BBC Information, Mumbai
BBCTucked away in a lane within the southern finish of India’s monetary capital, Mumbai, is a museum devoted to the followers of one of many world’s oldest religions, Zoroastrianism.
The Framji Dadabhoy Alpaiwalla Museum paperwork the historical past and legacy of the traditional Parsi neighborhood – a small ethnic group that is quick dwindling and resides largely in India.
Now estimated at simply 50,000 to 60,000, the Parsis are believed to be descendants of Persians who fled non secular persecution by Islamic rulers centuries in the past.
Regardless of their important contributions to India’s financial and cultural cloth, a lot concerning the Parsi neighborhood stays little identified to the mainstream inhabitants and the broader world.
“The newly-renovated museum hopes to shake off a few of this obscurity by inviting individuals to discover the historical past, tradition and traditions of the Parsi neighborhood by way of the uncommon historic artefacts on show,” says Kerman Fatakia, curator of the museum.
A few of these embrace cuneiform bricks, terracotta pots, cash and different objects sourced from locations like Babylon, Mesopotamia, Susa and Iran and are dated to 4000-5000 BCE.
These are locations the place Zoroastrian Iranian kings as soon as dominated, just like the Achaemenian, Parthian and Sasanian dynasties.
There are additionally artefacts from Yazd, a metropolis in central Iran which was as soon as a barren desert and the place the place many Zoroastrians settled after fleeing different areas of Iran after the Arab invasion in seventh Century BCE.
One of many notable artefacts on show is a reproduction of a clay cylinder of Cyrus the Nice, a Persian king who was the founding father of the Achaemenid empire.
Fatakia says the clay cylinder – often known as the “Edict of Cyrus” or the “Cyrus Cylinder” – is likely one of the most essential discoveries of the traditional world. Inscribed in cuneiform script, it outlines the rights granted by Cyrus to his topics in Babylon. Extensively seen as the primary human rights constitution, a reproduction can be displayed on the United Nations.
Then there are maps that hint the migration routes of hundreds of Iranian Zoroastrians who fled their residence nation fearing persecution and travelled to India within the eighth to10th centuries, and once more within the nineteenth century.
The gathering additionally options furnishings, manuscripts, work, and portraits of distinguished Parsis – amongst them Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, founding father of the enduring Tata Group, which owns manufacturers like Jaguar Land Rover and Tetley tea.
One other hanging part showcases artefacts collected by Parsis who grew rich within the early nineteenth century buying and selling tea, silk, cotton – and notably, opium – with China. The reveals embrace conventional Parsi sarees influenced by designs from China, France, and different areas formed by these international commerce ties.
Two of the museum’s most compelling reveals are replicas of a Tower of Silence and a Parsi hearth temple.
The Tower of Silence, or dakhma, is the place Parsis go away their lifeless to be returned to nature – neither buried nor cremated. “The reproduction exhibits precisely what occurs to the physique as soon as it is positioned there,” says Fatakia, noting that entry to precise towers is restricted to a choose few.
The life-size reproduction of the hearth temple is equally fascinating, providing a uncommon glimpse right into a sacred house usually off-limits to non-Parsis. Modelled on a distinguished Mumbai temple, it options sacred motifs impressed by historical Persian structure in Iran.
The Alpaiwala Museum, initially based in 1952 in what was then Bombay, is likely one of the metropolis’s older establishments. Just lately renovated, it now options trendy shows with well-captioned reveals in glass circumstances. Each customer is obtainable a guided tour.
“It is a small museum however it’s full of historical past,” Fatakia says.
“And it is a fantastic place for not simply the residents of Mumbai or India to be taught extra concerning the Parsi neighborhood however for individuals from all around the world.”
