Had the Bhikha Behram Well’s (BBW) reputation as a boon granting wishing well been more widely known, its precincts would perhaps be thronged by crowds greater than at the Gateway of India. However, most people, from the commuter on the Andheri fast to the authorities, believe that it is an exclusive Parsi place of worship. Is it really?
Of course, snort the orthodox, it is a place of worship for Parsi Zoroastrians only. The strident fanatic puts it less diplomatically: "Are you blind or you don’t understand English? Read the (‘Parsis only’) board before asking unnecessarily, provocative questions!” Perhaps it is not so simple.
The board states that BBW is a Grade I heritage structure and a place of worship; no entry to non Parsis. In our country, no one finds this offensive; and even if they do, no one wants to challenge the dictum. The facts, though, are different.
When Bhikha Behram Panday originally from Bharuch, quickly made a fortune in a decade and, obeying the divine injunction given in a dream, dug the well in 1725, his sole intention was to provide water to all thirsty people, not only Parsi Zoroastrians. Next to the well was a trough for thirsty animals. It was a public well having sweet water to drink, despite being so close to the sea. A few years later, Bombay faced an acute water crisis with nearly all wells dry except for the BBW which provided an unlimited supply of life giving sweet potable water.
Vintage photograph on a Parsi calendar printed by Union Press
on the Bhikha Behram Well’s tercentenary
And it has retained this function for centuries.
It was not Panday’s objective to create a place of worship for his coreligionists. At some point of time, BBW became a wishing well. Gradually it acquired a spiritual aura. Sometime in the late 19th century Parsis began praying at the Well. In the towns and villages of Gujarat from where they had come, virtually every home had a well, often shared through an aperture with a neighbor.
Water was a sacred element presided over by the powerful deity, Avan Ardavisoor Banu; an oil lamp was placed in the niche in the well and decorative designs created every morning near it using rice powder or chalk. A turtle was lowered in the well both to purify the water and as an auspicious symbol. On holy days, the well was garlanded with flowers. Menstruating women were barred from its periphery. Each well supposedly had a guardian entity with a temperamental disposition — pleased with those who maintained its sanctity and angry with transgressors. If a heap of ash appeared overnight near the well, it augured disaster. If a perfumed night breeze wafted in, one was blessed. BBW reminded the Parsi migrants from Gujarat of their own little wells.
After communal tensions mounted between Parsis and Muslims in the mid-19th century over defiling funeral processions, resulting in sporadic violence (no prizes for guessing whom the Brits supported), the community became xenophobic and insecure. The public well veered towards becoming a private sanctuary. The water body had transitioned into a wish fulfilling mechanism and thence into a place of worship.
Unlike fire temples having a trust deed whose beneficiaries are only Parsis which empowers the trustees to bar entry to others, BBW had no trust deed. In 1954, a public religious trust was registered to manage the Well. In most cases, the trustees are the legal owners of the property. The Well was never anyone’s property; hence the trust only seeks to maintain, manage and protect. Who owns the Well? Dedicated to the general public, the answer is the city of Bombay. The trust can manage it but does not own it. If the trust does not own it, can it bar entry to non Parsis?
Therefore, the formation of this trust does not make this Well, which was dedicated to all the peoples of Bombay, a Well with restricted use to Parsis only. It cannot even be argued that the paramount intention of the founder or the donor in this case was to limit the Well only for Parsis. Quite the contrary. So how do the orthodox tackle this issue?
One clever argument is as follows. By custom and convention for over a century now, this Well has become a place of worship in the collective consciousness of the Parsi community; and the sister communities have gracefully acquiesced. None have complained against this exclusive worship and hence the Well has become a kind of sanctum sanctorum for Parsis.
In recognition of this conundrum, its water is made available to the public from a tank outside the compound of the Well. Smita and Nasreen may see the many lit oil lamps from afar. Ramesh and Richard may drink its water. But only Sorabji and Goolbai can enter the compound through a guarded gate to offer dar ni pori and rub their foreheads on the Well’s edge while watching the many large fish lazily floating in its blessed waters.
Until recently, offices were supplied water from the BBW. No longer, due to the growing consciousness of drinking RO (reverse osmosis) filtered water. Of course, the faithful continue to guzzle BBW water. Soli cares not for E. coli!
Berjis Desai, lawyer and author of Oh! Those Parsis and Towers of Silence, is a chronicler of the community.