Declining worshippers

Rustomji Dhunjeebhoy Mehta was a philanthropist par excellence, one of our greatest benefactors. Nearly a century ago, he pioneered a trust to establish an atash adaran in memory of his late father under the name of "The Late Ervad Dhunjeebhoy Behramji Mehta’s Zoroastrian Anjuman Atash Adaran.” Having been set up in 1912, the Adaran will shortly be celebrating its centenary.

The Adaran is located in central Calcutta where more than 80 percent of the Parsi Zoroastrians stayed till recently. It is on Metcalfe Street, one of only two road names that have survived from the time the British left. It is a short narrow street where we have the Adaran and our neighbors are the Aga Khan’s Calcutta headquarters.

One of the few adarans which has the atash on the first floor, the ground floor is spacious and accommodates an office, the place for kusti prayers and a hall that can seat 250 persons easily. Many years ago, most weddings and nav­jotes took place in the Adaran itself. The hall provided an excellent location for the wedding feast. However, of recent, hardly one such occasion is celebrated in the Adaran every year, everyone preferring the spacious aircondi­tioned hall named after our other major benefactor, Edulji Olpadvala.

First renovated in the early 1950s, two or three subsequent improvement projects now make our beautiful Adaran building a most suitable place for worship with facilities and décor that can be emulated. The latest renovation was in 2005 and thanks to the vision and foresight of our late trustee, Dr Russi Anklesaria and his colleagues, we have not only a beautiful but a functional Adaran.

We have had the good fortune of having excellent panthakies to administer the religious aspects of the Adaran. Our present panthaky, Ervad Shorab Kotwal took over a few years ago after the demise of Ervad Bapuji Desai who had been our beloved and much respected panthaky for close to 50 years.

Rustomji Mehta not only made the construction of the Adaran a reality but through his family trust, the Adaran received a substantial amount of approximately six crore rupees three years ago to give it a tremendously strong financial status. The annual income of the Adaran trust is more than enough to take care of its establishment and other expenses. Kathi is available locally. The priests and helpers are looked after very well and have been provided with medical insurance and other facilities for their welfare and comfort.

There are no real difficulties in running the Adaran. Our only problem is very few worshippers. Nobody keeps a count but we assume that an average of five people visit the Adaran every day. As opposed to 80 percent of the Parsis staying in its vicinity earlier, today it would be around 20 percent to 30 percent staying within a two km radius, a large majority of them in the four charity blocks comprising almost 50 flats. Our Zoroastrian population in Calcutta is barely 700 and fast diminishing. There were 2,500 and more just 30 years ago. There was a time when on Navroz there was no place for worshippers to stand, leave alone sit and offer prayers on that day in the Adaran. Today we are fortunate if we have 50 worshippers for the Navroz jashan.

The Parsi community in Calcutta as in other parts of the country also has certain points of contention regarding some religious matters. Fortunately, there is an understanding of each other’s point of view and those who desire change are ready to talk peacefully and with decorum to those who don’t. The process for change is always long and slow and we in Calcutta are blessed that we understand this and continue to live unitedly and happily together.

N. F. Tankariwala, Yezdi Dastoor and Dinsha Surti are the trustees of The Late Ervad Dhunjeebhoy Behramji Mehta’s Zoroastrian Anjuman Atash Adaran.