This is a wonderful piece written by Ms. Natasha Viraf Deboo of Poona

The word ‘Parsi’ is derived from the word Pars or Persia. Hence, Parsi literally means ‘people who have come from Persia’.

And what progress we have made since then! From coming as humble refugees from Iran , to building great empires like Tatas and Wadias; from being persecuted in our own motherland, to carving a niche for ourselves in other’s hearts in a completely foreign country, Parsis have truly come a very long way.

Today, Parsis are one of the most loved communities in the world. Every Hindu, Muslim or Christian is bound to have at least one Parsi friend. And boy! Do the good times roll when Parsis are around! Right from their long noses and fair complexion, to their unique Hindi and
witty wisecracks, Parsis are a pleasure to have around you, and are the life of any party.

And oh! Do we have our own unique identity! A Parsi can be easily spotted even in a crowded place. All you have to do is find someone whose petticoat is longer than the dress, who has a scarf on her head and a smile on her face. And trust me, it is so heartening to bump
into one of them and hear them ask ‘Arre dikra, kem che? Baccha kem che?’ And while others may turn a deaf ear, the Parsi ‘maaiji’ is ever ready to dole out advice on the common cold, cough and backache, and hand you generations-passed-down, home-made recipes to cure them, which, though awful smelling and tasting, are twice as effective as any medicine in the market. On the other hand, her Parsi husband will come and declare all the ‘drama’ is unnecessary; stating that ‘ek peg Brandy’ will cure all your illnesses!

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By Firoze Hirjikaka

The main theme and the true raison d’etre for a Zoroastrian wedding is food. Zoroastrian wedding banquets are definitely for the weight watchers. Demurring protestations to the contrary, food is the reason most invited guests show up at these events. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Owing to some archaic promise my ancestors made to an ancient Hindu king, who gave them refuge after they had to flee their native Iran – where they were being persecuted by the conquering army of a newly born Islam – all Zoroastrian weddings in India take place after sunset. Generally, the wedding is followed immediately by the reception and both take place at the same venue.

The venue is usually a spacious, walled in compound, with a small building housing changing rooms and toilets. Some of the larger ones – like the one I went to - also contain a Zoroastrian temple on the premises.

Like I said, the actual ceremony normally starts around 6:30 in the evening, but the two families land up at least an hour beforehand. The family car is decked out with fresh flowers which, if nothing else, ensure permission to park inside the compound. The bride, having spent the morning at a beauty power, is dressed in an elaborately embroidered sari; white if it’s her first time; colored if it is not. The groom is always dressed in pristine white, even if it’s his third time (don’t shoot the messenger – I don’t make the rules). The traditional costume is white trousers and a white shirt, over which is worn a white muslin tunic held in place with a string of bows.

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KISH, Iran — The indoor dolphin show was in full swing as Hossein Sabet walked in to a burst of applause from the 1,200 people in attendance. Clad in tight beige equestrian pants and tall black boots, he waved at the crowd and went straight to his office behind the pool.

Tourists at the hotel, which incorporates replicas of ancient landmarks that symbolize Persia at the zenith of its power.

Kish is accessible to foreigners who do not have a visa.

Mr. Sabet, 58, an Iranian who spends most of his time in Germany, is no performer, however. He is a businessman and something of a local legend, having invested more than $300 million here in hotels and attractions like the dolphin show, the only one in the Middle East.

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24 Apr 2008, 0434 hrs IST,Nauzer Bharucha,TNN

MUMBAI: For the past few centuries, they have been one of Mumbai’s most important religious and architectural landmarks. On Thursday, the city’s oldest Zoroastrian fire temple-the Banaji Limji agiary-enters its 300th year.

Tucked away in a side lane called Banaji Lane opposite the Akbarallys showroom, the ancient fire was consecrated in 1709 by Seth Banaji Limji, a prosperous Parsi businessman. “It is the oldest surviving agiary in Mumbai,” said Parsi historian Marzban Giara.

Incidentally, the second oldest agiary-Manekji Sett agiary- is also located less than a kilometre away in Perin Nariman street near CST. It completes 275 years on Thursday (1733).

In the western suburb of Andheri (west), the Seth Pirojsha Ardeshir Patel agiary also celebrates its centenary on the same day (Roz Adar-Mah Adar), an auspicious day for Parsis.

Mumbai’s fire temples were established after the Parsis started migrating from Surat and other parts of Gujarat about five centuries ago. According to the Highlights of Parsi History written P P Balsara in 1963, there were Parsis in Mumbai in 1538.

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An interview with Dr. Farzana Irani.

Irani was born and raised in India, where she graduated from medical school. She immigrated in 1978 to Albany, where she is an obstetrician and gynecologist in Niskayuna. She and her husband, Khushru, live in Loudonville. They have three sons: Khoozan, 25; Perzan, 23; and Farzad, 19.

What is the origin of Zoroastrianism?

The ancient religion was founded about 3,500 years ago in Yazd in what is today Iran. The prophet we follow was named Zartosh, or Zoroaster. His followers are known as Zartoshi or Zoroastrian.

It is the world’s oldest monotheistic religion. People were idol worshipers at that time. Zoroaster told the people about Ahura Mazda, one God. We respect natural things like sun and water and fire.

Boatloads of Zoroastrians migrated to India in the 10th century. There, they were known as Irani, later as Farsi for the language they spoke, then as Parsi.

The three important mottos are good thoughts, good words and good deeds.

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Parsis have a reputation for being major food lovers, as anyone attending a Parsi celebration will confirm. And that’s a reputation likely to be upheld on March 21, when Parsis the world over mark Navroze.

While this festival is regarded as the New Year by just one of the three main sects of Parsis, the Faslis, all Parsis celebrate the event. The devout visit the fire temple in the morning and dine with family and friends that evening.

The cliché is that Parsis like to eat, drink and be merry, so it’s no surprise that food plays a large part in their lives. And this festival is a carnivore’s delight. Chicken, lamb and eggs are staples, with fried vegetables and seafood delights thrown in for good measure.

Traditionally, Parsi feasts took place outdoors, with the dinner tables laid out in long rows covered with white linen. The seating arrangement is unusual in that chairs are placed only on one side of the table. The tide of guests usually peaks at around 8 p.m., when the first call of “Jamva chaloji” (Let’s eat) is heard.

Two banana leaves and a white cotton napkin folded into a glass are laid out in front of every guest, along with a fork and spoon. The servers bring out the seven- to nine-course meal in carefully timed intervals, and almost every item on the menu has some significance.

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Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh today greeted the nation, especially the Parsi community, on the occasion of Navroz, the New Year Day of the Zoroastrians.

In his message, Dr. Singh said that the festival is an occasion to celebrate the diversity of our country. It marks a new beginning and inspires us to rejoice in the spirit of harmony and goodwill.

‘May the festival bring happiness, health and prosperity to all’, he added.

Navroz which is the traditional Iranian new year holiday is widely celebrated in Iran, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, as well as among various other Iranian and Turkic peoples in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan, India, Northwestern China, the Caucasus, the Crimea, and the Balkans.

Navroz marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the Iranian year.

Iran’s Zoroastrian minorities gathered at their temples across Iran on Wednesday to mark Sadeh _ an ancient feast celebrating the creation of fire that has been observed since the days when their religion was the overwhelming belief in the powerful Persian empire.

In Cham, a small mountainous village outside Yazd in central Iran, hundreds of Zoroastrians came for the celebration.

They listened to three priests, all dressed in white to symbolize purity, recite verses from Avesta, the holy Zoroastrian book. The congregation then walked down from the village temple, led by two brightly dressed girls holding torches, to set ablaze a pile of wood.

«Fire is considered sacred in Zoroastrian beliefs, but it is not only a festival,» said priest Kamran Lorian. «What is more important, Sadeh is an opportunity bringing people together in order to love each other and promote understanding, love and affection.

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By Bachi Karkaria,

Jug Suraiya’s Second Opinion (January 4) may be dead-on in blaming India’s ersatz modernity for what happened in Mumbai , but it is way off the mark in also damning the city’s migrant nature. As a theory, it may be impeccable to argue that morality and ethics, a sense of right and wrong is inextricably linked with a sense of place, but in practice it simply does not apply to the way migration has shaped out in Mumbai, much less to the way it has shaped Mumbai.

More than any other metropolis, Mumbai is native-neutral, whatever the Shiv Sena may like to project. Migration is a continuous-process industry here, and the city would be non-existent without migrants. This is exactly the opposite of the pattern in Chennai and Kolkata, places firmly rooted in their mono-chauvinism.

Similarly, the Dehli-walla and the post-Partition Lalaji culture of the Capital have only been challenged in the recent decade by a completely different demographic dynamic. Bangalore falls into the same slot; its original Kannadiga and Tamil population may have always been diluted by multicultural pensioners seeking out its quietude and salubrious climate, but they shared a common temperament.

This is all completely different from the cultural maelstrom that has distinguished Mumbai for centuries. More so, as in any self-respecting kaleidoscope, each 24-hour turn changes the patterns.

Yet, contrary to Jug Suraiya’s premise, this does not make for a disparate anonymity where you can get away with murder or molestation. Quite the opposite. You learn to adapt, and live in the togetherness of strangers. In fact, communal angularities have full rein in the company of your own kind. Outside it, it is imperative that you emery them down. This is why the Goan makes good outside Goa;, the Bengali does better outside the stifling cultural terrorism of Kolkata; the Punjabi is so much quieter outside Delhi. As a Parsi, I could have claimed Mumbai as my patrimony, but I was a migrant too from the communal outpost of Kolkata, and the first thing that struck me was that the resident of the baugs and colonies was almost a different species from the Parsis back home.

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IT IS one of the world’s oldest major religions, and certainly the smallest, but according to its followers its impeccable “green” credentials make it the ideal religion for the 21st century.

About 300 young Zoroastrians — followers of the prophet Spitama Zarathushtra, who died about 1200BC — gather in Ballarat tomorrow for the fourth world youth congress, titled Back to the Future.

Zarathushtra’s call to look after the environment 3200 years ago makes him the world’s first ecologically conscious prophet, Zoroastrians say.

According to Bombay-based teacher Khojeste Mistree, Zoroastrians believe they are on earth to maximise general happiness and minimise pain by spreading harmony in the environment.

“This is what modern man calls ecology. We are life-affirming and are custodians of creation. For example, we celebrate the birthday of the waters (one of the religion’s seven “creations”),” Mr Mistree said in Melbourne yesterday.

“We are careful with water because it is the great purifier of the world. We worship wisdom, which is again very modern in a knowledge-based society.”

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The Washington Post has a great feature titled “Among the Zoroastrians”

Jackie Lyden vividly brings out the culture and lives of the few Zoroastrians still living in the desert plateau of Yazd, around 350 miles southeast of Tehran.There are beautiful photographs by Nancy Andrews.

The article has a lot of interactive multimedia worth checking out. Click here

Perveez Aggarwal tells story behind her creation: the traditional Parsi gara embroidery

MUMBAI: She wears her years as gracefully as she does her saris. Parveez Aggarwal became a model by chance, at a time when “there were not too many young women willing to be photographed”.

She had just come to Bombay (as it was then) and had shown off her collection of garas, the traditionally embroidered Parsi saris, rich with colour and beautiful motifs.

“I agreed to be photographed,” she says with some pride, “as long it was only seen abroad. So, after that I modelled in Singapore, East Africa and Russia, all to promote Indian textiles abroad.”

Married into an orthodox family, she started organising shows of her textiles, especially the embroidered saris, for charity. Her models were now-familiar faces: Shobha Rajadhyaksha (now De), Meher Mistry (now Castelino), Geeta Khanna, Persis Khambatta and others.

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CHICAGO — When a group of young Zoroastrian people gathered around a bonfire in a Chicago suburb to pray for their religion’s survival, they sang a modern hymn of their adopted homeland with a sentiment at the heart of their ancient faith.

“Stand beside her, and guide her, through the night with a light from above,” their voices rang out.

Thousands of years before Irving Berlin composed “God Bless America,” Zoroastrians were praying for divine guidance and symbolizing their hope for heavenly enlightenment with fire.

Once, the Zoroastrian community numbered in the millions, from Greece through the Middle East to India. Now there are fewer than 200,000 Zoroastrians — known in India and Pakistan as Parsis — and about 10,000 in the United States.

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HYDERABAD: In a bid to understand the genetic factors, which are apparently leading to high incidence of various kinds of ailments among members of the Parsi community, a project named ‘Avesthagenome’ was launched in the twin cities recently.

Bangalore based bio-tech firm Avesthagene will collect blood samples to study the genetic make-up and prepare a data of genealogical and medical database of the Parsi community of Hyderabad. Simultaneously, another effort is being taken up to find out the reasons for the large number of breast cancer cases among women of the community.

Inbreeding

The community consists largely of an inbred population whose numbers are dwindling due to self-imposed discouragement of intercommunity marriages. Members of the community from Hyderabad point out that by rough estimates there are just 70,000 Parsis in the country and 1,200 in Hyderabad.

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Ruby Lilaowala | Friday, August 17, 2007 10:28:58 IST

The Aryan settlers who lived in Persia and later, in India, had a lot in common by way of phonetics, language, spirituality and reverence for nature…

Hinduism pertains to Hindus but the word Hindu itself is actually a Persian word coined by Cyrus the great in the 6th century B.C. to describe people who lived beyond the river Indus which was the eastern boundary of the ancient Persian empire. The Persians had a phonetic problem with the letter ‘S’ hence, Sindhu became Hindu just as Rigveda’s Soma came from Zend Avesta’s Hoama. Such fascinating phonetic affinities!

Even the word Shudra in Hinduism’s caste-system came from the Persian word Hatoksha. Originally, there were only three castes but the camp followers collected by Persians on their travels were called Hatokshas. The Romans, who separated from the original Aryanstock at a much earlier date than the Brahmins called fire Athar. In old Sanskrit, lightning is called Atharvan. In ancient Persia Arthvan meant a priest and this word evolved to become Brahmin.

Persian herders of cattle were called Vastrayosh and after they settled down from their nomadic existence to become cultivators and later, traders, the word evolved into Hinduism’s Vaishya caste. In the Vedas, waters are called Apo-Devi and in the Avesta, Apo-Vanghuish. Also, the prominent deities of the Rig Veda like Surya, Varun and Aryaman have come from the Avesta.

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Fire, the source of heat and light is not only revered in ancient Indo-Iranian rituals but also in modern day Zoroastrianism and Hinduism.

Zoroastrianism, which dominated the Sassanid Empire, is the religion ascribed to the ancient Persian prophet, Zarathushtra (Zoroaster), who lived 3500 years ago.

Fire (Atar), together with clean water (Aban), are considered agents of ritual purity in the Zoroastrian religion.

Despite the Zoroastrian respect for any form of fire, they do not worship it, rather it is used as a medium to communicate with God, whom they call Ahura Mazda, the Lord of Wisdom, the source of order and precision in the universe.

Standing before a sacred fire, Zoroastrians pay homage to a creation that represents life and the power of Ahura Mazda.

There are three kinds of sacred fires in Zoroastrianism, each standing for one sector of ancient society: Atash Dadgah, Adur Aduran, and Atash Behram.

Atash Dadgah is associated with the householder class and burns in houses and during celebrations such as weddings.

Adur Aduran is connected with the warrior class and burns constantly in fire temples. It is called the ‘Fire of Fires’ because it is made up of embers gathered from different fires belonging to different social classes, to symbolize social unity.

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The Governor of Maharashtra S M Krishna greeted the people on the occasion of the ‘Parsi New Year’ on Monday.

In his message, Mr Krishna said ”The contribution of the Parsi community to the development and progress of India is immeasurable.

Members of the peace-loving community were in the forefront of the nation’s freedom struggle. Again, they were the forerunners, who laid the foundations for commerce and industry in the country. The nation owes so much to the small community of Parsis in India”.

”The New Year day provides all of us an opportunity to reflect on the immortal message of ‘Good Thought, Good Word and Good Deed’, given by Prophet Zoroaster ”, the Governor said in his message.

BY Rakshande Italia

If I cherished one special day during the year, besides my birthday, it was the New Year - not Jan. 1, but a day in August when members of my tiny Zoroastrian community in Mumbai, India, celebrated the beginning of their calendar year.

Colloquially referred as Parsi New Year, the day was extra-special as community members, the Parsis, party all day long. One prime reason that this day was special is that unlike the scores of Hindu festivals, which are an all-year-round affair, our community celebrates only two others in the year. Navroze, a celebration of spring equinox, and Khodadsal, the birthday of our prophet Zarathusthtra.

You see, our forefathers landed in India in the eighth century after fleeing the Arab invasion in Persia, refusing to leave their Zoroastrian religion, which is said to be one of the world’s oldest monotheistic religions, founded around 1200 B.C.

Today, there are only 150,000 Zoroastrians left worldwide. While India houses the largest population - 65,000 - the Greater Toronto Area comes in second with 6,000. Toronto is unique because Zoroastrians from India, Pakistan and Iran come together here, sharing the same religion even as they have different customs, cultures and languages.

On Aug. 20, Toronto’s Zoroastrians will celebrate the new year, congregating in two community centres in the GTA - one at Bayview and Steeles avenues and another in Oakville. The evening starts with a Jashan, a prayer ceremony, ending late but only after a sumptuous meal and loads of entertainment.

In India, the community doesn’t congregate together as it does here, but there’s a set pattern to the celebration.

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IN 1865, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata - a one-time opium trader and scion of a sparkling line of Parsee priests, Zoroastrians who had fled to western India from persecution in Iran - attended a lecture in Manchester given by Thomas Carlyle.

Carlyle, a cantankerous Scot, was known for his historical and philosophical essays, but he also put his mind to the budding field of political economy.

“The nation which has the steel will have the gold,” Carlyle told the lecture hall, and burnt a deep impression on the visiting Indian merchant.

Jamsetji Tata took Carlyle’s idea and, after opening up textile mills, he in time emerged as India’s mightiest industrialist.

Today, the company he founded is a goliath. Tata Group is the world’s fifth largest steelmaker and sees itself as a symbol of the re-emergence of the Indian economy.

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Numbers down, but not their spirit

Family planning, migration, restrictions on conversion are reasons behind decline in Parsi population.

Kolkata, June 21: Some thirty years ago, they were 4,000. Now, the count has dropped to a measly 750. However, that does not discourage the spirited Parsi community in Kolkata.

The close-knit Zoroastrian community comprises people whose ancestors had migrated from Persia and settled in various parts of India. The decline in their numbers has become more pronounced in the past 20 years but the community, firmly rooted in its religious and cultural beliefs, feels there is nothing to lose.

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By Bachi Karkaria

As an Indian Parsi Zoroastrian, I’m proud to belong to a tiny minority widely admired for its material success and its philanthropy.

But I feel a closing sense of siege. The vicissitudes of modern life are threatening our group’s ethnic identity and ancient ways.

The vulture, our main accomplice in death for nearly 4,000 years, excites a largely morbid curiosity about our sect. Parsis are descended from Zoroastrians who, 1,200 years ago, fled religious persecution in Persia after the Muslim conquest and emigrated to the Indian subcontinent. Zoroastrianism reveres all elements, especially fire, so we don’t cremate our dead, or pollute the earth with burial.

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Parents make the heartbreaking decision to send their children to residential schools for various material reasons. It’s seldom for a cause. But last year, parents of 30 Parsi children decided that the cause of serving the community was worthy enough. So they packed them off, some of them only about six years old, to the Athornan Madressa at Dadar, a boarding school for future Zoroastrian priests situated in a leafy by-lane of the Parsi Colony.

The school is one of only two in the world (the other one too, is in Mumbai, in Andheri). Graduates, known as “mobeds” or priests who pass out of the school, serve the Zoroastrian community in India and outside. Often, many of them come from humble backgrounds.

In a way, the Madressa signifies the attempts of the besieged Parsi community to keep its traditions alive in the changing world and produce priests who would take care of the shrinking community’s religious traditions and practices. Mobeds usually come from a line of priestly Zoroastrian families, called Athornan. Not all of them attend the school and many of them memorise the prayers and rituals at home before being ordained. But in order to carry out more complex rituals and ceremonies, the mobeds need to complete a stint at one of the two boarding schools.

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AT last the question on everybody’s lips has been answered: The hardest working believers in Australia are are Zoroastrians.

With just two religious holidays a year, the followers of the prophet Zoroaster are four times as diligent as Muslims, five times more than Hindus, and put the Jews and Orthodox Christians to shame.

While workplace consultants Enterprise Initiatives are advising employers how to rip-off their workers on public holidays, the NSW Government is giving away days off left right and centre.

A directive from the Premier’s Department has instructed public service managers to accommodate up to 74 days off a year for various religious holidays.

However there is a catch: To capitalise on all 74 days you would have to be a member of 11 religions at once. Also, you have to use your personal leave, so you would have to save your holidays for a few years.

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Even as a youngster Perin Ferrao never accepted the conventional view in her native India that women were subordinate to men. Committed all her life to the emancipation of women, the Montreal teacher and former international secretary of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) was 80 when she died at her home in Dollard des Ormeaux on April 14.

“She was a rebel, a non-conformist,” said her daughter, Majella Castellano.

“She was a real advocate for poor, impoverished women. She worked in India and in Canada to educate and inspire women so they might become independent, support themselves and have better lives. She really wanted women to be empowered.”

Perin Surty was born in Badnara, India, near Mumbai, Dec. 25, 1926, into a high caste Parsee family. Her father drove a train and she was one of eight children raised as Zoroastrians. Even as a child, Perin had a mind of her own and was sent to a Catholic boarding school to be disciplined. It didn’t work.

There, she met and fell in love with Augustus Ferrao, a pharmaceutical salesman who was a Catholic. Because an inter-faith marriage was out of the question while her father was alive, she studied. She obtained her BA from Nagpur University in 1950, her BEd from Osmania University in 1952 and her master’s degree in Applied Psychology from Saugar University.

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Many young boys being trained as priests will instead follow other careers

Like most 12-year-old boys, Rayan Dastoor watches movies, goes to school and surfs the Internet for the latest tunes by Linkin Park. But Rayan also spends five hours a day in prayer sessions and religious studies. His homework includes memorizing sacred scriptures in the ancient Persian language.

Sheherazad Pavri, 12, is the youngest ordained priest at the Dadar School. He plans to become an accountant.

Rayan is one of 30 boys enrolled in Dadar Athornan Madressa, a boarding school for future Zoroastrian priests. The school, in Mumbai, India, is one of only two worldwide. Graduates, known as “mobeds,” or priests, serve Zoroastrian communities from Atlanta to Pakistan.

By age 14, when Rayan and his classmates are ordained as priests, they will face declining congregations and an uncertain future. Zoroastrianism, a monotheistic faith thousands of years older than Islam or Christianity, was once the dominant religion across west Asia. But with interfaith marriages on the rise and orthodox priests unwilling to allow conversions to the faith, Zoroastrians have dwindled to 200,000 worldwide.

Nearly 25,000 live in North America, scattered from Toronto to Los Angeles. Most are Parsis, descendants of Zoroastrians who fled persecution in Iran and landed on the shores of India 1,000 years ago. Following the three tenets of their religion — good thoughts, good words and good deeds — the few thousand faithful rebuilt what was left of their ancient traditions.

After arriving in India, Parsis began training their priests at a young age, according to Kersey Antia, a mobed in Chicago. Having lost their traditions under Arab and Greek rulers, rote memorization of the few remaining texts was “all we had to offer our priests,” Antia said.

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by Farrukh Dhondy

I can’t remember which teacher it was who ventured to tell us about the Battle of Thermopylae all those years ago. Three hundred Spartans held the pass at the aforesaid place against the invading hordes of the Persian Emperor Xerxes. The 300 of the title faced a million Persians. Our class was told that this was one of the episodes of history in which the valiant — who shall taste of death but once — fought against the cowardly, deceitful, callous weight of Persian numbers and I cheered for the Spartans.

All over the world the populations of countries such as India, outside the ambit of Western power, go to the movies and cheer for the cowboys — until they realise that they are the Indians. The pull of myths that serve the West is stronger than any historical self awareness, unless it is mediated by ideological powers that forbid Western films and control the minds of the young — as I imagine happens in Iran or in Al Qaeda training camps.

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Bistoun mountain with its world famous myths is annually visited by a great number of tourists from around the world at the beginning of spring.

According to cultural heritage experts, the tablet of Darius is one of the most important and beautiful ancient objects of the world-famous Bistoun Complex.

The historical Bistoun Complex, which is located 30 kilometers to the northeast of Kermanshah, is Iran’s eighth international monument.

At the order of Darius from Achaemenid dynasty in 522 BC, his own image along with a number of other figures were engraved on Bistoun mountain.

Meanwhile, some of his orders, advices and conquests have been engraved on stone in cuneiform script as well as in three languages, including ancient Parsi, Ilami and Babylonian.

The stone tablet, which is six meters long and 3.2 meters wide, includes 414 lines. The 1.78-meter figure of Darius with crowned head and a long shirt is seen to the left of the tablet, while raising up his right hand and holding an arrow in his left hand.

Original article here