In the 21st century, while we equate the importance of religion with the number of concrete structures being built, archaelogist Rukshana Nanji goes back to simpler times. It-s the early medieval period — circa 7th to the 13th century — and being part of the Christian, Muslim or Zoroastrian community in India didn-t imply being treated as alien to the subcontinent. It means arriving, settling and making the country your home, in the truest sense of the word. "You-re looking at monotheistic religions integrating into a polytheistic country. Hailing from West Asia, they arrive via sea and settle by the ports. And the Indians welcome them. So, it wasn-t about religion as much as it was about culture," Nanji tells us, giving a gist of a series of lectures she will present at The K R Cama Oriental Institute this week.

As part of the Government Research Fellowship Lectures, Nanji-s paper is titled Ancient Shores, New People: The Arrival and Integration of Christians, Muslims and Parsis in Early Medieval India. Starting tomorrow, she will deliver three lectures — The Cross on the Coast: A brief Overview of the Christian Presence in Indian Ports chaired by Dr Fleur D-Souza, The Crescent and the Sea: The Arrival of Islam on Indian Shores chaired by Dr Mariam Dossal and The Flame in India: The Migration and settlement of Parsis in India chaired by Jehangir R Patel. The papers took about eight months to complete and the idea germinated from Nanji-s research work at Sanjan on the Parsi community.