The dadgah fire will continue to burn in the Pestonji Aslaji Doongaji Agiary in Bharuch as promised. "This was a commitment made when the legal proceedings were started in 1992 and we intend to honor that,” affirmed the lone trustee of the Bharuch fire temple Cyrus Doongaji to Parsiana on August 1, 2019. The Supreme Court (SC) has ruled that the adaran-grade fire from Bharuch’s languishing place of worship can be moved to New Bombay’s Shirinbai and Khurshedji Hormusji Doongaji Daremeher. The shift is to take place after the monsoon.
This case was assisted when all the five high priests Dasturs (Dr) Firoze Kotwal, Khurshed Dastoor, Cyrus Dastur, (Dr) Jamasp JamaspAsa and Kaikhusru Ravji, the 18th Meherjirana "gave affidavits that shifting of holy fires is not against the religion,” said Doongaji. The dasturs "narrated instances where holy fires have been moved in the past… and that a holy fire must be actually worshipped,” not forsaken, he stated. "Not a single person comes to worship in the (Doongaji) agiary,” stated the trustee. "When I go there, I ask the caretaker to open the premises for me.”
The fire at Bharuch’s Pestonji Aslaji Doongaji Agiary (above) will be moved to New Bombay’s
Shirinbai and Khurshedji Hormusji Doongaji Daremeher (top) Photo: Jasmine D. Driver
The Parsi population of Bharuch is now 80 to 85, of which 40 individuals are over 75, he stated, quoting recent figures from the anjuman. Besides the Doongaji Agiary, there are three other fire temples in Bharuch.
Doongaji said that those who had opposed the move of the fire from Bharuch told him that they feared that if the fire from that agiary is moved, it would set a precedent for en masse shifting of other fires from Gujarat, with possibility of misdemeanor on the part of the trustees of those fire temples. The trustee appreciated that lawyers Apurva Vakil who argued the case before the Gujarat High Court and Siddharth Bhatnagar before the Supreme Court worked pro bono on the case. The advocate on record was Raian Karanjawala. Legal advice was also provided by lawyers Burjor Antia and Homiar Vakil.
The New Bombay Daremeher was inaugurated on May 14, 2018, 25 years after The New Bombay Zoroastrian Association Charitable Trust was registered (see "The dream daremeher,” Parsiana, June 7, 2018). Whilst the edifice had been ready since mid 2016 (see "In memory of Mehroo,” Parsiana, May 7, 2016), two years after the foundation stone laying in June 2014 (see "Faithfully laying the foundation,” Parsiana, July 7, 2014) the fire temple could not be inaugurated as an agiary as it lacked a consecrated fire. Plans to bring the sacred fire from the Bharuch Agiary were stymied by two residents from Ankleshwar who obtained a stay on the shift from the district court in Valsad.