“Tenets and traditions”

In "Tenets and traditions” (Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, September 7, 2007) Dastur Nadirshah P. Unvalla has elaborated about two categories of customs – individual and collective. I humbly ask him in which category he would place the muktad ceremonies. Half a century back, muktads used to last for 18 days, but out of expediency and prudence the then high priests, recognizing current day realities, reduced their duration to 10 days. The high priests of that period were not only orthodox but sincere. They were not after publicity on television channels or collecting vintage automobiles or seeking sponsors for their foreign trips. They had practical common sense and the interest of the common Parsi at heart. Are the muktad ceremonies not a collective custom? If yes, how could they be changed?

I would like Unvalla to let readers know the ratio of the Parsi population to that of the vulture population in Bangalore and at other places and compare it with a similar ratio for Bombay. Also, does Unvalla seriously believe that dakhmenashini as practiced in Bombay in the 21st century conforms to the original custom as practiced in the 19th and 20th century in the city? His analogy of equating the present mode of disposal of the dead at Bombay with wearing of the sudreh and kusti being mandatory in places of worship seems misplaced because the padshah sahibs continue to glow as brightly in our holy fire temples in 2007 as they did centuries ago. Would Unvalla make it mandatory to wear a cap when entering a defunct dadgah say in Diu or in a small town of Gujarat?

Of course, as far as wearing the sudreh and kusti goes, that should not be confined to the duration of a visit to a fire temple. Indeed, it is mandatory for every Parsi Zoroastrian to wear them 24 x 7.

PHIROZ J. DUBASH