The town that once housed over 200 Parsis today has none
Dinyar Jalnawalla
Imagine life in Jalna in the late 19th century, just after the first War of Independence in 1857. At that time it formed part of Hyderabad state as a tehsil (subdistrict) of Aurangabad district, under the Nizam’s rule. Today it is located in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra. An agiary was established in 1842 by Meherwanji Khurshedji Jalnawalla, and the M/s Pestonji Meherwanji (PM) firm’s office was located on what is now Bezonji Road, where the family also resided. There were around 200 Parsis living in Jalna at that time, my father Navroze had once told me.
While Pestonji conducted business......