ABSTRACT
The chapter presents a snapshot of the contemporary Parsi priesthood in India. While the primary role of the priests remains the performance of rituals commissioned by the community members, there has been an evolution in the ritual sphere. The simpler outer rituals continue to be regularly performed; however, the more complex inner rituals have drastically reduced and are limited to a few fire temples. A trend towards simplification is also observed in the training of priests, wherein the earlier intensive training regimen of six to eight years is increasingly replaced by a minimal period of basic training before the initiation ceremony. Further, due to the demand for priestly services being concentrated during the morning hours and during certain days of the Zoroastrian month, there is a shift towards a dominant part-time workforce. On the supply side, the number of young members joining the priestly vocation is far below the replacement rate, due to better opportunities in other secular professions. This shortfall has led to a more fluid workforce with priests servicing multiple fire temples and clients. These factors have also fostered homogeneity among the priesthood, blurring the earlier rigid boundaries based on geography, lineage, and calendar differences. New initiatives have tried to bridge the shortfall of qualified priests by training members of the laity to serve fire temples where priests are unavailable, by providing additional training and personality development to existing priests to make them better qualified for the profession, and by offering financial incentives to students who are training to become full-fledged priests.
