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

26 HISTORY OF THE PARSTS. [CHAP. I.

It is impossible to suppose that this was the only exodus of the Persians from the land of their fathers. It can hardly be doubted that several migrations took place at successive periods, as the flame of the fanatical zeal and persecuting spirit of the Mahomedans burned more fiercely and spread further. Various meagre and unsatisfactory traditions exist concerning these migrations, the manner in which they were effected, and the total number of those who left the shores of

these treaties it is interesting to note that Naoshirvan’s embassy to Pulikesi IT., the ruler of Badami in the Southern Maratha Country, is believed to be the subject of one of the Ajanta Cave paintings, and another of the pictures is supposed to be copied from a portrait of Parvez and the beautiful Shirin (Fergusson in Burgess’s Ajanta Notes, 92). According to one account, early in the seventh century a large body of Persians landed in Western India, and from one of their leaders, whom Wilford believed to have been a son of Khosru Parvez, the family of Udepur is supposed to have sprung (Gladwin’s Ain-i-Akbari, 11. 81; Dr. Hunter, As. Res., vi. 8 ; Wilford, As. Res., ix. 233; Prinsep, Jour. Ben. As. Soc., iv. 684). Wilford held that the Konkanasth Brahmans were of the same stock. But though their origin is doubtful the Konkanasths are probably older settlers than the Parsis. . Besides by treaties Western India and Persia were at this _time very closely connected by trade. Kosmas Indikopleustes (545) found the Persians among the chief traders in the Indian Ocean (Migne’s Patrologie Cursus, Ixxxviii. 446; Yule’s Cathay, 1. elxxvii. clxxix.), and his statement that the Kalyan Christians (Yule’s Cathay, I. clxxi.) had a Persian Bishop points to close relations between Thana and the Persian gulf. Shortly after the time of Kosmas the leadership in trade passed from the Romans to the Persians, and fleets from India and China visited the Persian gulf (Reinaud’s Abulfeda, I.-II. ceclxxxiii.-iv.) It was this close connection between West India and Persia that in 638 (H. 16) led the Khalif Omar (634-643) to found the city of Basra partly for purposes of trade and partly to prevent the Indian princes sending help to the Persians (Troyer’s Radjatarangini, ii. 449 ; and Chronique de Tabart, iii. 401), and in the same year