From Kashmere Gate to South Delhi, the city’s Parsi community marks 100 years of influence across the national...
Heritage Articles
Proud recreation of the Parsi past
Who were the dynamic duo of collectors who contributed rare finds to the city’s only centre dedicated to Zoroastrian...
Zubin, Freddie, Ratan: The Parsi conquests
When Ratan Tata made that big Diwali-eve announcement to pitch for India’s biggest overseas acquisition yet, he sent a unique cultural message with a trait so typical of his Parsi community....
Discovering some curiosities in Mumbai
Nearby is the Parsi Tower of Silence. Parsis follow the ancient religion of Zoroastrianism. They believe in the purity of the four elements and are not allowed to bury or cremate their dead. Instead...
Mumbai’s Irani hotspots
With distinctive ambience and mouth-watering fare, Irani cafes enthrall Mumbaikars. Largely frequented by the working class, these cafes are a big draw because they are reasonably priced and...
A Parsee passionate about sidecar bikes!
Standing in one corner of Jer Baug, Byculla, the BSA B31 350cc motorbike with sidecar waits for the rains to end. It is only then, that its owner Neville Choksi will lift the covers from this...
Periodicals of protest
Over the decades, Parsi journalism has managed to fiercely guard its democratic character By Manoj R Nair for Mumbai Mirror The terms, ‘cosmopolitan newspapers’ or ‘community...
Udvada on Behram Roj
This write up was forwarded to us by email. I don’t know the author or the source. However it makes fascinating reading, and something that a lot of people will relate to. The 20th day of the...
Parsis remember their dear departed 10 days prior…
Parsis remember their dear departed 10 days prior to New Year, community observes Muktad ceremony at city agiaries The Parsi New Year is nine days away. But much before the celebrations begin, it is...
Muktaad
Ruby Lilaowala remembers Muktaad, in the Afternoon D.C. Muktaad are the ten days preceding the Parsi new year which are devoted to intense prayers and elaborate rituals for the departed souls...
Photogallery: Zoroastrians of Yazd, Iran
The above is one of a series of 55 photographs taken by Gilles Crampes. These are pictures of the Zoroastrians of Yazd. Check out the entire gallery here [Hat Tip: Vikram J. Parekh]
Blog World Responds to NYT Article
Sepia Mutiny the power house Indian group blog points out to a response by a blogger to the NYTimes article. Amardeep at Sepia Mutiny writes Perhaps the reluctance by more conservative Parsis to...
Zoroastrian MP proposes changing name of the month
Zoroastrian MP proposes changing name of the month of Mordad to Amordad TEHRAN, July 24 (MNA) On Saturday, MP Kurosh Niknam, who represents the Zoroastrian community in the Majlis, presented a...
Takht-e Rostam is pride of Karaj
Undoubtedly, the most ancient historical monument in Karaj, Tehran province, is Takht-e Rostam which dates back to the Sassanid Era (226-650 AD), reported the English-language newspaper Iran Daily....
Islam, The greatest threat to humanity worldwide
Nearly 1400 years ago, a group of nomads from across the scorching Arabian Desert conquered Iran (Persia), the greatest empire known to the history of man. With that, they almost destroyed one of...
Takht-e Soleiman boundaries marked
Islamic Republic News Agency – Tehran,Iran … The complex is the remnants of a fortress home to Zoroastrian priests during the Arsacid and Sassanid dynasties. It was destroyed during the...
‘Parsi Mecca’ Udvada on tourism map of State soon
UDVADA, a small town in Valsad district bordering the Union Territory of Daman is considered as the mecca of the Parsi community. The State Government is now set to develop it as a tourism centre...
Tomb and Prison of Cyrus the Great Eternalized
By preparing the map and holograms of the prison and tomb of Cyrus the Great, these two unique monuments will stay alive in the memory of history forever. Tehran, 22 June 2006 (CHN Foreign Desk)...
Foreigner worked on Chinese Tomb
DNA tests show China’s first emperor employed a foreigner in building his mausoleum, home to the Terracotta warriors, proof of contact between Central and East Asia over 2,200 years ago, state...
Pilgrimage to Iran – 2006
By Noshir H. Dadrawala The month of May 2006 marked my eleventh visit in the last one decade to Iran – the Spiritual Motherland of Zoroastrians all over the world. It was also one of my most...
Roots of fear and hubris
TO understand why Iranians are so proud of their culture and civilisation, I was repeatedly told, one must visit a few places besides Tehran, especially Shiraz, and Isfahan, regarded as the...
Meet Malabar Hill’s senior-most citizen!
Trees are dust collectors, sound dampeners and homes for birds and animals… Incredible it may seem, but it’s true. In this concrete jungle of Mumbai, bang in the heart of South Mumbai,...
Let vultures live for our death: Parsis
A motley crowd of Parsis and nature-lovers listened with rapt attention as Dr RD Jakati, Chief Wildlife Warden of Haryana, spoke at length on his pet subject, vulture conservation. The topic, of...
Lost in time
Down a narrow lane from my school was a candy shop. It was actually a general store but a range of mouth-watering chocolates and candies in colourful wrappers were displayed on the racks visible...
Anglicisation Of The Parsis
by Polly Noshir Chenoy My mother’s contention is: “British gayan ne’ opre vadhare British thai gayan” (We have become more British after the British have left). This, she...
Endangered vultures put Parsis in a fix
Hundreds of vultures once circled above a sacred area in one of India’s poshest suburbs, waiting to feed on the remains of followers of an ancient religion that does not allow its dead to be...
The secret of embroidering a Parsi ‘gara’
The secret of embroidering a Parsi ‘gara’ is now being taught to those willing to learn, as a part of a five-day workshop at Khareghat Colony Parsi gara embroidery, which is a specialty...
Iranshah in 1909
This is a photograph of the Iranshah Atashbehram in Udwada, shot in 1909. The photograph is part of the National Geographic archives and was taken by William Thomas Fee. Image source here More info...
First Trip to India
We saw schools and hospitals established by the Parsis (Persians who follow the Zoroastrian faith and who migrated to India over a thousand years ago.) community. Continue reading here
Historic Kasra Arch
Preserving the historic Kasra Arch as a Persian heritage in danger and inscribing its name in UNESCO’s list of endangered heritage were discussed during the third conference of Iran’s...
Australian sculptor scraps Zarathushtra’s name
Move comes after protests by Parsi community against a nude scultpure named after the Prophet Mumbai Mirror Bureau The Australian Consul General in Mumbai has informed Mumbai’s...
Chaiye Hame Zarthosti – The Parsi Anthem
Gujarati: English Translation: Chhaiye humay Zarthosti Re Mazdayasni nek Kul jehan sathe dosti- Rakhiye nibhavye tek. Mootthi bhar aa tolo Saoo no sangar. Re bol bala bolo Oh, saoo nur ne nar....
Historic Association of Zarathushti Mobeds
by Roxan Aspi Driver in the Jam-e-Jamshed Jimmy Mistry has shown that he can accomplish what he sets out to. A man of action, and not just intention, barely a couple of months after the launch of...
Going to UDVADA on Behram Roj
Going to Udvada on Behram Roj is a custom that a lot of Parsis followd. I personally know of a coupleof people who go religiously (pun intended) every single Behraom Roj. The following is an...
Of myths, legends and fabled Parsi gems
SHAPURBAUG: A retired school teacher is trying to cull out fables and legends about the Parsis in a bid to retrace the path trodden by the community and record people’s lives for posterity....
Learn culture the Parsi way
We want to educate the youngsters of the Parsi community about their religion and culture… The Russian Cultural Centre at Peddar Road is currently showing an exhibition on the Zoroastrian...
Udvada Where The Fires Are Always Burning
CYRUS H. MERCHANT describes and FARZANA CONTRACTOR photographs Udvada for the UpperCrust. A tribute to the Holy City of the Zoroastrians on the occasion of Jamshedi Navroze today. The 20th day of...
The palaces of Iran
Iranian Ben Sarjhi has been photographing the architecture of his homeland for many years. The whole collection is found here
Challenge of religious conversion and Hindu response
Thus, when the Dwarka Mutt Shankaracharya gave the arriving Parsi refugees in Sanjaan [Kutch coast] a five-point requirement for settling in the country, they readily accepted and have not deviated...
Agiaries will go high-tech
‘Parsi Resource Group’ (PRG) aims to strengthen pillars of Parsi community – its Agiaries, priests and youth.. Jimmy Mistry, an architect by profession and owner of Della Tecnica,...
Old pacemakers win hearts
Most families at the rally had cars that had been in the family for years, like AR Dadachanji, a Parsi priest, who took his family for a spin in their 1939 Morris-8. “It’s from the same...
Pleasure palace
… Its walls have seen so much, heard so much, kept so many secrets, shared so many memories – built in 1903 by the Parsi industrialist Jamsetji Tata (his Tata … Read on…
Going, going, gone?
Only four of these rare trees, popularly known as branching palms, remain in the city. They are found in an open plot between buildings A and B at Godrej Baug in Hanging Gardens. But they may cease...
The hotel that was
The Statesman – Kolkata,India … it. “In the Thirties the hotel was run by three directors, including a Parsee gentleman, HR Billimoria who loved horse racing. …
Sonia assures help for father-in-law’s grave
Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has assured financial support for the uplift of her father-in-law Feroze Jehangir Gandhi’s grave here. The work is expected to start within...
Zoroastrians mass graveyard: National monument
“The mass graveyard, in which the Zoroastrians laid the bodies of their lost ones in old days, was endowed to the cause. Therefore, it was taken by Zoroaster’s disciples as a sacred...
Waking up with Pheroza Godrej
Daily News & Analasys – Mumbai,India … Many books and papers followed but perhaps her crowning glory was co-editing “A Zoroastrian Tapestry – Art, Religion and...
First Iranian words that made their way into English
… 70. PARSI or PARSEE (a member of a religious group found mainly in western India, whose religion, Zoroastrianism, started in ancient Iran): From Persian PARSI. … More on PersianJournal
When Mannat was Villa Vienna
Mid-Day Mumbai – Bombay,India … Having no heirs, she wrote it off to her sister Goolbanu and it went onto her son Naryman Dubash, known for promoting the cause of Parsi priests. …...
“Much before the modern five-star hotels
“Much before the modern five-star hotels came up in Mumbai, the city’s swankiest hotel was ‘The Grand’. It is today a fraying three-star hotel, but the Parsee family that...
Love and Longing in Lahore
Kolkata Newsline – New Delhi,India … can remember. Even after partition, I would trot along with my mother who had an entire brood of Parsee relatives in Mumbai. If …
West Bengal starts missing its vultures
Rediff – India … But urban development and ac9;The Renegade Diet'>The Renegade Dietcidental poisoning have almost wiped out the birds, leaving Parsis divided on how best to treat...