The Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the Parsees, Jivanji Jamshedji Modi
The Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the Parsees
Jivanji Jamshedji Modi
Category: Zoroastrian
17:19 h
"The Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the Parsees" by Jivanji Jamshedji Modi is a detailed study of Zoroastrian religious life among the Parsee community. It describes ceremonies connected with birth, marriage, death, purification, initiation, priesthood, consecration, and liturgical worship, while also comparing contemporary practices with earlier traditions found in Avestan, Pahlavi, Pazand, and Persian sources. The book was intended both as a record of changing customs and as a reference for understanding the ritual and social dimensions of Parsee religion.

The Religious Ceremonies And Customs of the Parsees

by
Jivanji Jamshedji Modi,
B.A., PH.D., C.I.E.

Preface

This book has grown out of the work of study, undertaken for the Dictionary of Religion and Ethics published by Dr. Hastings. In his letter dated 26th December 1905, Dr. Hastings, invited me to be a contributor to his Dictionary on the subject of Parsee Religious Ceremonies and customs. A complete compendium of all the Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the Parsees was wanting. So, on receiving the above invitation, I proposed to go thoroughly into the study of whole subject, and this book is the result. Here and there, I have re-cast the subjects as originally written.

My name was kindly submitted to Dr. Hastings by the late Dr. Mills, Professor of Iranian Languages at the University of Oxford. So, Dr. Hastings, at his suggestion, asked me to give “the closest possible description” of the ceremonies and customs. Dr. Mills also had written to me direct, to “be absolutely exhaustive as to details.” Ere this, I had found, that a detailed description of the ceremonies and customs was wanted by scholars, especially foreign, as it would help them their elucidation of some Avesta and Pahlavi texts. For I found that my paper on the Funeral Ceremonies of the Parsees, read before the Anthropological Society of Bombay, had been of some use to the late Prof. James Darmesteter in his translation of the Vendidad. Prof. A. V. W. Jackson, when he was in Bombay in 1901, had drawn my attention to the want of a detailed description of religious ceremonies, especially the Purification Ceremonies of the Bareshnûm. Then, in a letter dated 8th March, he wrote: “May I not urge you to write a detailed monograph of the Bareshnum I spoke to you on the subject that morning when I was at Colaba? Such a treatise giving an the Ceremonies would be important.” I know, that the want of such a book was felt, at times, in Courts of Justice, when there were cases in the matter of the Wills of Testators who directed certain religious ceremonies to be performed, and when there was the question of the proper significations of the ceremonies. I knew of a case, in which the learned Judge had to refer to Dr. Haug’s Essays on the Parsees for the explanation of certain Ceremonies. In another case, the present Parsee Advocate General studied with some interest, for an explanation of some ceremonies, my rough copy of the mannscript sent to Dr. Hastings. So, bearing all the above suggestions and matters in mind, I have tried to be somewhat exhaustive, and hope, that the book will be of some use to students of Comparative Religion. I am glad to observe, from the preface of The Comparative Study of Religions by Prof. Widgery of the University of Cambridge, that the advanced proof pages of this book, of which he speaks as “an exhaustive treatise on Social and Religions Customs of the Parsees,” have been of some use to the author. Students of Comparative Religion may, in the matter of the religious ceremonies and customs of the Parsees, look to this book as a kind of a Dictionary of Parseeism. The exhaustive Index will help them to use it as such. I beg to tender my best thanks to my friend, Mr. Bomanji Nusserwanji Dhabhar M. A., for its preparation.

I think that, irrespective of the question of the want of such a book by the students of Religion and Anthropology, it will be found of some use to my community in general. The times are rapidly changing. The ‘new’ has been springing rapidly upon the ‘old’. As often said, the heresy of to-day becomes the orthodoxy of tomorrow; the liberalism of this year, the conservatism of the next. The reader will find, that many a ceremony, ritual, or custom has been spoken of, as having become obsolete or as being more honoured in the breach than in the observance. Many more will be obsolete in the course of a few years. Customs are often as despotic as fashions, but they also change as fashions. So, this work will, it is hoped, serve, to a certain extent, as a record of what was once, and what is now prevalent.

Some of the religious ceremonies and customs are good in themselves from a sanitary or hygienic point of view. As Prof. Max Muller says: “There is a reason at the bottom of everything, however, it seems unreasonable to us, in the customs and laws of the ancient world.” What is said of the old symbolism stands good, to a certain extent, for some old customs: “The Symbolism of today preserves the serious belief of yesterday and what, in an age more or less distant, was a vital motive, inspiring an appropriate course of conduct, survives in the conduct it has inspired, long after it has itself ceased to be active and powerful.” But, we find that, at times, “too much of even a good thing” spoils that thing. This is so in the case of some religious ceremonies and customs. We find that, very particularly, in the case of some purificatory ceremonies, for example, the Bareshnûm. The original good simple ideas of purity, viz., freedom from contact with the impure, and isolation, if infection or impurity is caught or is believed to have been caught, are, at times, carried to tiresome extremes. No wonder, if they were so carried to extremes in olden times, when we see, that cases of that kind happen even in modern times, under an alarm or panic of a sudden epidemic, as that of Plague in Bombay in 1896-97. However, such extremes tend to obscure the original good object.

In the rituals of purification, especially in that of the Barashnom, as prescribed in the Vendidad, and as carried on later, we find such an extreme, ending in some tiresome intricacies. It seems that, at the end of the ninth century, there was, among the Zoroastrians of Persia itself, an attempt of a kind of revolt against the multiplicity or the intricacy of the ceremonies, and the standard of that revolt was raised by a prelate, Zadspram, the high priest of Sirkan. But the revolt was suppressed by the higher ecclesiastical authority at Pars and Kerman. We find an account of this controversy in the Pahlavi Epistles of Manuscheher; It seems, that long before this, even in the times of the Pahlavi commentators, there arose some controversies about the intricacies and the details of the ritual of the Bareshnum.

Goethe, that great German Hafiz, admires the view of the Purity of Elements (Fire, air, earth and water), as observed by the ancient Persians. He admires, what he calls, “Würde der Sämmtlichen Elemente” i.e., “The Dignity of Elements.” He has attached to his Parsi-Nameh or Buch des Parsen, which forms the eleventh book of his West-Ôstliche Divan, some “Notes and Discussions (Noten und Abhandlungen). Therein, he says: “Their religion is clearly based on the dignity of all elements, as manifesting God’s existence and power. Hence the sacred dread to pollute water, the air, earth. Such respect for all natural forces that surround man leads to every civic virtue. Attention, cleanliness, application are stimulated and fostered.” Notwithstanding this admiration of the Dignity of the Elements, he runs down the later, what he calls, “endless tedium” of consecration and purification.

Some of the intricate tedium of purification carried to an extreme from the original reasonable thoughts of sanitation and purification, has now passed off and is passing away. But as it often happens, in the rush or fashion of doing away with what was tedious or unnecessary and what formed the excrescences, some other customs, which are good from sanitary and other points of view of public utility, also are done away with. Even M. Renan of France, who was taken to be a heretic for his liberal thoughts and views, and who, therefore, cannot be suspected of any kind of undue conservatism, and who, though looking hopefully to the future, looked with respect to the past, looked with distrust at the attempt to throw off good with the bad. He said: “I fear that the work of the twentieth century will consist in taking out of thc waste paper basket a multitude of the excellent ideas which the nineteenth century has heedlessly thrown into it.” The Parsees of the present day, are, I am afraid, doing something of that kind. This book, which records all the religious ceremonies and customs of the Parsees, will, at least, show to future generations, what was the good that was heedlessly thrown off, and what was the bad that was properly thrown of.

In connection with this view of preserving what is good in the customs of the old, one may appropriately quote from Mr. Carpenter’s Pagan and Christian Creeds (p. 266) the following passage: “Numerous instances might of course be adduced of how a Church, aspiring to be a real Church of Humanity, might adopt and re-create the rituals of the past in the light of a modern inspiration. Indeed, the difficult would be to limit the process; for every ancient ritual, we can now see, has had a meaning and a message, and it would be a real joy to disentangle these and to expose the profound solidarity of human thought and aspiration from the very dawn of civilization down to the present day. Nor would it be necessary to imagine any Act of Uniformity or dead level of ceremonial in the matter. Different groups might concentrate on different phases of religious thought and practice. The only necessity would be that they should approach the subject with a real love of Humanity in their hearts and a real desire to come into touch with the deep inner life and mystic growing pains of the souls of men and women in all ages.”

In describing some of my subjects I have tried to follow a suggestion of Dr. Hastings. He had asked the subjects to be treated, both from the Iranian or the ancient Zoroastrian and the Parsee or the modern Zoroastrian point of view. I have tried to show, here and there, how the modern practice and view differ from the ancient, referred to in the Avesta, Pahlavi, Pazand, and Persian books. I have generally tried to look at various subjects from a student’s point of view and have merely described them as required. But in some places, where possible, I have tried to explain old beliefs and customs and to trace their origin.

Some of the subjects treated in the volume have been treated by me in various papers, read before the Anthropological Society of Bombay, and published in some form or another in the Journal of the Society. So I have tried to treat them, here and there, from the point of view of Cultural anthropology, and have given points of similarity with the beliefs and customs of other people.

I have treated the whole subject under the following principal heads: —

I. The Socio-Religious Ceremonies, which have been treated under the heads of (A) Birth, (B) Marriage and (C) Death Ceremonies.

II. The Purification Ceremonies. which are treated under the sub-heads of (a) Nahn, (b) Riman, and (c) the Bareshnum, (d) with an additional chapter on the purification of articles supposed to have been contaminated.

III. The Initiation Ceremonies, which have been treated under the sub-headings of (a) Naojote [navjote] or the Initiation of a child into the fold and (b) Navar and Martab, which are the two grades of Initiation into priesthood.

IV. The Consecration Ceremonies, which treat of (a) the consecration of Fire-temples, (b) of the Towers of Silence, and (c) of Alat, or religious requisites.

V. The Liturgical ceremonies, which are treated under two principal heads: (A) The first head speaks of the Inner Liturgical services and treats of (a) the Yasna, (b) the Visperad, (c) the Vendidad, and (d) the Baj. (B) The second head speaks of the Outer Liturgical ceremonies of (a) the Afrinagan, (b) the Farokhshi, and (c) the Satum. An additional chapter treats of several ceremonies which are groups of more than one ceremony.

I beg to thank Rev. Hastings for the courtesy to let me use my articles in his Dictionary for the purpose of some of the subjects of this book.

FATEHMA LODGE, 1 WOODHOUSE ROAD,
COLABA, Bombay. 5th November 1922.

I.
Socio-Religious Ceremonies and Customs.

Chapter I.
Birth Ceremonies and Customs.

The ceremonies and customs, that fall under the head of “Socio-Religious Ceremonies and Customs,” may be subdivided, according to the three principal events of man’s life, — birth, marriage, and death — under the following heads: —

I. — Birth Ceremonies and Customs.

II. — Marriage Ceremonies and Customs.

III. — Funeral Ceremonies and Customs.

I. — Birth Ceremonies and Customs.

The birth of a child is a very auspicious event in a Parsee house. It was so also in ancient Persia. According to the Vendidad, Ahura Mazda says: — “I prefer a person with children (puthrânê) to one without children (aputhrâi).” Even the very ground, where lives a man with his children, is described as feeling happy. Cultivation and a good supply of food to people are recommended, because they make mankind healthy and able to produce a healthy progeny. To be the father of good children was a blessing from the Yazatas, like Tishtrya, Mithra, Haoma, and Atar, and from the Fravashis. To be childless, was a curse from the Yazatas. Domestic animals, when ill-fed and ill-treated, cursed their masters, that they may be childless. Childlessness was something like a punishment from heaven. Kingly splendour (khwarrah) was associated with those who were blessed with children. According to the Shayest Na-Shayest, one of the advantages of having children was “that the duty and good works which a son performs are as much the father’s as though they had been done by his own hand.”

A Zoroastrian woman often prayed for a good, healthy child. A Zoroastrian man and woman prayed before their sacred fire for a good, virtuous child. A woman without a child felt as sorry as a fertile piece of land that ia not cultivated. She prayed for a husband who could make her a mother of children.

Among the Achaemenians, a wife who gave birth to many children was a favourite with her husband, who did not like to displease her in any way. Children being the choicest gift of God, their lives were, as it were, pledged by parents for the solemn performance of an act. We read in Herodotus: “Next to prowess in arms, it is regarded as the greatest proof of manly excellence to be the father of many sons. Every year, the king sends rich gifts to the man, who can show the largest number: for they hold that number is strength.” Strabo also says a similar thing. We learn from the writings of the Christian Martyrs of Persia, that the ancient Persians, did not, for the above reasons, like the prohibition against marriage among the Christians in the case of holy young Christian girls.

Pregnancy.

In the Avesta itself, we find no references to any ceremony or rite during the state of pregnancy. The only allusion we find is this: — Women on finding themselves enceinte prayed before Ardwisura for an easy delivery, and then for a copious supply of milk at their breast for their children. The allusion to these prayers suggests, that there may be some formal ceremonies accompanying those prayers, but we do not know what they were.

Coming to later Pahlavi and Persian books, we find, that the Shayest ne-Shayest directs, that, when it is known that a lady of the family has become pregnant, a fire may be maintained most carefully in the house. The Saddar also gives this direction. We have the remnant of this injunction in the present custom of some of the modern Parsees, who on the occasion of the completion of the fifth and seventh months of pregnancy, light a lamp of clarified butter in their houses. The reason, assigned for this in the Pahlavi and Persian books, is that the fire, so kindled in the house, keeps out daevas, i.e., evil influences from the house. Again, a fire or a lamp is even now taken to be symbolical of the continuation of a line of offspring. For example, it is not rare to hear, even now, words like these “Tamâro cherâg roshan rahê” i.e., “May your lamp be always burning.” This benediction is meant to say: “May your son live long, and may your line of descent continue.” The ancient Iranians believed that there were many chances of the children to be born being males, if the males were stronger than the females at the time of conception. (Bundehesh, Chap. XVI).

According to the Avesta, in the state of pregnancy, a woman is to be looked after very carefully. It is wrong for the husband to have sexual intercourse with her in her advanced state of pregnancy, which, according to the Rivayats, commences with the fifth month. She is to abstain from coming into contact with any dead or decomposing matter, even with a thing like one’s tooth-pick which may contain germs of one’s disease.

The fifth and the seventh months of pregnancy, observed as days of rejoicing.

During pregnancy, the modern Parsees have no religious ceremonies or rites. On the completion of the fifth month of pregnancy one day is celebrated and known as “Panch mâsiûn,” i.e., the day of the fifth month. Similarly, a day is observed on the completion of the seventh month, and is known as Agharni. These days are observed as auspicious days of rejoicing only in the case of the first pregnancy. They are observed not in accordance with any religious injunction or with religious ceremonies or rites. The expectancy of a child being a joyful event as said above, these days — especially some day after the completion of the seventh month — are observed as joyous occasions, when the lady who is enceinte is presented with suits of clothes by her parents, relatives, and friends and especially by the family of her husband. The husband, is in turn, presented with a suit of clothes by the wife’s family. Sweets are sent out as presents by the husband’s family to the bride’s house and to near relations and friends. In these sweets, one prepared in the form of a cocoanut, has a prominent place. A cocoanut typifies a man’s head and so it is a symbol of fecundity. Some of the customs observed on these occasions are more Indian in their origin and signification than originally Persian or Zoroastrian.

Place of delivery, and its temporary consecration.

In the case of the first delivery, it generally takes place in the house of the wife’s parents. A room or a part of a room, generally on the down-floor, is prepare an set apart for the purpose. As the Vendidad says, the place for delivery must be very clean, dry and least-frequented by others. It appears, that in former times, such places were specially provided in Parsee houses on the down-floors. Parsee houses in those times had generally spacious down-floors that were used for all purposes. The upper floors were low, and were rather like lofts. So, the down-floors provided proper places for delivery, as enjoined in the Vendidad. But, as, with changed circumstances, Parsee houses of today are not what they were before, and as, at present, in storied houses in big towns, the down-floors are generally the worst part of the houses, places of delivery at the down-floor are now-a-days properly condemned as unhealthy. In the case of a house or a place where no delivery has taken place before, religious-minded persons generally take care that a religious ceremony may be performed there before the delivery. In other words, they get the place consecrated. A priest or two say and perform the Afrinagan prayer and ceremony over the place. At times, even the Baj prayer is recited. It seems that one of the lost nasks (books), the Husparam, had special chapters on the subject of parturition.

A lamp lighted on the birth of a child.

On the birth of a child, a lamp is lighted and kept burning, for at least three days, in the room where the lady is confined. The Saddar says: “When the child becomes separate from the mother it is necessary to burn a lamp for three nights and days — if they burn a fire it would be better — so that the demons and fiends may not be able to do any damage and harm; because when a child is born, it is exceedingly delicate for those three days.” Some people keep the lamp burning for ten days and some for forty days, the latter number being generally observed as the period of confinement.

Period of confinement on delivery, 40 days.

On delivery, the mother is enjoined to remain apart from others. She is not to come into contact with fire, water, and other furniture of the house. In the case of those that give birth to still-born children, it is enjoined in the Vendidad, that they must thus remain apart for 12 days. This period has been latterly extended, as described m the later Pahlavi and Persian books, to forty days in all cases of delivery. Now-a-days, a Parsee lady has generally forty days of confinement after delivery. The Saddar says: “During forty days it is not proper that they should leave the child alone; and it is also not proper that the mother of the infant should put her foot over a threshold in the dwelling (i.e., leave the house) or cast her eyes upon a hill, or it is bad for her menstruation.”

Some families, following the Hindu custom, observe the fifth day after birth, known as pachory (i.e., the fifth day), and the tenth day, known as dasori (i.e., the tenth day), as gala days, but these days have no religious signification.

Perfect isolation and purification.

During the above forty days, the lady is in a state of isolation. She is not to come into contact with anybody and with any part of the ordinary furniture of the house, especially wooden furniture and linen articles. Her food is to be served to her on her plate by others. Those who have to come into contact with her have to bathe before they mix with others. Even the medical attendants had to do so, but, now-a-days, this sanitary rule is more honoured in the breach than in its observance. The original injunction may, among some other reasons, have been intended to observe “purity” in order to prevent the spread of the diseases to which women in this state are subject.

At the end of forty days, which is the period of confinement, the lady has to purify herself by a bath before ordinarily mixing with others. At first she takes an ordinary bath and then goes through what is called “nân,” a contraction of the Sanskrit word “snân” which is a sacred bath. A priest, generally the family priest, administers that bath with consecrated water.

All the bedding and clothes of the woman, used during the forty days of her confinement after delivery, are rejected from ordinary use. They are enjoined to be destroyed, lest they carry germs of disease among others. But, now-a-days, that injunction is not strictly followed. They are given away to sweepers.

The first drink after birth.

Formerly, a mother in child-birth first drank a few drops of the sacred Haoma-juice, which was squeezed and consecrated in a fire-temple. The Persian Farziât-nameh of Dastur Darab Pâhlan says, that a new-born child should be made to drink a few drops of this juice. If the consecrated Haoma-juice (para-Haoma) may not be had, one may pound at home a few Haoma twigs and a few leaves of the pomegranate tree (urvarâm) in water with the recital of an Ahunwar and give the juice for the first drink. In the Hom Yasht, Haoma is said to give fine healthy children to women. Haoma was emblematical of immortality. Anquetil Du Perron refers to this religious custom as prevalent in his time. But now-a-days this custom is rarely observed, and in place of the Haoma-juice, a sweet drink made of molasses or sugar is given to the child as a first auspicious drink. The Farziât-nâmeh asks the mother to feed the child with her own milk for 18 months if the child be male, and for 15 if it be a female.

Naming the child.

Herodotus refers to the custom of naming the child among the ancient Persians. We infer from what he says, that the parents waited for some time after birth, and then, watching the physical and mental characteristics of the child, gave them such names as indicated their characteristics. In the case of modern Parsees, many name the child after an immediate deceased ancestor. A Parsee name is made up of three names. The first is his own personal name. The second is his father’s name and the third is his surname or family name. Now, it is the first of these three, that is the proper name of the child; and in the case of that name, many prefer to call a child by an immediate ancestor’s name. Suppose a person named Jivanji had his father named Jamshedji, and his mother named Âwânbâi. Then, on the birth of a child, if it is a male child and if his own father (Jamshedji) was dead, he would prefer to name it Jamshedji. If it were a female child, he would like to name it Âwânbâi after his deceased mother. Some resort to a so-called astrologer and name the child as advised by him.

This process of naming the child has one particular religious significance, and it is this: In all religious ceremonies, during life or after death, a person’s name is recited as he or she is named at the time of his or her birth: This name is called Janam-nâm or birth-name. In his or her Naojote [navjote], i.e., sacred shirt and thread ceremony, marriage ceremony, or any other ceremony enjoined by him or her during lifetime (Zindeh-ravân), the birth-name is recited together with the father’s name. In all the ceremonies after death (Anôsheh-ravân), the name is similarly recited. In the case of a female, her personal name is recited together with that of her father as long as she is not betrothed. But after betrothal, her name is recited together with that of her husband. As a lady’s name is recited with her husband’s in all ceremonies after betrothal, the ceremony of betrothal is known as “Nâmzad shudan” in Persian, meaning “to be named,” or nâm pâdvun in Gujarati meaning “to give a name.”

Herodotus says of the old Achaemenian times, that “their names, which are expressive of some bodily or mental excellence, all end with the same letter.” Looking to the names as given in the Avesta, we find that they mostlyend in ‘a’. The same or similar names when given by Greek writers end in ‘s’. This can be easily seen from a list of Iranian names given by Rawlinson with their corresponding forms in Greek writings.

We find from stray allusions here and there in the Pahlavi and Persian writings, that, at times, children were named after, or in memory of, some particular events at the time of their birth. For example, names like Rustam and Kobâd are associated with some particular events at the time of their birth. Herodotus speaks of Persian names as expressive of their physical form. Thus we read in the Khushro Shirin of Nizami that the father of Khusro Parviz named the child Khusru, because he saw him ‘kinglike’ (Khusravi) in appearance.

Most of the modern Parsee names end in ji ((see image below), Avesta ‘ji’, Persian Zîstan ‘to live’). In the recital of prayers in honour of the dead, this suffix ‘ji’ is generally dropped, especially among the priestly class. It is taken to be a suffix-appellation of only the living. Modern Parsee names can be traced to certain few sources. For the males they are the following: — (1) Some of them are derived from the names of some of their Yazatas or angels. They are Hormusji (from Avesta Ahura Mazda, Hormuzd, the first Yazata), Bahamanji (Avesta Vohumana, Persian Bahman, the 2nd Yazata), Adarji (Adar, the 9th), Khorshedji (Avesta Hvare Khshaeta, the 11th), Meherji (Avesta Mithra, Persian Meher, the 16th), Behramji (Avesta Verethragna, Pahlavi Varahram [Varharam], Persian Behrâm, the 19th), Din (Avesta Daena, the 24th), and Homji (Avesta Haoma the 32nd in the list of the Siroza). (2) Some names are derived from some precious jewels; for example, Dhanji, Hirji, Manockji, Ratanji. (3) Some names are adopted from those of their Iranian ancestors, as mentioned in the Shah-nameh and in other Iranian writings; for example, Ardeshir, Burjorji, Bezonji, Dârâshâh, Dârâbji (Dorabji), Edalji (Adalji), Erachji, Fardunji (Fredun), Firozji (Pirozeji), Frâmji (Framroz), Godrezji, Gustâdji, Jâlbhai, Jamshedji, Jâmâspji Jehângirji, Kaikusru, Kekbâdji (Kaikobâd), Kerbâdji, Kâvasji, Khodâbux, Minochehrji (Mancherji), Meherwânji (Meherbân), Nâdirshâh, Nowrozji, Nushirwânji, Pâhlanji (Pâhlûm.), Pestonji (Peshotan), Rustamji, Shiâvakshâh, Shâpurji, Shehriârji, Sohrâbji, Tehmulji (Avesta Takhma-Urupa, changed in Pahlavi into Tahamurasp, then contracted by dropping the final asp, into Tahmur, then changed into Tahmul). (4) Some names have been taken bodily or with slight changes from the Hindus. For example, Bapuji, Bhikhâji, Dâdâbhai, Dâjibhâi, Dosâbhai, Fakirji, Ghândibhâi, Jijibhâi, Jivâji, Jivanji, Kuvarji, Lavji, Limji, Motâbhâi, Nânâbhâi, Pochâji, Santok, Suklâji, Ukarji.

The Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the Parsees

Coming to the names of the female sex, ‘Bâi’ the last part of their names corresponds to the last part ‘ji’ of the males. One can divide them under the following groups: — (1) Names derived from the names of the Zoroastrian Yazatas or angels. These are Bahmanbâi, Adarbâi, Âvânbâi (from Awân the 10th Yazata), Khorshedbâi, Meherbâi, Dinbâi, Hamâbâi (from Homa or Haoma. (2) Names derived from wealth or precious metals or jewels. They are Dhanbâi (wealth), Hirâbai (diamond), Jarbâi (Persian Zar gold), Manockbâi (ruby), Motibâi (pearl), Ratanbâi (jewel), Rupâbâi (silver), Sunâbâi (gold). (3) Names derived from old Persian names: Bânubai (Persian Bânu lady), Freni, Gulbâi (Persian Gul flower), Navazbâi (contracted from Persian Arnavâz, a sister of King Jamshed), Pirozbâi, Pourouchisht, Tehminâ. (4) Names derived from expressions for sweets: Mithibâi (sweet), Shâkarbâi (sugar), Shirinbâi (Persian Shirin sweet, also an Iranian name). (5) Names taken from the Hindus: Âimâê, Âlibâi, Bachubâi, Bhikhibâi, Chândanbâi, Dosibâi, Jâibâi (Jâiji), Kuwarbâi, Nâlibai, Sukhlibâi, Virbâi.

We find from these above lists, that some names are common to males and females. It is only the suffix ‘ji’ or ‘bai’ that makes it a male or a female name.