An old photo of the Parsee Tower of Silence in Bombay |
Parsees (also spelled Parsis), as they are known on the
subcontinent, are well educated, urban (most live in Mumbai), and relatively
affluent. They’re a tiny group—estimates put their overall number at about 70,000—but
even if you haven’t heard the name of this community, you’ve heard of some of
its most prominent members: award-winning author Rohinton Mistry; the late
Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen (his real name was Farrokh Bulsara);
and conductor Zubin Mehta. Then there’s the billionaire Tata family, who own, among
their numerous global ventures, Jaguar and Land Rover (through Tata Motors),
Tetley tea (Tata Global Beverages), and the world’s tenth largest steel company
(Tata Steel).
As a group, Parsees have maintained a relatively pure
lineage (at one time, they were listed in the Guiness Book of World Records
for having the most birth defects, because of their once-high incidence of
intermarriage), but they are also uniquely Indian. They’ve adopted the Indian
language of Gujarati, the women wear saris, and the religion has even borrowed
a few Hindu customs, such as men wearing the holy thread around the shoulder
and waist, the use of coconuts and rice during religious ceremonies, and the
application of red powder to their foreheads (tilaks) during baptism and
marriage.
They also meld some ancient Persian customs with Hindu
ones. For example, one method for removing the evil eye in a number of Muslim
countries, including Iran, is the burning of the espand seed (also known
as esfand). In India, Parsees have modified this practice in a ritual
called achu michu. The person performing the ritual says a traditional
Zoroastrian prayer, known as the tandorosti, to wish the recipient a
long and healthy life. Then they circle a tray, carrying a coconut, betel
leaves, betel nuts, sugar, and yogurt (items commonly used in Hindu rituals),
around the receiver’s head seven times. Sometimes a boiled egg is one of these
items (definitely not a Hindu custom). Then water from a little flower vase
known as a kutli is poured into the tray, and the tray is then circled
again around the recipient’s head seven times. It’s interesting how similar
this practice is to the Hindu custom of performing aarti to bless
someone. In fact, in achu pichu, as in aarti, a tilak is
placed on the recipient’s forehead and a sweet placed in his or her mouth, then
the recipient touches the feet of the person giving the blessing. Still, it’s
believed the practice evolved from the tradition of burning of esfand/espand
seeds.
There’s at least one age-old Parsee custom that always
seemed ultra exotic to me, even for India. It’s the method by which Parsees
dispose of their dead. Zoroastrianism forbids burial, cremation, or disposal at
sea because it would contaminate the sacred elements of earth, fire, and water.
So instead, mourners in Mumbai carry the deceased up the steep Malabar Hill,
an upscale part of town, to place the body atop the Parsee Bawdi, or
the Tower of Silence. The idea is that vultures, other scavengers, and the
scorching sun eventually decompose the remains, allowing the soul to join the
spiritual world. India is one of the few places that hasn’t banned this ancient tradition,
which makes it one of the few places, perhaps the only place, where Zoroastrians
can continue it.
That may not be the only reason
the community continues on in India. It’s believed that India and Iran share the
same Aryan roots from Central Asia, which was once the stronghold of
Zoroastrianism, before the two split off and the Indic people migrated south. One
tantalizing remnant of this link is that the name for the Zoroastrian god,
Ahura Mazda, sounds much like asura, the
Sanksrit word for demon. Had there
been a war separating the Indo-Iranian cultures?
Either way, worldwide, Zoroastrians only number about
200,000 today. Estimates in Iran range wildly, from 20,000 to 90,000, depending
on the source (many have emigrated since the 1979 revolution), with another
20,000 in the States and Canada, plus the 70,000 in India. It’s no wonder theirs is a small community.
Zoroastrians have a low birth rate, they don’t proselytize, and their numbers
keep dwindling as they marry outside their culture.
But in an interesting twist, the religion is staying alive in other ways. In recent years, a Mazdean-Christian Universalism philosophy emerged, which says that the ideas of a benevolent god and the existence of evil in the world were originally Zoroastrian ones that Judaism adopted and which eventually made their way into Christianity. Swedish music producer Alexander Bard is a well-known convert. There’s even a Mazdean-Christian Alliance in Brooklyn, New York. While it’s not exactly a revolution, this beautiful, ancient faith carries on.
What a fabulous post, Supriya! I had no idea about Freddie Mercury's heritage. So interesting!
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