Atashgah - the Fire Temple (Baku)

Azerbaijan / Baki / Emircan / Baku
 museum, place with historical importance, interesting place, fire temple (zoroastrianism)
Renovations conducted (completed in 2011) have shown this historic temple was originally built by Hindus and later used also by Zoroastrians.

Photo:
web.archive.org/web/20161010022236/panoramio.com/photo/...

Located in the south-eastern part of Surakhani settlement (30 km from Baku) the place is an old (XVII-XVIII AD) temple complex of the Zoroaster followers, the fire worshippers. Having discovered natural gas erupting from rock crevices here, they constructed a number of buildings around. Those included the pentagonal temple building, outward walls, prayer rooms, priesthood's cells, cervice premises, stores, medical ward and a caravansaray. In the middle of the yard stands an impressive quadrangular dome of the main temple-altar with ever-burning fires; another fire burns in a depressed circular fire-place in front of it, and more fires were supposed to erupt from special roof chimneys. The portal gate has a "balak-hane" - a guest-room - on the upper floor.

The oldest building of the complex in existance is the stables (1713) while the main altar was built only in 1810 (or, 1866 Vikramaditya Indian style) due to contributions by a wealthy Parsi merchant Kanchagar. Now, religious ceremonies started here earlier then any of the existing buildings were erected.

A number of paleographyc monuments are preserved here; mostly, those are inscriptions in late Sanscrit and Gurmukhi (Sikh writing) - schloka poems, citations, other phrases and formulae made in Devanagari letters.

The complex was carefully restored in mid-1970s and is now a branch of the State Historical and Archaeological museum "Shirvanshahs' Palace Complex". It is accessable by taxi (more convenient for tourists) or by guided tours and is worth a several hours' visit.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   40°24'55"N   50°0'30"E

Comments

  • Atashgah - the Fire Temple! This structure was built in 1810 by Zoroastrians-specifically Parsees from India - who worshipped fire and made pilgrimages to Baku to marvel at the fires created as natural gas escaped through fissures in the ground's porous limestone. The site has been converted into a museum and may be visited during the daytime.
  • It is not a Zoroastrian fire temple, as the Parsi priest and academic Jivanji Jamshedji Modi determined in 1926, and Avesta scholar Abraham Valentine Williams Jackson determined in 1911. Both local records and the physical evidence indicate that it was a Hindu monastery, and the museum's staff, brochures, and tableax-like reconstructions all recognize it as such. Evidently, the place came to be spuriously associated with Zoroastrianism because Zoroastrians were the only "fire-worshipers" locals knew of. The popular fantasies notwithstanding, the structures as we know them today are the result of at least two building phases. The oldest part dates to 1723 (the building bears an inscription to this effect), the latter to the early 1800s. The building was in continuous use by Hindu ascetics until the the gas ran out during the Soviet era. As the inscriptions in Sanskrit and Punjabi indicate, the structures were dedicated to Jwalaji, an avatar of Parvati, consort of Shiva. Jwalaji (lit: "venerable '-ji' flame 'jwala-'") is a figure of Hindu mythology and there are dozens, if not hundreds, of temples dedicated to her. As is also the case for the building at Surkhani, Jwala temples don't have the usual trappings associated with Hindu worship. The reason why Hindu ascetics went to such troubles in such a remote location (even Baku, which was always much bigger than Surkhani, had merely 5000 inhabitants in the early 1800s) has its roots in Hindu beliefs: According to Hindu mythology, Vishnu destroyed Parvati by tearing her body apart with 10,000 arrows. The pieces of Parvati flew through the air and dispersed all over the world. Where they landed, the land became "Shaktipeth", and jets of fire shot out of the ground. In this fashion (so the myth) Parvati could continue to venerate Shiva. The largest and most venerated of the Jwala temples is in Jwalamukhi, Himachal Pradesh, India. The city and temple are so called because (according to the myth outlined above) Parvati's tongue landed there. Hence "Jwalamukhi", which means "flame-mouthed". Being cremated with the fires of Jwala is (supposedly) a particularly meritorious. Accordingly, Jwala shrines, including the one at Surkhani, are/were popular destinations for those about to die.
This article was last modified 3 years ago