ABSTRACT
Zoroastrianism has always stressed the religious duty of benevolence. Twenty seven percent of the declared objects were concerned with the performance of religious ceremonies, a figure which gives some impression of the importance attached to these practices by many Parsis. Funeral grounds, mostly in the form of 'Towers of Silence', are a further indicator of Parsi religious charities. One of the chief objects of charity in the nineteenth century were temples. In the nineteenth century, religious buildings such as temples and daxmas proliferated, whereas housing has been the primary' object of building funds in the twentieth century. Education is very much a concern of the community in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and on a nationwide scale. Different Parsi families are often linked with particular types of charity and at different periods. Foremost in charitable work in the mid nineteenth century were the Jijibhoys whose concerns were strikingly diverse - communal charities.
