Why and How the Relations between the Parsis of India and the Zoroastrians of Iran Were Formed? (Based on the Narrations of Rivāyāt-e Dārāb Hormazdyār)

In 880 AH, with the arrival of Nariman Houshang, one of the Parsis of India, to Iran and his meeting with the High Priests of Turkabad, a special relationship was established between the Parsis of India and the Zoroastrians of Iran, which lasted for nearly three hundred years. The result is a collection of narrations in Persian, each of them is usually called the bearer of that narration. A considerable number of these narrations  appear in a collection called Narrations of Darab Hormazdyar (Rivāyāt-e Dārāb Hormazdyār). In addition to clarifying the various aspects of the Zoroastrian religion, the narration also expresses the concerns and challenges that Zoroastrian communities in India and Iran have faced. The present study, which is descriptive-analytical research based on the historical research method, relying on the Narrations of  Darab Hormazdyar, seeks to answer thequestion what factors or motives, despite some challenges, caused the beginning and continuation of the relationship between the Parsis of India and the Zoroastrians of Iran in three hundred years. Analyzing the content of these narrations and recognizing the issues and conditions that these two societies faced shows that the beginning of relations between the Parsis and the Zoroastrians of Iran was probably a coincidence and not planned and aimed at gaining religious information from the Zoroastrians of Iran, but there is no doubt that the continuation of such relations is due to a set of religious, social, and economic motives of both societies.