Before taking in hand all the evils set forth it appeared specially important to direct all their efforts towards the abolition of the “Jazia,” the chief cause of the complaints and miseries of the tax-payers. These efforts relaxed neither with time nor with obstacles, and after a campaign which lasted from 1857 to 1882[24] the desired abolition was finally obtained. During this period of twenty-five long years all suitable means were taken to secure the success of the object aimed at. Thus Mr. M. L. Antaria profited by the kindly disposition of Sir Henry Rawlinson, the English Ambassador at the Court of Teheran, to get himself presented to the Shah and to lay before him a touching picture of the miseries suffered by his Zoroastrian subjects of Kirman. At the end of the audience he succeeded in obtaining a reduction of 100 tomans from the amount of the contribution annually raised (920 tomans) in Yezd and in Kirman.
Another audience was granted by the Shah in Buckingham Palace at the time of his voyage to England (June 24, 1873). A memorandum, drawn up in the most flowery and courteous style, such as Oriental politeness demands, was presented by several members of the Bombay Committee.[25] Sir Henry Rawlinson and Mr. E. B. Eastwick supported it. In his reply His Majesty thought fit to say that he had heard of the complaints of his subjects, and that he would consider the means of ameliorating the position of the Zoroastrians of Persia. But we know, alas! that in the East abuses take long in disappearing. In spite of the friendly promises of the Shah there was no change made in the collection of this tax. A pressing appeal through the English Ambassador at Teheran did not even reach the monarch. It was only in 1882 that Sir Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, the president of the Persian Zoroastrian Amelioration Fund, received through the medium of Mr. Thomson, of the English Embassy, the communication of the royal firman decreeing the immediate abolition of the tax (Parsee Prâkâsh, p. 662). This long struggle has cost the Persian Amelioration Fund of Bombay nearly 109,564 rupees, or about 257,475 francs! It is needless to say with what transports of joy and gratitude this boon was received by the unfortunate victims, who for centuries had groaned under the exactions of subordinate officials, and whom the enlightened kindness of the sovereign placed at once on a footing of equality with his other subjects.[26] As to the friends of the Mazdien communities of Iran, they may hope to see them prosper and their numbers increase under the influence of the same qualities and virtues which have contributed to the greatness and prosperity of the Zoroastrians of India.[27]
The relations between Bombay and Persia were not confined to this single benevolent initiative of the Bombay Committee.[28] We should also notice the establishing of schools in the towns of Yezd and Kirman (1857) due to the munificence of the Parsee notabilities, and the pecuniary gifts given for the purpose of settling in life young girls exposed on account of their poverty to terrible dangers in a Mahomedan country. Between 1856 and 1865 nearly a hundred Mazdien women were thus got married by the care of the agent of a charitable association. We may also mention the establishment of dispensaries and houses of refuge, and should not omit to include in this brief list the founding of two monuments, which throws a very interesting light on the direction of the religious ideas of the modern Parsis.
Two localities, situated not far from Yezd and held sacred by tradition, Koh-i-Chakmaku and Akda, preserved the memory of their ancient glorious days through a legend concerning the two daughters of Yezdezard, Khatun Banu and Hyat Banu, who had at one time disappeared without leaving any trace behind them. After the fall of the king, his family, finding no protection in Madaïn, had taken refuge in the citadel of Haft Ajar; but they were soon obliged to disperse. Meher Banu shut herself up in the fortress of Gorab; Khatun Banu directed her steps to more secret places. In her hasty march the princess, exhausted and dying of thirst, met a burzigar (farmer) busy cultivating the soil, and asked of him a little water to drink. There being no stream or tank near, the peasant offered her his cow’s milk, and commenced milking the animal; but the moment the vessel overflowed with the fresh and foaming liquid, the cow with a kick upset it. The unfortunate girl, thus deprived of this last comfort, feverishly continued her way, and reaching the mountain in an agony of despair, threw herself upon the ground, praying to the Almighty to protect her, either by stopping the pursuit of her enemies or by screening her from mortal sight. Hardly had she finished her prayer when she disappeared in a cleft of the rocks, which opened before her and closed upon her immediately. At the same moment the burzigar, who had discovered the retreat of the princess, arrived with a refreshing drink, only to find her little band of mourning followers. On hearing of her strange disappearance he ran to his stable and sacrificed the cow in the very place where the king’s daughter had disappeared. Soon the faithful ones came to offer, in their turn, similar sacrifices, and the place was called Dari-Din, “the Gate of Faith.” Hosts of pilgrims repaired to this place every year, but these sacrifices of blood were repugnant to the feelings of the Parsis of Bombay. However, as it was right and seemly to honour a place marked out by ancient tradition, Mr. Maneckji Limji Antaria substituted in the place of this barbarous custom ceremonies more in accordance with modern Zoroastrian practices. The sacrifice of the cow was suppressed, and an influential member of the Bombay community furnished means to raise a beautiful monument with spacious quarters to lodge the pilgrims.
Hyat Banu, the other princess, disappeared in an equally mysterious manner. On the spot consecrated by legend a grand reservoir, fed from neighbouring springs, has been erected. The walls of this reservoir having gradually fallen into ruins, they were repaired by the generous care of Mr. Merwanji Framji Panday, the same gentleman who erected the monument at Akda.[29]
[1] Renan has summarised, in these few terse lines, the long dissertations in the Sixth Book, tenth chapter, of the Præparatio Evangelica of Eusébius. (See Marcus Aurélius, ch. xxiv. pp. 439–440.)
[2] See Malcolm, Hist. of Persia, vol. i. ch. viii. p. 275 et seq.
[3] Shah Abbas the Great, desirous of increasing the commerce of Ispahan, caused 1,500 Guebre families to come and settle outside the town on this side of the river Zenderoud. Under Abbas II. they quitted Gehr-Abad and returned to the mountains. We see in Kaempfer that Abbas II. transported, in fact, nearly six hundred agricultural families into the Armenian Colony of Sulpha, or Sjulfa, founded by his ancestor, and which to the south bordered on the quarters of the Guebres. (Amænitates exoticæ, &c., p. 164, Lemgoviæ, 1712.)
[4] [The Parsis, their History, Manners, Customs, and Religion], ch. ii. pp. 31 et seq., London, 1884.