Baroda celebrates

Community members in Baroda congregated for a hama anjuman maachi in Uzirin gah, followed by a jashan led by Ervad Homazdiyar Bhesania on March 23, 2018 to mark the 14th salgirah of the adarian fire at Bai Dhunbaiji Dadabhai Bhimji Umrigar Agiary. Managed by the Shree Parsi Panchayat, Vadodara (SPPV), the agiary building was "well illuminated and decorated with flowers and rangoli,” notes an email dated April 26 received from Ervad (Dr) Parvez Bajan, panthaky of Bombay’s Bomanji Merwanji Mewawala Agiary, who was the chief guest on the occasion. After partaking of chasni and light snacks, the members proceeded to Godrej Hall at Hira Baug to hear Bajan’s keynote address on Iranian history up to Sasanian times, and onwards to the exodus to India. Quoting the late Zoroastrian scholar Prof John Hinnells, he said "perhaps no other religion has influenced so many people, in so many continents, over so many centuries.”

SPPV trustees present were president Baman Cama, Jehangir Parabia, Aspi Vajifdar, Firoze Patel, Cyrus Bhesania and Maneck Mody. Bajan was introduced to the audience by Col Adi Chinoy. After a vote of thanks from Vajifdar, the gathering partook of a community dinner sponsored by SPPV and catered by Ruby Khajotia.
The fire in the Umrigar Agiary was elevated from a dadgah to an adarian in March 2004 following three weeks of ritual ceremonies (see "Ablaze in Baroda,” Parsiana, May 2004). Originally installed in 1845 in Anandpura, Kothi, when the government requisitioned this land, it was shifted to the old Parsi dharamshala at Fatehgunj. In 1959 with the munificence of Hirabai Contractor who bequeathed the land and a generous contribution from Dhunbai Umrigar in memory of her husband Dadabhai, the Agiary was built on the main road of Fatehgunj.