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Zoroastrians and the Theosophical Society

Early history

Zoroastrians of the Parsi community were heavily engaged with the Theosophical Society Founders, Henry Steel Olcott and Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, even before the two debarked at Bombay for he first time in 1879. Colonel Olcott wrote of his early contacts in his autobiography, Old Diary Leaves.

It has been remarked already that the Bombay Parsis were friendly from the beginning, calling upon us with their families in numbers, asking us to their homes, dining with us, and pressing me to preside and distribute prizes at an anniversary of a Parsi girls’ school. While still in America, I had made friendly overtures to Mr. K. M. Shroff, who had just completed a lecturing tour in my country and returned home. He accepted membership and on all occasions after our arrival at Bombay, rendered us loyal help.

Influential Parsi gentlemen ... called on us, among them Mr. K. It. Cama, the Orientalist, and his famous father-in-law, the late Mr. Manockjee Cursetjee, the reforming pioneer, whose charming daughters were with him, received at several European Courts and universally admired.

The small Zoroastrian community was generally wealthy, literate, and open to interfaith cooperation. Parsis and Hindus worked together to form the Bombay Branch of the Theosophical Society. Representatives of both faiths, including Parsi Sorabji J. Padshah, joined a delegation in a good-will visit to the Buddhists of Ceylon in May, 1880.

Parsis made their public meeting halls available for Theosophical lectures, as when the President-Founder Olcott inaugurated his public Theosophical activities in India with an address delivered at the Framji Cawasji Hall early in 1879. The community was very generous furnishing the residence of the Founders, and for many decades provided funding for Theosophical causes.

Prominent Zoroastrian Theosophists

These practitioners of Zoroastrianism were Theosophists and significant to the Theosophical Movement. Two culturally distinct groups of Zoroastrians exist in India: Parsis or Parsees, who descended from Persians who emigrated to India in the 8th and 10th centuries CE; and Iranis, who made a similar migration many centuries later. Theosophists were generally Parsis.

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  N. D. Khandalavala
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  Burjorji J. Padshah
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  Dinshah P. Ghadiali
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  B. P. Wadia

N. D. Khandalavala (Khān Bahādur Navroji Dorabji Khandalavala) was a provincial judge who greatly assisted the Founders after becoming a member in 1879. He corresponded with Madame Blavatsky, who disclosed to him important information about the Mahatmas and other matters.

K. M. Shroff was a highly educated Parsi member in Bombay. In 1874 he lectured in the United States, and Shroff joined the Theosophical Society by corresponding with the Founders before they left New York, making him one of the earliest Indian members. He was vice president of the Bombay Branch from 1882 to 1885, a member of the TS General Council, and a major speaker at the 1882 convention. Col. Olcott referred to him as “the all-accomplishing Mr. K. M. Shroff.” Certainly, he was persuasive and energetic; and he helped to establish the Homeopathic Charitable Dispensary and Bombay Veterinary College and Hospital, working with Tukaram Tatya. Shroff testified in support of HPB in the Vega incident. In 1883 he become editor of the Jam-e-Jamshed daily newspaper published in Gujarati and English.

Khurshedji Nusserwanji Seervai (?–1897) was a highly educated and devoted Parsi Theosophist, and an eloquent speaker. Serving as Joint Recording Secretary of the Theosophical Society in 1880, he signed up about 200 two hundred subscribers to The Theosophist when it was a new publication. He helped organize the Bombay Branch, and was one of its founding officers. He worked as a tax collector, but found time to author Zoroastrianism and Theosophy and several other texts. After the Hodgson Report was published, he resigned from membership in the Society.

Sorabji J. Padshah (1856-1927) was another Parsi who joined the Society in 1880. He traveled with the Founders on their first trip to Ceylon, and served as Assistant Recording Secretary and on the General Council. In 1881 he received an encouraging letter from Master K.H., but after a few years he lost interest in Theosophy. His younger brother Burjorji J. Padshah (1864-1941) was a mathematics professor trained at Cambridge. He exerted great influence on the development of India’s largest conglomerate, the Tata Group, and on establishment of the Indian Institute of Science. He practiced Theosophical principles his whole life, abstaining from meat, leather, alcohol, and tobacco and advocating for animal welfare.

B. P. Wadia (1881-1958) was an important figure in the Theosophical Movement in the twentieth century. After joining the Theosophical Society in Bombay in 1904, he worked in the publishing house of the Society. He was interned by the British in 1917 with Annie Besant and George S. Arundale. In 1922, he resigned very publicly from the Adyar-based Society to embrace the United Lodge of Theosophists and its strict focus on the original writings of H. P. Blavatsky. He was a prolific and influential writer and editor.

Dinshah P. Ghadiali (1873-1966) was born in India but became a naturalized American citizen. His interests in medicine and electrical engineering led to patenting the Spectro-Chrome device for light therapy. He was a member of the Theosophical Society from 1891 to 1966, and published at least 16 books.

Adyar headquarters

While the number of Zoroastrians in India has decreased sharply since the early days of the Theosophical Society, this religious group is still honored at the Society's international headquarters. The residence of international Theosophical Society president Radha Burnier in the headquarters estate was called Parsi House. That campus also has a Zoroastrian Temple. Zarathustra, the founder of Zoroastrianism, is carved in relief on a wall of the Great Hall of the Headquarters building. Zoroastrians are regularly invited to participate in offering prayers at the openings of Theosophical Society conventions in India, the United States, and elsewhere.

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  Burjorji J. Padshah
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  Dinshah P. Ghadiali
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  B. P. Wadia