Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c46.13

c46.13

§ 8. At the very opposite pole to the Muslim and Christians in regard to recruitment by propaganda of their religion, stand the small but well defined body of Parsis. The original settlers of this race were driven out of Īrān by the Muslim in the 7th century, and the bulk of their descendants are still to be found in and round the tract upon which they first landed, on the coast north of Bombay. The opening of the latter by the British as the commercial emporium of western India, induced many families of Parsis to migrate thither, and from this centre they have spread all over the country to such an extent that, though their aggregate numbers is only just over 93 000, there is scarcely a large town in India in which a few families of Parsi traders are not resident. From their arrival in the country the Parsis made a point of keeping their race and ritual unsullied by intercourse with their neighbours, and to this particularism is due to some extent, their very slow rate of increase. It is remarkable, however, that with this strict maintenance of their customs and ritual, and their abstinence from intermarriage with Indians, the Parsis have long lost all hold of their original language, Pahlavī, except in their liturgy, and universally make use of Gujarātī as their mother-tongue.