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While for many community organizations, including Parsiana, time may stand still, the grand clocks at our fire temples continue to tick. Those that show the correct hour and chime regularly are admired respectfully. The ones that work intermittently are looked at sympathetically. But those unable to keep pace are viewed dismissively.  

In the first half of October this year we visited atash behrams and agiaries in south and central Bombay, interacted with a few priests, trustees and those restoring clocks, and learnt about the challenges of maintaining timepieces that may be over 100 years old. The longcase or floor clocks that are over six feet tall are known as grandfather clocks; those between five and six feet as grandmother; and those between three and five feet as granddaughter. An enclosed pendulum and usually two weights (to drive the pendulum and striking mechanism) are suspended by either cables or chains. The weights are wound by two keyholes on each side of the dial.

Barring three or four instances where a plaque on or below the clock case indicated when the item was gifted and by whom, for most clocks, the name of the donor is unknown. It is believed that when Parsis who once stayed in mansions and palatial bungalows moved into smaller residences that were unable to accommodate their clocks, they gifted them to fire temples to help the priests and devotees keep track of the change of gahs.

The most imposing clock case at the H. B. Wadia Atash Behram standing over 10 feet from the ground level, bears an inscription in Gujarati and a monogram in English. A sturdy clock in the Anjuman Atash Behram hall bears images of distinguished individuals (but no names legible). At the Dadysett Atash Behram, the fanciest clock bears an image of Zarathushtra. At the Banaji Atash Behram, the most distinctive clock stands in a case with an ornately carved hood.

Many such clocks were presented when the city observed Bombay Time (one of the two official time zones established in British India in 1884). It was four hours and 51 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). When Indian Standard Time that was five hours and 30 minutes ahead of GMT was sought to be introduced throughout the country in 1906, strong public sentiment against this, voiced by Sir Pherozeshah Mehta and others, managed to stall the move for several decades. Since certain rituals of the community were calculated with reference to the position of the sun at local time, Bombay Time was earlier observed at fire temples but reportedly not anymore. We learnt that one clock at the Wadia Atash Behram shows Bombay Time even now as does another at the Seth Pestonji Kalabhai Vakil Kadim Atash Behram in Surat. 

Reliable restoration

For years it was Homi Avari, now 89 years old, who would wind clocks at the Wadia and Anjuman Atash Behrams and several other fire temples in Bombay by rotation with his master key. While he continues to visit these fire temples when he is able, health issues have restricted his regularity in recent years. He hopes though that "Padshah sahib aapuné chaalta haalta raakhé (the holy fire keeps us mobile).” Since he needs to commute by taxi, his conveyance fare is usually reimbursed. 

He has also been repairing clocks over the years and a sticker bearing his name and contact details is frequently seen on many grandfather, wall clocks and mantle pieces. He regrets though that he is no longer able to scout for parts that need replacement.  

Eighty-three-year-old Aspi Karani, a mechanical engineer with a passion for vintage and antique pieces, mentioned that after his retirement in 2000 when his brother-in-law Rustom Tirandaz sought help to restore the clocks at the Patel Agiary in Mazgaon and those in the collection of Ervad Nariman Dalal, he accepted the challenge "to keep me occupied. Now it is occupying my entire day. There is a limit to the physical exertion I can undertake.” After his daughter’s marriage, Karani started using her room to undertake repairs of different sized timepieces.

 Looking at the clock movements he is able to gauge the period when they were manufactured, whether prior to the 20th century and before or after World War II. Ninety percent of his clients are Parsis many of whom profess a "love for old things but that doesn’t mean they may enjoy a facility to repair it.” He cited the instance of his daughter who took a clock with her to Australia and when it stopped, she needed her father’s expertise to restore it! He believes "every 10-15 years a clock requires servicing; needs a lot of care.” 

Karani has taken upon himself the winding of the clocks at the Rustomframna Agiary in Dadar, reported Ervad Kaizad Karkaria. Prior to him, Avari helped wind the clocks. At the time of the 75th anniversary of the Agiary the clocks had been sent to a non-Parsi father-son duo at King Circle for servicing but for the last 21 years they have not required any repairs. 

The clocks at the Banaji Atash Behram are being maintained by a third generation member of a family who was wary of his name appearing in print. If a clock at Banaji stops functioning, expecting it to be a time consuming inspection, he takes written permission from the trustees and carries the clocks home where he opens up the machinery. "The mechanism in every clock is different. Nothing is easy; it is time consuming,” he declared. 

Unable to find anyone to repair his clock, homeopath Dr Sharukh Pavri undertook to do it himself with guidance from friends abroad. Over the years he has built up a library of books on the subject and occasionally gets tips from the Internet. He now looks after the clocks at the Anjuman Atash Behram. During the Covid lockdown he made keys for the clocks and taught a chasniwala to wind the mechanism, convinced that the old and fragile clocks need to be wound by only one person. There must be around seven or eight clocks at the Anjuman Atash Behram. The tower clock on the rear side that once struck chimes but no longer shows the time has only pigeons roosting there.

  complex clock mechanism Photo: Dr Sharukh Pavri

Spending on an average between five to 15 hours a week on his self-taught hobby, Pavri is now equipped with special tools and gadgets to custom-make parts not available elsewhere. Although most of the clocks are from England, "you can’t take a part from one clock and put it in another,” he mentioned. The clock that he recently overhauled on the verandah of the Anjuman Atash Behram is over three-and-a-half feet in diameter, requiring two or three persons to bring it down or to install it. "I don’t charge a penny for the hours of work, only for the parts,” he said.

His study of clocks has taught him that clock making was a cottage industry. It was not made by a single person but was the combined effort of individuals each of whom specialized in making different components like the dial, hands, wheels, levers. The name on the dial was not necessarily that of the manufacturer but could have been of a jeweler or the donor. The longcases seen in Bombay were most likely made in India. He shared images of the machinery of clocks he had restored, of the pendulums and cases that looked transformed after he had cleaned and polished them.

Despite his health challeges, 70-year-old Zarir Bhathena of Surat has been looking after the four clocks at the Modi Atash Behram and two at the Kadmi Atash Behram in the city. From the age of 15 he had been observing his father Manekshaw, a railway employee, repair clocks so he would help out part-time whenever he had a break from studies or job commitments. Although initially employed at Citurgia Biochemicals in the clerical cadre, during a worker strike he had shown his prowess in engineering maintenance making industrialist and former Bombay Parsi Punchayet chairman Jamshed Guzder persuade him to continue in the engineering department from where he retired as manager in 2002. Subsequently, he worked as an engineer for a dyeing company for 15 years. Now retired, he devotes more time to clock repair and maintenance. His services were even summoned for repairing the clock at the Navsari Atash Behram and assembling the one at the Iranshah donated in memory of Jal Katpitia of Surat.

While he may be able to repair a watch in one hour, repair of clocks may take up to three days. Over the years there have been barely four or five times when Bhathena has not been able to successfully repair a timepiece. He believes in handling only one timepiece at a time knowing that even the threads of the screws may differ from clock to clock. 

In this exclusively male domain, a common refrain among the clock restorers is that no youngster wants "to come forward and learn.” Frequently customers who pressurize them for speedy completion of work are told, "Try going to Hormuz (Watch Company),” well knowing his reputation for being overburdened. On a visit to his shop at Gowalia Tank, Parsiana saw unending rows of clocks on the walls. Additionally, there were several standing on the floor plus other clocks piled one on top of each other in a horizontal position on the counters. There was no sign of the owner and the attendant refused to share his contact number. The wall clock from the Farvardian at Doongerwadi has been at this shop for over three years, the Doongerwadi priest informed us.

Pressure on priests

Donated in memory of Maneckji Sett, the rare grandfather clock standing there has stopped working for the last over three years after being wound incorrectly, reported Ervad Hormazd Aibada of Maneckji Sett Agiary. The dial has three holes with an unusual key in a Z shape. A special feature of this clock was that the dial screen would change colors depending on day or nighttime. Further the moon phases were also indicated on the clock. Aibada stated that he has been unable to find a Parsi repairer and he is reluctant to entrust it to anyone else.

Ervad Hormuz Dadachanji of Vachagandhy Agiary referred to a valuable French clock on their precincts which he guesstimates must be around 100 years old. He knows that it had been once restored by Noshir Mulla who returned it after a year but did not charge any fee. Thereafter there has been no issue with this clock. To ensure that the balance of the clock is maintained they entrust the winding task to only one person. Ever since Dadachanji was asked whether he would be willing to sell a clock, he fears a possible theft, having heard of such instances in other fire temples.

Behram Ardeshir of the Dadysett Agiary and Atash Behram Trust recalled the time when he became a trustee in 1997 and one of the first issues confronting the then trustees was the theft of a clock. "All these clocks have been made in an age of quality when the mechanism lasted beyond a lifetime. All the clocks at the Dadysett Agiary and Atash Behram have been here for generations,” he said. As maintenance is now proving difficult in the absence of Avari, Ardeshir is considering doing the winding himself. "The clocks are so sensitive that even moving them slightly can cause them to go off balance but that has not been the case with the clocks here. It is advisable to remove the pendulum before shifting a clock. If the pendulum cannot be removed, it should be held so that it does not swing during shifting,” advised Ardeshir.

The clock connect

Members of the community who had made a career in this field and their succeeding generations have used the surname Taleyarkhan, Ghadially, Watchmaker. As proudly mentioned a descendant from the Taleyarkhan family, the honorific Tal-e-yar khan (a friend and expert on time) was bestowed by the Mughal emperor Akbar to her forebears from Surat who had succeeded in repairing a favorite clock gifted to him by anEuropean envoy to his court.  

"Horology, (the art of making instruments for indicating time) is a dying art,” A. N. Venkateshwar Rao, a second generation horologist who had restored the four-faced Wadia Clock Tower in Fort’s Bora Bazar area was quoted in The Times of India of October 6, 2025. According to him, the rust and wear caused by the city’s coastal climate necessitate regular upkeep.

The faithful though believe that the clocks have found a safe haven in fire temples for despite the heat and ash and soot from sukhad, loban and kathi they very rarely break down indicating they are blessed by the atash padshah.