Mumbai’s Parsis helped pave way to Mount Mary

Date

September 20, 2011

Post by

arZan

Category

Bombay | Mumbai

hat Mumbai’s Parsi community has a connection to the Bandra fair is a fact known to few. Fr Francis Correa, a local historian, tell of how one of the most famous Parsis of the city Sir Jamshedji Jejeebhoy played an important role in making the journey to Mount Mary’s shrine safer by building the causeway linking Mahim and Bandra.

Quoting from Parsi community sources, Correa said crossing the creek was dangerous during the monsoon and the pilgrims were at risk. Jamshedji’s wife, Lady Avabai, had several sons but none of her daughters survived. The daughter of Sir Rogerio Faria, a Mumbai businessman, told her to write her wish on a piece of paper and deposit it at the feet of the statue of the Virgin Mary at the shrine. A girl was born to Lady Avabai in and was called Piroja. When the child turned eight, there was a storm and 20 boats capsized while crossing the Mahim creek to Bandra. Lady Avabai decided that the family would fund a causeway, keeping the vow she had made to the Virgin at the shrine Three years later, the Jejeebhoy family funded half the cost of the steps leading to the shrine.

6 Comments

  1. Rustom

    ‘Was the Persian Goddess Anahita the Pre- Christian Virgin Mother of Mithra?’ by D.M Murdock?The basic Zoroastrian belief in a virgin-born Savior of the world must have become widely known throughout the Near East in the Achaemenid period, i.e., from the 6th century B.C. onward, when almost all the eastern Mediterranean lands were under Persian rule; and it appears to have exerted some influence on Judeo-Christian thought.?Dr. Mary Boyce, “Astvat-Ereta: The Avestan name of the Saošyant, the Future Savior of Zoroastrianism”?According to some sources, Mithra’s partner and virgin mother is the angel-goddess Anahita….?Dr. Payam Nabarz, The Mysteries of Mithras: The Pagan Belief that Shaped the Christian World (97)read on @ http://www.stellarhousepublish…During the Byzantine war Christian war withZoroastrianism and Persia, a lot of Zoroastrian beliefs were holographed by thebyzantines and packaged as theirs to aid conversion of Zoroastrians intoChristianity. Legends were created about miracles of the new faith and laterMarespand Aderbad/Khusru 2 and others were labelled as bad men as they haltedthe missoneries in Persia. Mitra/ Meher becoming St Michael; The Sarve tree anddecoration of it becoming the X mas tree and the Yalda turning into Christmasitself….the festivities couldnt be stopped and thus changed and with timetook on a shape which enabled the originality to be forgotten in shades ofhistory—- a perfect combination  Zoroastrians forgetting theiroriginals. Another fact is that Sir Jamshedjee Jeejebhoy wasaffected by the conversion of 2 Parsi boys into Christianity in Wilson collegeby the Padre and thus helped open another college.         

  2. Rustom

    ‘Was the Persian Goddess Anahita the Pre- Christian Virgin Mother of Mithra?’ by D.M Murdock?The basic Zoroastrian belief in a virgin-born Savior of the world must have become widely known throughout the Near East in the Achaemenid period, i.e., from the 6th century B.C. onward, when almost all the eastern Mediterranean lands were under Persian rule; and it appears to have exerted some influence on Judeo-Christian thought.?Dr. Mary Boyce, “Astvat-Ereta: The Avestan name of the Saošyant, the Future Savior of Zoroastrianism”?According to some sources, Mithra’s partner and virgin mother is the angel-goddess Anahita….?Dr. Payam Nabarz, The Mysteries of Mithras: The Pagan Belief that Shaped the Christian World (97)read on @ http://www.stellarhousepublish…During the Byzantine war Christian war withZoroastrianism and Persia, a lot of Zoroastrian beliefs were holographed by thebyzantines and packaged as theirs to aid conversion of Zoroastrians intoChristianity. Legends were created about miracles of the new faith and laterMarespand Aderbad/Khusru 2 and others were labelled as bad men as they haltedthe missoneries in Persia. Mitra/ Meher becoming St Michael; The Sarve tree anddecoration of it becoming the X mas tree and the Yalda turning into Christmasitself….the festivities couldnt be stopped and thus changed and with timetook on a shape which enabled the originality to be forgotten in shades ofhistory—- a perfect combination  Zoroastrians forgetting theiroriginals. Another fact is that Sir Jamshedjee Jeejebhoy wasaffected by the conversion of 2 Parsi boys into Christianity in Wilson collegeby the Padre and thus helped open another college.         

  3. Rustom

    ‘Was the Persian Goddess Anahita the Pre- Christian Virgin Mother of Mithra?’ by D.M Murdock―The basic Zoroastrian belief in a virgin-born Savior of the world must have become widely known throughout the Near East in the Achaemenid period, i.e., from the 6th century B.C. onward, when almost all the eastern Mediterranean lands were under Persian rule; and it appears to have exerted some influence on Judeo-Christian thought.‖Dr. Mary Boyce, “Astvat-Ereta: The Avestan name of the Saošyant, the Future Savior of Zoroastrianism”―According to some sources, Mithra’s partner and virgin mother is the angel-goddess Anahita….‖Dr. Payam Nabarz, The Mysteries of Mithras: The Pagan Belief that Shaped the Christian World (97)read on @ http://www.stellarhousepublish…During the Byzantine war Christian war withZoroastrianism and Persia, a lot of Zoroastrian beliefs were holographed by thebyzantines and packaged as theirs to aid conversion of Zoroastrians intoChristianity. Legends were created about miracles of the new faith and laterMarespand Aderbad/Khusru 2 and others were labelled as bad men as they haltedthe missoneries in Persia. Mitra/ Meher becoming St Michael; The Sarve tree anddecoration of it becoming the X mas tree and the Yalda turning into Christmasitself….the festivities couldnt be stopped and thus changed and with timetook on a shape which enabled the originality to be forgotten in shades ofhistory—- a perfect combination  Zoroastrians forgetting theiroriginals. Another fact is that Sir Jamshedjee Jeejebhoy wasaffected by the conversion of 2 Parsi boys into Christianity in Wilson collegeby the Padre and thus helped open another college.         

  4. Dennis Dey

    My Parsi brothers: I wonder if more research could be done into the farthest origins of the Indo-Aryan religions. The Mahabharata speaks of a terrible battle fought between clansmen, in which there was no decisive victor. Is it possible that some of these Aryans migrated Westwards and overturned the beliefs  held previously, the “devas” of old becoming the “devils” of the West. The negatively-endowed “Ashuras” of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata becoming the positively-endowed “Ashuras” further west; e.g. “Ashur-Bani-Pal” ? (Message (Bani) of the Lord (Pal) of the Ashuras)? “Ashur-Nasir-Pal” etc. Another name for Krishna is Akhilesh; Akhilesh dies with an arrow stuck in his heel. ?Achilles? The funerary rites of the ancient Greeks / Trojans are very similar to the funerary rites of the Hindus. Athena springs from the brow of Zeus fully armed; Durga springs from the spiritual emanation of defeated gods in deep meditation and is fully armed by all of them to do battle against Darkness & Sloth. There must be some deep genetic memory latent in all these myths …. 

  5. Dennis Dey

    My Parsi brothers: I wonder if more research could be done into the farthest origins of the Indo-Aryan religions. The Mahabharata speaks of a terrible battle fought between clansmen, in which there was no decisive victor. Is it possible that some of these Aryans migrated Westwards and overturned the beliefs  held previously, the “devas” of old becoming the “devils” of the West. The negatively-endowed “Ashuras” of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata becoming the positively-endowed “Ashuras” further west; e.g. “Ashur-Bani-Pal” ? (Message (Bani) of the Lord (Pal) of the Ashuras)? “Ashur-Nasir-Pal” etc. Another name for Krishna is Akhilesh; Akhilesh dies with an arrow stuck in his heel. ?Achilles? The funerary rites of the ancient Greeks / Trojans are very similar to the funerary rites of the Hindus. Athena springs from the brow of Zeus fully armed; Durga springs from the spiritual emanation of defeated gods in deep meditation and is fully armed by all of them to do battle against Darkness & Sloth. There must be some deep genetic memory latent in all these myths …. 

  6. Dennis Dey

    My Parsi brothers: I wonder if more research could be done into the farthest origins of the Indo-Aryan religions. The Mahabharata speaks of a terrible battle fought between clansmen, in which there was no decisive victor. Is it possible that some of these Aryans migrated Westwards and overturned the beliefs  held previously, the “devas” of old becoming the “devils” of the West. The negatively-endowed “Ashuras” of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata becoming the positively-endowed “Ashuras” further west; e.g. “Ashur-Bani-Pal” ? (Message (Bani) of the Lord (Pal) of the Ashuras)? “Ashur-Nasir-Pal” etc. Another name for Krishna is Akhilesh; Akhilesh dies with an arrow stuck in his heel. ?Achilles? The funerary rites of the ancient Greeks / Trojans are very similar to the funerary rites of the Hindus. Athena springs from the brow of Zeus fully armed; Durga springs from the spiritual emanation of defeated gods in deep meditation and is fully armed by all of them to do battle against Darkness & Sloth. There must be some deep genetic memory latent in all these myths ….