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

40 HISTORY OF THE PARSIS. [CHAP. I.

also of Messrs. Romer and Anderson, who successively held the post of judge at Surat, and took a deep interest in Oriental researches. He was well versed in the Persian, Pehlevi, Zend, and Sanscrit languages ; and his library of Oriental manuscripts, especially of those bearing on the religion and history of the Parsis, which were for the most part destroyed in the fire of 1837, was considered one of the best of its kind in Western India. He had five sons, all of whom entered the British service and rose to such offices of trust and responsibility as were open to the natives in their times; and the eldest of them, Fardunji, was the first to establish in the city of Broach, about the year 1831, a reading-room and also a scientific society known as the “Scientific Maktab,” which Lieutenant Christopher Birdwood,’ afterwards Commissary-General of Bombay, looked upon “not only as one of the many proofs which the Parsi community had already given of their enterprising and liberal spirit, but also as an evident sign of the times.”

The name of Kharshedji Jamshedji Modi, who had attained a high position in the service of Bajirao Peshwa, deserves a record here. He was originally a resident of Cambay, and joined the office of Colonel

1 The people of Bombay will always cherish the memory of the late General Birdwood, a man of singularly pure and blameless life, and superior to all prejudices of caste, colour, and creed. He was called Maharaja by his many native friends.