MU to set up centre to study Parsi-Zorostrian culture

The university has received a financial support of around Rs 12 crore from the Union Ministry, which will fund the creation of a language lab, multimedia studio and ancillary infrastructure.

The centre aims to preserve and protect the Avesta-Pahlavi legacy, study Parsi-Zoroastrian culture, explore Parsi community’s contribution to India’s development, document linguistics features for posterity and understand Avesta-Pahlavi’s contribution to India’s cultural diversity.

Along with certificate and diploma level courses, the university plans to offer Master’s and PhD courses too in Avesta-Pahlavi Studies.

The study centre will focus on studies of grammar and vocabulary in Avesta Pahlavi along with literature, historical background, scripts and writing systems, translation and philological analysis, semantics and dictionaries, ancient Iranian history and civilization.

The area of studies will also include Avesta Pahlavi epigraphy and palaeography, inscriptions and manuscripts.

Since 1888, studying this language script has been part of the Mumbai University but was shut down a while ago due to technical issues.

For the first time it will have a dedicated centre on campus now to run different types of courses in under the language.