The Zoroastrians has the burial custom of offering their dead to the dakhme. The early dakhmes were extremely simple buildings on the wall of the mountains. In the Islamic era, the handmade dakhmes of clay and stone were called borj... more
The Zoroastrians has the burial custom of offering their dead to the dakhme. The early dakhmes were extremely simple buildings on the wall of the mountains. In the Islamic era, the handmade dakhmes of clay and stone were called borj (tower). In India, the immigrant Zoroastrians, called Parsis, preserved their burial custom. Over time, the Parsis made newer dakhmes in accordance with the humidity of India. The custom of burial in dakhme is called Tana among Parsis. The ceremony included principles such as laying the foundation of dakhme, sanctifying it, and driving 301 nails into the ground and rolling a cotton rope around them. The description of these ceremonies is recorded in texts such as Revayat-e Farsi and Wijarkard-e dini. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, the dakhme ritual has been abolished in Iran as a result of the religious intellectual movement. In India it became a challenge between the radical and reformist religious Parsis. In this research, various types of Zoroastrian dakhmes are studied. Also, the evolution of dakhme building is evaluated, regarding its ritual and religious aspects, and the position of Zoroastrian dakhmes in the present time is regarded as well.
Abstract Research into religious minorities in Iran since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 has been fragmentary and rarely includes the personal testimony that encompasses memory, lived experience, devotional life and religious views. This... more
Abstract
Research into religious minorities in Iran since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 has been fragmentary and rarely includes the personal testimony that encompasses memory, lived experience, devotional life and religious views. This Chapter draws on interviews conducted with members of Zoroastrian communities over the past seven years in cities, towns and villages in Iran to illuminate some of the changes to religious and social life that have take place since that time. Questions raised include what it means to be Zoroastrian in Iran today, how do Zoroastrians negotiate their minority status in order to survive as a community, what sets them apart from their fellow Iranians and what are the shared identities that separate them from Zoroastrians outside Iran.
As the primary literary language of Iranian Zoroastrians for almost 750 years, and in use among Indian Zoroastrians for three centuries, the Persian corpus of Zoroastrian texts and specially the Persian Revāyāt (written between 1478-1773... more
As the primary literary language of Iranian Zoroastrians for almost 750 years, and in use among Indian Zoroastrians for three centuries, the Persian corpus of Zoroastrian texts and specially the Persian Revāyāt (written between 1478-1773 CE) are quite significant in their extent and documenting the history of Zoroastrian communities of Iran and India during an under‐studied period. Many of the Revāyāt were written and copied by the most famous scribes of Avestan liturgical manuscripts and were frequently sent with attached manuscripts to answer the recurrent questions on ritual matters asked by the Parsees. Thus, they aim to provide also complementary information to the Avestan manuscripts for the celebration of the Zoroastrian rituals in the Avestan language, which does not appear in the manuscripts themselves. Accordingly, they are one of the fundamental tools for the edition of the Avestan texts in their performative context. Beside the value of Rēvāyāt for the reconstruction of the theological thoughts and rituals for the whole period of Zoroastrian history between the Mongol conquest of Iran and the Qajar Period, they also contains invaluable information about the production of the Zoroastrian manuscripts, social and historical issues regarding the life and evolution of the Zoroastrian communities in Iran and India.
