Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism, the Mazda-worshipping religion founded by the prophet Zarathuṣṭra (c. 1500-1000 BCE) in eastern Iran around the figure of Ahura Mazdā and the ethical dualism of aṣa (truth) and druj (lie). The scriptures are the Avesta — the Yasna, Yashts, Visperad and Vendidad. State religion of three Iranian empires: the Achaemenid (550-330 BCE), the Parthian and the Sasanian (224-651 CE). After the Arab conquest of Iran, a group of Zoroastrians sailed to Gujarat and landed at Sanjan in 936 CE, where the Hindu king Jadi Rana granted them refuge in exchange for cultural accommodations preserved in the Qissa-i Sanjan narrative. They became the Parsis — a continuous Zoroastrian community of 50,000 in India today, concentrated in Mumbai and Gujarat, with the Atash Behram temples at Udvada, Navsari, Surat and Mumbai carrying fires lit from the original Sanjan hearth. A smaller Irani community migrated from Yazd and Kerman in the 19th-20th centuries. Core practices: initiation (navjote), the kusti sacred cord, the Tower of Silence (dakhma) excarnation rite, and the household and temple fires that are the central ritual focus.