“Options to ...”

It is unfortunate that some of our community members continue to remain selectively adamant in their beliefs against some of our religious practices and scriptural injunctions that have been in practice for many centuries now. One such case in reference is Dr M. D. Disa­walla’s letter titled "Options to dakhme­nashini,” (Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, August 2002).

At the outset it needs to be (re)emphasized that the Zarathushtrian religion is not just a bundle of dogmas and doctrines to be followed implicitly. The dakhmenashini method is a lawful Zarathushtrian mode of disposal whereby the dead bodies are placed in a dakhma that is open to the sky and exposed to the natural elements like the sun, wind, rain and carrion creatures.

We Zarathushtrians have a few religious injunctions against defilement or contamination of natural elements which are considered very sacred. We Zara­thush­trians are duty-bound to preserve our environment and to further the cause of all His creations.

Like any home, office or religious institution, the dakhma, for obvious reasons, also needs cleaning from time to time. However, for the cleaning of a dakhma, there are certain strict religious guidelines that are laid out in accordance to religious prescriptions and tarikats that need to be followed uncompromisingly and with great self-discipline. Our Bangalore Anjuman felt the need to have the dakhma cleaned and spared no expenses or efforts to ensure that the cleaning process was carried out diligently and strictly as per the religious procedures and guidelines.

From Disawalla’s letter it is but evident that his attempt is not only to misguide and confuse our community members but also to play upon the emotions of those who are easily susceptible to insinuations after having lost a dear family member. Disawalla’s allegation that the major part of the carcass is ultimately buried in the ground is not only a false assumption but also a fabricated and defiling lie!

In Bangalore, the annual death rate is less than a dozen and hence we do not feel the need to either touch the remains or even attempt to push it prematurely into the bhandar or bury in the ground outside the dakhma as falsely alleged by Disawalla. On the contrary, we allow the remains to crumble and disintegrate by the combined natural forces of rain water and sun rays. Only then are the non-biodegradable remains like hair, nails, teeth, some large dry bones, etc gently pushed into the bhandar to remain there for several years to further disintegrate.

Over the years, the calcified powdery skeletal remains of the body tend to solidify with the natural and alternate forces of rain water, heat and drying process leading to choking of the underground drainpipes. It therefore necessitates general cleaning of the dakhma by removal of wild bushy growths, destructive over-grown roots, washing of the furrows with gomez (cattle urine) and emptying of the calcified dry powdery remains (sukko nasu) with great solemnity and with all tarikats and ritualistic injunctions and with continuous sagdid (dog’s glare), burying them in a specially dug-up pit next to the dakhma and under the supervision of our Dastur Nadirshah Unvalla. Thereafter, each of the seven-eight volunteers was given the purification bath (nahn) as prescribed by our religious injunctions. This exercise continued for two full days under the direct guidance of our respected Unvalla who, at his ‘young’ age of 86 years, personally supervised every religious detail till it was over.

It is sad to note that instead of appreciating the services provided by our young volunteers led by Cyrus Sigan­poria in cleaning our religious institutions like the dakhmas, agiaries and atash behrams, some of us choose to incite and insinuate the lay community members against the age-old practice of dakh­menashini by often raising the bogey of lack of vultures or highlighting the "lo­gic” of cremation and burial!

If some ‘thinking luminaries’ feel that there is no logic in the ancient religious practices, let them feel free to believe in what they want without exerting their misguided preconceptions and prejudices on the community. Such mindless misinformation, often persuasively packaged, threatens to destroy our ancient religion and the community in general. Instead of being misguided by community members, all Zarathush­trians should be proud of the religion they are born in and appreciate some of the most outstanding truths that are stated in our sacred books.

ADIL J. GOVADIA

Honorary secretary

The Bangalore Parsee Zoroastrian Anjuman