Holiest Parsi Fire temple of India is situated in a small town of Udvada, about 185 km north of Mumbai. The last leg of my trip to India, in January 2025, took me to this small town of Gujarat on the coast of Arabian Sea. The Parsis are a tiny community in India. They are followers of an ancient faith, known as Zoroastrianism. Parsis are progressive and are generally loved and admired by Indians.
In their long history of more than a thousand years in India, the Parsi community has kept alive their distinct identity and yet have seamlessly merged with mainstream society. So much so that, never ever was any instance of quarrel between Parsi community and any other community.Parsi are known in India for their jovial, friendly and helpful nature. They have built many successful business enterprises. Tata, Godrej, Wadia, Shapoorji, etc are some of the well known groups of Parsee owned businesses. They have also built many philanthropic organizations to undertake welfare of the society.
The holiest Parsi fire temple in Udvada is a beautiful looking building with traditional Zoroastrian imagery and architecture. The town also has a well maintained Museum showing Zoroastrian heritage and traditions. Interestingly I found small cards hung on the branches of the trees in the compound of the museum. At first glance, the hanging white cards looked like some decoration or perhaps a tiny equivalent of the Buddhist prayer banners that one finds around Buddhist shrines. However this was different. Each card had one of the following three quotes. “Good Thoughts”, “Good Words” and “Good Deeds” in English language on one side and its Avestan language equivalent (In English Script) on the other side “Humata”, “Hukhta” and “Hvarshta”. A visitor to the museum can pluck card/s from there and retain them as souvenirs. The Zoroastrian religious books were written in the ancient Avestan language, an offshoot of Sanskrit, and are said to be built around those easy to remember, three tenets. Humata, Hukhta and Hvarshta. Tree-hanging cards, I thought, was a very good idea and a very apt souvenir. (Fun Fact: Sanskrit “S” becomes “H” in Avesta and with some distortions over a period of time and distance, it made, Sindhu-सिन्धु to Hindu, Sumati-सुमति (Good thoughts) to Humata, Sukti-सुक्ति (Good words) to Huktha and Srushti-सृष्टि (Good deed that creates good society/world) to Hvarashta).
Udvada is a typical small town of Gujarat. Most of its original Parsi inhabitants have moved to larger cities, however they maintain lively contact with their holiest shrine. Most Parsis, wherever they may be in the world, do not fail to make a pilgrimage to the Udvada Fire Temple. Indeed there does exist a sizable Parsi community in the town and serve the community by providing religious services at the Holy Fire Temple, providing lodging and boarding to the Parsi pilgrims. In their language, Parsis call the Fire Temple “Atash Behram”. As the fire at Udvada was originally brought from the original Fire Temple in Iran, the Udvada Fire Temple is also known as “Iranshah Atash Behram” (“Atash” is “Fire” in Iranian Farsi language, “Behram” has meanings like winning, victorious, etc )
In the Parsi chronicles, they have recorded their stories of flight from Persia (Iran), voyage to Sanjan and interactions with the hosts. In a remarkable poem, “Qissa-e-Sanjan”, famously known as “Sixteen Shloka”, the leader of the refugees narrates his conversation with the King, Jadi Rana. It encapsulates their discussion in Sanskrit language. The first fifteen shlokas cover submission of the visitor and the sixteenth shloka is the reply of the King, granting them asylum.
King Jadi Rana was certainly a remarkable ruler. He had that foresight, often missing in other rulers. He knew what bonds two communities without compelling them to change their religion and yet to let both communities flourish and freely keep their independent identities. He was unique. Modern day rulers can learn something from him. I was therefore curious to find if the town of Udvada had maintained any relics, edicts or memorials to commemorate King Jadi Rana, or had built any monument or memorial for the wise King. Strangely, I could not find it. May be it was not so prominent and I missed it.
No comments:
Post a Comment