How pure are our Parsi genes? According to scientists at Lucknow’s Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeo Sciences and Poona’s Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Indian and Pakistani Parsi genes comprise "a high proportion of modern day Gujarati ancestry.” The scientists analyzed 19 human skeletal remains from a 2001-2004 excavation in Sanjan. The gist of their findings was reported in The Times of India of September 8, 2023. The report stated that the study also "provides evidence of… prevailing gene flow from South Asians to the Parsis.”
The excavations at Sanjan were conducted by the World Zarathushti Cultural Foundation and the Indian Archeological Society (see "Searching in Sanjan,” Parsiana, August 2004) working under the stewardship of Dr Homi Dhalla and Dr Mani Kamerkar. The scientists’ findings "showed the presence of Persian lineages” in the samples from the South Gujarat dakhma. Niraj Rai, group head of the Institute’s Ancient DNA Lab told the newspaper that this is the "first complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) data generated to infer the origin and genetic makeup of the Parsis at the Sanjan dakhma.”
Views from excavation in Sanjan
Archeologist and culinary anthropologist Dr Kurush Dalal who led the excavation project told Parsiana on September 8 that the purpose of that dig was to find physical evidence of the arrival of the Parsis to India and to date their arrival. Conducted over a period of three years commencing 2001, "the final season also resulted in the excavations of a Zoroastrian dakhma with a large number of human remains. These remains were hugely important in understanding the demographics of the Parsis at Sanjan.”
A prior study led by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) whose results were published in 2017 stated that they observed among the ancient Parsi samples 48% South-Asian-specific mitochondrial lineages (those inherited from a maternal ancestor) which might have resulted from the assimilation of local females during the initial settlement (see "Whose gene is it anyway?” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, July 7, 2017). Dalal stated the 2017 study was not that radically different… (The current one) is refining the work done by (the earlier study)… This current study is going through it and sorting out the nitty-gritty.”
A similar finding emerged from a study led by National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Dr Spencer Wells and "a team of renowned international scientists who analyze historical patterns in DNA from participants around the world to better understand our human genetic roots,” published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, 2004 by Luis Quintana-Murci and others ("Mission impossible,” Editorial Viewpoint, Parsiana, December 7, 2014). Dr Shirin Engineer, who sent a write-up on the study to Parsiana, noted the mtDNA "in humans and in a lot of other species is exclusively inherited from the mother.”
The findings of the studies of Iranian and Parsi genes "support a male-mediated migration of the ancestors of the present day Parsi population from Iran to India, where they admixed with local females… leading ultimately to the loss of mtDNAs of Indian origin,” stated Quintana-Murci.
"I salute our Iranian Zoroastrian male ancestors who made this dangerous journey, and helped to keep the flame alive,” stated Engineer. "At the same time, I want to stand up and give a thunderous round of applause to our female Hindu ancestors who accepted these alien men and raised their progeny as Zoroastrians in their own land.” Farrokh Jijina