Thesis title: Zoroastrian Funeral Rituals Based on Rivāyāt of Dārāb Hormazyār
This study provides a picture of Zoroastrian funeral rituals according to the Zoroastrian Pahlavi and Persian texts, by emphasizing on the “Rivāyāt of Dārāb Hormazyār” as the central pivot, from ancient Iran up to today; over the time frame of overriding historical periods of Iran and India, beginning with Sassanids as the dynasty which supported Zoroastrianism and continued to the Islamic era. In the past two centuries of study Zoroastrianism, funeral customs not only were never individually studied as a socio-cultural phenomenon, but also the researchers had no comparison among Zoroastrians of two countries with two disparate traditions.
This study aims to gather all quotations and verses arising on funeral rituals as a valuable source to reconstruct a broader view on the praxis described in the Rivāyāt of Dārāb Hormazyār and detect eventual developments. The significance of the study lies in the new perspective that it offers for a better understanding of the socio-cultural evolution of each rite. The results clearly indicate that rational behavior of the Zoroastrian peoples, besides religious beliefs and traditions were widely influenced by political fluctuations. This intellectual evolution occurred after the downfall of the Sassanids. Seemingly, notwithstanding all political vicissitudes, a limited part of Zoroastrians remained faithful to their own religion and proceeded the tradition of open body exposure, which they had adopted earlier during the Achaemenid times, until the Sasanian period when it reached to its extreme and turned to be a mandatory burial ritual.
Following, in Islamic periods, it resumed by Zoroastrian survivors, who still were adherent of Zoroaster’s teaching, until the last century. On the other side of the same coin, the Persees have gradually changed the original rituals in some details, under both their conditions along with the culture in India; nonetheless, the principal configuration of these rituals always was similar to the Iranian version, obviously by Iranian priests’ supports.