Clashes over the clergy
Mobeds, or the chronic shortage thereof, are not only upsetting trustees and agiary-goers but also embittering relations between anjumans and their members (see "Poaching panthakies," pg 25). The Bilimora anjuman at the West Zone B meeting of the Federation of the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India (FPZAI) in Valsad on July 24, 2016 complained bitterly about the Nagpur anjuman luring their priest (see "Maintain the place of worship," Parsiana, August 21, 2016) while the Gandevi anjuman cried foul when their priest left for Bilimora (see "Poaching priests," Events and Personalities, Parsiana, November 7, 2016). Gandevi got a new mobed from Ajmer, and so on. The Mhow anjuman is involved in an internecine battle over the expulsion of their priest. The mobed, his family and a few former Mhow residents are challenging his ouster. The matter is now in the courts. The priest was formerly at Bilimora but was asked to go, according to the Bilimora trustees.
There seems to be a ready job market for priests, even if their record is marred by controversies. And the driving factor is the trustees’ fear of the consecrated fire being left untended. The larger anjumans and well frequented fire temples can afford to pay more, while the smaller associations and less patronized agiaries struggle to muster up funds to meet even meager, existing salaries.
Some agiaries do not provide for paid leave or even a weekly day off. There is no provident fund or pension. The heat generating, smoke emitting fire has to be tended, prayers recited, ceremonies performed and the bell rung at the five gahs (approximately every four to five hours) to ensure that the grade of the consecrated fire remains an adarian, a step above a dadgah but a grade below an atash behram. This is perhaps the issue that gives the trustees sleepless nights. What if there is no priest to perform the five bois? Will the public hold the trustees responsible for the degradation of the fire? Will they be accused of not fulfilling their bounden duties? Would this failing be viewed as a breach of trust?
One obvious solution is to keep paying higher salaries to retain the priests. But with the number of devotees diminishing due to the community’s declining numbers (57,264 in the 2011 census and probably 55,000 or less, five or six years on) paying more and more is not an option for the smaller or less endowed associations. Bilimora has a larger corpus and Parsi population than Gandevi which has only around 20 residents.
If a priest gets more remuneration elsewhere, why should he turn it down? No one can fault a priest for striving for a better standard of living and more humane working conditions. Many have families with growing children to support.
When Parsis move from the smaller cities to the larger ones to better their prospects, or for purposes of their children’s education, medical assistance, and so on, can one blame mobeds from doing likewise? The late Dastur (Dr) Peshotan Mirza, one of the two Udvada high priests was in Bombay much of the time while Dastur Khurshed Dastoor commutes between the south Gujarat town and Bombay. His children study in Bombay. Dastur K. N. Dastoor Meherjirana, high priest of Navsari, resided in Bombay till he moved to the WZO Trust Funds’ Senior Citizens Home in Navsari a few years back. Dastur (Dr) Kaikhusroo JamaspAsa’s son is practicing and studying medicine in the United Kingdom. Dastur (Dr) Firoze Kotwal’s sons are abroad.
One reason why the late Dr Behram Masani, past president of the Mhow anjuman, may have opted for a priest against whom the Bilimora anjuman had reportedly cautioned him, is that the existing Mhow priest was leaving and being the only adarian in north India, Masani probably feared the fire would remain unattended. A paramobed, or behdin pasbaan as they are now referred to is not qualified at present to offer boi to an adarian fire. Thus the trustees are put in a spot. If a mobed gives one month’s notice then within that time another priest has to be sourced. If a likely candidate is employed elsewhere, he would be obligated to give a month’s notice at that fire temple. Hence the trustees’ desperation.
Not only are behdins (lay people) barred from performing boi, women are banned from becoming priests even if they are from an athornan family. In Iran and North America though, trained lady mobedyars do officiate as priests. Further, non-Parsis are not permitted entry into a fire temple, so that task of keeping the premises clean falls on the priest, his assistant or a chasniwalla (helper), assuming they are available and the trust can afford their services.
In some agiaries a single priest may perform the boi only thrice every 24 hours instead of five times. The fire at times may, even if extinguished gets relit. Non-Parsis are surreptitiously admitted to sweep and swab the floors after closing the kebla door. Non-Parsi electricians, plumbers, etc tend to the needs of the premises. Who is there to check on the goings on? Some houses of worship may not have a visitor for a fortnight. The trustees may be residing elsewhere, often in Bombay or some other large city, or if present may turn a blind eye.
This means that only the well patronized adarians and atash behrams supported by trusts with deep pockets will survive. The rest will be reduced to dadgahs. But is that so bad? The Delhi anjuman fire temple is a dadgah but it more than meets the spiritual needs of the capital’s Parsis. Its milestone anniversaries are celebrated with gusto.
Common sense would dictate that lay people be permitted to tend the fire in the higher grade fires and women be inducted into the priesthood. And that fires be shifted from less frequented fire temples to those that have more footfalls. The Lonavla agiary houses two adarian fires. The proposed New Bombay agiary is still in search of a fire. A move to shift the fire from the Doongaji fire temple in Bharuch has been stymied after opponents moved the courts. Unfortunately where faith and emotions hold sway, logic is unwelcome. Unless some radical solutions are found, not only will adarians become dadgahs, even dadgahs will become defunct.