Dear All
Started in January, Project Hamazor is being run by the city-based Ushta-Te Foundation. Among the works undertaken, it invites eminent speakers, organizes counselling and services in the sectors of medicine, finance, law and even family. Historian Rizwan Kadri, who spoke at the December meet held on Thursday, said, “I was able to shed light on the importance of our shared heritage with them. I also discussed the priceless Parsi literature that I found in the Sunday market recently. Together, we realized that original Parsi literature needs to be revisited, from the view point of young Parsis.”
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In his book “Necropolis of Gonur” (Kapon Pub. 2007) Sariniadi, a member of the Russian Science Academy, portrayed the Zoroastrian roots of the necropolis: “Funeral rites are believed to be the most conservative and traditional ones. It is common knowledge that the first world religion, Zoroastrianism, could appear only on the foundation of ‘Iranian paganism.’ The funeral rites of the Gonur necropolis demonstrate the origin of funeral traditions that later in a reformed way were included in Zoroastrianism. Linguists long ago have come to the conclusion that Zoroastrianism was based on a complex system of funeral rites, the centralidea of which was to save sacred Nature (first of all the earth) from profanation by decomposed corpses. The funeral customs revealed at the Gonur necropolis fully correspond to the known Zoroastrian rites. There, the ‘unclean’ dead body was moved away from the living ones, then it was ‘cleaned’ to avoid ‘profanation’ and to restore the state of ‘ritual cleanness.’ (pg. 160).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVlO7_w6JRA&feature=share&list=PL5B29BEB9B7254B85
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Sarianidi
http://blacksandsfilm.wordpress.com/victor-sarianidi/http://blacksandsfilm.wordpress.com/books/
http://blacksandsfilm.wordpress.com/category/articles/
http://eu.greekreporter.com/2013/12/24/greek-archeologist-victor-sarigiannidis-passes-away/
Kersi B. Shroff
December 30, 2013
In about three years, non-Parsi scholars of Zoroastrianism will be able to see a replica of a fire temple at the revamped F D Alpaiwalla Museum, ensconced in Khareghat Colony on Hughes Road.
The restoration work was started about a year ago and funded by the Bombay Parsi Punchayet to create an enduring Zoroastrian legacy as part of the10th World Zoroastrian Congress, which wrapped up on Monday. On Wednesday, WZC delegates gathered for a “jashan” or traditional Zoroastrian blessing to mark the end of the first phase of the renovation , which involved securing the 80-year-old structure.
“The next phase involves restoring the artifacts (coins, stamps, furniture, porcelain and sculptures) and organising the lighting, display cabinets and temperature control,” said the National Gallery of Modern Art’s advisory committee chairperson Pheroza Godrej , who has been spearheading the project along with Zoroastrian researcher Firoza Punthakey-Mistree , conservation architect Vikas Dilawari, curator Nivedita Mehta and other conservationists .
Click Here for the full story in Times of India
Click Here for the story in Indian Express
This video provides a summary of the military history of ancient Iran. Given that under savage attacks by Macedonians, Arabs, Mongolians and etc. all historic records and books were burned and destroyed, the history of Persian Empire, its advancement in engineering, science and military is one of the most poorly-documented in the world. Instead, their history was written by their enemies, who proceeded to miscast them as villainous archetypes in the sagas of Rome, Constantinople, and Mecca. However there are still some references available from the western sources that provides better assessment of their history with more objectivity and less bias.
Music by:
1. Shahram Nazeri, Loris Cheknavarian
2. Shaghayegh Kamali, Vatan
3. Juno Reactor, Don Davis – Navras
During times of trials and tribulations it is well known that our ancestors shielded and protected our sacred Shreeji Pak Iranshah by moving it to different centre. History records that Shreeji Pak Iranshah was shifted to the following centres from time to time:
Sanjan – 669 years;
Bahrot Caves – 12 years (1393 – 1405 A.C.);
Vansda Forest – 14 years (1405 – 1418 A.C.);
Navsari – 313 years (1419 – 1732 A.C.);
Surat – 3 years (1733 – 1736 A.C.);
Navsari – 5 years (1736 – 1741 A.C.);
Valsad – 1 year (1741 – 1742 A.C.);
Udvada – 272 years (28-10-1742) till date.
Most Parsi Irani Zoroastrians are familiar with all the above places except for where exactly in Vansda Forest Shreeji Pak Iranshah was lodged for 14 years (1405 to 1418). Very few are aware that our Shreeji Pak Iranshah was lodged in caves on the hill at Ajmalgadh, approx two kms. away from the village of Godhmal.
Click Here for the full write-up
Courtesy : Dinshaw Tamboly
IRANIAN HISTORY
HIGHLIGHTS OF IRANIAN HISTORY
The study of the history of Zoroastrian religion can be divided into eight stages, five of which are Mazdayasni/Zarthoshti dynasties which ruled over Iran . The first two are often erroneously considered legendary as no historical or archaeological records of those times survive.
The five main dynasties which ruled over Iran are:
Click here to continue reading the synopsis…IRANIAN HISTORY in Summary
Courtesy : JOLLY. WRITER.
Did you know?
Historical records indicate that the Zoroastrian presence in America dates back to the 1860s: during California’s Gold Rush, one of the prospectors was a Zoroastrian named Cawasji Zaveri; in 1865, New York’s Evening Post published a letter protesting slavery from a Zoroastrian named Dosabhai Faramji Cama. Other early Zoroastrians include Pestonji Framji Daver, a Parsi who came to San Francisco in 1892, and the first recorded Irani Zoroastrian, Rostam Kermani, who settled in the United States in 1926. It is believed that the first North American Zoroastrian Association was formed in 1929, when a group of seven Zoroastriansin the New York area gathered in one Phiroze Saklatwala’s living room on November 10, 1929.
Courtesy : Feroza Saran
Five Rare Repoussed Silver Zoroastrian Plaques for a Fire Temple
Parsee Community, India, probably Bombay
19th century
dimensions: 19.5cm x 3.7cm (x2); 10.4cm x 3.6cm (x2); and 16cm x 6.9cm; combined weight: 215g
This very rare set of five silver plaques are repoussed and chased with Zoroastrian religious scenes and would have been made in Bombay for the local Parsee (Parsi) community.
Most likely, the plaques were commissioned to be attached to the doors leading to a room of particular religious significance in a Parsee fire temple, quite possibly the prayer hall or fire chamber. Each of the plaques has been drilled with small holes to allow for fixing to a wall or door. Stewart (2013, p. 212) shows a serving priest (boyvara) tending the sacred fire in the fire chamber of a fire temple and affixed to the double doors leading to the chamber are a series of plaques similar to the examples here.
Courtesy : K F Keravala
To know more about the man and his unique life read THESE POSTS Dr. Framroze Sorabji ChiniwallaI can say without hesitation that all I know, I owe to Dr. Saheb’s books. He was a genius the communit… His numerous works have been divided into different sections so as to make it easier for the reader to understand the great expanse of his work.
Click here for the complete series
Compiled by : Ervad Marzban J. Hathiram
Punjab Kesari (1938) had a conventional hero in the film, which was played by the popular stage actor then making his way into Tamil cinema, P.U. Chinnappa who soon rose to become one of the top singing stars of the1940s. The movie was directed by a Bombay-based Parsi filmmaker then active in Tamil Cinema, Fram Sethna. However, the movie met with only limited success.
The screen story of Punjab Kesari is long, full of twists and turns and somewhat predictable. It is about a freedom loving man named Punjab Kesari (Kesavan), a detective, and his assistant (Kali N. Ratnam) who calls himself by an unusual name ‘Karapaanpoochi’ (cockroach). Sundaranathan (Chinnappa) is a young man in love with a young woman Padmabai (Rajalakshmi), the daughter of a rich man Somanathan Prabhu (H. H. Sarma). The rich man decides to get his daughter married to the young man but there is a villain, (Perumal) who covets her and her wealth, with a gang behind him. They kill the rich man and foist the murder on the hero. He goes to prison, and a kind doctor (Kannan) engages the detective Punjab Kesari to find out the truth. Punjab Kesari and his assistant unmask the killer and the truth. Sundaranathan and Padmabai marry and live happily.
Click Here to read more
Here is an interesting article about Parsis in Shanghai 80 years ago. For the Parsis it was the most preferred foreign place to be in the 1920’s & the 1930’s. Even my Aunt (ma-see) Tehmi J. D. B. Irani was married there around 1935. It was the most preferred foreign place for the Bombay Parsis as Bombay was on this very important shipping route to Shanghai for all the British and European lines.
Please click on the link below for more details
Rusi Sorabji
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Ms. Saran’s story weaves back to when Bejan Dadabhoy Tata, a distant cousin of the founders of the House of Tata, left India’s shores and made it big in Shanghai. Her detailed pen swerves through the history of a nation in flux to stitch together the personal tale of a man who succeeded and built his home in China. By bringing to life intricate details through a first hand interview with B.D. Tata’s son, Jehangir Bejan Tata, just before he passed away last November, Ms. Saran unveils the family’s struggle to prove ownership of their house – Avan Villa – which their father built and remnants of which continue to stand in the heart of modern day Shanghai at No. 458 Wulumuqi North Road.
Although Jehangir Bejan Tata tried persistently to retrieve papers to prove ownership of their house over the past few decades, the exercise has proved futile. Besides some documents, the family also has photos of the house, of Shanghai in the 1940’s and pieces of their life in Sam Tata’s photos. Sam Tata, Jehangir Bejan Tata’s brother, was a photographer and had worked alongside Henri Cartier-Bresson, a master of candid photography and one of the world’s most renowned photojournalists. Sam Tata published a book of his photos taken during Shanghai’s extraordinary summer in 1949 and called it Shanghai 1949, The End of An Era.
Click Here for the full shared history – The Tatas in Shanghai | Inchin Closer
How fortunate for the boys of the Bai Virbaijee Soparivalla (BVS) Parsi High School Karachi to have been taught by such highly qualified scholars: Behram Sohrab Rustomjee, Dastur Dr Maneckji Nusserwanjee Dhalla and Dr Maneck Bezonjee Pithawalla.
They were amongst generations of wonderful Parsi teachers, both men and women, who devoted their lives for the benefit of their students and their beloved BVS. After Behram Sohrab Rutomjee retired, the school was ably led, for decades, by the late Mrs. Deena Mistry, who became an ‘icon for the best in Pakistani education’. In her memory, the alumni of BVS, Muslim, Hindu and Parsi, have built a school for the poor in Karachi.
Behram Sohrab H.J. Rustomjee
By the late Ardeshir Cowasjee
(Source: DAWN.com, February 09, 2003)
One hundred and sixty-four years ago the British decided to conquer Sindh. Rear Admiral Sir Frederick Maitland (who as captain of HMS Bellerephon in 1815 had the honour of transporting Napoleon Bonaparte to the remote island of St Helena) was ordered to land an invading force at Karachi.
He was aboard the flag ship, HMS Wellesley, built in Bombay. The fortress commander, the ‘Killardar’ of Manora, Wasul Ben Butcha, considered it beneath his Baloch pride to surrender. The Wellesley fired a broadside, the fort was smashed to smithereens, and the white flag was hoisted.
What did the unfortunate brave Wasul have on his side? If Sir Richard Burton is to be believed, his garrison was three-strong – an old man, a young woman and a boy. One gun had no carriage, another gun had been fired once and had jumped from its carriage – ‘which it had destroyed in its violent struggle for freedom’, and the third gun would not go off. (Hopefully, we are now better prepared.)
An agreement for the surrender of Karachi was signed by Maitland, and, as Behram Rustomjee (May 1912 – December 2002) writes in his book ‘Karachi’, : “Thus it was that Karachi came to be formally occupied by the British on 7th February 1839.”
Behli (as he was known) Rustomjee, who had graduated in London as a BE, was our English and modern history teacher at the Bai Virbaijee Soparivala Parsi High School in the mid-1930s. He rose to be principal and was at the BVS for over thirty years until he retired in 1965. How fortunate my generation was to have had teachers such as he and the great Shams-ul-ulema Dastur Dr Maneckji Nusserwanjee Dhalla (Ph.D, Columbia 1909) who taught us ancient history, the history of civilization and religion. Dr Maneck Bezonjee Pithawalla, a Doctor of Science, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and also of the Geological Society, taught us geography and poetry. In fact, each could lecture on any subject.
Together with our academic learning, what was instilled into us was decency, tolerance, the spirit of ‘do as you would be done by’, the acceptance of the right of each man to his opinion, that religion is strictly between a man and his God and that it has nothing to do with politics or the state, that men of different faiths and beliefs can coexist, and that, above all, life is a gift from God to be lived and enjoyed to the full.
Behli gave me a copy of his book ‘Karachi (1839-1947)’ and in it he inscribed: “To a great-grandson of HJ from the author, a grandson of HJ. Let us work with unswerving faith on the future of Karachi, the city we both love.”
From the arrival of Sir Charles Napier in 1843 right up to the death of Mohammad Ali Jinnah in 1948 Karachi was a well-governed, tidy, clean and organized city. It was home to Hindus (of all castes and sorts), Muslims (Shias and Sunnis and all the other sects), Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Jews, Buddhists and Parsis who all coexisted amicably. And the same applied to the entire province of Sindh.
Behli wrote much on Napier, the first governor of Sindh, to whom the old and fine Karachi owes much. He tells us of the Italian marble obelisk erected in 1853 at what was later known as Napier Mole on which was inscribed the following words:
“From this spot on 1st October 1847 was fired the Farewell Salute to His Excellency Lt. General Sir Charles Napier, GCB, on his retirement from the Governorship of Sind, being the extreme point from which at that date a wheel carriage had ever passed along this Bunder, a work planned and executed under the government of His Excellency, and thus far completed at the date of his departure from this province.”
As says Behli, it was a befitting testimony to the planning and vision of Napier, to his extraordinary talent for civil administration, to his love for Karachi and to the care and attention he had accorded this then beautiful peaceful city. As he departed Karachi’s shores that morning on board the ‘Moozuffer’ bound for Suez, he exclaimed: “Thou shalt be the Glory of the East, would that I could come again to see you, Kurrachee, in your grandeur.”
Sir Charles Napier was ‘an old Peninsular Officer’ and the hero of the storming of the impregnable Imambargah fortress and of the victorious battles of Mianee and Dabo which rendered the province of Sindh unto the British Empire and gave rise to the story of the famous telegram he sent back to London which bore the sole word ‘Peccavi’.
He was 61 years of age in 1843 when he first came to Scinde (as it was then written). Slight and meagre of frame, scarred with the wounds of many battles, his conquest of our province was the culmination of his military career. He was appointed the first governor and commander of forces in Sindh by the governor-general, Lord Ellenborough. His first act was to move the centre of government from Hyderabad to Karachi, which for a sea power such as Britain could not have been a better choice.
Thus started the transformation of Karachi from a ‘miserable native fortress’ into a thriving port, a fortified town and a nerve centre for its new rulers. He built the finest barracks to house his soldiers (these magnificent buildings still stand and house the offices of the commander 5 corps and the Naval Comkar), whose welfare was his primary consideration, he set up for them a sanatorium at Gizree and Clifton, and laid out gardens and playgrounds. He planned the construction of Karachi harbour and its docks, he set up a timber pile pier at Keamari and built a causeway between that point and the city of Karachi, and he built the Manora lighthouse.
To ensure a sufficient supply of water he laid down plans: “The waters of the Muleer River were to be utilized not only for irrigating the government gardens for fountains but also for the houses of the town, the cantonment and even for the harbour of Keamari.”
Law and order being the first duty of any government, it was Napier who organized the police department of Sindh and Sir Bartle Frere commenting on it wrote: “His police system was, at the time he introduced it, far in advance of any other in India. It has been the model for most of what is good in subsequent reform of the Indian police.”
Security brought an increase in trade and business and industry and a growth in population. Merchants and cultivators came to settle and British and Parsi mercantile men turned their attention to Karachi which promised to be the ‘great emporium of trade with Central Asia’.
On August 10, 1847, for reasons of his own state of health and that of his family, Napier sent in his letter of resignation to the governor-general, who, in accepting it, recorded his regret at the loss of an officer “who combined rare abilities for the civil and military administration of the country, an ability which justifies the unlimited confidence.”
To revert to Behli’s inscription in his book, the HJ to whom he refers was Hormusjee Jamshedjee Rustomjee (1846-1899), grand seigneur, merchant prince, philanthropist and Grand Master of his Masonic Lodge, who lived and enjoyed his life in Karachi, and who ensured that many less endowed than he were also able to enjoy life. A marble tablet salvaged from the Masonic Lodge has inscribed on it: “This tablet has been erected by the Masonic Fraternity of Sind as a mark of the esteem and respect in which H.J. Rustomjee was held, for his sterling qualities both as a gentleman and a Mason.”
Our school, the BVS, founded in 1859 and nurtured by many an educated man of the community, enrolled only Parsis until 1948, when, on Jinnah’s request,
its doors were opened to admit boys of any faith, irrespective of caste or creed. In the year 2000, the government education division adjudged it to be ‘the best private boys’ school of Karachi, and it was awarded the Millennial Shield.
(Source: DAWN.com, Dtd Feb 09, 2003)
Courtesy : Zenobia Patel
| Pembroke College Celebrates Official Openning Of Shahnama Centre for Persian Studies With $2M Endowment By Philanthropist Bita Daryabari | |||
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San Francisco, CA (June 2, 2014) - On Saturday, May 24th, Global philanthropist Bita Daryabari and speakers from around the globe gathered to celebrate the official opening of the Shahnama Centre for Persian Studies at Pembroke College in Cambridge, England. (Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.) The $2 million (US) endowment by Daryabari ensured the creation of the Centre, which aims to encourage research on Persian literature, history and art. The Centre grew out of the Cambridge Shahnama Project founded in 1999 by Professor Charles Melville and originally funded by the British Academy. It has already accumulated an extensive library with the publications dedicated to Persian literary and visual culture, particularly related to the study of the Shahnama texts and their illustrated manuscripts, which are now kept in the museums and libraries all over the world. The new Centre’s director is Dr. Firuza Abdullaeva who joined the project in 2001 being a Professor of Persian at St. Petersburg University. At the opening event, Daryabari spoke passionately about the Shahnama Centre, noting, “We can offer the world a more accurate image of Iran.” The benefaction will find the continued study of the Persian national epic, the Shahnama or The Book of Kings by Abu’l-Qasim Hasan Firdausi and its crucial role in the formation of the Iranian cultural identity throughout the ages to present day. The text of the Shahnama, based on the ancient Iranian mythology, was completed in 1010 and is the longest poem ever written by a single author in the whole history of humankind (40.000-80.000 double verses, depending on the version). The event, based in Pembroke’s Old Library, included an exhibition of Medieval and Contemporary art inspired by the Shahnama.
Speakers included professors and students involved in Persian Studies at Cambridge, including Dr. Abdullaeva, Dr. Olga Davidson, Professor Touraj Daryaee and Dr. Sussan Babaie. All expressed an optimistic outlook for the future of Persian studies at Cambridge University. |
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For more information ->
www.payvand.com/news/14/jun/1083.html
Very interesting… there are 4 pages to this link. Check them out and see the old building that houses Aatash Padshah
