Forbes, James, 1749-1819, James Forbes letter, Bombay, 1769 December 15, copied between 1794 and 1800
- Call Number:
- Folio A 2023 69
- Creator:
- Forbes, James, 1749-1819
- Title(s):
- James Forbes letter, Bombay, 1769 December 15
- Date:
- copied between 1794 and 1800
- Classification:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Series:
- Series I: A voyage from England to Bombay with descriptions in Asia, Africa, and South America
- Part of Collection:
- volume 3, page 113-119
- Provenance:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Conditions Governing Access:
- The materials are open for research.
- Conditions Governing Use:
- The collection is the physical property of the Yale Center for British Art. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts.
- Scope and Content:
- From India’s Muslim inhabitants, Forbes moves to the Parsis. They are, he explains, “a race of people, whom the Mahomedan persecutions in Persia drove from their native country, in the eight century of the Christian Era.” Indeed, it is this history that Forbes spends most of his time describing, insisting that “the rites and ceremonies of the modern Parsees bear but little resemblance to the admired doctrines of the Zoroaster and the ancient Magi.” Like the Hindus, the Parsis have, Forbes claims, fallen away from more refined practices: “they appear much degenerated.” Forbes gives an overview of the history of the Parsis migration from Persia to South Asia, noting that he does not include “the cruel hardships of the Persians, when the disciples of Mahomet were establishing his new religion with the sword.” He depicts the first encounters between Hindu inhabitants of India and the Paris migrants. While at first marked by suspicion, in Forbes’s telling, “humanity prevailed,” so long that the Parsis agreed to abide by certain Hindu practices, like respecting cows. Forbes notes that the Parsis have never attempted to set up their own government, but wonders if they “may perhaps one day unite, and render themselves an independent and free people.” Preventing this is what Forbes understands as “a schism in their church,” creating two factions “as averse to a reunion as the Protestants & Roman Catholics.” Forbes then moves to the practices and beliefs of the Parsi community, chiefly their relationship to fire. Forbes sees their faith as, in many ways, similar to Hinduism, in that it, properly practiced, refers to the incorporeal, but often lapses into worship of the material: “The illiterate & vulgar no doubt worship this holy flame, as well as the sun, moon, and stars, without regard to the great Invisible Prototype; but the learned and sensible adore only the Almighty Foundation of Light, the Author and Disposer of all things, under the symbol of Fire.” Forbes calls what he sees as true faith “pure and sublime,” yet now corrupted by “superstition and fable.” After completing his discussion of fire, Forbes turns to the other practice he sees as typifying Parsi practice: the treatment of dead bodies. Forbes describes the process by which Parsi communities honor their dead: “As soon as a Parsee dies, the body is conveyed to a hill about three miles from hence, where there are two large cemeteries, surrounded by circular walls, from fifty to sixty feet in diameter and upwards of twenty feet high.” The body is placed in this structure, where it is consumed by vultures, after which the bones are stored in the center of the structure. Forbes closes his letter with a description of Parsi women, who, he remarks, grow “coarse and masculine” with age, “far more so than either Hindoos or Mahometans.” Otherwise, he finds their appearance pleasing, and notes both their care for the poor and their indulgence in luxurious lifestyles. Portions of this text appears in <title>Oriental Memoirs</title>, volume 1, pp. 109-116.
- Physical Description:
- 7 pages
- Genre:
- Correspondence , Botanical illustrations, Ornithological illustrations, Travel sketches, Maps, Watercolors (paintings), Drawings (visual works), Engravings (prints), and Portraits
- Subject Terms:
- Forbes, James, 1749-1819. Descriptive letters and drawingsForbes, James, 1749-1819. Oriental memoirs
- Associated Places:
- EnglandItalyScotlandWales
- Associated People/Groups:
- East India CompanyForbes, James, 1749-1819
- Finding Aid Title:
- James Forbes archive
- Archival Object:
- https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/3199463
- Metadata Cloud URL:
- https://metadata-api.library.yale.edu/metadatacloud/api/aspace/repositories/3/archival_objects/3199463?mediaType=json&include-notes=1&include-all-subjects=1