Concept
Fire temple
Overview
A fire temple (Persian: آتشکده, romanized: ātashkade; Gujarati: અગિયારી, romanized: agiyārī) is a place of worship for Zoroastrians. In Zoroastrian doctrine, atar and aban (fire and water) are agents of ritual purity.
Clean, white ash is an important part of Zoroastrian purification ceremonies. The use of fire in such ceremonies also indicates the proper way to tend domestic fires.
As of 2021, there were 167 fire temples in the world, of which 45 were in Mumbai, 105 in the rest of India, and 17 in other countries. Of these, only nine (one in Iran and eight in India) are the main temples known as Atash Behrams; the remainder are the smaller temples known as agiaries.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
The reason why these names are used, and the circumstances under which they are ordinarily applied by us to the division of the heavens, may be elucidated by the following supposition:—if a person were to stand in that part of the universe which is the appointed place of fire, and where there is the great mass of fire to which fiery bodies gather—if, I say, he were to ascend thither, and, having the power to do…
Plato, Timaeus
States what Fire temple is.
The seventh seal was therefore opened on the day of expiation, and then _there was silence in heaven for half an hour. And an Angel_, the High-Priest, _stood at the Altar, having a golden Censer; and there was given him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints, upon the golden Altar which was before the…
Isaac Newton, Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John
States what Fire temple is.
iv. 36); and, “When ye heard the voice out of the midst of the ḥoshek” (darkness) (ibid. v. 2); again, “All ḥoshek (darkness) shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him” (Job xx. 26). The element fire is called ḥoshek because it is not luminous, it is only transparent; for if it were luminous we should see at night the whole atmosphere in flames. The order of the four elements, according…
Moses Maimonides, The guide for the perplexed
States what Fire temple is.
Philosophers who discussed Fire temple
Related ideas
- Persian language
- Herodotus
- Gujarati language
- Iran
- The Wall Street Journal
- Cosmology
- Mumbai
- Indian subcontinent
- Geographica
- Zoroastrianism
- Cosmogony
- Parthian Empire
- Chennai
- Strabo
- Gujarat
- Lightning
- Bundahishn
- Avesta
- Histories (Herodotus)
- Yazd
- Atar
- Mobad
- Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics
Place in the tradition
Part of Heraclitus.