Nineteenth century scholar, Dhanjibhai Framji’s
books on the ancient Iranian languages are largely unknown today
Murali Ranganathan
In Modern Zerdusthians (published 1852), one of the first contemporary books about Parsis in the 19th century, Henry Briggs notes that "a rising young merchant of Bombay, Seth Dhanjibhai Framji, has devoted upwards of eight years to the compilation of a work on the Zend and Pahlavi dialects, which he is about to publish.” This was the first public notice of a Parsi who hoped to make a contribution to historical scholarship on the religion of the Parsis and its languages.
Born in 1823, Dhanjibhai was the son of Framji Nassarwanjee, one of the leading Parsi sethias of Bombay. The......