Beating the summer 250 years ago

Wrapped in white muslin, the dead are placed on slabs of marble, where they are devoured and dehydrated by vultures and the heat of the sun. On the fourth day, the soul joins the spiritual world to reap the fruits—or face punishment—for what its owner had sown on earth.

But the vultures of Bombay are nearly extinct. And sunlight is weak during the three-month monsoon season. That dilemma—stoked by the unstinting march of time and technology—has divided reform and orthodox members of the world’s oldest prophetic religion. Reform Parsis are improvising with solar panels to dispose of their dead, a technique deemed sacrilegious by orthodox elders.

In multicultural India, home to a billion-plus people, mostly Hindus, Parsis are one of hundreds of ethnic groups.

"We are Indians first and Indians last, but in between, we are Parsis," says Noshir Dadrawala, head of the Centre for Advancement of Philanthropy. "We are loyal and patriotic, but as a community we also want to be true to our religion."

About 82,000 Parsis live in India, most of them in Bombay, comprising the world’s largest group of Zoroastrians, followers of the Bronze Age Iranian prophet, Zarathushtra. For the average 300 Parsis born in Bombay each year, 900 to 1,000 die. The odds are not in their favour. And, even in death, the Parsis are still at odds. To Hindus, the vulture is a sacred bird. Legend has it that the homely creature gave its life while trying to rescue Sita. To Parsis, the vulture is also precious, in that it has unwittingly helped release the spirits of their departed for centuries.

Parsis view fire as holy, the giver of light and life, so offering the dead to fire is a mortal sin.

But fewer than a dozen vultures remain.

So, Parsis are doing what they always have done—being innovative. They recently installed four solar panels on their Towers of Silence, using modern technology to complement one of mankind’s oldest funereal rites.

A member of the Parsi Council was working with Jurong Bird Park in Singapore in a proposal to train juvenile vultures to fly from an aviary to the Towers of Silence, then return to the refuge once they have eaten. This would help protect the birds from the ills of Bombay.

The Oriental White-backed and Long-billed vultures are nearly extinct in India, Pakistan and Nepal. The
U. S.-based Peregrine Fund, devoted to conservation efforts for birds of prey worldwide, reports 95 per cent to 100 per cent extinction of vultures in South Asia in the last decade, an unprecedented and alarming rate.

What’s killing the vultures is a mystery, though experts believe pesticides, stress from encroaching humans, visceral gout that damages the kidneys, or a new avian virus could be to blame.

The clergy and the orthodox maintain that scriptures like the Vendidad had laid down that dead bodies of Zoroastrians should be consigned to the Tower of Silence only. They also maintain that the rays of the sun will dehydrate the corpse and what is left would be taken over by the vultures. The BPP (Bombay Parsi Panchayat) tried to mend matters by making some suggestions.

Firstly they suggested a solar crematorium so that the sun rays may dehydrate the dead bodies. Actual experience showed that this was far from being operative and hence should not be considered at all. The second alternative was to have an aviary where vultures would be bred only on human flesh. It is a long-time project, involving the layout of several crores of rupees. The remaining alternative is burial in a cemetery or cremation. Burial is ruled out because land is precious and secondly because religious standards do not permit it. The only alternative is electric cremation.

The trustees of the BPP are caught in the crossfire of two groups.

History records that some Zoroastrian Persians migrated to India after the fall of the Sassanian Empire, and gave rise to the modern Indian Parsi community. According to a chronicle written in the 17th century, the Kissah-i-Sanjan, the Parsis first came to India in the eighth century. They landed in Diu, and were later given refuge in Sanjan (Gujarat) by the local king, Jadi Rana. Five years after this, they built the first fire temple, Atash Behram, to shelter the holy fire rescued from Iran. Over the years, this community developed local roots and Gujarati became its native language and the sari the garment of women. However, the Parsis preserved their separate cultural and religious identity. Towards the end of the tenth century, the Parsis began to settle in other parts of Gujarat. This gave rise to difficulties in defining the limits of priestly jurisdiction, which were resolved in 1290 AD by the establishment of five panthaks or districts—Sanjan, Navsari, Godareh-Ankleswar, Broach and Cambay.

Late in the 15th century, Sanjan was attacked by a Muslim army, probably a war of conquest by the sixth Sultan of Gujarat. The Parsis supported the local Hindu king with 1,400 men, and were annihilated. The survivors fled with the holy fire, which was installed in Navsari in 1516. Later, due to disputes between priests, it was transferred and came to its present location in Udvada in 1742.

The first record of a Parsi, Dorabji Nanabhai, settling in Mumbai dates to 1640. This was followed by a large number of Parsi migrants to Mumbai who constituted weavers and other artisans. In 1673, the British handed over a piece of land in Malabar Hill to the Parsi community for the establishment of their first Dakhma, Tower of Silence.