On 23^rd January, 2019, Navsari’s 148-year-old institution, the First Dastoor Meherjirana Library (FDML) conducted a seminar with two distinguished guest speakers – Almut Hintze, the Zartoshty Brothers Professor of Zoroastrianism at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London, as well as the Fellow of the British Academy, who had come to Navsari with her team of researchers; and eminent Avesta scholar, Er. Dr. Pervez Bajan. Held at FDML’s Sir Dorabji Tata Trust annex building, the seminar was held for the Community with the aim of sharing insights into the ‘Rituals of Yasna and Transmission of Avesta through Oral Tradition’.

Chairperson Major Katy Antia gave the welcome speech, and the speakers – Almut Hintze and Er. Bajan – were introduced by Er. Farzan Antia and Bakhtavar Minocherhomji. Prof. Hintze, whose field is Zoroastrianism and Ancient and Middle Iranian Languages, shared a presentation about SOAS being related to the ancient Zoroastrian ritual of the Yasna orally (by sound) and in the written word; and spoke of SOAS’ funding by the European Research Council and Advanced Grants, from Shapurji and Pallonji, for the Project Yasna. Professor Almut Hintze currently directs a collaborative project on the Multimedia Yasna, funded by European Research Council (2016–2021), to produce an interactive film of a complete performance of the Yasna ritual, electronic tools for editing Avestan texts, and a text-critical edition, translation, commentary and dictionary of the Avestan Yasna.

Compared to a few decades ago, the Yasna ritual is nowadays performed only rarely and is an endangered heritage of the Zoroastrian tradition. Addressing this issues while speaking on the occasion, Prof. Hintze said, “Up to the present-day Zoroastrian priests perform a millennia old ritual, the Yasna, in which the recitation of ancient Avestan texts accompanies the performance of ritual actions. This ritual is at the heart of the tradition as it includes the recitation of the most sacred texts, the so-called hymns of Zarathushtra. However, the words which the priests recite are very hard to make out and their relationship to the ritual actions is little understood. Moreover, no edition and translation of the complete Yasna ceremony is currently available.”

The Multimedia Yasna, (short: MUYA), a SOAS project funded by the European Research Council with an Advanced Investigator Grant, proposes to fill these gaps by producing a sub-titled interactive film of the Yasna ritual and a state-of-the-art edition with translation and commentary based on the manuscript while developing digital tools for electronic editing. “In addition, MUYA is producing a film of the ritual in Virtual Reality, thus enabling the viewer to experience the ritual by full immersion. This talk highlights the main features of MUYA,” she said.

Er. Dr. Pervez Bajan, the globally renowned speaker on Zoroastrian faith, religious rituals and the Shahnameh, spoke about how the transmission of the Avesta through oral tradition should be maintained and the importance of priests and rituals in religious communities.

After the talks, nearly 70 members from the audience were given the opportunity to witness a Yasna ritual performance in virtual reality. The vote of thanks was conducted by Trustee Zenobia Pestonjamasp, who emphasized how grateful FDML was to numerous benevolent patrons for their support, including Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, MK Tata Trust, FE Dinshaw Trust, Pirojsha Godrej Foundation, Naslee Wadia and other individual donors for helping in the conservation of ancient manuscripts and for the maintenance and administration of this renowned library.

.