Qissa-i Sanjan

The Story of Sanjan is an account of the early years of Zoroastrian settlers on the Indian subcontinent. The account begins in Greater Khorasan, and narrates the travel of the emigrants to Gujarat, on the west coast of present-day India. The first chapter, which is the longest, ends with the establishment of a Fire Temple at Sanjan.

About Qissa-i Sanjan in brief

The Story of Sanjan is an account of the early years of Zoroastrian settlers on the Indian subcontinent. The account begins in Greater Khorasan, and narrates the travel of the emigrants to Gujarat, on the west coast of present-day India. The first chapter, which is the longest, ends with the establishment of a Fire Temple at Sanjan, and the later dispersion of their descendants. In its conclusion, the story is signed by a Parsi priest named Bahman Kaikobad. In the absence of alternatives, the text is generally accepted to be the only narrative of the events described therein. Many members of the Parsi community perceive the epic poem to be an accurate account of their ancestors. As such, it plays a crucial role in shaping their relationship to the dominant culture of their forebearers.

But, if one comes to the conclusion that the story lies one to one with Parsi identity, it is not so much in its reconstruction of events than in its depiction of the way they have come to view themselves – and in their view of the world. The story is in verse, in the highly verbose style common to Persian poetry. The date of authorship is recorded as 969 YZ – several centuries after the described events are thought to have occurred. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that the poem attracted widespread attention, particularly among the Parso-Zoroastrian priesthood. The Kisseh-i Sanjan became available to European scholarship in 1771, when Abraham Anquetil-Duperron published a French translation.

Related posts:

Ulysses (poem) Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi Angkor Wat Roman temple of Bziza