7f; General Meeting for December, 1901. [DECEMBER, 



tliere is no mention of any Priesthood. In the Yaslinas they are called 

 the Athravans. In the Vendidad, for the first time we find divination, 

 foretellincr and other things of similar nature, so repugnant to the 

 founder of the religion, first introduced into the religion of Zoroaster, 

 And this is said to be through the influence of the Magi, who had 

 their home in Western Iran and were strongly imbued with the civili- 

 zation of Chaldea and Assyria in which astronomy and astrology play 

 an important part. 



Some say the Magi were originally Chaldean priests. They were 

 very powerful during the ascendancy of the Medes ; under the Persians, 

 too, they retained their influence to such an extent that Herodotus 

 considered them to form the sixth tribe in the empire, with a sacerdotal 

 capital, independent of the control of the Emperor, like Rome of 

 medifeval Europe. 



They lost much of tlieir influence during the Greek and Parthian 

 rule of Persia, but under the Sassanides they rose to great power and 

 were oro-anised as a second estate in the realm and were very powerful 

 till the Monarchy and tlie Church were both swept away in 632 by the 

 Saracen conquest. 



During this long interval from 600 B.C. to 632 A.D. the Persians 

 twice came into intimate connection with India, once in the 5th Century 

 B. C. and once in the 5th Century A. D. 



Their intimate connection, by conquest, with India in the 5th Cen- 

 tury B. C. is attested by various documents discovered by Cunningham 

 and others, and lately by Dr. Stein, in Central Asia, written in their 

 official character, the Kharostti, written from right to left — the Urdu 

 of those days. 



The story of their intimate relation with Western India in the 

 5th Century A. D. will be found in the works of Todd and others. 



Their Priesthood must have come into India with them during these 

 two periods, and remained behind after the loss of their political power. 

 Their knowledge of Astrology, etc., entitled them to great respect, and 

 they remained as a part and parcel of the Brahmana caste, though in a 

 qualified way. 



Caka-dvipa is generally translated by the word Scythia, i.e., lands 

 unknown to the Hindus, as Scythia was the land unknown to tlie 

 Greeks. It included every region beyond the ken of the Hindus then 

 and included Iran and Turaua alike. So there is no difficulty in finding 

 Persians styled as ^aka-Dvipi by Indians. 



I have got .a suggestion to make here. Some of these Brahmaras 

 call tliemselves faka-dvip'i, the others fakala-dvipi. It appears to 

 me that those who came earlier are known as ^aka-dvipi, and those 



