Preserving Persepolis
“Only a miracle may save them from extinction, for these are the descendents of people who one day ruled the world.”- Comte de Gobineau.
Once upon a time, or rather, Before Christ, the ancient world was abode to autonomous dynasties that had sprung up across the sands of time & continents, where in the course of human evolution, the world as we know it was born. The most legendary of these civilizations came from Greece,Persia, the Indus Valley & Egypt. However, today, though the states of India, Greece & Egypt have remained intact, the fate of the Persian civlization remains something of an enigma to the modern world.
Quite often, Persia (modern day Iran) is associated with exotic silk carpets, extravagent Durbars (royal courts) or to the young generation, Gerard Butler’s 300 movies. Yes, the Persian Empire was a vast, wealthy & extremely powerful force to reckon with, which to some point exaggerated its status as a holy state led by ‘God Kings’ like Xerxes while practising that mystical Zoroastrian faith (Game of Thrones much?). History, unfortunately, had been unkind to the Persians after the fall of the last remaining Sassanid Empire and the subsequent Muslim conquest of Persia. How the mighty have fallen, but only to rise like a phoenix from the ashes…
According to the Qissa-i-Sanjan, an epic poem detailing the plight of Persian refugees, it is believed that sometime after the 8th century, a beseiged group of asylum seekers escaped the Islamic persecution of Persia in order to preserve their ancient faith & sailed to the western shores of Hindustan (India). Landing in the state of Gujarat, it is proclaimed that the local ruler, King Jadi Rana offered a pot filled with milk to the Persians, signifying his country was populous. In response, they poured sugar into the milk without spilling it, stating they would adapt to the kingdom and cause no disorder.
And just as sugar sweetens the milk, the Persians, now called Parsis, have contributed greatly to India in the fields of education (institutes like Davars College & RTI Montessori School to name a few), arts (Freddy Mercury of Queen for example) & industrialization; world renowned industrialists like Ratan Tata and Adi Godrej belong to the Parsi community.
The affluent Parsi community has built various statues & buildings wherever they settled as homage to their once glorious past. The most unique of structures is the Zoroastrian houses of worship known as Fire Temples, as they believe that fire is the purest form of God. According to Parsi lore, when fleeing to India, the refugees also transported their Atash Behram (Fire of Victory) which has miraculously burned for the past 2000 years. Another unsual concept followed by the community is their burial rites, where bodies of the dead are placed in Towers of Silence for vultures to feed on. GORY. While most religions permit people of other faiths to enter their respective places of worships or convert for that matter, such practice is not adhered to in the Zoroastrian faith as they believe in preserving ethnicity. This is possibly why their population is dwindling extensively by the year.
It is commonly joked that the Parsis belong to a museum, as reports suggest that their population is only about 60000 in India. That’s almost the population of some villages in India! To combat this, the Indian Government has launched the ‘Jiyo Parsi’ initiative with the idea of promoting marriage & starting a family among the youth. While the initiative is a commendable move to safeguard the survival of our Persian brethren, the realization that Persia still thrives beyond its ruins has long been overdue.
