Page:Parsees by Dosabhoy Framjee.djvu/256

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CHAPTER VII.

RELIGION.

  • The antiquity of the Parsee religion
  • Identity of Zoroaster
  • Birth of the Parsee prophet
  • His persecutions
  • Progress of Zoroastrianism
  • The Zend language
  • The Avasta
  • The fragments of the Avasta in the possession of modern Parsees
  • Disputes as to the liturgical works of the Parsees
  • Nature of the Parsee religion
  • Fire the emblem of the AlmightyThe Parsees not worshippers of the elements
  • Ardai Veraf's vision
  • Religious reform
  • Education of Parsee priests.

The faith professed by the Parsees in India is one of the most ancient. As we have shown, it was once the religion of the most famous empire of the world. It has had its day of greatness as well as of decline, and has during a period of twenty-four centuries undergone various persecutions and vicissitudes. From the time it was founded, in the reign of Gushtasp, or Darius Hystaspes, till the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great, a period of three hundred years, it was in its most flourishing condition, the envious Greek

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