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JULY, 1914.)
MISCELLANEA
151
Further to the east, in Garhwal and Kumaon, the bulk of the population is called Khasiâ, and these people are universally admitted to be Khabas by descent. In fact, as we shall see, the principal dialect of Kumauni is known as Khasparjiyâ, or the speech of Khas cultivators. Further east, again, in Nepal, the ruling caste is called Khas. In Nepal, however, the tribe is much mixed. A great number of so-called Khas are really descended from the intercourse between the high-caste Aryan immigrants from the plains and the aboriginal Tibeto-Burman population. But that there is a leaven of pure Khus descent also in the tribe is not denied.52
In this way we see that the great mass of the Aryan-speaking population of the Lower Himalaya from Kashmir to Darjeeling is inhabited by tribes descended from the ancient Khabas of the Mahâbhârata.
(To be continued.)
MISCELLANEA. THE TRADITIONA" DATES OF PARSI (A.D. 582), according to another in 777 V. Samvat HISTORY
(A.D. 721). A much later event, about which for Proy, S. H. Hodivala, M. A., of the Junagadh
that reason, if for no other, we might suppose they College has been lately devoting considerable
would be in agreement, is the subject of a similar attention to the early history of the Indian Parsis,
conflict. The old Fire Temple is said to have and road on the 25th of October last, before
been brought from BanadAh to Navsari according to
one of these entries in 1472 V. Samvat (A.D. 1416), the "Society for the Prosecution of Zoroastrian Researches" a paper on the "Traditional dates
but another would place the event three years later, of Parsi History" of which the following is a sum
giving the actual day and month, as Róz Mahres.
pand, Mah Shahrivar, V. Samvat 1476 (A.D. 1419); mary.
and not the least instructive fact about these The lecturer first pointed out that chronological statements about certain interesting events in the
rival dates is that both of them are demonstrably early annals of the Indian Parsis many are found
wrong noted down at random on the margins and flyleaves The most important of these statements is the one of many manuscripts, but that very few of them are which makes Roz Bahman, Mâh Tir, V. Samvat 778 properly authenticated, that some of them are (A.D. 716) the date of the first landing of the Parsi nameless, and even where the name of the writer "pilgrim fathers" at Sanjân. That the Parsi roz happens to be known we are left entirely in the mah here given does not tally with the Hindu dark as to the sources of his infomation or his tithi was proved to demonstration by the late competence to form a judgment. Moreover, not Mr. K. R. Cama in 1870, but the year has for all that one of them has been hitherto traced to any book been accepted by many inquirers, perhaps only for or manuscript written before the middle of the want of anything more satisfactory to take its place. eighteenth century. Lastly, they exhibit among The earliest authority for this entry hitherto known themselves the most bewildering diversity and the was the Kadim Tarikh Parsioni Kasar a pamphlet same event (the first landing at Sanjan) is placed by on the Kabisl controversy written by Dastur Aspan one in V. Samvat 772, (A.D. 716) by another in V. diàrji Kamdinji of Broach in A.D. 1826. The lecturer Samvat 895, (A.D. 839) and by a third in V. Samvat first showed that this entry oan be carried back somo961(A.D. 906). There is the same conflict sa to the year what further, as it ooours in a manuscript of miscel. in which the Persian Zoroastrians were, according laneous Persian versoe belonging to Ervad Manek ji to these entries, obliged to abandon their ancestral R.Unwalla, which is at least a hundred and fifty your hom. According to one, it was in 638 V. Samvat old. There can be no doubt that Dastur Aspandiarji
12 Regarding the origin of the Nopal Khas, see Hodgson and Sylvain Levi, op. cit.
