"It is now a historical building with special significance for our family… We do our best from our personal funds to keep it in good shape,” stated Jehan Bhujwala, trustee of the Shree Kutch Parsi Anjuman Trust Fund that manages the no longer functioning Pestonji Sorabji Bhujwala Daremeher in Bhuj. A non-Parsi caretaker maintains it, keeping it open throughout the day, lighting a divo and keeping the premises clean. "He and his family have been with us for over four decades,” stated Bhujwala. When the occasional Parsi visitors come, the caretaker welcomes them. "In the tourist season from mid-October to March we get one or two visitors a week, sometimes even one or two busloads a week.”
Above: building of the Pestonji Sorabji Bhujwala Daremeher;
above r: graves in Bhuj Photos Pallon Daruwala
Bhujwala believes that a visit to the building is an opportunity for non-Parsi spouses or children of interfaith marriages to see the interiors of what used to be a place of worship. "Their eyes light up when they go inside…They spend time in what used to be the sanctum sanctorum.” The last mobed to serve left in the 1990s. The last Parsi caretaker, who was from Nasik, left for greener pastures after Covid, stated Bhujwala.
Until she passed away in 2010 Roda Boatwala, a descendant of the endowing family, looked after the building. There are no Parsis residing permanently in Bhuj. The anjuman is not a member of The Federation of the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India, the trustee said. He and his family spend about a month in Bhuj every year. The trustees of the Fund include Jehan, his father Capt Pestonji Bhujwala, Maneck Nanavaty and Saroosh Dinshaw.
Jehan was responding to Parsiana’s request for more information after a Gujarati newspaper report [Divya Bhaskar, (DB) August 17] stated that on Parsi New Year, 30 nursery school children on a field trip visited the building with their teachers. "Muslims and Hindus tied the toran, did rangoli and lit lamps,” noted the report. There was not a single Parsi present, noted DB.
In addition to the erstwhile dadgah, the Fund also looks after aramgahs at Bhuj (about 100 graves) and Mandvi (in Kutch, with about 10 graves) which is 45 km away. Jehan told Parsiana that the aramgah is now being hemmed in by adjoining residences. Most of the graves are in good shape but for a few that are being damaged by vegetation. The Fund has constructed a (commercial) building at some distance from the fire temple, but within its compound in order to monetize the property but with little success so far, he noted.
Endowed by Khan Bahadur Pestonji Sorabji Bhujwala in memory of his late father Sorabji Dadabhai Bhujwala, the place of worship celebrated its centenary in 2005 (see "Benediction in Bhuj,” Parsiana, July 7, 2005). Jehan is the great-great-grandson of the endower.
Some of the graves in the Bhuj aramgah are unique in that they are circular in design. Bangalore-based photographer Pallon Daruwala, who had photographed them and shared them with Parsiana in 2016, had told us that he had heard from Boatwala, then senior resident of Bhuj, that they were either graves of children or of priests who had been buried upright. She had explained to him that when a venerated Hindu priest passed on in Bhuj, he was not cremated but buried upright, perhaps as a mark of veneration.
Parsiana requested Dastur (Dr) Firoze Kotwal to elaborate on the circular shape of these graves. "Gravestones in Parsi aramgahs seem to have a fashion dictated by the times they were made in… If you visit Brookwood cemetery on the outskirts of London, where the Wadia and Tata family graves have been since the 19th century, you will find large mausoleums built over the graves in European style to mark the importance of the deceased person. If you visit the Mahabaleshwar aramgah there are graves decorated with Christian-style angels.” Traditionally a supporter of dakhmenashini, and no alternative method of disposal, Kotwal stated: "From the Zoroastrian point of view an aramgah is not ‘a place of rest’ but afatgah, ‘a place of calamity.’” Not having visited Bhuj, the High Priest felt, "I would not place too much emphasis on the round shape of the gravestones; it must be after a fashion or a personal choice.”