Adar, not atash behram?

In the K. R. Cama Memorial Volume in honor of, and on the occa­sion of, the 70th birthday of the great Avestan scholar and savant, edited by Jivanji Jamshedji Modi, printed in 1900, Ervad Kharshedji Minocherji Kateli, then professor of Persian, Wilson College states, "We know that the word adar, used in Pazand writings is merely another form of the Avesta word atar... But it appears that the later Pazand writers have introduced a shade of difference in the meaning of or rather in the use of the words... In the Afrin-i-Ardafravash, adar is used with the first set of three fires and the word atash with the second set of the other six fires. The first three fires viz Goshasp, Khordad and Burzin-Mehr are the names of the three great fire temples of ancient Iran. The next six fires viz Berezi-Savangh, Vohu-Frayana, Urva­zishta, Vazishta and Spenishta are the names, not of fire temples, but of the different kinds of fire or manifestations of heat, as animal heat, vegetable heat, electrical heat, etc. So we find that the writers of the Pazand Afrins have restricted the use of the word adar or atar to the consecrated fires that have found a home in fire temples. The other fires or forces which are in one way or another manifestations of heat, are known as atash. Again the word atash is not restricted to manifestations of heat. It is also used for some of the fires that are established in proper fire temples. In the Pazand prayers attached to the Avesta Atash Nyaish, both adavan and atashan are referred to as being established in fire temples. Here, by adavan are meant the great fire temples known as atash behrams and atash adarans now-a-days and by atashan are meant temples of the third grade known as dadgahs. The fires of the great ancient fire temples are always spoken of in the Afrins and in the Atash Nyaish as adar. For example, in the Atash Nyaish, the great above mentioned con­secrated fires of ancient Iran, viz Goshasp, Khordad and Burzin-Mehr are spoken of as adar.”

Thus it appears from examining several passages of the different Afrins and the last part of Atash Nyaish that the word adar and not atash is always used for the great consecrated fires of the first degree established in great fire temples and that the word atash is used both for the lesser consecrated fires of the second degree and for other ordinary fires and manifestations of heat. From these facts it seems to me that the word atash behram applied in India to the great consecrated fires of the first degree is not a proper word. It ought to be adar behram instead of atash behram.

Capt HORMAZDIAR J. M. DESAI