The Zoroastrian Myth of Migration from Iran and Settlement in the Indian Diaspora Numen Book Series
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The Zoroastrian Myth of Migration from Iran and Settlement in the Indian Diaspora Numen Book Series Studies in the History of Religions Texts and Sources in the History of Religions Series Editors Steven Engler (Mount Royal College, Calgary, Canada) Richard King (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, U.S.A.) Kocku von Stuckrad (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands) Gerard Wiegers (Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands) Advisory Board r.i.j. hackett – g. ter haar – a. tsukimoto t. jensen – i.s. gilhus – g.i. lease – a.h. khan b. bocking – f. diez de velasco m. joy – a.t. wasim VOLUME 124 The Zoroastrian Myth of Migration from Iran and Settlement in the Indian Diaspora Text, Translation and Analysis of the 16th Century Qesṣ e-yẹ Sanjān ‘The Story of Sanjan’ By Alan Williams LEIDEN • BOSTON 2009 This book is printed on acid-free paper. This research for this book was partly funded by www.ahrc.co.uk On the cover: The ‘Walking Mango Tree’ at Sanjan is, according to local legend, a very ancient sacred tree said to have been planted by the Parsis when they first landed at Sanjan. It is believed that this tree has ‘walked’ several kilometers from the seashore to where it is presently situated. Over the centuries it has put out branches so low that they have taken root in the ground as a new trunk, the original trunk eventually dying and the process having been repeated many times, as if it is ‘walking’ into India. The tree still bears small, red mangoes. Indeed it may have been planted by Zoroastrians as a pious vaqf (‘bequest’) or yād-bud ‘memorial’, for trees are sacred in Zoroastrian tradition, as representatives of the amahraspand Amurdād, ‘Immortality’, and were often planted around fire-temples. Photograph by Dr Ruksana Nanji. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Williams, Alan, 1953– The Zoroastrian myth of migration from Iran and settlement in the Indian diaspora : text, translation and analysis of the 16th century Qesse-ye Sanjan ‘the story of Sanjan’ / by Allan [sic] Williams. p. cm. — (Numen book series ; 124) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-17698-0 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Kayqubad, Bahman. Qissah-i Sanjan. 2. Parsees—History. 3. Parsees—Migrations. I. Kayqubad, Bahman. Qissah-i Sanjan. English. II. Title. III. Series. BL1530.W55 2009 295.0954—dc22 2009027840 ISSN 0169-8834 ISBN 978 90 04 17698 0 Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands In memory of Shehnaz Neville Munshi Tir Māh, Srosh Ruz—Tir Māh, Ashtād Ruz December 19, 1947–December 14, 2003 CONTENTS Preface .......................................................................................... ix Acknowledgments ...................................................................... xi I. Introduction ................................................................................ 1 II. The Narrative of Journey: Synopsis and Structure ............... 23 Illustrations III. Transcription and Translation ................................................. 53 IV. Commentary ............................................................................... 143 V. A Mirror or a Clock? Considering History and the Myth-Story .................................................................................. 205 VI. Conclusion ................................................................................... 223 Appendix: The Sixteen Sanskrit Ślokas of Ākā Adhyāru .... 229 Bibliography ................................................................................ 239 Indices .......................................................................................... 243 PREFACE I started work on the Qesṣ e-yẹ Sanjān long before I had any intention of publishing it, for my own personal use and simply because I had found previous translations and treatments of the text to be lacking. The text intrigued me as I discovered that, although many scholars and members of the Zoroastrian religion have referred to it, in mod- ern times very few indeed have ever seen the Persian text, let alone studied it. This was surprising, considering how much the story, of which the Qesṣ e-yẹ Sanjān is the written basis, is so much referred to, both in popular tradition and in literature, and is still familiar to Parsis. Among scholars who had never actually read the Persian text I had heard it described variously in terms such as ‘folk-chronology’, and ‘questionable pseudo-history framed in doggerel’—this was not how I saw it. Beginning with the lithographed text in Unvala’s Darab Hormazyar’s Rivayat, I became aware of how the verse composition, poetic structure and varied styles of the poem greatly enhanced and amplified the Persian, in comparison to the prosaic translations I had come across in print. After working both in Zoroastrian Pahlavi and Avestan texts in the past, and more recently the poetry of Classical Persian, I hope that I have been able to look at the Qesṣ e-yẹ Sanjān in a new light. One of the turning points in my appreciation of this poem came during conversations with Shehnaz Munshi, who helped me to understand the Parsi reception of the text and some of the Gujarati translations. With her lively knowledge of Parsi traditions and her own embodiment of Zoroastrian teachings, her musical understanding of Parsi Gujarati texts, songs and verses led me to listen more closely to the poetry of this relatively rare phenomenon—an old, Persian, Zoroastrian poem. It is to the memory of Shehnaz Munshi, a true Zoroastrian, that I dedicate this book. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I was able to write up my work and to prepare this book in a period of research leave made possible by the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) and the University of Manchester, by each fund- ing a semester’s leave in the academic year 2007–8. I wish to record a debt of gratitude to several institutions and individuals who have helped me in finding material. First, I am grateful to the Trustees of the K.R. Cama Oriental Insitute in Mumbai for their allowing me to have photographs of the 11 folios of the Qesṣ e-yẹ Sanjān SH manuscript of Dārāb Hormazdyār’s Revāyat and for granting me permission to publish them in this book. Whilst I was in Mumbai I was fortunate enough to be able to benefit from the deep learning of two High Priests, namely Dasturji Dr Firoze M. Kotwal, and Dasturji Dr Kaikhusroo M. JamaspAsa, to whom I owe a debt of gratitude. I also thank Mrs. Bharati Gandhi of the First Meherji Rana Library in Navsari for her help in locating manuscripts there, and similarly to the staff of the British Library, the John Rylands University Library of Manchester and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. I would like to express my appreciation of the support and help I have received over many years from Khojeste Mistree and Firoza Punthakey Mistree, and indeed their colleagues in Zoroastrian Studies. Thanks are due also to Pheroza Godrej for her tremendous hospitality and for organizing a conference at the Prince of Wales Museum in Mumbai, at which I delivered an early version of Chapter 5 as a lecture. Similarly I am grateful to Professor Shaul Shaked (Jerusalem) for organising several conferences on Irano-Judaica, which stimulated some of the ideas in this book. I thank Professor Philip Kreyenbroek (Göttingen) for pho- tographing a manuscript in India for me, and for his ever-encouraging support for all things Iranological. Professor Albert de Jong (Leiden) kindly read the manuscript of this book and offered helpful comments. Professor John Hinnells (formerly of Manchester) has been a stalwart supporter of my work in this field, and I wish to record how much I have benefited from conversations with him on this particular subject over the years. Thanks also to Professor James Russell (Harvard) for his expert reading of my work on all matters Zoroastrian. Professor John Brockington (Edinburgh) and Dr William Johnson (Cardiff) generously xii acknowledgments gave of their time to scrutinise the Sanskrit texts of the Ślokas of Ākā Adhyāru, for which I thank them. I am also grateful to Dr Rukshana Nanji, an archaeologist working on the site at Sanjān, who has pro- vided me with the photograph which appears on the front cover of this book. I have very much appreciated the very efficient editorial work of Brill, including Maarten Frieswijk and Marjolein Schaake, and also the Commissioning Editor, Regine Reincke. I am fortunate to work in the company of a group of harmonious scholars at the University of Manchester, my colleagues in Religions and Theology, whose company is always challenging and convivial in equal measure. I have enjoyed, all through the long gestation of this book, the good friendship and unfailing intellectual stimulation particularly of Sarah Stewart and Andrew Campbell Tiech, and also of many other friends, too numerous to mention, associated with SOAS and