“Three Parsi New Years”

Here are a few jottings with reference to "Three Parsi New Years” (Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, May 21, 2009) from the scholarly pen of Farrokh Vajifdar.

To get to grips with certain facets of calendar/chronology is like playing with fire. Three calendars and sects designated Shahenshahi, Kadmi and Fasli are referred to in our community. A glance at the past reveals that calendars were based on seasons, the occurrence, recurrence and succession or the duration of periods and cycles. Originally only two seasons — spring and winter — were taken into account, but during Sasanian times all the four seasons were given due consideration to accommodate the gahanbars.

Formerly only the first sect existed. The movement for the second one may be traced back to 1721 when an Iranian priest named Jamasp Velayati (Velati) paid a visit to Surat. The third sect owes its existence to a deplorable innovation of adding one intercalatory day every four years! Of course, reliable historical evidence can be cited to prove the procedure of adding one intercalatory month every 120 years, but no such evidence is available for an intercalatory day. Yet during the early 20th century K. R. Cama initiated a movement for an intercalatory day after every four years!

Soon a lot of fire and passion, which could not keep pace with the march of argument, could be witnessed with the result that a small group of our community was beguiled by the talk of the said day, dubbed "the sixth Gatha.” An edifice called Fasli Atash Kadeh, architecturally resembling an Assyrian Ziggurat, came up and one of the priests who had performed the infamous Vansda navjotes became a "dastur” at this hitherto unknown place of worship!

Let us for a moment turn our gaze away from the Zoroastrian faith and contemporary formulations in order to scan other chronologies. There are a number of eras observed in different parts of India by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains. Some of the important ones are the Kaliyuga era, an astronomical system; the Vikrama Samvant; the Saka era; the Saptarishi era; the Buddhist era reckoned from the reputed date of Buddha’s death; and the epoch of the Jains from the death of Vardhamana Mahavira. Moreover, the chronologies of Egypt, Assyria, China, Japan, Greece and Rome plus the solar and lunar calendars used by various races indicate the flaws, inaccuracies, anomalies, incongruities and oddities of various calendars along with the employment of certain expedients to rectify/reform the latter.

Around the mid-20th century, when the fictitious sixth Gatha was much debated, barring one or two persons, all serious scholars acquiesced to its non-inclusion in the Shahenshahi and Kadmi calendars.

In case of a calendar/chronology, the realization of a shortcoming need not necessarily be followed by an attempt at "rectification.” Even if 4 BC is accepted as the year of Jesus’ Nativity, one need not rush to call the current year 2013. For, once such a "rectification” is foisted on the world, chaos would follow. What would happen to all the historical data enshrined in several volumes? In some such cases, "perpetuation of past errors” would be a better alternative. Better to desist from "rectifying” because the slightest attempt in that direction would make the knotty dilemma knottier. Besides, how can beliefs literally contradictory, and points of view positively evil, be brought into a single comprehensive system by understanding?

FARIBOURZ NARIMAN

faribourz_nariman@yahoo.com