Udvada
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Udvada
Sandcastles and Fire Temples
By Teenaz Javat | DAWN
ParsiKhabar fire temple Heritage By arzan sam wadia / October 9, 2012
Udvada is a coastal town in Gujarat, about 240 km north of Mumbai. It is a small town but for Zoroastrians (Parsis) it is as venerable as the Kaaba in Makkah and Vatican in Rome for Muslims and Catholics respectively, as it is the site of Iran Shah, an Atash Behram (fire temple), where the holiest of the holy fire burns.
Udvada is a temple town on the shores of the Arabian Sea. Its village square is called Zanda Chowk. Parsis go there for vacations. A weekly visit to the Iran Shah would cap theirr holidays, with a tonga-ride to a nearby village thrown in for good measure.
Historical background
The Iran Shah, Udvada’s Atash Behram, is a pilgrimage site for Zoroastrians from all over the world. Atash Behram is the name given to both the highest grade of fire used in Zoroastrian worship as well as the temple that houses the fire.
The Zoroastrians flee the Arab invasion of Persia
On fleeing the Arab invasion of Persia (Iran), a group of Zoroastrians got into a boat along with their holy fire and set sail east from the Strait of Hormuz.
According to the book The Kissah-i-Sanjan by Dr Jivanji Modi, the Zoroastrians from Hormuz joined the Persians at Makran, Balochistan’s coastal region that spans south-eastern Iran and southern Pakistan. Makran already had a Zoroastrian community and as the Arabs advanced east so did the Zoroastrians who continued to sail eastward and anchored on the shores of Sanjan, a hamlet on India’s west coast in 715 AD (approximately).
Hindu King of Sanjan offers shelter
The benign Hindu King of Sanjan offered shelter to the group — who were referred to as Parsis (the people from Persia) — on certain conditions, and thus began the epic legacy of Parsis making their home in a then undivided India.
They soon started building a temple to house the holy fire. The first temple to house the fire was built in Sanjan, after which, as the Parsis moved up and down the coast, the fire too moved with them and made the journey to Navsari (a town north of Udvada). In 1742 AD it was decided to build a permanent home for the holy fire and it was bought to the Atash Behram building at Udvada making it the oldest functioning Atash Behram in the world.
Iran Shah
Why call the holy fire Iran Shah?
According to the book Religion and History of the Parsees by Meherbano Kekobad Marker, the Atash Behram at Udvada is referred to as Iran Shah as in the Sassanian times all Atash Behrams were referred to as Iran Shah, implying thereby the spiritual role of the Holy Fire in the governance of the country.
The Iran Shah is well served by priests from nine families who have sacred rights to serve and tend the holy fire. They are descendants from the leading priests who were associated with the holy fire as it landed on the shores of Sanjan to Navsari and now Udvada.
They tend to the higher liturgies that go with the holy fire in rotation and with much reverence. Although they all do not live in Udvada, they come ever so often to exercise their holy duty.
