Parsi Trust’s Marathi Signboard For Tower Of Silence Sparks Backlash From Orthodox Members

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The decision by a Parsi trust to add a Marathi name for the Tower of Silence cemetery at Malabar Hill has not gone well with orthodox members who have said that the word ‘Parsi smashan bhoomi’ alluded to a crematorium.

The management of the Tower of Silence cemetery said that ‘smashan bhoomi’ was a literal translation of the word ‘cemetery’ and not ‘crematorium’.

For decades, the Kemps Corner entrance to the 50-acre hill cemetery had a gate with the name ‘Doongerwadi’ painted in Roman letters. Doongerwadi is the popular name for the Tower of Silence. A week ago, the cemetery management repainted the gate, adding a Marathi name.

“The name also had to be written in Marathi. ‘Smashan bhoomi’ is the literal translation of the word ‘cemetery’,” said Vishtasp Mehta, manager of the Tower of Silence cemetery.

However, some Parsis are wondering if there were plans to open a crematorium inside the forested cemetery. The cemetery, with its circular stone enclosures called dakhmas, is a site for dokhmenashini or sky burials where corpses are laid out to be disposed of by the sun and carrion birds. This practice is derived from a tradition of returning the human body to nature. However, a near disappearance of vultures in the late 1990s jeopardised the ancient funeral system, leading some members of the community to look for alternatives.

One suggestion to set up a crematorium inside the cemetery was rejected by senior priests. Community members who wanted a crematorium later set up a prayer hall inside the Worli municipal cemetery for those looking for alternatives to traditional funerals. The trust also installed solar panels – now dysfunctional – to speed up the desiccation of the bodies.

The new signboard, however, has raised questions whether there were plans to set up a crematorium inside the cemetery. “The trust could have written dokhmenashini or Doongerwadi in Devanagari letters. Dokhmenashini is the right word, not smashan bhoomi,” said a member of the community.

Mehta explained that the word ‘dakhma’ cannot be used on a public signboard. “We have used the literal meaning of the word cemetery in Marathi,” Mehta added.