The item "Ashes to Doongerwadi” (Events and Personalities, Parsiana, February 21-March 6, 2025) prompted me to link it to a suggestion I had made in "Plea for joint action,” (Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, December 21, 2024-January 6, 2025).
The item provides very useful information about the disposal of ashes from the sacred fires of our agiaries and atash behrams. The Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) has magnanimously provided pits on the vast Doongerwadi grounds in which to dispose of the ashes safely and within sacred confines. The community appreciates such proactive decisions by the BPP under the leadership of chairman Viraf Mehta, and with the blessings of Ervad (Dr) Ramiyar Karanjia.
Left: Interior of a columbarium, holding urns
Image generated by ChatGPT;
the columbarium in San Francisco
Photo: Wikipedia
Scientific information about the impact of ashes on the environment, confirmed by environmentalist Dr Rashneh Pardiwala, adds to the credibility of the piece.
A minuscule amount of ash results from burning wood (0.5% - 2%), and from remains of a human body (3.5%). Based on this, I renew my appeal to the trustees of the BPP and the Worli crematorium Prayer Hall to collaborate and construct a columbarium, a structure that holds urns containing cremated remains of the dead. Their ashes, along with those of sacred fires, would rest in the sanctified area, along with the remains of our ancestors resting in the dakhma wells. (The dehydrated remains of corpses are removed from the dakhmas and buried in pits at Doongerwadi — editors)
Since Parsis have always used consecrated aramgahs for burial, building a consecrated facility to house ashes of the deceased at Doongerwadi will confer the same status to their ashes as we are giving to the ashes from agiaries and atash behrams.
Over the years I have written several articles in Parsiana and have received, albeit privately, messages of agreement and encouragement on issues I have identified for the community’s attention. However, no public debate followed, and the articles remain filed in Parsiana’s archives along with so many editorials and op-ed articles that contain practical ideas to support the renaissance of our fast vanishing community. Sadly, the silence is deafening!
I invite all Parsiana readers to respond to the above proposal. If readers voice their responses publicly and/or contact the BPP and Worli Prayer Hall trustees showing their support or other views on the subject, it may nudge community leaders to take action.
YEZDYAR S. KAOOSJI
California, USA
yezdyk@gmail.com