Sourashtrians and the Parsis

February 6, 2004

A friend of mine, who belongs to the Sourashtra Community, recently

asked me if the Sourashtrians and the Parsis had anything in

common. He was making some associations on the Sourashtrians and

the Parsis being associated with Silk weaving and was making

inferences on the Silk road, which the Zoroastrians seem to have

taken during their migration. He was also making other associations

of the sacred thread worn by the Zoroastrians around their waist

with the ones that a few sections of the Sourashtrian community

still wear. And most of the Parsis are entrepreneurs and business

men, which again relates to a section of the Sourashtrian

community. I replied to him saying that since they migrated to

Gujarat initially and the Sourashtrians are believed to have

migrated out of Gujarat, they might have some similarities.

More studies on the Parsis show interesting similarities. From the

that "The word, "Zaurashtra" is composed of "Zarath" which means

golden and "Ushtra" which is light and so Zaurashtra means of the

golden light…". (Of course, I know that Sourashtra in

Sourashtram means `a wealthy region'). I am not sure if one

can

construct a linguistic association of `Zaurashtra' with

`Sourashtra', but the genetic composition of the

Sourashtrians at

Madurai (from a study at MK University, Madurai) has shown some kind

of similarity with the migrating people of Iran. I will make a note

here that I am not trying to pull anyone into the polemics of any

racial controversy here. It seems to me an interesting area of

study for the disinterested Historian and I would appreciate if

anyone can throw more light on it.

-vishvesh

Recommended Posts