destourdasturn.
/dəˈstʊə/ A chief priest of the Parsees.
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society > faith > church government > member of the clergy > clerical superior > various non-Christian superiors > [noun] > Indian
guru1613
destour1630
Maharishi1785
acharya1789
mahant1801
Hanuman1814
Sankaracharya1947
1630 H. Lord Display Two Forraigne Sects viii Their Distoree or high priest.
1665 T. Herbert Some Years Trav. (new ed.) 55 The Distoore or Pope..has thirteen [precepts].
1696 J. Ovington Voy. Suratt 376 The Highest Priest of the Persies is called Destoor, their Ordinary Priests Daroos, or Harboods.
1776 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall (1836) VIII. 81 If the destour be satisfied, your soul will escape hell.
1777 J. Richardson Diss. Eastern Nations 10 The wretched rhymes of a modern Parsi Destour.
1809 M. Graham Jrnl. Resid. India (1813) 36 The Dustoor is the chief-priest of his sect in Bombay.
1862 M. Haug Ess. Sacr. Lang. Parsees 52 The Dustoors, as the spiritual guides of the Parsee community, should take a chief part in it.
1878 M. Haug Relig. of Parsis (ed. 2) 17 He bribed one of the most learned Dasturs, Dastur Dârâb, at Surat to procure him manuscripts and to instruct him in the Avesta and Pahlavi languages.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1895; most recently modified version published online September 2021).
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