Research about Mazra Kalantar
By: Elham Shams
We have received an Essay from Elham Shams, she is an Architect MA student at Azad University of Iran, She did her final research about Mazra Kalantar and wroth her Essay about Mazra Kalantar.
Please click on file below to read her Essay about Mazra Kalantar.
Please click on file below to read her Essay about Mazra Kalantar.
Essay about Mazra Kalantar | |
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The historic village of Mazra-e Kalantar
By: Towhideh Yazdani
Mazra-e Kalantar, as part of Meybod District, is situated 11 km towards south-east of Meybod and 36 km away from Yazd City. This village extends to Rafii-abad from north and Qassemabad from south. Zoroastrians constitute more than 98% of the population of the village. According to local sources, the history of the village dates back to the early era of Arab invasion on Iran. It seems that due to its geographical situation it served as a hiding place for Zoroastrians escaping from Arabs, and in due course, as the pressure on Zoroastrians increased, it gradually turned into a rural texture, away from the Moslem society.
A more recent history tells that 20 years ago, at a time when Mirza Reza Kermani (famous as Kalantar) was ruling in Yazd, he built a village in this fertile area, which was then named after him, “Kalantar”.
Another document says that the older parts – the present day Mazra – belong to the Safavid era. During this period, the village was enclosed in a fort with all the necessary facilities in it, including a fire temple, which fort is now in ruins and very close to the present day village. The name “Kalantar” which was given to the village, means great, because it was larger than the other villages in that area. In the past, due to its fertile land and relatively large population, the village was famous as “small India”.
The original core of the village (Rafii-abad), situated 700 m from the present day village, was vacated by its inhabitants when the qanats (water canals) dried up, and who came to live in the newly established village. Pir-e Rafii-abad and the ruins of a few houses are the remains of that period. However, when a new core started shaping in its present location, it started expanding and turned into the main village where Zoroastrians around Meybod started settling. Right now, Mazra has 111 inhabitants (forming 38 families). Husbandry and orchard keeping are the main occupations of the people who are also active in cloth weaving and handicraft.
Housing architecture patterns
Zoroastrian customs and beliefs, living means and social status, in the course of time, have had major influence on the architectural setting of the village. For this reason, its buildings, while having the specifications of desert friendly architecture, contain a unique structure. The main architectural pattern in this housing complex is the four-portico pattern. Four porticos are built on four sides of the inner courtyard, which is recently being covered by glass roofs. In the center of the courtyard there is a small patch in which usually pomegranate trees, myrtle and rue trees are grown. The other house spaces take shape on the sides of the porticos. One of the porticos (the main portico) and the room behind it, called the “purified” room, is used for Nowruz ceremony, wedding ceremony, gahanbar prayers, ceremonies for the deceased, etc. Therefore, this space is given more importance and more adorned compared to the other rooms. The decorations of this portico consist of shelves carved in the walls, with picture frames, gatch artistry and also vases with stalks of myrtle in them, censer, appendents made of wild rue seeds, hanging in the shelves, and small treasure rooms built into the walls for keeping special dishes for ceremonies.
The four portico architectural pattern gradually turned into a spacious central courtyard with four porticos on four sides, which has been the base of construction of the houses in the central area of Mazra. The plans of two neighboring houses have been blended, to an extent that it is not possible to distinguish them separately, from their roofs. The entrance space of most of the houses consists of a long corridor, and access to the covered courtyard, the animal sheds, kitchen and roof is separate from it. The purpose of building a long corridor is to create a safe boundary for the house. The thick adobe walls of these buildings, with their semi-dome ceilings, play a major role in moderating the internal temperature of the house. One of the main parts of the buildings in this village is the one-way wind captures built towards the East. The number of the openings in the wind capture depends on the width of the portico or the wind capture room, and is usually odd. A goat’s horn is frequently seen on the top of the wind captures of the village, as a sign of keeping away evil eyes.
The main spaces in the houses are:
* Courtyard (reekza): a small patch in the centre, mostly square in shape, which has been covered from the roof, in the recent years.
* The big portico (peskam mass): the rural houses have either two porticos or four, one of which has special ceremonial role for the household and special ceremonies are held in it. This portico is always on the east side of the house, and should always remain very clean.
* Small portico (peskam kasog): a small portico opposite the big portico and is of less importance.
* Kitchen portico (peskam pokri): this portico is attached to the kitchen and usually the weaving pit is also in this portico.
* Entrance portico (peskam razak): nearest portico to house entrance, which is a wider portico.
All porticos, except the entrance one, are about 15 cm higher than the courtyard.
* Wedding room or purified room (ganzeh hajla): This room is built behind the big portico. Pots and dishes and the tablecloth used for religious ceremonies, are kept separately in this room, plus wheat, rice and salt as signs of abundance in the house, and stalks of cedar and myrtle, a censer with burning coals in it. Nowruz, wedding and gahanbar ceremonies are also held in this room.
* Bedroom (ganzeh khosboon): the main living room of the household.
* Tanabi: A narrow and long room at the far end of the house, specially built for guests.
*Kitchen (pokri): A kitchen is one of the main parts of the house, and a symbol of life and blessings of the family. In the kitchen, there are sometimes more than one oven in different sizes, the biggest of them made of clay and called “treen”. Usually, in a corner of the kitchen a short wall is built to keep firewood behind it.
The other linking spaces in the house are as follows:
Bread keeping room (veeeju): Actually, it is the main storage room where flour, grains, salt, sugar and sugar cones, vegetables and other foodstuff are kept. Bread (wrapped in cloth) is also kept here.
Hayloft (kahdoon): storage room for hay and alfalfa and the closest part of the house to the street and usually its door is separate from the rest of the house.
Cotton room (goma): the main storage of grains. It is also called the wheat room (genomdoon).
Wea ving pit: Normally, in a corner of the kitchen portico, there is a rectangular shaped pit in the floor. On one side inside the pit there is a small stool, on which the weave r sits. The threads for weaving are spread upto the courtyard and tied to a hook fixed in the wall on the opposite side. This has been the normal pattern of all Zoroastrian houses.
Toilet room (helav): This is built usually outside the animal shed.
Basement (sheevzvin): Some houses had built underground space under one of the porticos, which was used as a cool area for preserving foodstuff, and sometimes, in summer, as a cool resting place for the family members. Recently the houses have been filling up these underground areas and closing them.
Outer corridor (keecha bari): The corridor leading to the main entrance door, which also leads to the hayloft, animal shed, etc.
The house of Shahriyar Zohrabi
The four-portico house of Zohrabi and the four-portico house of the opposite neighbor have a corridor between them which has a big wooden door (or gate) that closes the entrance to the village street. The house entrance door opens into the rear part of one of the porticos in the house. This space is the one explained above as “razak” or the entrance corridor. This corridor is built in the north/south direction. The house entrance door is against the south wall. The north end opens into a 3 sqm courtyard.
Opposite the courtyard there is a portico of 3.75 X 3.65 m, with a dome shaped roof, on all three sides of which there is a door. The doors that are on the west and east side of the portico open into storage like rooms which are built between two porticos that are also roofed with semi-domes. The door on the middle wall of the portico opens into a long room (tanabi) which has light coming into it through an opening in the top of the dome. These three rooms were once the living and bedrooms of the three sons in the family.
The roof of the small portico is lower than the other porticos. The height of all the porticos is about 4 meters. The floor of this portico and the courtyard are covered with gravel and small stones.
The big portico, (or the ceremonial portico) is opposite the west portico and like other rooms is floored with gravel stones, and is a few cm above the courtyard and other porticos. At the end of this portico there is a door that opens into a room which is called the bride’s room.
On the roof of the house there is no level space and is fully covered by domes or arches. But, on top of the gate section there is a flat roof, on which families of both houses slept on summer nights. Though this house has been empty for many years but on one of the domes there are black stains remaining from the fire lit on the last day of “Panji” for bidding farewell to the deceased members of the family and for welcoming the New Year.
The water reservoir (cistern) of Mazra-e Kalantar
According to the village governor, the founder of this building, which was built in 1933, was a Zoroastrian donor living in India. On the entrance of the reservoir there is a stone inscription with following text:
In the name of Ahura Mazda
Kaykhosrow Rashid Nasrabadi has donated the expenses for building this water reservoir in Mazra-e Kalantar, in the name of his deceased brother Goshtasb Rashid Khosrow, for the public to make use of it, draw water and drink it and pray for a pious life for the donor and for the soul of his brother, Goshtasb Rashid. And, whoever takes water from this reservoir should be careful not to do any damage to the building, thus leaving a good name of themselves and leaving the building unharmed for others to pray for the donor and his brother. Right for upkeeping of this building is reserved for the donor’s generation.
This reservoir which is situated at the entrance of the village, and is attached to the main archway of the village, consists of one entrance, two wind traps and 9 domed roofs on top of the water reservoir. The main entrance to the building is on the east side and a stone inscription is affixed on it. The gateway, staircases and their walls plus the outer walls of roofs on the reservoir are built of bricks and the rest of the walls and roofs are made of clay and straw. Since the building of the reservoir is in open space from three sides, the façade, wind traps, the entrance and the roofs give a special manifestation to the entrance of the village. The space for taking water (from taps) is wide and spacious. The whole building area is approximately 417 sqm with 5 m height. The two separate stairways for drawing water (by the inhabitants and the caravans), and also being adjoined to the water canal of the farm fields at the tap section (to prevent water going wasted) gives this building an exclusive feature.
One of the special attractions of Mazra-e Kalantar is its consolidated texture. The recent renovations, at the inhabitants’ expense, and with the supervision of Cultural Heritage Organization, has helped to preserve the historic structure of this village. No ruined building is to be seen in this village.
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A more recent history tells that 20 years ago, at a time when Mirza Reza Kermani (famous as Kalantar) was ruling in Yazd, he built a village in this fertile area, which was then named after him, “Kalantar”.
Another document says that the older parts – the present day Mazra – belong to the Safavid era. During this period, the village was enclosed in a fort with all the necessary facilities in it, including a fire temple, which fort is now in ruins and very close to the present day village. The name “Kalantar” which was given to the village, means great, because it was larger than the other villages in that area. In the past, due to its fertile land and relatively large population, the village was famous as “small India”.
The original core of the village (Rafii-abad), situated 700 m from the present day village, was vacated by its inhabitants when the qanats (water canals) dried up, and who came to live in the newly established village. Pir-e Rafii-abad and the ruins of a few houses are the remains of that period. However, when a new core started shaping in its present location, it started expanding and turned into the main village where Zoroastrians around Meybod started settling. Right now, Mazra has 111 inhabitants (forming 38 families). Husbandry and orchard keeping are the main occupations of the people who are also active in cloth weaving and handicraft.
Housing architecture patterns
Zoroastrian customs and beliefs, living means and social status, in the course of time, have had major influence on the architectural setting of the village. For this reason, its buildings, while having the specifications of desert friendly architecture, contain a unique structure. The main architectural pattern in this housing complex is the four-portico pattern. Four porticos are built on four sides of the inner courtyard, which is recently being covered by glass roofs. In the center of the courtyard there is a small patch in which usually pomegranate trees, myrtle and rue trees are grown. The other house spaces take shape on the sides of the porticos. One of the porticos (the main portico) and the room behind it, called the “purified” room, is used for Nowruz ceremony, wedding ceremony, gahanbar prayers, ceremonies for the deceased, etc. Therefore, this space is given more importance and more adorned compared to the other rooms. The decorations of this portico consist of shelves carved in the walls, with picture frames, gatch artistry and also vases with stalks of myrtle in them, censer, appendents made of wild rue seeds, hanging in the shelves, and small treasure rooms built into the walls for keeping special dishes for ceremonies.
The four portico architectural pattern gradually turned into a spacious central courtyard with four porticos on four sides, which has been the base of construction of the houses in the central area of Mazra. The plans of two neighboring houses have been blended, to an extent that it is not possible to distinguish them separately, from their roofs. The entrance space of most of the houses consists of a long corridor, and access to the covered courtyard, the animal sheds, kitchen and roof is separate from it. The purpose of building a long corridor is to create a safe boundary for the house. The thick adobe walls of these buildings, with their semi-dome ceilings, play a major role in moderating the internal temperature of the house. One of the main parts of the buildings in this village is the one-way wind captures built towards the East. The number of the openings in the wind capture depends on the width of the portico or the wind capture room, and is usually odd. A goat’s horn is frequently seen on the top of the wind captures of the village, as a sign of keeping away evil eyes.
The main spaces in the houses are:
* Courtyard (reekza): a small patch in the centre, mostly square in shape, which has been covered from the roof, in the recent years.
* The big portico (peskam mass): the rural houses have either two porticos or four, one of which has special ceremonial role for the household and special ceremonies are held in it. This portico is always on the east side of the house, and should always remain very clean.
* Small portico (peskam kasog): a small portico opposite the big portico and is of less importance.
* Kitchen portico (peskam pokri): this portico is attached to the kitchen and usually the weaving pit is also in this portico.
* Entrance portico (peskam razak): nearest portico to house entrance, which is a wider portico.
All porticos, except the entrance one, are about 15 cm higher than the courtyard.
* Wedding room or purified room (ganzeh hajla): This room is built behind the big portico. Pots and dishes and the tablecloth used for religious ceremonies, are kept separately in this room, plus wheat, rice and salt as signs of abundance in the house, and stalks of cedar and myrtle, a censer with burning coals in it. Nowruz, wedding and gahanbar ceremonies are also held in this room.
* Bedroom (ganzeh khosboon): the main living room of the household.
* Tanabi: A narrow and long room at the far end of the house, specially built for guests.
*Kitchen (pokri): A kitchen is one of the main parts of the house, and a symbol of life and blessings of the family. In the kitchen, there are sometimes more than one oven in different sizes, the biggest of them made of clay and called “treen”. Usually, in a corner of the kitchen a short wall is built to keep firewood behind it.
The other linking spaces in the house are as follows:
Bread keeping room (veeeju): Actually, it is the main storage room where flour, grains, salt, sugar and sugar cones, vegetables and other foodstuff are kept. Bread (wrapped in cloth) is also kept here.
Hayloft (kahdoon): storage room for hay and alfalfa and the closest part of the house to the street and usually its door is separate from the rest of the house.
Cotton room (goma): the main storage of grains. It is also called the wheat room (genomdoon).
Wea ving pit: Normally, in a corner of the kitchen portico, there is a rectangular shaped pit in the floor. On one side inside the pit there is a small stool, on which the weave r sits. The threads for weaving are spread upto the courtyard and tied to a hook fixed in the wall on the opposite side. This has been the normal pattern of all Zoroastrian houses.
Toilet room (helav): This is built usually outside the animal shed.
Basement (sheevzvin): Some houses had built underground space under one of the porticos, which was used as a cool area for preserving foodstuff, and sometimes, in summer, as a cool resting place for the family members. Recently the houses have been filling up these underground areas and closing them.
Outer corridor (keecha bari): The corridor leading to the main entrance door, which also leads to the hayloft, animal shed, etc.
The house of Shahriyar Zohrabi
The four-portico house of Zohrabi and the four-portico house of the opposite neighbor have a corridor between them which has a big wooden door (or gate) that closes the entrance to the village street. The house entrance door opens into the rear part of one of the porticos in the house. This space is the one explained above as “razak” or the entrance corridor. This corridor is built in the north/south direction. The house entrance door is against the south wall. The north end opens into a 3 sqm courtyard.
Opposite the courtyard there is a portico of 3.75 X 3.65 m, with a dome shaped roof, on all three sides of which there is a door. The doors that are on the west and east side of the portico open into storage like rooms which are built between two porticos that are also roofed with semi-domes. The door on the middle wall of the portico opens into a long room (tanabi) which has light coming into it through an opening in the top of the dome. These three rooms were once the living and bedrooms of the three sons in the family.
The roof of the small portico is lower than the other porticos. The height of all the porticos is about 4 meters. The floor of this portico and the courtyard are covered with gravel and small stones.
The big portico, (or the ceremonial portico) is opposite the west portico and like other rooms is floored with gravel stones, and is a few cm above the courtyard and other porticos. At the end of this portico there is a door that opens into a room which is called the bride’s room.
On the roof of the house there is no level space and is fully covered by domes or arches. But, on top of the gate section there is a flat roof, on which families of both houses slept on summer nights. Though this house has been empty for many years but on one of the domes there are black stains remaining from the fire lit on the last day of “Panji” for bidding farewell to the deceased members of the family and for welcoming the New Year.
The water reservoir (cistern) of Mazra-e Kalantar
According to the village governor, the founder of this building, which was built in 1933, was a Zoroastrian donor living in India. On the entrance of the reservoir there is a stone inscription with following text:
In the name of Ahura Mazda
Kaykhosrow Rashid Nasrabadi has donated the expenses for building this water reservoir in Mazra-e Kalantar, in the name of his deceased brother Goshtasb Rashid Khosrow, for the public to make use of it, draw water and drink it and pray for a pious life for the donor and for the soul of his brother, Goshtasb Rashid. And, whoever takes water from this reservoir should be careful not to do any damage to the building, thus leaving a good name of themselves and leaving the building unharmed for others to pray for the donor and his brother. Right for upkeeping of this building is reserved for the donor’s generation.
This reservoir which is situated at the entrance of the village, and is attached to the main archway of the village, consists of one entrance, two wind traps and 9 domed roofs on top of the water reservoir. The main entrance to the building is on the east side and a stone inscription is affixed on it. The gateway, staircases and their walls plus the outer walls of roofs on the reservoir are built of bricks and the rest of the walls and roofs are made of clay and straw. Since the building of the reservoir is in open space from three sides, the façade, wind traps, the entrance and the roofs give a special manifestation to the entrance of the village. The space for taking water (from taps) is wide and spacious. The whole building area is approximately 417 sqm with 5 m height. The two separate stairways for drawing water (by the inhabitants and the caravans), and also being adjoined to the water canal of the farm fields at the tap section (to prevent water going wasted) gives this building an exclusive feature.
One of the special attractions of Mazra-e Kalantar is its consolidated texture. The recent renovations, at the inhabitants’ expense, and with the supervision of Cultural Heritage Organization, has helped to preserve the historic structure of this village. No ruined building is to be seen in this village.
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Introduction
An article was received by us, written by Farid shulizadeh, in which part of the common history of the Parsis and Iranian Zartoshtis comes into light. When the Parsis came to know that there are Zartoshtis living in Iran, they started corresponding with them, followed by mutual visits. When the relationship between the Parsis and the Iranian Zartoshtis became stronger, many of the inhabitants of Mazra-e Kalantar started leaving for India, at a young age, to work and send money for their families in Mazra. This traveling of the people of Mazra to and from India gradually gave the nikname "Small India" to Mazra. The following article brings to light how the Parsis and Iranian Zartoshtis first got in touch with each other and how their relationship saved each other's religious faith and identity. It is good for all of us to know how we could survive the dark times.
In the name of the Just and Benevolent
The Role Parsis of India Played for the Survival and Endurance of the Zartoshtis of Iran
Research and Compilation by Farid Shulizadeh
More than a thousand years have passed since the first group of Zartoshti refugees stepped on the shores of Sanjan. In the course of history Parsis of India put their hearts and souls to preserve and flourish the essence of the Mazdi Yasni faith. Historic researches give evidence that at least upto the 12th century ad the Parsis’ religious leaders had not abandoned the religious doctrines and the contents of the religious scripts. The writings of Dastur Neryusang Dehaval tells about the knowledge of the mobeds of those times with respects to the Avesta scripts, Pahlavi and Sanskrit languages and interpretation of Zand. But, the ups and downs of the following centuries, like the ruinous invasions of Mahmud Qaznavi on India and the tyrannies of his commander, Alef Khan, done to the Parsis, the pressure put by the Moslems by collecting high ‘jaziya’ (tax) in order to encourage them to convert to Islam, on the other hand, the pressure brought onto the Parsis by the Portuguese missionaries, and last but not least, constant pressure brought by the prejudiced Hindus, caused the Parsis to forget their religious knowledge, to the extent that they even forgot the Pahlavi script.
As understood from the book, “The Stories of Dastur Darab Hormozyar”, in the first letter of the Parsis of India to the Iranian Zartoshtis, in the year 847 Yazdgerdi (Parsi calendar), Nariman Hushang had requested the Iranian mobeds not to write their response in Pahlavi language because in India none of the Parsis knew this language any more. Therefore, the Iranian Dasturs replied in the Persian language but with Din Dabira script. In part of this letter, which is recorded in “The Stories of Dastur Darab Hormozyasr”, we read, “The reason that I did not write in the Pahlavi language was because Nariman Hushang had requested that the Hirbods and the Mazdi Yasni community in Navsari , Behruj, Surat and Anklesar do not know Pahlavi. He wrote that there are Behdin’s in these towns and also Hirbods but none know the Pahlavi language. The reply that Shapur Jamasp gave to the Indian Hirbods and Behdins is as follows: “In the name of God – For the reason already mentioned I have written in the Avesta script”.
The visit of Nariman Hushang to Iran, in the year 857 (Iranian calendar) undoubtedly opened a new chapter in the relationship between the Iranian Zartoshtis and the Indian Parsis. The Iranian behdins had no knowledge of the existence of their coreligionists in India. The news that Nariman Hushang brought about the Parsis was a source of great joy for the Iranian Dasturs and behdins. Nariman Hushang stayed in Yazd for one year, to learn the Persian language. After learning the language he submitted his message to the Iranian Dasturs and took the answers (to his religious questions) with him to India. Four years after the visit of Nariman Hushang, in the year 861 (Iranian calendar) two Iranian Zartoshtis by the names of Nushirvan Pourkhorram and Marzban Pouresfandiar, traveled to Bombay. 29 years after them, four other Zartoshtis traveled to India for business, and brought back with them a letter from the Parsis. Their names were Nushirvan Pourmehraban, Saad-ol-amr Pour Marzbanshah, Nowruz Pourfariborz and Farrokh Pourbarbakhsh. It was at that time that the learned and sagacious man, Dastur Azarkeyvan, traveled from Shiraz to Surat.
In the year 972 (Iranian calendar = 1593 ad), Mobed Ardeshir Kermani traveled to India and wrote a book called Farhang Jahangiri, in which he translated the Zand, Pazand and Pahlavi vocabulary into Persian. In the year 1029 (Iranian calendar = 1650 ad) Shahriyar Pourrostam traveled to Gujrat. On his return he carried a letter from the Parsis of India addressed to the Iranian Behdin’s…
The Indian Parsis, particularly those from Navsari, very carefully collected the letters they received from Iranian Dasturs, because these were answers to their religious questions, and this collection turned into a very valuable book for them. These questions and answers, that brought to light many facts of the Zartoshtis’ history, took Dastur Darab Hormozyar 14 years to compile. He called it “The Stories of Dastur Darab Hormozyar”. The last letter, written in the year 1142 Yazdgerdi by Molla Kavoos Pourrotam was received in India, and from then onwards the religious correspondence between the Indian Parsis and the Iranian Dasturs stopped.
All this while, the Iranian Dasturs were sending volumes of Avesta and Zand to the Indian Parsis. Sending these books from Iran to India had two advantages: first, it helped the Parsis to strengthen their link with their religion and culture, and secondly, it preserved the books from burning in the fires of ignorance and enmity. This system continued until the 19th century ad, as mentioned by easternologists, namely, Edward Brown and Jackson, in their travel accounts.
Edward Brown: “Zartoshtis sent most of their ancient and very important books which had survived the plunders and burning in the past centuries, from Yazd and Kerman to India, to keep them safe in the hands of the Parsis of India, because they feared to lose them when each time the rulers would change.”
Abraham Jackson, the American easternologist and scholar in the Avesta language, also mentions in his travel account about his meeting with Dastur Tirandaz and Master Khodabakhsh. In this meeting, they showed him some of their religious books that they possessed. Jackson writes about this meeting: “Participants in the meeting (Master Khodabakhsh and Dastur Tirandaz) stated that they have sent all their valuable books to India in order to save them and also for the use of the Parsis, and for reprint.
One of the most valuable volumes (Nask) that they sent to India during this period, was the volumes of Dinkerd. This big book consisting of 9 volumes was carried to India in 1262 (Iranian calendar = 1850 ad) by Molla Bahman Monajam, son of Molla Bahram, the then magistrate of Khorramshah.
The Parsis of India had repeatedly written to the Iranian Dasturs to send mobeds and Hirbods to India to teach and train them. But the Iranian Dasturs did not find it practical, because traveling by sea had religious restrictions and traveling by land was not safe in those days. But, finally, this step was taken and about 300 years ago (1099 Iranian calendar) one of the most learned Dasturs of the time, by the name of Jamasp Velayati, accepted the hardships of such a trip, and traveled to surat. This visit opened an important chapter in the religious lives of the Parsis of India and also in the researches made by easternologists from the West.
Dastur Jamasp Velayati helped as much as he could to solve the religious questions for the Parsis, and also taught the Pahlavi and Avesta scripts. But after some time he noted deep differences of opinion among the Parsi Dasturs and this made him discouraged. He found the solution in training a few of the younger Mobed generation, with the hope that they would be able to solve the old disputes and bring new life to the religious community. One of the three whom Dastur Velayati selected to teach the religious science and the Avesta and Pahlavi languages was Dastur Darab Kumana from Surat. Years disposal of the famous easternologist, Anekti De Perone, and taught him the Pahlavi language. The decision that Dastur Kumana made to teach Pahlavi to De Perone caused a great stir in the western research centers. The efforts of De Perone were a great step in the history of research in the Zartoshti religion and culture, and many easternologists from the West became interested in doing research on the Avesta and Pahlavi books.
Besides training the three young Dasturs and giving advices to other Hirbods and Behdins, Dastur Velayati started writing books on Avesta for the Indian Parsis. When returning to Iran he left all the books that he had taken with him to India, for the Parsis to use. One of the books was “Hirbodestan and Nirangestan”, which for the first time came into the hands of Parsis of India. Seven years after Jamasp Velayati left India, Jamasp Asana transcribed these books with great care and precision.
After the transfer of our religious science together with the valuable books from Iran to India and after the Avesta and Pahlavi languages were taught to the Parsis, a huge turmoil and stormy events in Iran nearly extinguished the radiant light of the Zartoshti culture in Iran. Wasn’t it God’s will that the divine message of Zarathushtra should not be forgotten, and instead be preserved by the Parsis of India? At a time when the Iranian Zartoshtis, in the following centuries, were severely harmed and suppressed by the rulers of the Safavid and Qajar dynasties, with God’s grace, and as a result of the efforts of Jamasp Velayati and the books that were kept with the Parsis, this most humanitarian religion and culture was restored and become known to the whole world. These same books were later studied by easternologists and scholars in the Avesta. During the rule of the Qajar’s this time the Parsis of India came to the rescue of Iranian Zartoshtis and the knowledge that was once transferred to India came once again to Iran, to generously water the starving tree of the Zartoshti community in Iran and give it new life.
As understood from the book, “The Stories of Dastur Darab Hormozyar”, in the first letter of the Parsis of India to the Iranian Zartoshtis, in the year 847 Yazdgerdi (Parsi calendar), Nariman Hushang had requested the Iranian mobeds not to write their response in Pahlavi language because in India none of the Parsis knew this language any more. Therefore, the Iranian Dasturs replied in the Persian language but with Din Dabira script. In part of this letter, which is recorded in “The Stories of Dastur Darab Hormozyasr”, we read, “The reason that I did not write in the Pahlavi language was because Nariman Hushang had requested that the Hirbods and the Mazdi Yasni community in Navsari , Behruj, Surat and Anklesar do not know Pahlavi. He wrote that there are Behdin’s in these towns and also Hirbods but none know the Pahlavi language. The reply that Shapur Jamasp gave to the Indian Hirbods and Behdins is as follows: “In the name of God – For the reason already mentioned I have written in the Avesta script”.
The visit of Nariman Hushang to Iran, in the year 857 (Iranian calendar) undoubtedly opened a new chapter in the relationship between the Iranian Zartoshtis and the Indian Parsis. The Iranian behdins had no knowledge of the existence of their coreligionists in India. The news that Nariman Hushang brought about the Parsis was a source of great joy for the Iranian Dasturs and behdins. Nariman Hushang stayed in Yazd for one year, to learn the Persian language. After learning the language he submitted his message to the Iranian Dasturs and took the answers (to his religious questions) with him to India. Four years after the visit of Nariman Hushang, in the year 861 (Iranian calendar) two Iranian Zartoshtis by the names of Nushirvan Pourkhorram and Marzban Pouresfandiar, traveled to Bombay. 29 years after them, four other Zartoshtis traveled to India for business, and brought back with them a letter from the Parsis. Their names were Nushirvan Pourmehraban, Saad-ol-amr Pour Marzbanshah, Nowruz Pourfariborz and Farrokh Pourbarbakhsh. It was at that time that the learned and sagacious man, Dastur Azarkeyvan, traveled from Shiraz to Surat.
In the year 972 (Iranian calendar = 1593 ad), Mobed Ardeshir Kermani traveled to India and wrote a book called Farhang Jahangiri, in which he translated the Zand, Pazand and Pahlavi vocabulary into Persian. In the year 1029 (Iranian calendar = 1650 ad) Shahriyar Pourrostam traveled to Gujrat. On his return he carried a letter from the Parsis of India addressed to the Iranian Behdin’s…
The Indian Parsis, particularly those from Navsari, very carefully collected the letters they received from Iranian Dasturs, because these were answers to their religious questions, and this collection turned into a very valuable book for them. These questions and answers, that brought to light many facts of the Zartoshtis’ history, took Dastur Darab Hormozyar 14 years to compile. He called it “The Stories of Dastur Darab Hormozyar”. The last letter, written in the year 1142 Yazdgerdi by Molla Kavoos Pourrotam was received in India, and from then onwards the religious correspondence between the Indian Parsis and the Iranian Dasturs stopped.
All this while, the Iranian Dasturs were sending volumes of Avesta and Zand to the Indian Parsis. Sending these books from Iran to India had two advantages: first, it helped the Parsis to strengthen their link with their religion and culture, and secondly, it preserved the books from burning in the fires of ignorance and enmity. This system continued until the 19th century ad, as mentioned by easternologists, namely, Edward Brown and Jackson, in their travel accounts.
Edward Brown: “Zartoshtis sent most of their ancient and very important books which had survived the plunders and burning in the past centuries, from Yazd and Kerman to India, to keep them safe in the hands of the Parsis of India, because they feared to lose them when each time the rulers would change.”
Abraham Jackson, the American easternologist and scholar in the Avesta language, also mentions in his travel account about his meeting with Dastur Tirandaz and Master Khodabakhsh. In this meeting, they showed him some of their religious books that they possessed. Jackson writes about this meeting: “Participants in the meeting (Master Khodabakhsh and Dastur Tirandaz) stated that they have sent all their valuable books to India in order to save them and also for the use of the Parsis, and for reprint.
One of the most valuable volumes (Nask) that they sent to India during this period, was the volumes of Dinkerd. This big book consisting of 9 volumes was carried to India in 1262 (Iranian calendar = 1850 ad) by Molla Bahman Monajam, son of Molla Bahram, the then magistrate of Khorramshah.
The Parsis of India had repeatedly written to the Iranian Dasturs to send mobeds and Hirbods to India to teach and train them. But the Iranian Dasturs did not find it practical, because traveling by sea had religious restrictions and traveling by land was not safe in those days. But, finally, this step was taken and about 300 years ago (1099 Iranian calendar) one of the most learned Dasturs of the time, by the name of Jamasp Velayati, accepted the hardships of such a trip, and traveled to surat. This visit opened an important chapter in the religious lives of the Parsis of India and also in the researches made by easternologists from the West.
Dastur Jamasp Velayati helped as much as he could to solve the religious questions for the Parsis, and also taught the Pahlavi and Avesta scripts. But after some time he noted deep differences of opinion among the Parsi Dasturs and this made him discouraged. He found the solution in training a few of the younger Mobed generation, with the hope that they would be able to solve the old disputes and bring new life to the religious community. One of the three whom Dastur Velayati selected to teach the religious science and the Avesta and Pahlavi languages was Dastur Darab Kumana from Surat. Years disposal of the famous easternologist, Anekti De Perone, and taught him the Pahlavi language. The decision that Dastur Kumana made to teach Pahlavi to De Perone caused a great stir in the western research centers. The efforts of De Perone were a great step in the history of research in the Zartoshti religion and culture, and many easternologists from the West became interested in doing research on the Avesta and Pahlavi books.
Besides training the three young Dasturs and giving advices to other Hirbods and Behdins, Dastur Velayati started writing books on Avesta for the Indian Parsis. When returning to Iran he left all the books that he had taken with him to India, for the Parsis to use. One of the books was “Hirbodestan and Nirangestan”, which for the first time came into the hands of Parsis of India. Seven years after Jamasp Velayati left India, Jamasp Asana transcribed these books with great care and precision.
After the transfer of our religious science together with the valuable books from Iran to India and after the Avesta and Pahlavi languages were taught to the Parsis, a huge turmoil and stormy events in Iran nearly extinguished the radiant light of the Zartoshti culture in Iran. Wasn’t it God’s will that the divine message of Zarathushtra should not be forgotten, and instead be preserved by the Parsis of India? At a time when the Iranian Zartoshtis, in the following centuries, were severely harmed and suppressed by the rulers of the Safavid and Qajar dynasties, with God’s grace, and as a result of the efforts of Jamasp Velayati and the books that were kept with the Parsis, this most humanitarian religion and culture was restored and become known to the whole world. These same books were later studied by easternologists and scholars in the Avesta. During the rule of the Qajar’s this time the Parsis of India came to the rescue of Iranian Zartoshtis and the knowledge that was once transferred to India came once again to Iran, to generously water the starving tree of the Zartoshti community in Iran and give it new life.