Iranshah, the great Zoroastrian Fire Temple at Udvada, India
Jun 2, 2015 7:06:04 GMT
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Post by geven46 on Jun 2, 2015 7:06:04 GMT
Iranshah the great Zoroastrian Fire Temple ....kmz (1.63 KB)
This post is a sequel to earlier posts- "Gonur, Bactria Margiana Archaeological Complex"-the BMAC and "Parsis, the World's Smallest nation" in that these people, who built this temple in the 18th century to house a sacred fire kindled earlier in the 10th century, are descendants of those ancient Indo-Iranian peoples who settled in Gonur in around 1800 BC coming there from southern Russia's Andronov culture.
The Iranshah Fire Temple at Udvada, Gujarat,India. Udvada is a small quiet town on the sea coast of south-western- Gujarat, (160 klms north of Mumbai,) with modest hotels, for the pilgrims, and priests' simple homes around the Temple. The sacred fire housed here in this temple, was kindled in around 750 or 950 A.D. by the first Zoroastrian refugees who landed here on the western coast of India, fleeing from the Arab invasion of Iran. (the fire was kindled in a place to the south of Udvada, called Sanjan, and finally brought here. to Udvada, in the 18th century.)
Being a sacred fire "of the highest grade" it comprised from gathering the flames from 16 fires, the first from from natural lightning, 'caught' as a live burning ember of wood/tree from a lightning hit, and handed over to the waiting priests (this may take months/years to occur), and the other 15 fires from a sacred fire in a priest's household, from fire used by a potter, a mason, a smithy, a cobbler, a saddler and other traditional professions using fire as a tool of their work. (Obviously, as no profession now use fire in the modern age, the last sacred fire was kindled towards the end of the 19th century.) These fires are first ritually "purified" separately, by lengthy elaborate rituals, of holding fresh wood in a ladle over these fires, several times, as prescribed, accompanied with liturgies, igniting the fresh wood which is considered a purified form of the defiled fire; then, the "purified" fires are brought together and after more prayers said over the flame, enthroned in the sanctum of the temple. The symbolic idea is that we humans are returning to God His sacred creation which we have used for our mundane purposes.
More important, the sacred FLAME IS THE NOT JUST THE SYMBOL OF THE WORSHIP OF GOD, AHURA MAZDA, just AS THE HOLY CROSS IS A SYMBOL OF WORSHIP IN CHRISTIANITY, but by it's very sacredness considered a Son of God, the most sacred element in creation. Zoroastrianism believes every element in nature has a "mainyu," a life force, hence considered a living entity, to be treated with care-the elements are fire, water, air, earth, the Sun and stars, metals, plants and vegetation, each are under the direct care by one of six Archangels under God.
For a complete body of Zoroastrian scriptures, the Avesta, and rituals and ceremonies refer to this link: link
A Zoroastrian priest in the sanctum, tending the sacred fire in a Fire Temple, a white linen cloths-piece, known as the pudum, covers his mouth to prevent his breath "polluting" the sacred fire.(This is not the Udvada temple.) This fully ordained/trained priest has to undergo additional rigorous "self-purification" ritual before he enters the sanctum of the the highest grade of Fire Temple, the Atarsh Bahram. In this case where it comes to tending the sacred fire of the highest grade, a 'team' of priests who have undergone the purification, remain in the temple premises for around 12/15 days, then 'return' home when the next group of priests take over the duty after their self-purification ritual; the ritual of purification includes constant prayers in a secluded enclosure next to the temple building, but no conversing with anyone, simple food eaten sitting on a bare stone slab, all this after a bath over the body, first covered with earth, to indicate renunciation, and then consecreted cow's urine known as nirang, then water, and a heightened state of purity by prayers!!! (The devout hand over pieces of sandalwood to this priest at the sanctum entrance seen in the picture.) A bell suspended in a corner of this room is rung five times a day, at the start of each of the five spiritual divisions of the day. It is rung in measured strikes, one at a time, like the chiming of the clock at the hour, and is rung to ward of any evil/negatives, and synchronized with certain chants by the officiating priest. At this time, the change of the day, a "throne-seat" of sandalwood wood pieces is placed on the fire as symbol of the seating place of the Archangel of Fire, Asha Vahista (Best Righteousness.) Zoroastrians consider this a great act of merit to offer sandalwood as well as slow burning wood pieces called kathi; the latter is placed around the central fire and slow burning hence prevents the main fire flames in between from going out.(see picture.)
ZARATHUSTRA, ZOROASTER TO THE GREEKS. (est. to have lived between :1500 B.C. or 1100 B.C., some date him at 600 B. C. traditional belief-7500 B.C.).There is no certainty on when he lived but his very personal, poetic, astoundingly complex, metrical verses,composed by him, the Gathas, that have survived, passed down by memorizing from father to son, and committed to writing in the 4th century AD. These can be transliterated word by word into the other Indo-European, the Vedic dialect, points to the certainty that he lived close to the Indian Aryans (Indo-Europeans) when they were composing the Vedas, around 1200 BC, the oldest literature of Hinduism.
The Gathas, that declare belief in the One uncreated Creator God, Ahura Mazda, Lord Wisdom, are a very small body of verses but form the central core of the Avesta, the sacred scriptures of the Zoroastrians. In some verses Zoroaster communes with God, in other verses he exhorts his listeners to exercise wise choices to live and act righteously, or if they choose to do things through wrong means, be responsible for the consequences; Zoroaster prophecies that eventually a Saviour will come on Earth and cleanse it of all evil and God's creation and man will be returned to its pristine state. This is known as Frashokereti, the Resurrection.
In spirit and substance, these verses, the Gathas, although forming part of the larger body of scripture, the Avesta, is marked by content and substance which speaks entirely of ethical values, passionate aspirations for man to lead a fully righteous life, and is totally absent of any exhortations to followers to perform rituals or live by any dogmatic do's and don'ts.
Ervad Dastur Kavasji Edulji Kanga, a venerable priest and scholar of Zoroastrianism, responsible for translations of Avesta texts; typically a pious and learned priest of the nineteenth century. Here he is pictured in the book of common prayer the Khordeh Avesta, a wide selection from Avesta scriptures from much earlier times, put together around the 3rd century A. D. After their migration to India, the Zoroastrians adopted Gujarati (a descendant of the Vedic language spoken in western India) as their language, and priests such as Dastur Kanga brought out the Avesta in the Avestic language but written in the Gujrati script, to make Zoroastrians 'literate' in their scriptures. (now, the scriptures in the Avesta language are also available in the English script- a marvel of adaptability!)
picture from early twentieth century- The Jashan ceremony (a thanksgiving ceremony celebrating for acquiring a new home, or entering into new venture-business or a job, or to commemorate a sacred day, or in memory of a departed person) officiated by at least two priests. The Jashan symbolically enacts the Act Of Creation by Ahura Mazda, with the High Priest (only one of the two in this ceremony in above picture will be the officiating senior priest) symbolically representing Ahura Mazda's agent on Earth; the other priest symbolically represents humanity, receiving God's bounty: the fruits/flowers reps. the vegetation world, the sacred flame reps. the Archangel Fire-Asa Vahista-Best Righteousness, and the Universe, a stone mortar vessel [not seen in this pic.] reps. the Earth and metal kingdom, and a glass of milk and bowl of water reps. the animal kingdom and water creation respectively. The chief priest intones aloud sacred verses from the holy scriptures, the Avesta, and invokes names of Ahura Mazda, the Archangels and Angels, name of Zarathustra and his ancestors, names of the past great priests,and names of the ancestors of the sponsor of the ceremony. After the ceremony, the sacred flame is 'returned' to the main fire in the sanctum of the temple, or if the ceremony is held in a home, the flame is added to the kitchen hearth in older traditional homes, or allowed to go out on its own in a modern home.
The Jashan ceremony, detailed above, in the home of a devotee, in present times.
Geve Narielwalla
This post is a sequel to earlier posts- "Gonur, Bactria Margiana Archaeological Complex"-the BMAC and "Parsis, the World's Smallest nation" in that these people, who built this temple in the 18th century to house a sacred fire kindled earlier in the 10th century, are descendants of those ancient Indo-Iranian peoples who settled in Gonur in around 1800 BC coming there from southern Russia's Andronov culture.
The Iranshah Fire Temple at Udvada, Gujarat,India. Udvada is a small quiet town on the sea coast of south-western- Gujarat, (160 klms north of Mumbai,) with modest hotels, for the pilgrims, and priests' simple homes around the Temple. The sacred fire housed here in this temple, was kindled in around 750 or 950 A.D. by the first Zoroastrian refugees who landed here on the western coast of India, fleeing from the Arab invasion of Iran. (the fire was kindled in a place to the south of Udvada, called Sanjan, and finally brought here. to Udvada, in the 18th century.) Being a sacred fire "of the highest grade" it comprised from gathering the flames from 16 fires, the first from from natural lightning, 'caught' as a live burning ember of wood/tree from a lightning hit, and handed over to the waiting priests (this may take months/years to occur), and the other 15 fires from a sacred fire in a priest's household, from fire used by a potter, a mason, a smithy, a cobbler, a saddler and other traditional professions using fire as a tool of their work. (Obviously, as no profession now use fire in the modern age, the last sacred fire was kindled towards the end of the 19th century.) These fires are first ritually "purified" separately, by lengthy elaborate rituals, of holding fresh wood in a ladle over these fires, several times, as prescribed, accompanied with liturgies, igniting the fresh wood which is considered a purified form of the defiled fire; then, the "purified" fires are brought together and after more prayers said over the flame, enthroned in the sanctum of the temple. The symbolic idea is that we humans are returning to God His sacred creation which we have used for our mundane purposes.
More important, the sacred FLAME IS THE NOT JUST THE SYMBOL OF THE WORSHIP OF GOD, AHURA MAZDA, just AS THE HOLY CROSS IS A SYMBOL OF WORSHIP IN CHRISTIANITY, but by it's very sacredness considered a Son of God, the most sacred element in creation. Zoroastrianism believes every element in nature has a "mainyu," a life force, hence considered a living entity, to be treated with care-the elements are fire, water, air, earth, the Sun and stars, metals, plants and vegetation, each are under the direct care by one of six Archangels under God.
For a complete body of Zoroastrian scriptures, the Avesta, and rituals and ceremonies refer to this link: link
A Zoroastrian priest in the sanctum, tending the sacred fire in a Fire Temple, a white linen cloths-piece, known as the pudum, covers his mouth to prevent his breath "polluting" the sacred fire.(This is not the Udvada temple.) This fully ordained/trained priest has to undergo additional rigorous "self-purification" ritual before he enters the sanctum of the the highest grade of Fire Temple, the Atarsh Bahram. In this case where it comes to tending the sacred fire of the highest grade, a 'team' of priests who have undergone the purification, remain in the temple premises for around 12/15 days, then 'return' home when the next group of priests take over the duty after their self-purification ritual; the ritual of purification includes constant prayers in a secluded enclosure next to the temple building, but no conversing with anyone, simple food eaten sitting on a bare stone slab, all this after a bath over the body, first covered with earth, to indicate renunciation, and then consecreted cow's urine known as nirang, then water, and a heightened state of purity by prayers!!! (The devout hand over pieces of sandalwood to this priest at the sanctum entrance seen in the picture.) A bell suspended in a corner of this room is rung five times a day, at the start of each of the five spiritual divisions of the day. It is rung in measured strikes, one at a time, like the chiming of the clock at the hour, and is rung to ward of any evil/negatives, and synchronized with certain chants by the officiating priest. At this time, the change of the day, a "throne-seat" of sandalwood wood pieces is placed on the fire as symbol of the seating place of the Archangel of Fire, Asha Vahista (Best Righteousness.) Zoroastrians consider this a great act of merit to offer sandalwood as well as slow burning wood pieces called kathi; the latter is placed around the central fire and slow burning hence prevents the main fire flames in between from going out.(see picture.)ZARATHUSTRA, ZOROASTER TO THE GREEKS. (est. to have lived between :1500 B.C. or 1100 B.C., some date him at 600 B. C. traditional belief-7500 B.C.).There is no certainty on when he lived but his very personal, poetic, astoundingly complex, metrical verses,composed by him, the Gathas, that have survived, passed down by memorizing from father to son, and committed to writing in the 4th century AD. These can be transliterated word by word into the other Indo-European, the Vedic dialect, points to the certainty that he lived close to the Indian Aryans (Indo-Europeans) when they were composing the Vedas, around 1200 BC, the oldest literature of Hinduism. The Gathas, that declare belief in the One uncreated Creator God, Ahura Mazda, Lord Wisdom, are a very small body of verses but form the central core of the Avesta, the sacred scriptures of the Zoroastrians. In some verses Zoroaster communes with God, in other verses he exhorts his listeners to exercise wise choices to live and act righteously, or if they choose to do things through wrong means, be responsible for the consequences; Zoroaster prophecies that eventually a Saviour will come on Earth and cleanse it of all evil and God's creation and man will be returned to its pristine state. This is known as Frashokereti, the Resurrection.
In spirit and substance, these verses, the Gathas, although forming part of the larger body of scripture, the Avesta, is marked by content and substance which speaks entirely of ethical values, passionate aspirations for man to lead a fully righteous life, and is totally absent of any exhortations to followers to perform rituals or live by any dogmatic do's and don'ts.
Ervad Dastur Kavasji Edulji Kanga, a venerable priest and scholar of Zoroastrianism, responsible for translations of Avesta texts; typically a pious and learned priest of the nineteenth century. Here he is pictured in the book of common prayer the Khordeh Avesta, a wide selection from Avesta scriptures from much earlier times, put together around the 3rd century A. D. After their migration to India, the Zoroastrians adopted Gujarati (a descendant of the Vedic language spoken in western India) as their language, and priests such as Dastur Kanga brought out the Avesta in the Avestic language but written in the Gujrati script, to make Zoroastrians 'literate' in their scriptures. (now, the scriptures in the Avesta language are also available in the English script- a marvel of adaptability!)
picture from early twentieth century- The Jashan ceremony (a thanksgiving ceremony celebrating for acquiring a new home, or entering into new venture-business or a job, or to commemorate a sacred day, or in memory of a departed person) officiated by at least two priests. The Jashan symbolically enacts the Act Of Creation by Ahura Mazda, with the High Priest (only one of the two in this ceremony in above picture will be the officiating senior priest) symbolically representing Ahura Mazda's agent on Earth; the other priest symbolically represents humanity, receiving God's bounty: the fruits/flowers reps. the vegetation world, the sacred flame reps. the Archangel Fire-Asa Vahista-Best Righteousness, and the Universe, a stone mortar vessel [not seen in this pic.] reps. the Earth and metal kingdom, and a glass of milk and bowl of water reps. the animal kingdom and water creation respectively. The chief priest intones aloud sacred verses from the holy scriptures, the Avesta, and invokes names of Ahura Mazda, the Archangels and Angels, name of Zarathustra and his ancestors, names of the past great priests,and names of the ancestors of the sponsor of the ceremony. After the ceremony, the sacred flame is 'returned' to the main fire in the sanctum of the temple, or if the ceremony is held in a home, the flame is added to the kitchen hearth in older traditional homes, or allowed to go out on its own in a modern home. The Jashan ceremony, detailed above, in the home of a devotee, in present times.Geve Narielwalla
