Some of the prominent families
In the 19th century and until the 21st, there were several Parsi merchant families resident in Calicut. I had written about them briefly some years ago, but it needed some revisions and improvement. Raghu Karnad covered them briefly in his lovely book, ‘Farthest Field’, but details the Mugaseth’s, to some extent. So, let’s go back and check on some of the families and their contributions to the colorful cultural fabric of Calicut. Marshall in one of his interviews mentions their influx in the early parts of the 19th century and a number close to 200-300 at its peak. However, one could assume that the Persian merchants mentioned in many travelers’ records well before that could have been the Zoroastrians among or with the Gujaratis. Let's take a look at some of them.