ua, 383), his marriage with a Hindoo princess, and,
according to indigenous accounts, his founding the dynasty of the
Ghardabin kings, made this intimacy closer (Wilford, As. Res. ix. 219;
Masoudi, Prairies d'or, ii. 191; Reinaud, Memoire sur l'Inde, 112;
Elliot, Hist. ii. 159). Later on Noshirwan the Just (531-579) and his
grandson Parviz (591-628) allied themselves, by treaties and by the
exchange of rich presents, to the rulers of India and Sindh (Masoudi,
Prairies d'or, ii. 201). As to these treaties, it is interesting
to notice that the subject of one of the paintings in the Caves of
Ajanta is believed to represent the embassy of Noshirwan to Pulikesi,
king of Badami, in the country south of that of the Mahrattas,
whilst another is supposed to be a copy made after the portraits of
Parviz and the beautiful Shirin (Fergusson, in Burgess' Ajanta Notes,
92). According to certain narratives, a body of Persians landed,
at the commencement of the seventh century, in Western India, and it
is supposed that to one of these chiefs, regarded by Wilford as a son
of Khosroo Parvis, is to be traced the origin of the Udeipore dynasty
(Gladwin, Ain-i-Akbari, ii. 81; Dr. Hunter, As. Res. vi. 8; Wilford,
As. Res. ix. 233; Prinsep, Jour. Ben. As. Soc. iv. 684). Wilford
considered the Konkanasth Brahmins as belonging to the same race;
but, although their origin is doubtful, the Konkanasths had settled
in India long before the Parsis. Moreover, India and Persia had been
connected by commercial treaties. Cosmas Indicopleustes (545) found
some Persians amongst the principal traders settled along the coasts
of the Indian Ocean (Migne, Patrologiae Cursus, lxxxviii. 446; Yule,
Cathay, 1, clxxvii.-clxxix.), and his assertion as to the existence of
a Persian bishop at the head of the Christian communities of Kalyan
(Yule, Cathay, 1, clxxi.), discloses close relations between Thana
and the Persian Gulf. Shortly after the time of Cosmas, the empire of
the seas passed from the Romans to the Persians, and the fleets of
India and China visited the Persian Gulf (Reinaud, Aboulfeda, 1-11,
ccclxxxiii.-iv.). It was this connection between Western India and
Persia which urged, in 638 (H. 16) Caliph Omar (634-643) to found
the city of Bussorah, partly for the needs of commerce and partly to
prevent the Indian princes from coming to the help of the Persians
(Troyer, Rajatarangini, ii. 449; Chronique de Tabari, iii. 401),
and, in the same year (638-639), pr