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Parsis in Kashmir: Tracing the History through Fragments

  • Wardat Masoodi
  • 3 days ago
  • 7 min read

Qeşsa Sajan notes that the Parsis had economic ties with the Indian Subcontinent since the Achaemenid period. The Story of Sajan gives details of the arrival of the Zoroastrians from Persia who, to evade persecution, went into hiding in the mountains only to move after a hundred years to Hormuz. The dastur, upon reading the stars is said to have declared, ‘Our destiny lies elsewhere, we must leave Diu and seek another place of refuge.’Once they reached India, the local ruler Jadi Rana permitted them to settle in the region on the conditions that they would put down their weapons, use the local language, women would adopt local attire and the wedding ceremonies would only be conducted in the evening.

 

From the seventeenth century, we find detailed descriptions of the  Parsis in the foreign accounts. John Jourdain (1572-1619), an employee of the East India Company describes the Parsis in Navsari as: “In this town there are manie of a strange Kinde of religion called Parsyes. These people are very tall of stature and white people. Their religion is farre different from the Moores or Banians for they do adore the fire, and doe contynuallie keepe their fire burninge for devotion thinkinge that if the fire should goe out, that the world weare at an end”

 

As most Zoroastrians settled in Gujarat and Maharashtra, others also spread to different parts of the subcontinent. Few moved to Kashmir and made it home. Saleem Beg points out that what remains forgotten is the Parsi presence in Kashmir, particularly in the seventeenth century. Dabistan-i-Mazahib indicates the presence of Parsi priests of mobads in the valley. Drawing on Athar Ali’s work he highlights a cultural blending, exemplified by how certain Parsi mystics had adopted Muslim names. Ali in his work “Pursuing an Elusive Seeker of Universal Truth: The Identity and Environment of the Author of the ‘Dabistān-i Mazāhib,”mentions that the author, whom he suggests was himself a Parsi, had interactions with various Parsis in Kashmir Mobad Hoshyar, Mobad Sarosh.

 

Three prominent Parsi families landed in Srinagar the Dhanjiboys, the Pestonjees, and the Patels. These three families are said to have leased land on the famous Bund and constructed what are now some of the most well-known public buildings in Srinagar. The Bund was not an ordinary address, far from it, it was one of the most exclusive addresses in Srinagar. Ithoused the British Resident Commissioner and his entourage, staff and some missionaries. Francis Younghusband gives a detailed description of the area in his travelogue:

 

…“Beyond is clear of the town, and along the "Bund" or embankment, which forms a lovely walk by the water-edge, has now arisen a series of smart European buildings— the missionaries' quarters, the Punjab Bank, Parsi shops, the Post Office, the Residency Clerk's quarter and office, and then the Residency itself, a regular English country. house; and beyond it a tidy little Club, the second Assistant Resident's quarters, the Parsonage, the Church, and a line of houses each in its own snug and pretty little garden, the residences of British officials in the employ of the Kashmir State. The whole Bund is overshadowed by great chenar trees and willows, and both sides of the river are lined with houseboats. A thousand feet immediately behind rises the Takht-i-Suliman with the graceful Hindu temple on its summit, and behind this again the great ranges with snow still lying low upon them.


Behind the Bund lie many other modern houses, including Nedou's hotel, and on the slopes of the Takht and towards Gupkar many English villas are springing up—all in much the same style, built of brick and cross-beams of wood with gable roofs. There are also tennis courts and croquet and badminton grounds round the Club, and on the open plain golf links, a polo ground, and a cricket ground. Srinagar is indeed a gay place for the summer months, with games going on every day, dances nearly every week, dinners, garden parties, and picnics.”

 

Mostly the Parsi families rented properties on leased land or got them constructed. Danjiboys, the first Parsi family to arrive in Kashmir, under the Jammu and Kashmir Grants Act were given eleven kanals of land on lease during Maharaja Pratap Singh’s reign, including the permission to use it for commercial activities. Danjibhoy and his family first arrived in Kashmir in the winter of 1892. Mr Danjibhoy got his residence constructed on the Bund and ran a horse-drawn postal service from Stinagar to Muzaffarabad called M/S Imperial Carrying Company.  It is now where one will find the famous Mahata Photographers and Suffering Moses. 

 

Seth Danjibhoy, as he was known, got their tongas ready in Sonawar( Srinagar). Since they operated in Muree, Abbottabad and Rawalpindi as well, they had stables across different points of the Jehlum Valley road. In Kashmir, their main stables were at Delina Road in the Baramullah district of the present-day Jammu and Kashmir. As the route became motorable from 1917, they started operating as a lorry business functioning between Srinagar and Jammu. Around this period, they also started Imperial Furniture House and Imperial Confectionery, Café and Dairy at Residency Road which is now the Ahadoos Hotels.M J Aslam writes:

 

       “…they provided information about the condition of the road to the travellers and operated their elegant Tangas, Ekkas, landau, (Victoria)Phaetons and Bullock Train carts on the Jhelum Valley Road between Rawalpindi, Muree, Abbottabad, Baramulla and Srinagar. They were both passenger and goods transporters of the eminence of their time.”

 

In 1967, Dhanjiboy gave an inviolable power of attorney to the former Chief Minister of Kashmir, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and a wealthy businessman called Haji Ghulam Mohi-u-din.On the other hand, Mr Patel, nicknamed ‘Patel Police’ by the inhabitants, was appointed to the traffic police department by Hari Singh.


Fig. I. Robert Keagle, A Glimpse of 1945 Bund, 1945, photograph, Keagle Photograph Library, Digital South Asia Library, University of Chicago.
Fig. I. Robert Keagle, A Glimpse of 1945 Bund, 1945, photograph, Keagle Photograph Library, Digital South Asia Library, University of Chicago.

The Pistonjees were arguably the most well-known of the three families. The two brothers Bahram Pistonjee and Khusroo Pistonjee were the sons of Pistonjee Sr who was a registered state auctioneer. One of their buildings housed the India Assurance Company. Pestonjee (Sr.) also rented out the buildings to certain independent enterprises, such as the local favourite, Subhana Tailors and the Bank of Baroda.M/S Pestonjee and Co. were also the sole agents of the Ski Club of India and operated a unit in Gulmarg. Along with this, they set up a club and a hut at Khilanmarg in 1926.


Today the beautiful white horse that stands in the compound of MS Mall on the residency road is hard to miss. The legend goes that since Mr Pistonjee was the only distributor of the White Horse Scotch Whisky  (a company based in Edinburgh, Scotland), the company sent him a white horse all the way from London to Srinagar. Bahram Pestonjee’s granddaughter, Shereen Masters(née Pestonjee) writes that the story is a little different. The horse was not sent by the White Horse Scotch Whisky, but was found by her grandfather in the Maharaja's godowns. 

Fig. II. Grindlays Bank, The Bund, Srinagar (1983). This image captures the iconic mock Tudor-style bank building during the early 1980s, showcasing the unique colonial architectural heritage of the Bund area in Jammu and Kashmir.
Fig. II. Grindlays Bank, The Bund, Srinagar (1983). This image captures the iconic mock Tudor-style bank building during the early 1980s, showcasing the unique colonial architectural heritage of the Bund area in Jammu and Kashmir.

 

It is said that the horse was sent to Srinagar  by the Maharaja of Jaipur as a jest to the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir: 'Play polo on this before playing with me."Upon reviving a picture of the horse from Bahram Pestonjee the company sent a small amount for its maintenance and it has remained a part of every Srinagarite ever since.

 

There are many anecdotes associated with Pestonjee’s horse which people narrate from their memories. For instance; when I.G Police D.W Mehra had a party at his residence in Maulana Azad Road and asked one of his officers to buy some alcohol to serve the guests.

The naive officer is said to have brought the famous white horse instead, much to the amusement of the host and the attendees.



Fig. III. Bottle of White Horse blended Scotch whisky. Image accessed via the Wikipedia article “White Horse (whisky)” (Wikipedia, 2026).
Fig. III. Bottle of White Horse blended Scotch whisky. Image accessed via the Wikipedia article “White Horse (whisky)” (Wikipedia, 2026).

It is reported that it was on Pestonjee’s behest that the Maharaja got the Residency road branch of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank constructed. Pestonjee is said to have aided a Parsi researcher who located Mirza Daud's grave on the Koh-i-Sulemani in Gagribal, Srinagar. Mirza Daud was an eighteenth-century trader from India who travelled to Kashmir and had specified in his will that he was to be buried near the Dal Lake, which had enchanted his mind so much so that he was known to have spent all his allowance on merriment around the Dal Lake.

 

Motilal Khemu, in an article titled Jammu Kashmir mein Parsi Theatre which was published in Humara Adab writes that during Maharaja Pratap Singh’s reign Alfred Theatrical Company, which was run by a Parsi gentleman, was invited from Mumbai to Jammu in honour of Hari Singh’s coronation. Many students who went to Lahore for studies spent much of their leisure time watching theatre performances. There was a Parsi influence over the Kashmiri theatre in that sense.

Fig. V. Raghubir Singh, Kashmir: Garden of the Himalayas (New York: Thames & Hudson, 1983), plate 11.
Fig. V. Raghubir Singh, Kashmir: Garden of the Himalayas (New York: Thames & Hudson, 1983), plate 11.

As per the census of 1911, the total number of Parsis was thirty-three twenty-two males and nine females.R.G Wreford’s 1941 census records the numbers as 29 in the state of Jammu and Kashmir; 26 in Jammu and 6 in Kashmir.


Although in Kashmir, the Parsi community remained largely confined to the Bünd region and did not construct any temple for rituals, their legacy and presence are evidenced by the cemetery or Aramgah, near the Badami Bagh cantonment. It consists of a bugli for prayers, the cemetery and the watchman’s quarters. The epitaph of Bahram Pestonjee's tombstone reads: “He lived and died in the Kashmir he loved, to be remembered by what he had done.”


References:


  • Ali, M. Athar. “Pursuing an Elusive Seeker of Universal Truth: The Identity and Environment of the Author of the ‘Dabistān-i Mazāhib.’” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 9, no. 3 (1999): 365–73. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25187889.



  • Government of India, Census Commissioner. Census of India, 1911. Vol. XX: Kashmir. Part II—Tables. Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1912.Access PDF (accessed April 15, 2026).



  • Raghubir Singh, Kashmir: Garden of the Himalayas. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1983


  • Snedden, Christopher. “Kashmir Valley Muslims in J&K and Their Numerical Dominance.” Appendix. In Independent Kashmir: An Incomplete Aspiration, 325–30. Manchester University Press, n.d.


  • Younghusband, Francis. Kashmir. Adam and Charles Black, 1909.



Illustrations:


  • Government of India, Census Commissioner. Census of India, 1911. Vol. XX: Kashmir. Part II—Tables. Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1912. Accessed April 15, 2026.


  • Keeezawa. White Horse NA. Photograph, 2023. Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0


  • Robert Keagle. A Glimpse of 1945 Bund. 1945. Photograph. Keagle Photograph Library, Digital South Asia Library, University of Chicago.


  • Singh, Raghubir. Kashmir: Garden of the Himalayas. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1983. Plate 11.


 
 
 

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