his teachings. Brave enough and cool enough to lead an army, he carried with him no weapon save the gospel of peace, and with this he had succe fully disarmed, through a long series of years, all the opposition he met. He was on a mi ionary tour with Dudukian, a native Christian, when one evening in August, 1880, they camped for the night on the mountain side.: During the night some nomad Turks chanced way and shot the sleeping mi ionary and companion for the sake of plundering their meager traveling kit. The outpouring of the that his whole population at the funeral bore witne ta the power which the man’s simple, devoted life had among the people. 593