“Scarce sandalwood”

This is further to my earlier letter ("Scarce sandalwood,” Readers’ Forum, Parsi­ana, May 2003) that was carried along with the response of Jamshed Noshir Sukhadwalla of the sandalwood shop Dadabhoy Motabhoy Sukhadwala. Since the time of publishing that letter, the price of sandalwood has risen and predictably so, with the muktad and the Parsi New Year having gone by.

My letter was penned having already taken into account the factors determining the high price of sandalwood as explained by Sukhadwalla, e.g. demand-supply, inability of small retailers to participate in government auctions, etc. I agree with him when he says that Ashoi cannot be practiced by only offering pure sandalwood but the angle of Ashoi with reference to this problem of scarcity is only incidental. By not offering pure sandalwood are we not compromising with a traditional religious custom?

The thrust of my letter was for a community body like the Bombay Parsi Punchayet or the Nav-Kutumbi Athornan Mandal of Udvada, or some other trusts, to evolve a mechanism for the bulk-purchase, storage and distribution of pure sandalwood at affordable prices to the community at large.

As is the case with any business enterprise, the businessman is in business to earn a profit. I do not grudge or object to sandalwood merchants earning a profit as everyone needs to be gainfully employed to earn a living but linking profit to a religious commodity is rather incongruous. However as sandalwood is a religious commodity we need to:

•Evolve an administered-pricing mechanism at a community level that will effectively regulate the price of sandalwood so as to keep it within the reach of the average Parsi.

•Petition the government, both central and state, to provide some sort of a "Parsi quota” at reduced rates considering our status as a minority community and the end use, i.e. religious offering of the commodity in question, i.e. sandalwood. Is it too much for us as a community to expect to get an essential commodity like sandalwood at cheaper-than-market rates? After all liquor in Goa or Daman is sold at less than half the regular price as compared to Bombay.

•In the long term, have our own supply of sandalwood by planting or buying sandalwood trees at a community-level.

Another fallout of offering impure sandalwood or any other kind of wood that has largely gone unnoticed, is the health and environment hazard caused to our priests and worshippers alike who perforce have to inhale the fumes emanated by burning such wood. Many a time, one hears constant coughing and sneezing in the prayer hall around the kebla while praying and watery eyes have also become commonplace. This problem tends to get intensified when collective prayer ceremonies are held, as the space inside a fire-temple remains the same, but the number of people increases and with it, the amount of wood (sandalwood) used to tend the fire.

We must remember that today sandalwood is scarce, tomorrow it might become extinct as has happened with the vultures at Doongerwadi.

KAYOMARZ PATEL