New Delhi, Nov. 21: A Mumbai museum will next month host a 2,500-year-old Persian clay cylinder inscribed with what many consider the world’s first charter of human rights.

The Cyrus Cylinder, dating from Persian emperor Cyrus the Great’s conquest of Babylon in 539BC, will be on its maiden trip to India, borrowed from the British Museum to coincide with the tenth global Zoroastrian Congress.

In it, Cyrus declares that everyone in the Persian empire is free to worship according to their will, and that all deported people can return to their homeland.

The cylinder is now on a tour of five museums in the United States. It will be displayed at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya from December 21 till February 25.

“It is valued around the world as a symbol of tolerance and respect for different peoples and different faiths, so much so that a copy of the cylinder is on display in the United Nations building in New York,” museum director-general Sabyasachi Mukerjee told The Telegraph.

“We began talking to the British Museum almost a year ago. Mumbai is an important destination for the Cyrus Cylinder as the city is home to 40,000 to 50,000 Parsis who observe Zoroastrianism, which originated in the Persian empire,” Mukerjee said.

The cylinder is a prized possession at the British Museum. It was discovered in 1879 during an excavation funded by the British Museum in Mesopotamia.

“This is one of the most significant objects to come to Indian shores in a long time,” said V. Venu, director-general of the National Museum in Delhi.

In 539BC, while Cyrus was expanding his kingdom, the Buddha is believed to have begun preaching in India. But India had to wait nearly three centuries to have its own edict of a similar nature, issued by Emperor Ashoka.

“The Cyrus Cylinder may not have a direct link with India but we see similar ideas of peaceful coexistence reflected in Ashoka’s edicts dating back to the third century BC,” Mukerjee said.

The Cyrus Cylinder reflects a long tradition in Mesopotamia where, from as early as the third millennium BC, kings began their reigns with declarations of reforms.

It has been loaned four times — twice to Iran, between October 7 and 22, 1971, in conjunction with the 2,500-year commemorations of the Persian monarchy and again from September to December 2010, once to Spain from March to June 2006, and to the United States for a travelling exhibition from March this year.

There have been campaigns in Iran to bring the cylinder back to its original home.

In 1971, the sister of Iran’s Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, presented the then United Nations secretary-general, U. Thant, with a replica of the cylinder as a symbol of liberty. Since then, the replica has been on the second-floor hallway at the UN headquarters.