Menant, Delphine, 1850-

Delphine Menant (1850–?) was a French observer and writer who focused on the Parsi community of India in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Public information about her life is limited, and her nationality and professional identity are not clearly documented. Her three known works centre on the Parsis of Bombay and Gujarat: the French-language Les Parsis offers a systematic account of Parsi history, religion, and social life; the Dutch-language Bij de Parsi's van Bombay en Gudsjerat records her visits to Parsi communities in Bombay and Gujarat; and De monumenten van den Girnar turns to the antiquities of Mount Girnar. Her writing has the character of fieldwork and ethnographic description, offering European readers early first-hand material on the culture and heritage of this Zoroastrian diaspora community, and it is often cited in regional studies.