Scarce sandalwood

We are all aware of the rapidly depleting sandalwood stocks resulting in spiraling prices. At the last count, the purest form of sandalwood was quoted at around Rs 3,500 per kilo. The community is at the mercy of sandalwood merchants.

Many mobeds in several agiaries and atash behrams admit that using the purest grade/quality of sandalwood for various ceremonies is beyond their means and they are forced to use second and even third-grade sandalwood. So much for a community whose religion enjoins its followers to maintain the highest standards of purity or Ashoi or Asha.

There is absolutely no transparency in the present mechanism of procuring sandalwood and it is not known if the concerned merchants dealing in sandalwood are entirely above-board in this. No one really knows whether the concerned merchant did actually procure a particular lot of sandalwood at a so-called government auction at some exorbitant rate quoted by the merchant. It is time the community evolved a mechanism/body that could subject these merchants to an audit of their business operations with a view to regulating the quality and price of sandalwood so as to keep it within the reach of an average Zoroastrian.

Some time ago, the Nav-Kutumbi Mandal of Udvada, the body in charge of managing the affairs of the Iranshah Atash Behram in Udvada had, in an open letter to the community, insisted on using only the purest form of sandalwood for ceremonies conducted at the Iranshah. Would it not be a good idea if such bodies or even others like the various anjumans or the Parsi punchayets could draft a system which envisages bulk procurement of the purest grade of sandalwood for the exclusive use of religious ceremonies of our community at concessional rates?

A sandalwood retailer in Bombay

If this is not done, soon a time will come where offering of pure sandalwood at Zoroastrian religious ceremonies will be perceived as an elitist gesture for the simple reason that few among our community will be able to afford offering sandalwood costing about Rs 5,000 per kilo which is where the price of the best quality of sandalwood is headed in the next six-12 months from now.

The community must act now and act decisively. We must immediately make representations to and prevail over the government at both the state and central level to extend certain concessions to us in the pricing and availability of sandalwood for use in religious ceremonies. We must form distribution depots of pure sandalwood from where the average Parsi can buy his requirement on a periodical basis. If we do not do anything in this regard now, won’t it be a case of compromising on our religious requirements?

KAYOMARZ PATEL

Jamshed Noshir Sukhadwalla of the sandalwood shop Dadabhoy Motabhoy Sukhadwala replies

The price of any commodity would depend upon its supply and demand. Sandalwood trees are becoming less day-by-day while there is an ever increasing demand from perfumers abroad. The price of the pure form of sandalwood at present is around Rs 3,000 per kg.

I do not think that Ashoi can be practiced by offering only sandalwood to the atash. In all the agiaries and atash behrams all over India, including the Iranshah at Udvada, kathis of baval are being used.

Most of the Parsi sandalwood merchants are retailers and they cannot afford to participate in the government auction where a minimum of one to two tonnes of logs have to be bid for. The retailers procure their requirements from larger merchants who obtain their stocks from the auction.

If a body like the Parsi Punchayet could make arrangements for procuring sandalwood and distributing it to the community at a reasonable rate, it would be good.