Readers' Forum
“Moving with the times”
In her letter "Moving with the times,” (Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, October 21, 2015) Roda Hakim has touched on the laissez faire attitude that has gripped our community. One issue she mentions is that of dakhmenashini and our collective unwillingness to look at alternatives.
The late Dastur Khurshed Daboo had, in his articles in Jam-e-Jamshed way back in the 1940s and 50s, likened the dead body to an empty crate ("khaali khokhu,” in his words), and asserted that the prescribed prayers are for the benefit of the departed soul and to help the bereaved family cope with their grief.
Sir Jivanji J. Modi, in his book The Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the Parsees has this to say: "The main principle at the bottom of the Parsi custom of disposing of the dead and at the bottom of all the strictly religious ceremonies enjoined therewith is this, that the body, when the immortal soul has left it, should, preserving all possible respect for the dead, be disposed of in a way the least harmful and the least injurious to the living.”
In the ancient world dakhmenashini served this purpose by isolating the carcass so completely from habitation that the chance of infection in the rest of the community would be minimal. But today this method has been seen to fail on both counts: bodies decaying for months are a huge source of contagion; and, moreover, by allowing them to rot the way they do, we show scant respect for the dead.
Cremation is a way out. Most of us are averse to it because we consider it as polluting fire, the one element we venerate in our temples, and therefore sinful.
Again, Modi points out that the Vendidad VIII 73-96 stipulates 16 types of fire to be amalgamated in the process of consecrating an atash behram; and the very first three he lists are fires used in burning a corpse, burning filth and burning dirt. Where, I ask, is the "pollution,” or the sin attached thereto? No doubt these fires are first purified by elaborate ceremonies, but they are part of the laid-down list of components.
Electric crematoria seem to be the answer. Unlike the wood crematorium, it is a "closed” furnace, so that germs are killed instantaneously and prevented from wreaking havoc among the living. At the same time, the body is rapidly reduced to ashes and there is no slow decomposition and putrefaction.
I am sure the proponents of dakhmenashini have sound arguments, not all on religious grounds, for preserving the current system. This is one area where the community’s spiritual and temporal leaders can come together and work towards a suitable resolution.
KERSASP R. DADACHANJI
dadakr@gmail.com
The late Dastur Khurshed Daboo had, in his articles in Jam-e-Jamshed way back in the 1940s and 50s, likened the dead body to an empty crate ("khaali khokhu,” in his words), and asserted that the prescribed prayers are for the benefit of the departed soul and to help the bereaved family cope with their grief.
Sir Jivanji J. Modi, in his book The Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the Parsees has this to say: "The main principle at the bottom of the Parsi custom of disposing of the dead and at the bottom of all the strictly religious ceremonies enjoined therewith is this, that the body, when the immortal soul has left it, should, preserving all possible respect for the dead, be disposed of in a way the least harmful and the least injurious to the living.”
In the ancient world dakhmenashini served this purpose by isolating the carcass so completely from habitation that the chance of infection in the rest of the community would be minimal. But today this method has been seen to fail on both counts: bodies decaying for months are a huge source of contagion; and, moreover, by allowing them to rot the way they do, we show scant respect for the dead.
Cremation is a way out. Most of us are averse to it because we consider it as polluting fire, the one element we venerate in our temples, and therefore sinful.
Again, Modi points out that the Vendidad VIII 73-96 stipulates 16 types of fire to be amalgamated in the process of consecrating an atash behram; and the very first three he lists are fires used in burning a corpse, burning filth and burning dirt. Where, I ask, is the "pollution,” or the sin attached thereto? No doubt these fires are first purified by elaborate ceremonies, but they are part of the laid-down list of components.
Electric crematoria seem to be the answer. Unlike the wood crematorium, it is a "closed” furnace, so that germs are killed instantaneously and prevented from wreaking havoc among the living. At the same time, the body is rapidly reduced to ashes and there is no slow decomposition and putrefaction.
I am sure the proponents of dakhmenashini have sound arguments, not all on religious grounds, for preserving the current system. This is one area where the community’s spiritual and temporal leaders can come together and work towards a suitable resolution.
KERSASP R. DADACHANJI
dadakr@gmail.com
◆ ◆ ◆
From the archive