Qissa-i Sanjan
Encyclopedia
The Story of Sanjan is an account of the early years of Zoroastrian
settlers on the Indian subcontinent. In the absence of alternatives, the text is generally accepted to be the only narrative of the events described therein, and many members of the Parsi
community perceive the epic poem to be an accurate account of their ancestors.
The account begins in Greater Khorasan
, and narrates the travel of the emigrants to Gujarat, on the west coast of present-day India. The first chapter, which is the longest, ends with the establishment of a Fire Temple
at Sanjan (Gujarat)
, and the later dispersion of their descendants. In later chapters, the Qissa narrates the success in repelling Islamic invaders, then the failure in the same, and the subsequent flight of the Zoroastrians. The account closes with a chapter on the conveyance of the "Fire of the Warharan" to Navsari
.
In its conclusion, the story is signed by a Parsi
priest named Bahman Kaikobad (or 'Bahman Kaikobad Hamjiar Sanjana'). The date of authorship is recorded as 969 YZ (1599 CE, see Zoroastrian calendar
) - several centuries after the described events are thought to have occurred. The account is in verse, in the highly verbose style common to Persian poetry.
The Kisseh-i Sanjan, as Abraham Anquetil-Duperron
transliterated the name, became available to European scholarship in 1771, when Duperron published a French translation. However, it was not until the beginning of the 20th century that the poem attracted widespread attention, particularly among the Parsi-Zoroastrian priesthood.
The first chapter of the narrative begins with the fall of the Sassanid Empire
in 642CE, as part of the Muslim conquest of Persia. The subsequent persecution of Zoroastrians
led to the dispersion of the people "of good faith", and ultimately the Zoroastrians' departure from Greater Khorasan
.
The refugees first made for a major port city near Bushire, where they stayed for 15 years. From there they sailed for Hindustan
, the northern territories of the Indian subcontinent. They landed on the Island of Div
, in southern Saurashtra, where they stayed for another 19 years. From Div, they sailed along the coast, weathered a severe storm at sea, and finally landed in Gujarat. Some accounts state that about 18,000 Parsis came in seven junks, five of them landing in Div, one at Variav
near Surat
and one at Cambay in Gujarat.
There, they approached the local king, Jadi Rana
, and requested asylum. The ruler, fearing for his kingdom, asked them to explain their beliefs, and made four other stipulations for granting asylum:
The refugees, accepting the demands, expounded on the teachings of their faith, and "when the Hindu Raja heard the oration, his mind regained perfect ease." Having been granted asylum, the emigrants established the settlement of Sanjan (Gujarat)
, which was soon flourishing.
Some time thereafter, the priests of the fledgling community approached the king with a request to establish a Fire Temple
. Their wish was granted, and a temple was subsequently installed and consecrated. The Fire is subsequently referred to in the story as the "Fire of Warharan
."
The narrative then glosses over the next five or seven centuries (both periods are mentioned). At the end of the first chapter, many of the descendants of the original settlers are said to have dispersed in all directions.
In the subsequent three chapters, the account narrates the invasion by Islamic troops. At first, with the assistance of the Zoroastrians, the invaders are repelled. In the battle on the next day, "Fortune [...] turned its face", and the Raja was killed.
The fifth chapter narrates the fleeing of the Zoroastrians to Bahrot, taking the fire from the temple in Sanjan with them. They stayed there for twelve years, then moved to Bansdah, where a new temple was consecrated.
In the sixth and final chapter of the narrative, the account describes the conveyance of the fire to a new temple at Navsari
.
. Among the Parsi
community, the story is perceived to be an accurate account of their forebearers.
The importance of the story lies in any case not so much in its reconstruction of events than in its depiction of the Parsis - in the way they have come to view themselves - and in their relationship to the dominant culture. As such, the text plays a crucial role in shaping Parsi identity. But, "even if one comes to the conclusion that the chronicle based on verbal transmission is not more than a legend, it still remains without doubt an extremely informative document for Parsee historiography."
In the Story of Sanjan, it appears as if the Zoroastrians must have had some contact with Gujarat prior to their journey there, which has prompted suggestions that the Zoroastrians of the story were not in fact the first migrants. Whether these were also asylum seekers is unclear, but Iranian influence and emigrants are discernible in India long before the Parsis of the narrative arrive. The text states the migrants knew in advance that Gujarat was governed by a monarch tolerant towards other (i.e. non-Hindu) religious beliefs, and this may have been determined through trade with the region (the city near Bushire - where the narrative's Zoroastrians are said to have lived for 15 years before setting sail - had extensive trading connections with the east).
The story's chronology is the basis of several different estimates of the year of migration. Although the story is precise with respect to some elapsed periods, it is vague or contradictory with respect to others. Consequently (and in conjunction with an unrelated document from 1826), three dates - 936, 785 and 716 - have been proposed as the year of landing. The sacking of Sanjan referred to in the fourth chapter probably occurred in 1465 (see Delhi Sultanate
), which would put 716 CE c. 750 years before the Islamic invasion and 936 CE c. 530 years before that event. Both periods (seven centuries and five centuries) are mentioned in the text.
The question of whether Sanjan or Diu was the site of the first settlement in India was discussed with intensity in the early 20th century when a memorial commemorating their arrival was first proposed. That memorial was finally constructed at Sanjan, where it is today known as the Sanjan Stambh
. Although the narrative is unclear on where precisely the Zoroastrians came from, the text may be interpreted such that the emigrants originated from Sanjan (Khorasan)
, a settlement near the ancient city of Merv
(in today's Turkmenistan). Although the text states that many of the settlers took the name of 'Sanjana', the text is unclear as to whether they had done so before the naming of the settlement of Sanjan (that is, they had brought the name with them), or as a response to the naming of the settlement. The settlers were simply called 'Khorasanis' by the local citizens. Moreover, (family) names are not believed to have been common until much later. The author of the text does not give himself a family name.
Scholars of Parsi history are divided over interpretations of the stipulations for asylum, in particular that of the last, i.e. that marriages only be performed in the evenings, as the Hindus do. Even without any inclination to infer a hidden meaning, it does raise the question why was such a minor issue was a condition for asylum. In general, "that [the Parsis] clothe their cultural concessions to their Indian environment in the form of conditions set by a Hindu prince can be considered as self-justification of this group which, without these concessions - that is, giving up only a few customs while traditions were otherwise strictly kept - would hardly have been able to survive [...] as a minority in India."
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster and was formerly among the world's largest religions. It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in Greater Iran.In Zoroastrianism, the Creator Ahura Mazda is all good, and no evil...
settlers on the Indian subcontinent. In the absence of alternatives, the text is generally accepted to be the only narrative of the events described therein, and many members of the Parsi
Parsi
Parsi or Parsee refers to a member of the larger of the two Zoroastrian communities in South Asia, the other being the Irani community....
community perceive the epic poem to be an accurate account of their ancestors.
The account begins in Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...
, and narrates the travel of the emigrants to Gujarat, on the west coast of present-day India. The first chapter, which is the longest, ends with the establishment of a Fire Temple
Fire temple
A fire temple in Zoroastrianism is the place of worship for Zoroastrians. Zoroastrians revere fire in any form. In the Zoroastrian religion, fire , together with clean water , are agents of ritual purity...
at Sanjan (Gujarat)
Sanjan (Gujarat)
Sanjan is the second railway station in Gujarat on the Western railways just inside the Gujarat-Maharashtra border...
, and the later dispersion of their descendants. In later chapters, the Qissa narrates the success in repelling Islamic invaders, then the failure in the same, and the subsequent flight of the Zoroastrians. The account closes with a chapter on the conveyance of the "Fire of the Warharan" to Navsari
Navsari
Navsari is a city and municipality in the Surat Metropolitan Region and also the administrative headquarters Navsari District of Gujarat, India. Navsari is also the Twin City of Surat, and only 37 km south of Surat.-Geography:...
.
In its conclusion, the story is signed by a Parsi
Parsi
Parsi or Parsee refers to a member of the larger of the two Zoroastrian communities in South Asia, the other being the Irani community....
priest named Bahman Kaikobad (or 'Bahman Kaikobad Hamjiar Sanjana'). The date of authorship is recorded as 969 YZ (1599 CE, see Zoroastrian calendar
Zoroastrian calendar
This article treats of the reckoning of days, months and years in the calendar used by adherents of the Zoroastrian faith. Zoroastrian religious festivals are discussed elsewhere, but have a fixed relationship to Nawruz, the New Year festival, whose timing is discussed below...
) - several centuries after the described events are thought to have occurred. The account is in verse, in the highly verbose style common to Persian poetry.
The Kisseh-i Sanjan, as Abraham Anquetil-Duperron
Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron
Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron was the first professional French scholar of Indian culture. He conceived the institutional framework for the new profession. He inspired the founding of the Ecole francaise d'extreme orient a century after his death and, later still, the founding of the...
transliterated the name, became available to European scholarship in 1771, when Duperron published a French translation. However, it was not until the beginning of the 20th century that the poem attracted widespread attention, particularly among the Parsi-Zoroastrian priesthood.
Contents
Quotations in the following section are from an English language translation by Shahpurshah Hormasji Hodivala, published in 1920.The first chapter of the narrative begins with the fall of the Sassanid Empire
Sassanid Empire
The Sassanid Empire , known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr and Ērān in Middle Persian and resulting in the New Persian terms Iranshahr and Iran , was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty from 224 to 651...
in 642CE, as part of the Muslim conquest of Persia. The subsequent persecution of Zoroastrians
Persecution of Zoroastrians
Persecution of Zoroastrians was the religious persecution inflicted upon the followers of the Zoroastrian faith. The persecution of Zoroastrians occurred throughout its history. The discrimination and harassment began in the form of sparse violence and forced conversions. Both Arabs and Christians...
led to the dispersion of the people "of good faith", and ultimately the Zoroastrians' departure from Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...
.
The refugees first made for a major port city near Bushire, where they stayed for 15 years. From there they sailed for Hindustan
Hindustan
Hindustan or Indostan, literal translation "Land of River Sindhu ", is one of the popular names of South Asia. It can also mean "the land of the Hindus"...
, the northern territories of the Indian subcontinent. They landed on the Island of Div
Diu Island
Diu दिऊ دئو is a city in Diu district in the union territory of Daman and Diu, India. It was the location of the pivotal Battle of Diu in 1509 between Portugal and a combined force of Turkey, Egypt, Venice, the Republic of Ragusa and the Sultan of Gujarat, Mahmud Begada.The town of Diu lies at...
, in southern Saurashtra, where they stayed for another 19 years. From Div, they sailed along the coast, weathered a severe storm at sea, and finally landed in Gujarat. Some accounts state that about 18,000 Parsis came in seven junks, five of them landing in Div, one at Variav
Variav
Variav is a small town situated in Surat District, Gujarat, India. Variav is on the right bank of Tapti River. Variav was recently added to the region of Surat Municipal Corporation, and is now part of Greater Surat.-History:...
near Surat
Surat
Surat , also known as Suryapur, is the commercial capital city of the Indian state of Gujarat. Surat is India's Eighth most populous city and Ninth-most populous urban agglomeration. It is also administrative capital of Surat district and one of the fastest growing cities in India. The city proper...
and one at Cambay in Gujarat.
There, they approached the local king, Jadi Rana
Jadi Rana
Jadi Rana or Jadav Rana is a figure from the Qissa-i Sanjan, an epic poem completed in 1599, which is an account of the flight of some of the Zoroastrians who were subject to religious persecution following the fall of the Sassanid Empire, and of their early years in India, where they found refuge...
, and requested asylum. The ruler, fearing for his kingdom, asked them to explain their beliefs, and made four other stipulations for granting asylum:
- they were to adopt the local language (GujaratiGujarati languageGujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages...
) - their women were to wear the garments of the local women (the SariSariA sari or sareeThe name of the garment in various regional languages include: , , , , , , , , , , , , , is a strip of unstitched cloth, worn by females, ranging from four to nine metres in length that is draped over the body in various styles. It is popular in India, Bangladesh, Nepal,...
) - they were to cease to carry weapons
- marriages were only to be performed in the evenings (as the HindusHinduismHinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
do)
The refugees, accepting the demands, expounded on the teachings of their faith, and "when the Hindu Raja heard the oration, his mind regained perfect ease." Having been granted asylum, the emigrants established the settlement of Sanjan (Gujarat)
Sanjan (Gujarat)
Sanjan is the second railway station in Gujarat on the Western railways just inside the Gujarat-Maharashtra border...
, which was soon flourishing.
Some time thereafter, the priests of the fledgling community approached the king with a request to establish a Fire Temple
Fire temple
A fire temple in Zoroastrianism is the place of worship for Zoroastrians. Zoroastrians revere fire in any form. In the Zoroastrian religion, fire , together with clean water , are agents of ritual purity...
. Their wish was granted, and a temple was subsequently installed and consecrated. The Fire is subsequently referred to in the story as the "Fire of Warharan
Vahram
Verethragna is an Avestan language neuter noun literally meaning "smiting of resistance" . Representing this concept is the divinity Verethragna, who is the hypostasis of "victory", and "as a giver of victory Verethragna plainly enjoyed the greatest popularity of old" .The neuter noun verethragna...
."
The narrative then glosses over the next five or seven centuries (both periods are mentioned). At the end of the first chapter, many of the descendants of the original settlers are said to have dispersed in all directions.
In the subsequent three chapters, the account narrates the invasion by Islamic troops. At first, with the assistance of the Zoroastrians, the invaders are repelled. In the battle on the next day, "Fortune [...] turned its face", and the Raja was killed.
The fifth chapter narrates the fleeing of the Zoroastrians to Bahrot, taking the fire from the temple in Sanjan with them. They stayed there for twelve years, then moved to Bansdah, where a new temple was consecrated.
In the sixth and final chapter of the narrative, the account describes the conveyance of the fire to a new temple at Navsari
Navsari
Navsari is a city and municipality in the Surat Metropolitan Region and also the administrative headquarters Navsari District of Gujarat, India. Navsari is also the Twin City of Surat, and only 37 km south of Surat.-Geography:...
.
Issues raised by the text
In the absence of alternatives, the Story of Sanjan is generally accepted to be the only narrative of the early years of the Zoroastrian migrants to the Indian subcontinentIndian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
. Among the Parsi
Parsi
Parsi or Parsee refers to a member of the larger of the two Zoroastrian communities in South Asia, the other being the Irani community....
community, the story is perceived to be an accurate account of their forebearers.
The importance of the story lies in any case not so much in its reconstruction of events than in its depiction of the Parsis - in the way they have come to view themselves - and in their relationship to the dominant culture. As such, the text plays a crucial role in shaping Parsi identity. But, "even if one comes to the conclusion that the chronicle based on verbal transmission is not more than a legend, it still remains without doubt an extremely informative document for Parsee historiography."
In the Story of Sanjan, it appears as if the Zoroastrians must have had some contact with Gujarat prior to their journey there, which has prompted suggestions that the Zoroastrians of the story were not in fact the first migrants. Whether these were also asylum seekers is unclear, but Iranian influence and emigrants are discernible in India long before the Parsis of the narrative arrive. The text states the migrants knew in advance that Gujarat was governed by a monarch tolerant towards other (i.e. non-Hindu) religious beliefs, and this may have been determined through trade with the region (the city near Bushire - where the narrative's Zoroastrians are said to have lived for 15 years before setting sail - had extensive trading connections with the east).
The story's chronology is the basis of several different estimates of the year of migration. Although the story is precise with respect to some elapsed periods, it is vague or contradictory with respect to others. Consequently (and in conjunction with an unrelated document from 1826), three dates - 936, 785 and 716 - have been proposed as the year of landing. The sacking of Sanjan referred to in the fourth chapter probably occurred in 1465 (see Delhi Sultanate
Delhi Sultanate
The Delhi Sultanate is a term used to cover five short-lived, Delhi based kingdoms or sultanates, of Turkic origin in medieval India. The sultanates ruled from Delhi between 1206 and 1526, when the last was replaced by the Mughal dynasty...
), which would put 716 CE c. 750 years before the Islamic invasion and 936 CE c. 530 years before that event. Both periods (seven centuries and five centuries) are mentioned in the text.
The question of whether Sanjan or Diu was the site of the first settlement in India was discussed with intensity in the early 20th century when a memorial commemorating their arrival was first proposed. That memorial was finally constructed at Sanjan, where it is today known as the Sanjan Stambh
Sanjan Stambh
Sanjan Stambh is a memorial column at Sanjan in Gujarat. It commemorates the arrival of Zoroastrians there six centuries ago—a group of shipwrecked migrants who had fled Muslim persecution after the downfall of the Persian Empire and were welcomed to India by Hindu king Jadi Rana.It states the date...
. Although the narrative is unclear on where precisely the Zoroastrians came from, the text may be interpreted such that the emigrants originated from Sanjan (Khorasan)
Sanjan (Khorasan)
Sanjan is an ancient city on the southern edge of the Kara-kum Desert, in the vicinity of the historically eminent oasis-city of Merv. Topographically, Sanjan is located in the Greater Khorasan region of Central Asia...
, a settlement near the ancient city of Merv
Merv
Merv , formerly Achaemenid Satrapy of Margiana, and later Alexandria and Antiochia in Margiana , was a major oasis-city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, located near today's Mary in Turkmenistan. Several cities have existed on this site, which is significant for the interchange of...
(in today's Turkmenistan). Although the text states that many of the settlers took the name of 'Sanjana', the text is unclear as to whether they had done so before the naming of the settlement of Sanjan (that is, they had brought the name with them), or as a response to the naming of the settlement. The settlers were simply called 'Khorasanis' by the local citizens. Moreover, (family) names are not believed to have been common until much later. The author of the text does not give himself a family name.
Scholars of Parsi history are divided over interpretations of the stipulations for asylum, in particular that of the last, i.e. that marriages only be performed in the evenings, as the Hindus do. Even without any inclination to infer a hidden meaning, it does raise the question why was such a minor issue was a condition for asylum. In general, "that [the Parsis] clothe their cultural concessions to their Indian environment in the form of conditions set by a Hindu prince can be considered as self-justification of this group which, without these concessions - that is, giving up only a few customs while traditions were otherwise strictly kept - would hardly have been able to survive [...] as a minority in India."
Further reading
- Hodivala's uncritical translation of the narrative.