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Literary Review
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Though A Zoroastrian Tapestry lives up to the expectations generated by the promotions, it needs to be drastically edited and issued in two volumes for it to be really accessible, says ZERIN ANKLESARIA.
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FEW books have been launched with as much hype as Mapin's latest offering on the Zoroastrians. In London it was presented to the Queen at "a glittering function", we were told, while in Mumbai it was released with much fanfare at the Taj Hotel by Dr. P.C. Alexander, then Governor of Maharashtra, who gave an erudite speech comparing the ancient but little-known faith of the Parsis to other religions.
By and large A Zoroastrian Tapestry lives up to the expectations generated by this high-powered promotion. An extraordinarily handsome and very learned volume, it contains a huge body of material organised with meticulous care. Every aid to further study is provided. Carefully annotated and extensively glossed, it has a chronological table of Ancient Iranian Rulers, a select bibliography, and an index running to 25 pages. The numerous maps too are useful, the older ones being works of art in themselves
The essays by distinguished scholars cover the history of Zoroastrianism from its beginnings, lost in time, to the present day in Iran, and the social history of its few adherents who fled persecution to land on the Gujarat coast circa 973 BCE (a disputed date) and came to be known as Parsis, or people from Persia. No one knows for certain where it originated or when. For centuries its teachings were handed down by oral tradition only, and since it discourages religious imagery there is little to guide us.
The Greeks believed that the prophet Zarathustra was a contemporary of Pythagoras, others that he was born 6000 years ago. The consensus points to a date between 1500 and 1200 BCE, and places him in a remote region of Central Asia north-east of the Aral Sea where, the scriptures tell us, the longest night of winter equalled the two shortest days, and summer lasted just two months
Out of the rigours of this harsh clime emerged a religion of stark simplicity which enjoined good thoughts, good words and good deeds, and respect for the environment. Life was a conflict between good and evil, a gift to be celebrated, and death was its negation. Fasting and suffering are not redemptive as in other religions, and the good Zoroastrian avoids them. To be grim or lugubrious, to deprive oneself of normal pleasures, is to do the work of Ahriman, the Evil One, for Ahura Mazda, the embodiment of Good, "created this earth, and yonder sky, and man and happiness for man".
Zoroastrians revere the elements, particularly fire, the symbol of Ahura Mazda, which is at the heart of all their ritual. Water too is sacred as Herodotus noted in the 5th Century BCE, for "they never defile a river with secretions of their bodies, nor even wash their hands in one; nor will they allow others to do so... "
The spread of Zoroastrianism from the North Asian steppes to Iran, its elevation as the Religion of the State under Cyrus and his successors, and its savage suppression by Alexander the Great, demonised in local lore as the ally of the Evil One, make fascinating reading. After his death it enjoyed a splendid resurgence, and attained to unprecedented wealth and power under the Sasanian kings, who used it as an instrument to unify their empire. In the face of political pressure from the West and mass conversions to Christianity, Zoroastrianism sullied its record with systematic persecution, breaking images and destroying churches and trying to convert Christian Armenia by force. Apostasy in particular invited brutal reprisals.
The Sasanian dynasty and its proud religion ended abruptly with the Islamic conquest, and the Mongol onslaught six centuries later completed the destruction. The few remaining Zoroastrians fled to remote desert settlements where they hoped they would not be noticed, and there they remain to this day, disadvantaged and impoverished by the humiliations they have suffered. For over a millennium stringent sartorial restrictions were imposed upon them and, anticipating the Jews in Nazi Germany, they had to stitch a distinctive identifying patch on their clothing. Further, they were condemned to live in dingy, airless houses built only of mud-brick with small apertures for windows and the roof no higher than the reach of a man's hand, and they could not ride a horse or a donkey, or carry arms or even an umbrella. Worse than these was the punitive tax, the hated jizya, which they paid until the late 19th Century, when a wealthy and influential Parsi interceded for them repeatedly and used diplomatic pressure to have it repealed.
Meanwhile in their new home the Parsis flourished. From the coastal villages of Gujarat they began moving to small towns in the 18th Century, and then to Bombay where their rise was meteoric. At one time half the land area of the city and its extended suburbs belonged to them, (much of it still does, but only in name) and they headed colossal trading empires stretching from Aden and East Africa to China and the Straits of Malacca. From the trade in opium, illegal but covertly encouraged by the British, came the immense wealth of the Jeejeebhoy and Readymoney families, who returned it to society in the form of generous endowments for schools, hospitals and cultural centres.
The Wadias, a family of poor carpenters from Surat, virtually created the shipbuilding industry which gave Bombay its initial prosperity. Their ships made of Malabar teak proved to be cheaper, stronger and easier to handle than those made of English oak. Their reputation spread worldwide in 1809 when one of their vessels survived nine ice-locked weeks in the North Baltic Sea while those accompanying her perished.
Outstanding among these pioneers was J.N. Tata, founder of the Tata business empire. Starting with cotton mills, this visionary industrialist conceived massive pan-Indian projects for the production of steel and electricity which continue to supply our needs to this day.
Other stalwarts of the community were indefatigable in the cause of freedom. Dadabhai Naoroji, the first Asian to win a seat in the House of Commons, a founding member of the Indian National Congress and close friend of the Mahatma, was a powerful advocate of self-rule, while Pherozeshah Mehta, as a member of the Legislative Council and then the Imperial Council, dominated the political life of India for 30 years. A member of the Municipal Corporation for a phenomenal 43 years and four times its Chairman, he was known as "the uncrowned King of Bombay". Eighty-seven years after his death his statue still stands outside the Corporation Building, an ironic reminder of lofty ideals in a milieu that has become a byword for corruption and inefficiency.
Opposed to these constitutionalists were the revolutionaries who asked, in the words of Madame Cama, "Why should we deplore the use of force when our enemies drive us to it?" An associate of Veer Savarkar, she created the Indian tricolour on which our national flag was later modelled. Khurshed Nariman, Mayor of Bombay and member of the All India Congress Committee, was equally militant. A distinguished lawyer, he led the Civil Disobedience Movement and was imprisoned time and again by the British. Today arterial roads in Bombay's financial district are named after these four outstanding patriots, a virtual roll call of honour.
The influence of Zoroastrianism on Judaism, Christianity and particularly Hinduism is examined in brief essays. Varuna, the greatest of the Rig Vedic Gods, has much in common with Ahura Mazda, and his companion deity Mitra corresponds to the Avestan Mithra, as Yama recalls Yima. The dog with four eyes, that is, one with distinctive markings above the normal two, is associated with the dead in both traditions. The Vedas speak of two such dogs accompanying the soul to the other world. Linguistic parallels are even more striking. The Avestan yasna is equivalent to yajna, zrazda to shraddha, and kavi is common to both texts. Other words not cited here are manthra-mantra, dugdha-dudh (milk) and gaush-gau for the animal most revered in both cultures.
Surprisingly, the form of Islam which displaced Zoroastrianism adopted many of its beliefs. To Iranian Shias, fire and water are holy, and life is a conflict between good and evil in which each individual has freedom of choice. In both traditions the white rooster, which crows at dawn to dispel the darkness of night, is highly esteemed.
To counterbalance these weighty matters there are chapters on food, clothing, jewellery, Parsi theatre and much besides. Parsi theatre, the precursor of Bollywood, was a vibrant and immensely popular melange of song, dance and high-pitched rhetoric, with opulent costumes, backdrops and special effects. Initially on moral and social themes of a historical nature, it was patronised by Governors and Maharajahs, and worthies such as Sarojini Naidu and Motilal Nehru. In 30 years "Raja Harishchandra", a hardy perennial, was performed 4000 times.
The most distinctive item of Parsi clothing was the garo, made in China for Parsi dowagers. These saris of thick silk, fully hand-embroidered, showed scenes from Chinese mythology or social life, with male figures waving flags and swords, or demure ladies with high coiffeurs fluttering their fans as they were borne in palanquins through landscapes of bridges and pagodas and exotic flora and fauna. In some rare garos entire narratives were depicted in three or four registers throughout their length. Today these dazzlers, almost too beautiful to be worn, are prized family heirlooms.
"No one who does not eat has strength to do works of holiness, strength to do works of husbandry, strength to beget children," say the Zoroastrian scriptures. Appropriately, therefore, three chapters are devoted to food, and a lively painting shows toddy being tapped from a Palmyra tree and kebabs being prepared for a feast in a rural Parsi mansion.
The chapter on village cuisine brings back nostalgic memories of our grandmothers who, as the author describes, journeyed to their ancestral homes every summer with vast tin trunks packed with Bombay goodies — biscuits and cakes from Irani restaurants, home-made toasts, and even onions and potatoes which were scarce in the villages. One also remembers tins full of dried fruits and nuts, and scrumptious Swiss chocolates, which were much, fussed over during the journey to prevent them from melting.
At the season's end back the grannies would go carrying baskets of mango, chickoo and jackfruit fresh from the family orchard, dried fish, dozens of eggs and Parsi biscuits made of wheat flour fermented with toddy. One wonders what these feisty matriarchs with lifestyles as expansive as their waistlines would say of the half-starved, half-dressed "beauties" who parade our catwalks nowadays.
This Tapestry then, contains everything one would want to know about the Zoroastrians up to the year 1947, a one-volume resource centre. And here lies the trouble, for this 700-page tome, weighing 7 kg. is virtually impossible to handle. This reviewer, a senior citizen, cannot even lift it, leave alone carry it about. So an obliging young person must place it on her lap and take it off, and if, in the interim, she has to get up she must push the book or drag it on to a low table. With all this pushing and dragging, the cover is already scratched and worn, and the spine has come loose from the binding.
The remedy? Cut the flab. No one is likely to be enthused by 20 sequential pictures of the Navjote ceremony, 38 of the initiation of a priest, the Iranian bridal dress shown from four different angles, and the group photographs of people staring fixedly into the camera which convey nothing in human terms. Had these been drastically pruned and the book issued in two volumes, it would have been a bibliophile's dream. Instead it will remain for most people a mere showpiece, neglected and unread, as immovable as the<243>
Rock of Ages.
A Zoroastrian Tapestry: Art, Religion and Culture, edited by Pheroza J. Godrej and Firoza P. Mistree, Mapin Publishing, Rs. 7500.
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