Behram Dastur’s combative rejoinder ("Lost souls,” Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, August 21, 2018) to the balanced, courteous response by Dr Hirji Adenwalla (Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, July 7, 2018) in favor of truth-seekers begs for a response.
Dastur provides a quotation from the Avesta, without giving the appropriate reference, but goes to lengths on the other hand, to give other references such as the language and names of two well-read persons who translated it.
And there hangs the tale.
We have enough authorities who glibly quote anything from "The Avesta” without giving the reader a clue whether they refer to the oldest scriptures (the Gathas), which we must respect, or the commentaries, paraphrases and redactions in the many hundreds of years that followed.
Any sensible reader would have to admit that changes have to be accepted in 100 years (whether country, beliefs, culture, etc). But here we are to consider hundreds of years that divide the two — the Gathas and subsequent literature — and to compound the issue further, a complete change of language is being used. Let us not be allowed a diversion by someone saying this has been done by learned, erudite persons of the past. I would encourage Dastur and any of his ilk to examine why we are so illiterate regarding our religious history and why we are not investigating matters where subsequent scriptures (even included in our daily prayers!) are not put into their correct perspective and chronological order. Take the example of our most common Kem na Mazda prayer which consists of two texts taken from two different Gathas (in the Gathic dialect, in poetic, metrical form) and interrupted by a piece in Pazend language (and in prose form).
Adenwalla is genteel, as is his wont, using the term "sarcasm” when alluding to Dastur’s description of Parsis who are drawn to other faiths as "bhamtaa bhoots (wandering souls).” I would have used a stronger word. SHEEROY SUNAWALA
Bangalore
sunawalas@gmail.com