October 16, 2008 – 10:17 am
Source :
feeds.feedburner.com By : arzan sam wadia
Elderly patients from the Parsi ward of Sir J J Hospital were taken to Colaba on October 11 to vote for elections to the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trust by a candidate without the permission of the hospital’s dean.
At least four patients were taken in a private vehicle to the voting centre at Cusrow Baug in Colaba for casting their ballots, according to members of staff at the ward. Meanwhile, eye-witnesses at the voting centre said that the patients were pushed in wheelchairs or made to walk with the help of volunteers to the special voting counter for the elderly and physically handicapped.
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Source :
www.science-spirit.org By : Meera Subramanian
![[Post Image]](http://www.science-spirit.org/images/vulture.gif)
For millennia Zoroastrians have used vultures to dispose of their dead. What will happen when the birds disappear?
When Nargis Baria died at the age of eighty-five in Mumbai, India, her only child, a daughter named Dhun, initiated the death rituals of their Zoroastrian faith. Her mother’s body was dressed in white, prayers whispered in her ear, and after three days a summoned dog’s dismissal indicated that the spirit had moved on. It was time for the nassesalars, or pallbearers, to carry the body to the Towers of Silence, circular structures of stone located on fifty-seven, park-like acres in the heart of Mumbai, surrounded by the upscale high rises of Malabar Hill. They removed her clothing and placed her body in the middle of three concentric circles, one each for women, men and children. At the center was a well where the bones, the last of the last remains of a human body, would be swept in a few days time.
All the proper components of dokhmenashini, the Zoroastrian method of handling their dead, were in place, but the vultures that once completed the cycle by scavenging an exposed corpse in less than five minutes were missing. The custom, so ancient it was described by Herodotus 2,500 years ago, has come to an abrupt end in the past decade, as the vulture population of South Asia Read More »
September 1, 2007 – 5:40 pm
Source :
www.nytimes.com By : DOUGLAS MARTIN
... His “Cosmos, Chaos, and the World to Come: The Ancient Roots of Apocalyptic Faith” (1993) plowed deeper into the roots of belief in an apocalyptic end of time, finding that the Iranian prophet Zoroaster laid the groundwork for the phenomenon. ...
Norman Cohn, a historian who influenced a generation of historians and social scientists with his insight that totalitarian ideologies of the 20th century, chiefly Communism and Nazism, were Read More »
Source :
www.dnaindia.com By : Mayura Janwalkar
Assuring the protection of the trees in the Towers of Silence, the Zoroastrian crematorium, better known as Doongerwadi, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday asked the BMC to submit an undertaking to the court stating that no trees would be cut or damaged because of the double decker hoarding erected at the heritage precinct.
Activist Anahita Pandole moved the Bombay High Court seeking permission granted by the Heritage Committee and the No-objection Certificate (NOC) granted by the BMC on April 26 to raise an illuminated hoarding in Doongerwadi, which is visible from the Kemps Corner Flyover. The hoarding has been erected by Lewis Advertisers, a private party stating they had permission from the BMC. Pandole has prayed to the court that the hoarding be removed from Doongerwadi as it is against an HC order of April 2003. Read More »
Source :
www.columbusdispatch.com By : RAMOLA TALWAR BADAM
![[Post Image]](ttp://www.columbusdispatch.com/wwwexportcontent/sites/dispatch/images/jun/0612/zoroastrian12x200.jpg)
MUMBAI, India—Some might see the towering billboards that rise out of a centuries-old Mumbai funeral ground as a message from beyond the grave.
But the signs — which exhort motorists to “Rev up your night life” by buying a popular car — have bitterly divided the city’s Parsi community since they were erected last week, with many people saying they desecrate the sanctity of the place.
Trustees of the funeral ground, who authorized the billboards, say they are needed to raise cash to maintain the Tower of Silence where Parsis, followers of the Bronze Age Persian prophet Zarathustra, or Zoroaster, have wrapped their dead in white muslin and left them to be devoured by vultures since 1673.
Parsis, also known as Zoroastrians, worship fire and believe that cremation is a mortal sin and that burial pollutes the earth. So they leave their dead atop the towers to be devoured by vultures, a process they believe releases the deceased’s spirit.
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Parsis are protesting against a hoarding that has come up on the premises of the sacred Tower of Silence at Doongerwadi—declared a green belt and a heritage site by the Supreme Court. Accusing the Bombay Parsi Panchayat (BPP) of commercialising the sacred place, community members allege that the double-decker hoarding violates the Supreme Court order. But BPP claims that there is nothing illegal about the hoarding.
Activist Dr Anahita Pundole objected to the hoarding saying it not only disturbs the sanctity of the place but also violates the SC order. Since the site is listed as a green-belt and a heritage site as per the March 2007 order of the Supreme Court, no hoarding Read More »
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