ent
useless repetitions. He began explaining to young Parsi theologians
the works of Zoroaster, which the Mobeds read every day without
understanding them. An enslaved people who for a long time practised a
thousand ceremonies, the sense and reason of which they were ignorant
of, would naturally fall into innumerable abuses. This was what
Darab, more learned than the others, observed. The purifications were
multiplied; the Zend text was inundated with Pehlvi commentaries, often
very inconsistent. Darab at first attempted the way of instruction. But
he found a powerful adversary in the person of Manscherdji, the chief
of the party who did not like reform, and himself the son of a Mobed.

"Another subject of division animated them again, one against
the other. Darab had for his father Kaous, of whom I have spoken
before, who had received from Dastoor Djamasp the first smatterings
of astronomy, according to the principles of Oulough Beg. This
Dastoor Mobed having been perfected since then under another Parsi
come from Kirman about thirty-six years ago, showed by the Tables of
Oulough Beg that the Nao rouz (the first day of the year) ought to be
advanced by a month, and that consequently there had been an error
till then. A letter of the Dastoors of Yezd, dated the 22nd of the
month Aban, of the year 1111 of Yezdezard (1742, A.D.) and brought
by the Parsi Espendiar, confirmed the discovery of Kaous, but did
not tend to protect him from the hatred of his compatriots. It went
so far that Darab, sixteen or seventeen years ago, was obliged to
withdraw to Damann amongst the Portuguese, and Kaous to Cambay among
the English. When I arrived at Surat, almost all the Parsis of India
followed the party of Manscherdji because he was rich and powerful;
Darab, whose knowledge was recognised even by his adversaries, had
some disciples who, in the sequel, showed themselves more freely when
the authority of Manscherdji had been lowered at Surat with that of
the Dutch, whose agent he was."

[91] Mulla Firoz succeeded his father Mulla Kavas as Dastoor of the
Kadmis (1802); when hardly eight years old he had accompanied Mulla
Kavas to Persia and had learned Persian and Arabic. In 1786 he wrote
in Persian a curious recital of his voyage, Derich Kherde Manjumi. In
1830 he published the Avijeh Din to refute the arguments of Dastoor
Edalji Dorabji Sanjana. The governor of Bombay, Mr. Jonathan Duncan,
engaged him to teach Persian, and to transla