ABSTRACT
Zoroastrianism is an ancient religion based on the teachings of the prophet Zarathustra or (in the Greek) Zoroaster. Its most distinctive elements are the strong dualism inherent in a basically monotheistic theology and the role of fire, which is used to represent divinity and is enshrined in temples as the focus of religious prayer. Originally a Persian spirituality, Zoroastrianism’s modern adherents are small in number but can be found all over the globe. They are probably concentrated in India, particularly in Bombay (now Mumbai). There do appear to be modern Zoroastrians in Iran, but recent census figures (which report as many as 25,000 Iranian Zoroastrians) are thought to be misleading, and the only late twentieth-century scholarship of Iranian Zoroastrianism (Boyce 1977; Fischer 1973) describes the remnants of Zoroastrian practice in rural areas. In any event, it is in India that modern Zoroastrianism has had its most recent impact and acquired a distinctive form, associated with a remarkable group of people, the Parsis, whose history is inseparable from that of Mumbai itself.
