“The highs and lows”

Through "The highs and lows” (Editorial Viewpoint, Parsiana, February 21, 2010), you have done a good job of educating me on the salient features of the appointment of a high priest.

Dastur Kaikhushroo N. Dastoor Meherjirana is 83. So what? We will have to watch his performance. He is not a resident of Navsari nor has he practiced mobedi as a profession. Perhaps, as the bawas say in Gujarati, "Nai mama naa kaanaa mama (something is better than nothing).” That sums it all. Besides, as you point out, only one atash behram in Bombay has a high priest, so what difference does it make if there is a high priest or not or where he resides? Besides, there are quite a few places where there is no high priest but the show goes on. Even if the number of high priests becomes zero, the show will go on.

What I fail to understand is: why do bawas need six Popes? When our ancestors fled from Iran there weren’t so many Popes in the bawa community. Slowly it dawned on a few that these ignoramuses can be brought under their influence and hence territories were carved out and it was made a rule that only a priest’s son can become a priest, all for economic gain. Thus came into existence various panthaks, and Popes of various areas, who called the shots. When they disagreed amongst themselves there was no superior authority to solve the disagreement and show the ignoramuses the right course.

My question is: who appoints the high priest or Parsi Pope and what is their qualification and authority? To me this is a divided house with too many cooks that spoil the broth.

My dad once related to me the following incident that occurred sometime in the 19th century or so. In the good old days any bawa who went to an atash behram in Bombay had to take a bath at the fire temple’s premises where moris (bathrooms) were provided before they were permitted to enter. A Parsi sethia (whose name I don’t remember) went to an atash behram and was told to take a bath. He pleaded that he had taken a bath at home before coming and even his coachman was a Parsi. But he was refused entry. This sethia then built an atash behram in Bombay and appointed a high priest of his choice along with his friends and supporters. So any rich bawa can build an atash behram and appoint anyone of his choice as high priest. And the practice or tarikat, rivaj, revayat, practice, or custom was given a silent burial. Change/reform in the bawa community took over (and bawas are against reforms).

Senior counsel Iqbal Chagla was 100 percent right in his averment that "there is no nomenclature as high priests in the ecclesiastical hierarchy.” What Chagla should have stated instead was that this is the only community in which there are any number of high priests appointed by Toms, Dicks, and Harrys, who have no locus standi or even basic knowledge of the religion.

Going back into history, a king had the right to appoint his high priest, and the king’s religion was the state religion. Thomas Becket was appointed high priest of England by King Henry VIII as Becket happened to be his best friend. In Iran too we have no record that there were high priests of Kerman, Yazd, Pars or Tehran. King Vishtasp became a Zoroastrian, and declared Zoroastrianism to be the state religion.

Bawas have become like the Muslims, issuing fatwas. And those high priests who oppose or are in the minority can do nothing. As mentioned by you in 2003, three out of the six withdrew the fatwa (declaring children of outmarried males as non-Parsi) and three did not, so what was the result? Who had the casting vote? The fatwa became a joke, just like the present fatwa against the two "renegade” priests. And what happened when the navjote of Neville Wadia was performed? Five of the six consented, terming it as an exception, later on one retracted his consent (an exercise in futility), but the conversion took place.Yes, boss "paiso bolé chhè (money makes the mare go).”

While one may or may not doubt Dastur (Dr) Firoze Kotwal’s austerity, it has no relevance to the religious issue.

The madressas are in the doldrums without sons of priests coming forward to take up the profession. And so the end is near for the priesthood and for the bawas. The time is not far when bawas will have to roll out a red carpet to the Mikhail Chistyakovs of the world.

The future will belong to Zoroastrians of all hues, places and cultures, and therein lies the rub. The bawa can do nothing about it.

BEHRAM AGA

behram_r_aga@yahoo.co.in