Parsee and Brahmin women

The Parsi and Brahman women and children, as identified in the inscription below the photograph, offer a glimpse of some of the many types of people constituting the social fabric of India. The Parsis (literally, "from Fars," a region in Iran) are a minority community of Zoroastrians in India, today concentrated in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), tracing their ancestry and religious identity to pre-Islamic Iran (before 651ce). Despite their very small numbers, the Parsis have throughout their history, managed to successfully reshape their circumstances and remain influential in society. They are known for their business prosperity, philanthropy, and urbanity. From the late 1700s onward, the Parsis were incorporated into the economic and political world of British power and by the mid–1800s they had developed into a highly influential colonial elite. We do not know why the title assigned to the photograph makes religious distinctions between the Parsi and Brahman—that is, Hindu—subjects. While the clothing of the two groups of women reflects differences in style, the nature of their relationship is unclear, and so is the relevance of the inscription.