The Fire That Walked: The Qissa-i Sanjan and the Parsi Flight to India
What this is In the late 16th century, a Parsi priest named Bahman Kaikobad Sanjana, living in Navsari in Gujarat, composed a short Persian poem of approximately 432 verses called the Qissa-i Sanjan — "The Story of Sanjan." The poem narrates how Zoroastrian refugees from Iran arrived in India centuries earlier, how they negotiated with the local Hindu ruler for permission to settle, how they founded the community at…
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What this is In the late 16th century, a Parsi priest named Bahman Kaikobad Sanjana, living in Navsari in Gujarat, composed a short Persian poem of approximately 432 verses called the Qissa-i Sanjan — "The Story of Sanjan." The poem narrates how Zoroastrian refugees from Iran arrived in India centuries earlier, how they negotiated with the local Hindu ruler for permission to settle, how they founded the community at Sanjan and consecrated their sacred fire, and what happened to them across the subsequent centuries down to the destruction of Sanjan by Muslim armies in 1465. The Qissa is the founding narrative of the Parsi community in India. It is read at religious ceremonies. It has shaped the community's self-understanding for over four centuries.