Why Ratan Tata did not have a ‘traditional’ Parsi funeral

India is mourning the loss of one of its most renowned industrialists, Ratan Tata, who passed away on October 9 at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital.

He was 86.

Tata was well-known for his visionary leadership and strong dedication to social responsibility.

Not only did he turn the Tata Group into a worldwide force, but he also made a significant impact on the lives of millions of people.

Paying respect to his immense contribution to the nation’s industrial growth, he was accorded a state funeral by Maharashtra on Thursday (October 10).

Though he belonged to the Parsi community, he was not cremated at the Tower of Silence.

Instead, he was cremated in an electric crematorium.

His Worli funeral is indicative of how the Parsi community is evolving, with an increasing number of people choosing cremation over having their loved ones’ remains placed in the Tower of Silence.

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Ratan Tata’s funeral

The mortal remains of Tata were brought out of the hospital in an ambulance assisted by police vehicles early on Thursday and taken to his residence in Colaba.

The body was brought from his home to the NCPA in south Mumbai in a hearse decorated with white flowers, where it was left for guests to pay their final respects. Thousands of people arrived from all walks of life to pay their final respects there.

At his prayer meeting at the NCPA, priests from Parsi, Muslim, Christian, Sikh and Hindu faiths gathered to read prayers, marking a rare and moving tribute transcending cultural and religious boundaries. Videos of this emotional gathering have been circulating on the Internet, with many calling the industrialist “true icon of India.”

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Tata’s final rites were conducted through cremation, in contrast to traditional Parsi practices, which call for sky burials. The rites were performed at Mumbai’s Worli Crematorium, which is equipped with two electric incinerators.

As part of the final rites, the body, draped in white, symbolising purity, was first placed in the Prayer Hall, where prayers were recited.

The mortal remains were then moved to the electric crematorium for the final rites.

Notably, the last rites of former Chairperson of Tata Sons Cyrus Mistry were also performed at the Worli Crematorium in 2022.

Parsi funeral rituals

Numerous ceremonies are held as part of the Parsis’s final rituals to dispose of the dead.

With a focus on spiritual purity and the circle of life, these ceremonies strive to respect the deceased, as per ETV Bharat.

The three-step preparations are:

• Separation: Keeping the deceased in a separate room to prevent spiritual impurity.

• Purification: Performing ritual ablutions.

• Clothing: Draping the deceased in white, symbolising purity.

Sacred rituals that are followed:

• Sagdid (viewing): Family and friends pay respects.

• Navjote (initiation): Prayers are recited to reconnect the soul to divine forces.

• Vendidad (purification): Rituals are performed to cleanse the soul.

• Yasna (worship): Offerings to Ahura Mazda (the supreme deity) are done.

Post-funeral rituals include:

• Uthamna (four-day ceremony): Prayers are held for the departed soul and offerings are made in his remembrance.

• Chhahum (forty-day ceremony): This commemorates the soul’s journey.

• Annual memorials: This is meant for honouring the loved ones.

Also read: Goodbye Ratan Tata: The life and legacy of India’s ‘most loved businessman’

The Towers of Silence

From the nature thy come and to the nature thy return.

This fundamental truth is reflected in Parsis’s funeral customs.

While Hindus cremate the body, and Islam and Christianity involve burial, the Zoroastrian community considers the natural elements to be sacred, and therefore they believe by cremating the dead on firewood they are disrespecting or defiling the fire.

The Parsis have historically laid their deceased in the “Dakhma” or “Tower of Silence” structures, which include wells and are exposed to the sun. Here, they are left to the elements and scavenging birds, most often vultures. After the vultures eat the flesh, the bones finally fall into the tower’s central well and continue to decompose there.

This practice, known as ‘Dokhmenashini’, ensures that the body is returned to nature without polluting the sacred elements of fire, earth and water.

In India, there are Towers of Silence in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and several towns and cities of Gujarat.

Changing Parsi traditions

With the vulture population in India declining, an increasing number of Parsis are choosing cremations over the customary Towers of Silence in recent years.

“Since we consider dead bodies to pollute the fire which we worship, they are taken to the electrical crematorium or cremated through biogas,” CA Jehangir Bisney, Trustee, Parsi Zoroastrian Anjuman of Secunderabad and Hyderabad, told Deccan Herald.

For Parsi-Zoroastrians who choose not to be buried in the Tower of Silence, the Worli municipal crematorium’s Prayer Hall provides a place for their funeral ceremonies, according to the Free Press Journal.

According to the 2024 research, cremations accounted for barely seven to eight per cent of Parsi funerals in Mumbai prior to the establishment of the Prayer Hall.

Crematoriums now host 15 to 20 per cent of all Parsi funerals.

This is true even if traditional Parsis continue to oppose cremation.

“There are conservative people among the young who would like to go for the traditional funeral rites while there are those in the older generation who want to cremated. Ultimately, when you have passed on, it is your relatives who take the final decision though the deceased may have had a death wish,” Jehangir says.

Vultures extinction

The loss of habitat brought on by urbanisation has resulted in a continuous fall in the vulture population in India.

The livestock form of the medication Diclofenac, which was created in the early 1990s, was also the primary reason. For vultures that were consuming cow carcasses, it turned out to be hazardous.

The drug was banned in May 2006, but by then it had decimated 95 per cent of these birds.

Deep fault lines emerged when a woman named Dhun Baria released ghoulish photos of supposedly unconsumed corpses piling up in the ‘dakhmas’ of Doongerwadi.

This was disturbing for the community, whose ancient funeral ceremonies placed a high value on ceremonial cleaning and separating the living from the “contagion” of the dead.

Globally, the Parsi population ranges between 1,50,000 to 2,00,000 people, with about 60,000 to 70,000 residing in India. Of them, nearly 40,000 to 45,000 reside in Mumbai. The ratio of deaths to births in the community is 3:1.

After Baria’s photos were published, there were unsuccessful efforts to cultivate indigenous vultures. However, reintroducing vultures to Doongerwadis seems impractical and not advisable, considering today’s urban environment.

The Parsi community has now discovered a way to adhere to Zarathustra’s injunction to not defile the elements while still using effective solar concentrators.

With inputs from agencies