The Mumbai University (MU) has decided to establish Avesta Pahlavi Study Centre to study the Parsi —Zorostrian culture. The university signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs in this regard on Thursday. The study centre, which is scheduled to commence from this academic year, will operate through the School of Languages of the university. The university has received a financial support of around Rs 12 crore from the Union Ministry, which will fund the creation of a language lab, multimedia studio and ancillary infrastructure. The centre aims to preserve and protect the Avesta-Pahlavi legacy, study Parsi-Zoroastrian culture, explore Parsi community’s contribution to India’s development, document linguistics features for posterity and understand Avesta-Pahlavi’s contribution to India’s cultural diversity. Along with certificate and diploma level courses, the university plans to offer Master’s and PhD courses too in Avesta-Pahlavi Studies. The study centre will focus on studies of grammar and vocabulary in Avesta Pahlavi along with literature, historical background, scripts and writing systems, translation and philological analysis, semantics and dictionaries, ancient Iranian …