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Liber XXXVI · Zoroastrianism

Liber XXXVI · Zoroastrianism · Chapter IV: The Magi

Zoroastrian Priests: Mobeds, Dasturs and the Priestly Life

The Zoroastrian priesthood from the Magi to today: mobeds, ervads and dasturs, hereditary priestly families, Navar and Martab initiation, and modern change.

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A Zoroastrian priest is a man from a hereditary priestly family who has been initiated to perform the religion's rituals, tend its sacred fires and preserve its prayers by memory; in Iran he is usually called a mobed, in India an ervad once initiated, and a senior priest who leads a fire temple or a community is a dastur. The priesthood descends from the Magi of ancient Iran and has carried the Avesta orally for well over two thousand years, but today it faces serious shortages and lively debates about its future.

From the Magi to the Mobeds: Titles and History§

The Avesta calls the priest athravan, "keeper of the fire", and names specialised ritual roles such as the zaotar, the chief officiant who recites the liturgy, and the raethwishkar, his assistant. Western Iran knew the priests as the magu, the Magi, a group described by Herodotus and discussed in the Magi: priests of ancient Persia. Under the Parthians and Sasanians the Old Persian title magupati, "chief of the Magi", became the Middle Persian mowbed, from which the modern mobed derives, while ehrbed or herbed, originally "teacher" (Avestan aethrapaiti), became the modern ervad.

The Sasanian church was a powerful hierarchy. In the third century the priest Kerdir set up inscriptions near Persepolis and elsewhere, recording his rise under several kings, his founding of fire temples and his suppression of rival religions. At the top stood the mowbedan mowbed, "mobed of mobeds", a chief priest with judicial as well as religious authority. After the Arab conquest the priesthood lost its state role, and its leaders became the guardians of a minority community, compiling the Middle Persian books described in the Bundahishn and Pahlavi literature.

A Hereditary Priesthood§

Priesthood is inherited through the male line. In India priestly families are called athornan (from athravan), and only their sons can be initiated as priests; laypeople are behdin, "of the good religion". When the Parsis settled in Gujarat, the priests divided the region into five ecclesiastical groups, or panths: the Sanjanas, associated with Udvada, where the oldest Indian sacred fire, the Iranshah, is kept; the Bhagarias of Navsari; the Godavras; the Bharuchas; and the Khambattas. These groups served defined areas and sometimes quarrelled over jurisdiction and fees.

A priest's daughter may marry outside the priestly class, but her sons cannot become priests. Women have not traditionally served as priests in either India or Iran. In Iran, however, the Council of Mobeds in Tehran began in the 2000s to train laypeople, including women, as mobedyars, "assistants to the mobeds", who may perform certain outer ceremonies; the first women mobedyars were reported in 2011. This development has been welcomed by reformists and viewed with reserve by many Indian traditionalists.

Training and Initiation: Navar and Martab§

Memorising the liturgy§

A boy destined for the priesthood learns the liturgy by heart, traditionally from his father or a teacher, and today often at a priestly seminary in Mumbai. He must memorise the Yasna, the Visperad, much of the Khorda Avesta and the ritual gestures, in Avestan, a language few priests now speak. The emphasis on exact recitation reflects the belief that the sacred word (manthra) is efficacious in its sound, as discussed in the Ahuna Vairya and Ashem Vohu.

The Navar§

The first initiation, Navar, usually takes place in the boy's teens or earlier. The candidate undergoes the bareshnum, the highest purification, followed by a nine-night retreat of prayer and seclusion, and this is performed twice. He then celebrates a series of ceremonies over several days under the supervision of senior priests, after which he is an ervad and may perform the outer rituals. The Navar is a public, joyful occasion for the family, often accompanied by a procession and feasting.

The Martab§

A second initiation, Martab, qualifies a priest to perform the inner rituals, including the full Yasna and the Videvdad, and to consecrate certain ritual objects. A priest who wishes to perform inner rituals must keep himself in a state of ritual purity, the bareshnum, which is renewed periodically and lost through contact with pollution or by breaking the rules of conduct. Because these demands are heavy, many initiated priests perform only outer ceremonies.

The Work of a Priest: Inner and Outer Rituals§

Zoroastrian rituals are divided into two kinds. The inner rituals — the Yasna, the Visperad, the Videvdad (performed as a night service) and the ceremonies needed to consecrate a fire — must be performed by priests in a high state of purity in a specially demarcated ritual area (pavi) of a fire temple. They involve the preparation of the parahom, a ritual drink made from haoma twigs, pomegranate and milk, and the barsom, a bundle of metal rods that replaced the ancient bundle of twigs (on haoma, see Soma and Haoma). A classic photographic and textual study of the Yasna is A Persian Offering by Dastur Firoze M. Kotwal and James W. Boyd.

The outer rituals may be performed anywhere that is clean, including private homes: the jashan thanksgiving ceremony, the afringan blessings, prayers for the dead, the navjote initiation of children and the wedding ceremony. Priests also tend the fires of the temples. In an Atash Bahram, the highest grade of fire, a priest feeds the fire and performs the boi ceremony at each of the five watches of the day, ringing a bell and reciting prayers. While praying near the fire, priests wear a white cloth over the mouth and nose, the padan, to keep breath and spittle from the flame. More on the temples themselves is in Zoroastrian fire temples and ritual.

Dasturs and Learned Priests§

The title dastur, "one with authority", is given to the high priest of a major fire temple or of a community, and dasturs are expected to give rulings on law and ritual. Learned priests have shaped the history of the religion. The Persian Rivayats of the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries record questions sent by Parsi priests to their colleagues in Iran and the answers that came back. In the sixteenth century Dastur Meherji Rana of Navsari is remembered for taking part in the religious discussions held at the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar. In the 1750s the Frenchman Anquetil-Duperron learned Avestan and Pahlavi from Dastur Darab in Surat, opening the Avesta to European scholarship.

In the modern period, high priests such as Dastur Firoze Kotwal combined traditional authority with academic collaboration, while scholar-priests in Mumbai, Navsari and Udvada continued to publish editions and commentaries. Priests' views on questions such as conversion, interfaith marriage and funerals have often been decisive in community disputes, described in Parsis and modern Zoroastrianism.

The Priesthood Today§

The Parsi priesthood faces a well-documented crisis. Many sons of priestly families choose secular careers, since priestly fees are modest and the discipline is demanding; some are initiated as Navars but serve only part-time. Temples in small Gujarati towns have struggled to find resident priests, and the full inner liturgies are performed in fewer places than a century ago. In North America, Europe and Australia, where the diaspora has grown, many communities rely on part-time priests who combine ritual service with other professions.

Responses vary. Seminaries and trusts in India offer scholarships to priestly boys; diaspora organisations train priests locally; and in Iran the mobedyar programme has extended some ritual roles to laypeople. Supporters see these steps as adaptation that keeps the tradition alive; critics fear the loss of the purity and expertise that the hereditary system was designed to protect. Through these changes the priest remains the living link to the oral transmission that preserved the Avesta from Zarathustra's time to the present.

Frequently asked questions§

What is the difference between a mobed and a dastur?§

Mobed is the general term for a Zoroastrian priest, especially in Iran. A dastur is a senior priest, usually the high priest of a major fire temple or of a community, with authority to give rulings on religious law and ritual.

Can anyone become a Zoroastrian priest?§

Traditionally no: only sons of hereditary priestly families can be initiated through the Navar ceremony. In Iran a recent programme trains lay men and women as mobedyars, assistants who may perform certain ceremonies, but this is not accepted by all Zoroastrians.

Why do Zoroastrian priests cover their mouths?§

When praying near a sacred fire or handling ritual objects, priests wear the padan, a white cloth over the mouth and nose. It prevents breath and saliva, considered impure, from reaching the fire.

Sources and further reading§