[1] In the absence of alternatives, the text is generally accepted to be the only narrative of the events described therein, and many members of the Parsi community perceive the epic poem to be an accurate account of their ancestors.
The account begins in Greater Khorasan, and narrates the travel of the emigrants to Gujarat, on the west coast of present-day India.
The date of authorship is recorded as 969 YZ (1599 CE, see Zoroastrian calendar) – several centuries after the described events are thought to have occurred.
The Kisseh-i Sanjan, as Abraham Anquetil-Duperron transliterated the name, became available to European scholarship in 1771, when Duperron published a French translation.
The ruler, fearing for his kingdom, asked them to explain their beliefs, and made four other stipulations for granting asylum: The refugees, accepting the demands, expounded on the teachings of their faith, and "when the Hindu Raja heard the oration, his mind regained perfect ease."
In the absence of alternatives, the Story of Sanjan is generally accepted to be the only narrative of the early years of the Zoroastrian migrants to the Indian subcontinent.
The importance of the story lies in any case not so much in its reconstruction of events than in its depiction of the Parsis – in the way they have come to view themselves – and in their relationship to the dominant culture.
But, "even if one comes to the conclusion that the chronicle based on verbal transmission is not more than a legend, it still remains without doubt an extremely informative document for Parsee historiography.
Whether these were also asylum seekers is unclear, but Iranian influence and emigrants are discernible in India long before the Parsis of the narrative arrive.
The question of whether Sanjan or Diu was the site of the first settlement in India was discussed with intensity in the early 20th century when a memorial commemorating their arrival was first proposed.
Although the narrative is unclear on where precisely the Zoroastrians came from, the text may be interpreted such that the emigrants originated from Sanjan (Khorasan), a settlement near the ancient city of Merv (in today's Turkmenistan).