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| The '''fire-temple of Baku''' is a castle-like structure in ], ]. The central shrine is dedicated to an natual flame "Jwalaji", locally known as Atashgah. | |||
| {{Hinduism small}} | |||
| The '''Fire Temple of Baku''' or '''Atashgah''', is a castle-like temple complex in ], ]. The complex is now a museum, and is no longer used as a place of worship. The fire was once fed by natural gas. | |||
| There are several inscriptions in the temple in Devanagari and Gurmukhi from Samvat 1725 to Samvat 1873. | |||
| The temple is locally known as an ''Atashgah'', the Azerbaijani term for a fire temple, and is | |||
| not a reference to the ] use of the term. Local legend associates the temple at Surakhany with the ]s of the Zoroastrian faith, but there is no conclusive evidence to indicate that the temple or its location may originally have been used as Zoroastrian ''Atashgah''. | |||
| The temple has been mentioned by several European scholars. S. G. Gmelin (1771) mentions the various Yogi practices of the devotees in the temple. Eichwald (1825-1826) mentions the worship of Lord Rama, Krishna, Hanuman in addition to agni. | |||
| Inscriptions in the temple in ] (in Nagari ] script) and ] (in ] script) identify the sanctity as a place of ] or ] worship. These inscriptions date from ''Samvat'' 1725 to ''Samvat'' 1873, which though unambiguous references to the ], cannot be precisely dated since there is more than one ''Samvat'' calendar. ''Samvat'' 1725 could thus be either ''c.'' ] or ''c.'' ]. | |||
| The other Jwalaji temple is in the ]. | |||
| According to Abraham Valentine Williams, the Punjabi language inscriptions are quotations from the ]. The Sanskrit ones are from the ''Sati Sri Ganesaya namah'', invoke ], and state that the shrine was built for ''Jvalaji'', the flame-faced goddess Jvala-mukhi, of the ] in ], India. | |||
| ==External links== | |||
| Also according to Williams, the oldest reference to the temple is in ]'s ''Caspian Sea'' (1753), a report that is roughly contemporaneous with the inscriptions. Hanway apparently did not visit the temple himself, but bases his account on "the current testimony of many who did see it." He refers to the worshippers as being 'Indians', 'Gaurs', or 'Gebrs', none of which is a specific reference to Zoroastrianism ('Gebr' is sometimes thought to refer to Zoroastrians, but it is a generic term for any non-Islamic person). Although Hanway referred to "the antient Persian religion" in the title of his account, he thereafter contradicts himself when referring to the temple at Baku. | |||
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| Moreover, several references from the late 18th century and early 19th century record the site being used as a Hindu temple at that time. ]'s ''Reise durch Russland'' (1771) is cited in ]'s ''Reise auf dem Caspischen Meer'' (Stuttgart, 1834) where the naturalist Gmelin is said to have observed ] austerities being performed by devotees. Geologist Eichwald restricts himself to a mention of the worship of ], ], ] and ]. | |||
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| In 1925, a Zoroastrian priest by the name of Jivanji Jamshedji Modi, an Indian ] familiar with Hindu rituals, travelled to Baku to determine if the temple had indeed been once a Zoroatrian place of worship. In his ''Travels Outside Bombay'', he came to the conclusion that it "is not a Parsee Atash Kadeh but is a Hindu Temple, whose Brahmins used to worship fire". | |||
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| {{Azerbaijan-stub}} | |||
| ==References== | |||
| * {{cite book|last=Hanway|first=Jonas|title=Historical Account of British Trade over the Caspian Sea|year=1753|location=London}} | |||
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| * from: {{cite book|last=Modi|first=Jivanji Jamshedji|year=1926|location=Bombay|title=My Travels Outside Bombay: Iran, Azerbaijan, Baku|publisher=Royal Asiatic Society}}<br />The extract is followed by present-day photographs. | |||
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Revision as of 00:21, 24 July 2006
The fire-temple of Baku is a castle-like structure in Baku, Azerbaijan. The central shrine is dedicated to an natual flame "Jwalaji", locally known as Atashgah.
There are several inscriptions in the temple in Devanagari and Gurmukhi from Samvat 1725 to Samvat 1873.
The temple has been mentioned by several European scholars. S. G. Gmelin (1771) mentions the various Yogi practices of the devotees in the temple. Eichwald (1825-1826) mentions the worship of Lord Rama, Krishna, Hanuman in addition to agni.
The other Jwalaji temple is in the Kangra District.
External links
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