The following (worth seeing and hearing) video on Youtube which has a Gujarati song and pictures of today’s city of Navsari in Gujarat, India, produced by Parsi young men and women, was received from Prof. Ardeshir Damania who lives in Northern California.
There is (or was) a town in Iran called Sari (as I have read somewhere) and when Parsis from Iran settled in Gujarat they named this town NavSari or New Sari (similar to how New York in USA was named after the towm of York or Yorkshire in England). Navsari has the second most important Zarathushti temple holding the consecrated fire of Atashbehram (or Atash-e-Varharan) after the temple an fire in Udwada, Gujarat.
The High Priest of Navsari Atashbehram is called Meherjirana (as recognition of the successor of the first High Priest, Meherjirana who was invited to Mughal Emporer Akbar’s court where he impressed Akbar with the power of Zarathushti Avestan prayers leading to his receiving the grant of a parcel of land and Akbar keeping the holy fire lighted by Meherjirana continuously burning in his palace). The library in Navsari temple has priceless historical manuscripts (as mentioned in an article in the recent Hamazor magazine published by the World Zoroastrian Organization) including the land grant document from Akbar to Meherjina, which are being preserved with restoration work, and where a international conference of foreign and Indian Zarathushti scholars was held reently. Dastui Firoze Kotwal who is currently High Priest of Wadiaji Atashbehram in Mumbai, India, hails from Navsari priest group who are known as Bhagaria priests as different from Udwada priests who are known as Sanjana priests.
Regards,
Maneck Bhujwala
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A Song on Navsari – YouTubeor
A Song on Navsari – YouTubeor
