The centuries old Rivayats are still relevant today
Farrokh Jijina
"We know that groups of priests and lay people from various Iranian Zoroastrian communities were engaged in some manner in the writing of most of these letters, but exactly how they participated is often unclear,” stated Jamie O’Connell, sixth year PhD student at Princeton University’s department of Near Eastern Studies. She had delivered a talk titled "From Surat to Isfahan: Composing a Zoroastrian Rivayat in 17th century Iran” at The K. R. Cama Oriental Institute on July 26, 2023 and responded to questions from Parsiana via email.
The Rivayats "are among the most important yet least studied sources for late medieval and early modern Zoroastrianism” and were the result of a "complex process involving the contribution of far-flung Zoroastrian communities within Iran,” stated O’Connell. Comprising letters, poetry and other materials composed in Persian by Zoroastrians in Iran, the communication was in response to queries from Parsi communities in India beginning late 15th century.
"I am attempting to reconstruct this letter-writing process. For example, one chapter of my dissertation focuses on a group of Rivayat letters written in the 1620s. Based on dates given in these letters, the Parsi messenger who carried them traveled hundreds of miles within Iran and visited several major Zoroastrian communities.” The scholar stated that each of these communities provided the messenger with a letter or another text to be taken back to India. In contrast, a later Rivayat letter was composed by a group of priests and laypeople who gathered in Yazd specifically for the occasion.
"By 1773, around 30 Rivayats had been exchanged that touch on virtually all aspects of Zoroastrian ritual, theology and daily life,” said O’Connell who studied Zoroastrianism as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania. Most letters contain lists of Parsi addressees and Iranian Zoroastrian signatories, she said. These offer records of the most important priests and laypeople in Iran and India at the time of writing. The doctoral student stated that the number of Iranian signatories accompanying each Rivayat letter varies; some have only a few names listed, while other letters contain dozens of signatories.
"Though the Rivayats were exchanged over the course of several centuries, many of the same topics appear again and again. Zoroastrians in both India and Iran remained focused on matters such as behaving morally, interacting with non-Zoroastrians, properly performing prayers and ceremonies for deceased loved ones, priestly responsibilities, etc,” she stated. Despite the ever-evolving circumstances of the Iranian and Indian communities over the centuries, "concerns like these remained constant.”
Stating that the texts have received "little attention in contemporary scholarship,” O’Connell said that "in the last century or so, scholars, particularly in Europe and the US, have tended to focus on earlier periods of Zoroastrian history… Texts composed in Avestan or Pahlavi have received more attention than those written in Persian or Gujarati, which tend to be characterized as derivative. This view is now changing as more scholars have begun to focus on later periods.”
Jamie O’Connell
Clockwise from above: Jamie O’Connell with manuscripts in the University of Bombay library
and in John Rylands Library, University of Manchester Photos: Jamie O’Connell
O’Connell at The K. R. Cama Oriental Institute
While occasionally the Iranian advice offered to the Parsis on particular subjects changes or evolves over the course of several letters, O’Connell says she does not consider these changes to be indicative of dissensions within the Iranian community, "but rather inevitable adjustments made to religious thought and practice over time as circumstances changed for Zoroastrians… Some of these letters were exchanged decades or centuries apart by Iranian communities separated by great distances.”
Was there any learning which went from India to Iran that was adapted / adopted for use there? "While it is possible that something like this occurred, the Rivayats largely consist of Iranian letters written in response to Parsi questions. Consequently we are missing half of the picture. It is difficult to know what influence Parsi religious knowledge or practices may have had on the Iranian community during the period when Rivayat letters were exchanged.” O’Connell added that there is some evidence of this influence in later periods.
A lot of work on the Rivayats was carried out in the early 20th century by Parsi scholars like Bahmanji Nusserwanji Dhabhar, she noted. "Several scholars have worked on the Rivayats in the last few decades. For example, (Zoroastrianism scholar) Mario Vitalone published (in 1996) an English edition and translation of the last Rivayat ever sent to India, known as the Ithoter Rivayat (comprising 78 questions from Kadmi priests and answers by the Iranians). (Historian and professor) Dr Meher Mistry’s dissertation includes an important contextualization of a series of 18th century Rivayats focused largely on issues related to the calendar (see "Brouhaha in Bharuch,” Parsiana, December 7, 2015).” Other scholars are currently at work on new editions and translations of other Rivayats, O’Connell added.
As to the relevance of the Rivayats for Zoroastrians today, "The texts often contain a wealth of information about topics still relevant to contemporary Parsi communities… For instance, while most Parsis are likely aware that Kadmi Zoroastrians follow a version of the calendar that is one month ahead of the Shahenshahi calendar, they may not know when or why that divergence arose. But there are at least seven Rivayats that explicitly address the calendar issue, several of which have never been translated or published… A close study of these has allowed me to produce a new, more detailed understanding of the cause of the divergence.”
"Customs, traditions, practices”
Writing in the introduction to Ervad Manockji Unvala’s 1922 translation named Darab Hormazyar’s Rivayat, scholar priest Sir Ervad (Dr) Jivanji Modi states that these texts are as important to Zoroastrians as the central religious Jewish text, the Talmud, is to Judaism. Unvala notes that the Rivayats are known by the name of the emissaries who brought them back from Iran. Some texts are anonymous as the person who brought them is unknown. Ervad (Dr) Ramiyar Karanjia, principal of the Dadar Athornan Institute notes that Rivayat is a later Persian word, and means "customs, traditions and practices.”
High Priest of H. B. Wadia Atash Behram Dastur (Dr) Firoze Kotwal stated that the Rivayats give us a glimpse of how carefully the theology and ritual practice of the faith was followed by Iranian priests. "From the Rivayats we know that the learned Iranian dasturs were the gurus of our priests in Hindustan,” he stated. "Much of the information we have today from the Rivayats is based on their familiarity with the Pahlavi books of the time and earlier… These Pahlavi texts were translations of the Avestan texts… The information given in the Rivayats emerged from their knowledge of the Avestan texts which are no more.” Dastur narrated details of the first Parsi emissary, Ervad Nariman Hoshang, who visited Yazd in the 15th century. "(His) observations about his visit are also noted, as is the terrible persecution inflicted on the Zoroastrians. Some of the letters are full of pathos, and one can read the terror and anguish they underwent during successive Islamic regimes.”
The High Priest stated that the Iranian dasturs recognized Navsari as the "stronghold and nurturing ground of religiosity of the Zoroastrian faith and its traditions.”
Kotwal explained that there are "elements of Islamic notions” in later texts, stating that the final chapters of the Bundahishn, for example, were later additions written during the Abbasid (750-1258 CE) period.
"Certain objectionable customs prevailing among the Iranian Zoroastrians were imported by the Qadimis of India about 150 years ago, i.e. the practice of rendering the fire of a lower grade cold before a fire of a higher grade. It was to the credit of the trustees of the Faramji Sohrabji Gamadia Adaran at Mazgaon who were the first to oppose this practice as not being in consonance with the practice of the faith,” appreciated Kotwal.
To Karanjia, the Rivayats hold an important place in religious literature "as they carry precious information which covers several religious topics, practical as well as theoretical. They also contain Persian translations of texts like the Bahman Yasht and Jamaspi.” He stated that "the Rivayats have to be regarded with caution, and should be cross-checked with other religious literature before being completely relied on… They are not considered as authoritative as Avesta and Pahlavi writings.” He cautioned that some later texts, specially the Ithoter Rivayat has some objectionable statements which have been ably disputed by leading Zoroastrian scholars.
As stated Kotwal, "It is always commendable to preserve and nurture our beneficial customs, traditions and practices that sustain our faith… To discard the past is to reject one’s history.”