“A story of two funerals”

While congratulating your columnist Berjis Desai on his excellent article "A story of two funerals,” (Parsiana, May 7, 2017) it is regretted that he writes, "Perhaps in the not too distant future, there will be an electric crematorium in the dakhma…”
The quintessence of the dakhmenashini system is khurshed nagirashni (exposure of a body to sun). The vultures or solar heat are secondary and, in fact, not necessary. The most essential aspect is the rays (as distinguished from the heat) of the sun. The sun never fails to rise. You may not be able to see it if it is cloudy or rainy but its rays are always there, giving us light that enables us to see!
A Zarathushti body, according to our scriptures, is not merely a bag of bones and muscles. If we go deep into the esoteric aspects of our pristine Mazdayasni religion, we learn that our body does not belong to us. It is loaned to our soul by Ahura Mazda to enable it to take incarnation on this planet earth, to gain experience of good and evil, and to return to His fold for progress in the spiritual world. The essential spiritual elements of the body, which are called anasars, are to be returned to Him on death. The rays of sun collect the anasars to return them to Ahura Mazda. The soul gets ‘tan Saroshni panah’ on its onward journey to the heavenly abode. That’s what khurshed nagirashni involves and is absolutely necessary for a Zarathushti soul. These are not available by cremation or burial as the body is not given the necessary exposure to sun.
Once the soul starts its onward journey along with the anasars after the chahrum ceremony, the body becomes gross matter which is to be disposed of without defiling the elements of nature — fire (by cremation) and earth (by burial). There is no need to allow the corpse to linger on for days in the dakhma. The body may be disintegrated by any of the modern scientific methods of biodegradation. We need not use any corrosive acid which gives rise to burning, but there are many biodegradation chemicals available which can disintegrate the bones and muscles to a pulp. With administration of adequate alkaline solution, the pulp could be reduced to a liquid form which can be easily drained into the bhandar of a dakma.
In other words, there is no need for vultures or solar panels which may prolong the complete disintegration. The late Adi Doctor, an eminent scholar of our Mazdayasni Zarathushti religion, has rightly pointed out that installing solar panels in the dakhma makes it a "solar crematorium.” The trustees in charge of Doongerwadi should give a thought to the above suggestion and with the guidance of scientists devise a scheme for disposal of the body in a very short period after the chahrum ceremony without polluting the elements of nature. DARA WADIA
Australia

The editors reply
In the Vendidad (James Darmesteter’s translation, avesta.org) chapter 6 dealing with purity laws mentions the conversation between Zoroaster and Ahura Mazda. There is no reference to the sun dehydrating the corpses.
"44. O Maker of the material world, thou holy One! Whither shall we bring, where shall we lay the bodies of the dead, O Ahura Mazda
"45. Ahura Mazda answered: ‘On the highest summits, where they know there are always corpse-eating dogs and corpse-eating birds, O holy Zarathushtra!”
• • •
With vultures becoming extinct in Bombay and several members of our community preferring cremation to dakhmenashini, I would recommend that interment by way of an aramgah (burial) be introduced at Doongerwadi, as is being done in most places in India and abroad for want of a functional dakhma.
My maternal and paternal grandparents had built agiaries in Hyderabad and Lahore and at Lahore there is a Parsi Zoroastrian aramgah called Gool Baugh. We who believe in Ahura Mazda and treat the fire as holy would be sinning in His eyes if we do not change the present system, where in the absence of vultures we burn the body by ways of solar panels or leave our dear departed to rot and be eaten by rodents, snakes and other creatures during the monsoons.
We should start an aramgah at Doongerwadi before it is too late. The authorities will need to maintain a full force of gardeners to keep the place spickand-span. For its upkeep the authorities could fix a charge for each burial. On commencement of the aramgah I shall be very happy to donate one lakh rupees for such a worthy cause and pray for other benevolent Zoroastrians to come forward and contribute generously. KEKI COOPER
depot@amfilogistics.com

It is four years since I first wrote about rotting dead bodies of our near and dear ones in the dakhmas. The solar panels are obsolete and not effective as claimed. All that the glass panels do is dry the bodies with heat of less than 500°C as beyond 1,000°C the bodies would catch fire. The body becomes hard as wood and every part of the dead body including the skin and hair remain. Since most of us have never entered a dakhma the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) can continue to relate fairy tales.
I am a staunch believer of dakhmenashini, but, when the system has "failed,” we have to bring it back into existence. For the last four years I have been advocating a "chemical” hydrolysis method using sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and potassium hydroxide (KOH). Khurshed nagirashni can also be a part of it. Unless the BPP uses funds to save Doongerwadi, it will be going, going, gone. Whilst ideologies separate us, let dreams and anguish bring us together.
Dr SYRUS IRANI
syrus_irani@homail.com