Fire temple
A fire temple, Agiary, Atashkadeh , Atashgah or Dar-e Mehr is the place of worship for the followers of Zoroastrianism, the ancient religion of Iran (Persia). In the Zoroastrian religion, fire , together with clean water , are agents of ritual purity. Clean, white "ash for the purification ceremonies [is] regarded as the basis of ritual life", which "are essentially the rites proper to the tending of a domestic fire, for the temple [fire] is that of the hearth fire raised to a new solemnity". For, one "who sacrifices unto fire with fuel in his hand ..., is given happiness".
As of 2021, there were 167 fire temples in the world, of which 45 were in Mumbai, 105 in the rest of India, and 17 in other countries. Of these only 9 (1 in Iran and 8 in India) are the main temples known as atash behrams and the remaining are the smaller temples known as agiarys.
The highest grade of fire is the Atash Behram, "Fire of victory", and its establishment and consecration is the most elaborate of the three. It involves the gathering of 16 different "kinds of fire", that is, fires gathered from 16 different sources, including lightning, fire from a cremation pyre, fire from trades where a furnace is operated, and fires from the hearths as is also the case for the Atash Adaran. Each of the 16 fires is then subject to a purification ritual before it joins the others. Thirty-two priests are required for the consecration ceremony, which can take up to a year to complete.
A temple that maintains an Adaran or Behram fire also maintains at least one Dadgah fire. In contrast to the Adaran and Behram fires, the Dadgah fire is the one at which priests then celebrate the rituals of the faith, and which the public addresses to invoke blessings for a specific individual, a family or an event. Veneration of the greater fires is addressed only to the fire itself – that is, following the consecration of such a fire, only the Atash Nyashes, the litany to the fire in Younger Avestan, is ever recited before it.
A list of the nine Atash Behrams:
Iranshah Atash Behram in Udvada, India. Established 1742.
Desai Atash Behram in Navsari, India. Established 1765.
Dadiseth Atash Behram in Mumbai, India. Established 1783.
Vakil Atash Behram in Surat, India. Established 1823.
Modi Atash Behram in Surat, India. Established 1823.
Wadia Atash Behram in Mumbai, India. Established 1830.
Banaji Atash Behram in Mumbai, India. Established 1845.
Anjuman Atash Behram in Mumbai, India. Established 1897.
Yezd Atash Behram in Yazd, Iran. Established 1934.
Fire Temple of Yazd
The Fire Temple of Yazd , also known as Yazd Atash Behram , is a Zoroastrian fire temple in Yazd, Yazd province, Iran. It enshrines the Atash Bahram, meaning “Victorious Fire”, dated to 470 AD. It is one of the nine Atash Bahrams, the only one of the highest-grade fires in Iran, where Zoroastrians have practiced their religion since 400 BC; the other eight Atash Bahrams are in India. According to Aga Rustam Noshiravan Belivani, of Sharifabad, the Anjuman-i Nasiri (elected Zoroastrian officials) opened the Yazd Atash Behram in the 1960s to non-Zoroastrian visitors.
Veneration of fire has its roots in the older practice of keeping a hearth fire going especially in the cold winters on the steppes of Central Asia when the Indo-Europeans led a nomadic life, and fire was a source of warmth, light and comfort. The Iranians began calling fire the Atas Yazata (divinity) and began giving it offerings in return for its constant help. The ceremony accompanying recitation of the Yasna Haptanghaiti seems to originate in pre-Zoroastrian times where priests offered libations to fire and water.
History
According to an inscription plaque fixed on the shrine, the construction of the Yazd Atash Behram temple is dated to 1934. The funds for building it were provided by the Association of the Parsi Zoroastrians of India. Construction was done under the guidance of Jamshid Amanat. The sacred fire of the temple is stated to have been burning since about 470 AD; originally started by the Sassanian Shah when it was in the Pars Karyan fire temple in southern Pars district of Larestan. From there it was transferred to Aqda where it was kept for 700 years. The fire was then moved in 1173 to Nahid-e Pars temple in nearby Ardakan, where it remained for 300 years until it was moved again to the house of a high priest in Yazd, and was finally consecrated in the new temple in 1934.
A bust of Maneckji Limji Hataria who was instrumental in raising funds for building the temple, has been installed in the precincts of the temple. The bust also displays the Zoroastrian divine symbols of the Sun and the Moon.
Features
The fire temple is built in Achaemenid architecture style in brick masonry to the design prepared by the architects from Bombay. It is similar in design to the Atash Behram temples in India. The building is surrounded by a garden which has fruit trees. There is a winged deity of the Ahura Mazda embedded on the front door of the temple.
The sacred fire is installed in the temple behind an amber tinted glass enclosure. Only Zoroastrians are allowed to go to the sanctum area of the fire. Non-Zoroastrians can only view it from outside the glass chamber. The Anjuman-i Nasiri opened the Yazd Atash Behram in the 1960s to non-Zoroastrian visitors. This sacred fire (also known as Behram Fire) is the longest burning flame in Iran. It was kindled more than 1,500 years ago, it is still burning and it has never died down.
The Zoroastrians’ fire temple was completed by Persian architecture in 1936 and finally in 1939, this 1547 year old fire was transferred to the fire temple. The fire of the Yazd fire temple is from Bahram fire (the specific fire of Sassanid kings) that doubled its importance.
It was customary to have a spring or stream nearby to a fire temple so that all four elements(earth, fire, water, air) could be together. However, since the Yazd fire temple was not near to either a spring or stream, a pool was constructed. At prayer times, you see the bright dressed men and women entering the fire temple with bare feet (without shoes).
The holy fire of the fire temple is in a large bronze furnace, and a person named “Hirbod” is responsible to keep it. This eternal fire can now be watched by visitors separated from it by a glass wall.
