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ZOROASTRIANISM ANCIENT AND MODERN ~~~~~~~~~~ COMPRISING A BRIEF REVIEW OF DR. DHALLA’S BOOK OF ZOROASTRIAN THEOLOGY --------*--------
WRITTEN AND PUBLISHED BY
ERVAD PHIROZE SHAPURJI MASANI, M.A., LL.B., VAKIL HIGH COURT, LATE FELLOW, ELPHINSTONE COLLEGE, AND
MULLA FEEROZE AVESTA AND PAHLEVI MADRESSA. ---------------------------
Bombay (All rights reserved) -------1917.
Published jointly by: Parsi Vegetarian & Temperance Society, The Zoroastrian Radih Society and Zarathoshti Din Sahitya Mandal Re-printed : July 2000 All rights reserved. This book or any part of it may not be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the publishers.
THE PARSEE VEGETARIAN AND TEMPERANCE SOCIETY nd
The Parsee Vegetarian and Temperance society was founded on 2 January 1907 by Ervad Shapurji Masani and Shri Dinshaw Shapurji Masani, and is a full-fledged Registered Charitable Society. One of the main aims and objectives of the Society was to augment the religious Law of Asha as enjoined in the Zarathosti religion, and to assist the Zoroastrians towards the conditioning level for the attainment of the golden age as mentioned in the Avesta – Frasho Kereiti or Frashogard, i.e. Renovation. At the time of Frashogard, there would be complete righteousness in the world and all the negative forces shall be destroyed. As a stepping-stone towards this goal, the major objective of the Society is to propagate the use of vegetarian food and for observing temperance among the Zoroastrians, and to get them off destructive influences of liquor, tobacco, narcotics and other such matters. The other objective of the Society is to spread the knowledge of the Zarthoshti ceremonies, Tarikats, traditions, customs and tenets through the divine religious philosophy of Ilm-e-Khshnoom. The Society possesses a wonderful library for the said purpose and used to publish a magazine by the name of Frashogard for several years. The Society at present undertakes the propagation of the Zarthosti religion through publication and distribution of religious and cultural books and cassettes on various subjects. Together with its sister Society, The Zoroastrian Radih Society, The Parsee Vegetarian and Temperance Society possesses a sizeable amount of land at Behram Baug in Jogeshwari for the purpose of establishing an ideal Zarathosti Tarikat- settlement. In pursuit of its objectives, the Parsee Vegetarian and Temperance Society has also undertaken an important scheme for the performance of the ceremonies of the departed ones under the name of ‘Anusheh-Ravan Kriyakam Yojana’.
THE ZOROASTRIAN RADIH SOCIETY The Zoroastrian Radih Society was founded in June 1919 as a full-fledged registered society under the spiritual patronage of late Ustad Saheb Osta Behramshah Novroji Shroff and is a sister Society to the Parsee Vegetarian and Temperance Society. The formation of this Society was to outcome of the then semiprivate Institution called “Farrokh Farvardin Fasal Sal Jashan Mandal”. The three basic objectives of The Zoroastrian Radih Society at the time of its foundation were: 1) Movement for the understanding of the Fasli Roj-Mah calculations among the members of the Parsee Community. 2) Augmentation of the Takchian (Muktad) Ceremonies according to the Fasli RojMah calendar calculations, following the original system of the Zarathoshti Religion; and the installation of a Dar-e-Meher for the same purpose. 3) Establishment of an ideal Zoroastrian-Tarikat settlement. All the Trustees of the Zoroastrian Radih Society, past and present, have worked diligently towards the fulfillment of these objectives of the Society. As a result, there is considerable awareness among the members of the Parsee Community about the Fasli Movement; and the Takchian (Muktad) Ceremonies have been in operation successfully since 1923. The long-term dream of the establ