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The Deva-worshippers of India greet the Daeva-abjurers of Iran. After the collapse of the house of Sasan, several hundreds of the adventurous people, not finding any human court in which to lodge their complaints, resolved to abandon their fatherland in quest of a more peaceful home, where they could practise their faith with a liberty of conscience so ruthlessly denied them by their conquerors. A burning passion for their ancient home and love for liberty of conscience clashed The latter conquered and a noble band of Iranian exiles now streamed to India in successive waves Here they found an asylum. India, the land of the devas, magnanimously welcomed the fugitives of Iran, whose religion had branded their devas as evil. The fire of Ormazd found a hospitable hearth in the new land which the early Parsi settlers adopted as their home. The Parsi athravan tended his sacred fire, even as the Hindu atharvan did his in the next street The Parsi Mobad performed the Yasna ceremony and squeezed the Haoma plant, as his Hindu Brahman neighbour practised his Yajnya rites and pounded Soma

Reviling each other's gods, yet living peacefully together. We have already seen that the points of difference between the religious beliefs of the two nations are as many as are the points. of resemblance between them. This is seen in the daily practices of the two peoples. The Hindu rises in the morning to begin his day's work with the devout utterance of the devas on his lips, the Parsi leaves his bed cursing them. One invokes them with his uplifted hands, the other lashes them with his sacred girdle. The Hindu anathematizes the asuras as the infernal beings, the Parsi pays his homage to the ahuras as the celestial beings. Such is the manner in which the Indian and Iranian branches of the Aryan family have behaved towards each other for a thousand years in India where they met each other once more after the long ages of separation.