“The Nagpur incident”

I looked up the Oxford Dictionary which defines the word bastard as: "Child born out of wedlock or adultery, illegitimate... etc.” Surely, it is not a dirty or vulgar word; otherwise it would not find its place in such an authentic and dignified publication like the Oxford Dictionary which is widely used in schools, households and offices.

Ervad Marazban Hathiram has very rightly quoted our religious texts ("The Nagpur incident,” Parsiana, November 2001) explaining the use of the word. According to him, the texts state: "Great grief is caused to Ahura Mazda by mingling of the seed of a Parsi Zoroastrian with that of a non-Parsi.”

This statement is corroborated by Ervad Burjor Antia, presently trustee of the Bombay Parsi Panchayet, when he presented his paper on "Social and Cultural Survey — A Question of Approach” (Parsiana, July 1980) nearly a quarter century ago at the World Congress. On the question of marrying outside the community, he has quoted from the Vendi­dad, Paragard 18 para 62:

"Then Ahura Mazda replied: ‘O Holy Zarathushtra, those who are Mazdayasnis mixing their seed with non-Mazdayasnis are committing sins.’”

In my opinion, Hathiram is justified to call those aradhians of mixed marriage as "bastards” since, as per the Oxford Dictionary, such children are born out of wedlock as far as the Mazdayasni Zarathushtrian religion is concerned.

D. WADIA