The Fire Temple of Secunderabad
The busy shopping area of Mahatma Gandhi road in Secunderabad is its very own specialities. It is a haven for shopping fanatics, it houses one of the oldest clock towers at Ramgopalpet Police station, it connects Hyderabad and Secunderabad, most importantly the next street to MG Road is the famous Mahankali temple. But very few people know that there is Parsi temple!
Not even the people who are born and brought up in Secunderabad have realised that just behind their famous shopping centre, Chermas lies the Parsi fire temple. The Khan Bahadur Edulji Sohrabji Chenai Anjuman Dar-e-Meher, a temple of Parsis – followers of the Persian prophet Zoroaster –has been like that for a hundred years. Time, place and emotion coalesce, and, a fragrance of peace and purity pervades.
Gulbanoo Yadgar Chenoy, 90, the president of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjuman of Secunderabad and Hyderabad, is one of the few family members of the Chenoys who donated for the fire temple. She shares her past: “Our family came from Jalna to Secunderabad in 1803.The land was donated by the family and the temple was constructed at a cost of Rs 28,500 Hali sikka.” Hyderabad State had its own currency, the Hali sikka, 15 percent less than the rupee in British India. One hundred British rupees got you 116 Hali rupees.
Seth Jamshedji Edulji Chenoy, son of Khan Bahadur Seth Edulji Sohrabji and bai Pirojbai Edulji Chenoy, along with his brothers, built the Khan Bahadur Edulji Sohrabji Chenai Anjuman Dar-e-Meher in memory of their late father. “Fire is a living entity. Since consecration 100 years ago it has been burning continuously and only ordained priests are allowed inside the inner sanctum sanctorum,” says Jehangir Bisney, 58, a chartered accountant and trustee of the Anjuman.
For Parsis, fire is a supreme symbol of purity and represents the light of God (Ahura Mazda) as well as the illuminated mind. No Zoroastrian ritual is complete without the presence of a sacred fire.
There are three priests who work in shifts. Two live in the residential blocks inside the temple complex and the head priest in Hyderabad. The priests tend to the fire five times a day and also ring the bell thrice to remove evil spirits. Sandalwood and kathi is what the Parsis call, a type of wood is used to keep the fire burning. The fire has to keep burning and is tended to without fail even around 2:30 at midnight.
How often do people visit the temple, we ask Ervad Aspi Patel, the head priest. “The ones residing in the 40 residential blocks do visit the temple but people from the community who are spread across the city make it to the temple for Navroz, the Parsi New year, when the place comes alive.” That the population is dwindling is a topic that cannot be avoided but Gulbanoo says, “Even as a kid, I remember the population was not much. We have always been a small community.”
