Editing Parsis (section)

=== Calendrical differences ===
{{hatnote|This section contains information specific to the Parsi calendar. For information on the calendar used by the Zoroastrians for religious purposes, including details on its history and its variations, see [[Zoroastrian calendar]].}}

Until about the 12th century, all Zoroastrians followed the same 365-day religious calendar, which had remained largely unmodified since the calendar reforms of [[Ardashir I of Persia|Ardashir I]] (''r.'' 226-241 AD). Since that calendar did not compensate for the fractional days that go to make up a full solar year, with time it was no longer accordant with the seasons.

Sometime between 1125 and 1250 (''[[cf.]]'' {{harvnb|Boyce|1970|p=537}}), the Parsis inserted an [[embolismic month]] to level out the accumulating fractional days. However, the Parsis were the only Zoroastrians to do so (and did it only once), with the result that, from then on, the calendar in use by the Parsis and the calendar in use by Zoroastrians elsewhere diverged by a matter of thirty days. The calendars still had the same name, ''Shahenshahi'' (imperial), presumably because none were aware that the calendars were no longer the same.

In 1745 the Parsis in and around Surat switched to the ''Kadmi'' or ''Kadimi'' calendar on the recommendation of their priests who were convinced that the calendar in use in the ancient homeland must be correct. Moreover, they denigrated the ''Shahenshahi'' calendar as being "royalist".

In 1906 attempts to bring the two factions together resulted in the introduction of a third calendar based on an 11th-century [[Great Seljuq Empire|Seljuk]] model: the ''Fasili'', or ''Fasli'', calendar had leap days intercalated every four years and it had a New Year's day that fell on the day of the [[March equinox|vernal equinox]]. Although it was the only calendar always in harmony with the seasons, most members of the Parsi community rejected it on the grounds that it was not in accord with the injunctions expressed in Zoroastrian tradition (''[[Denkard|Dēnkard]]'' 3.419).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Madan |first1=Dhanjishah Meherjibhai |title=The complete text of the Pahlavi Dinkard |date=1911 |publisher=Bombay |url=https://archive.org/details/completetextofpa01dhan |access-date=March 28, 2022}}</ref>

Today the majority of Parsis are adherents of the Parsi version of the ''Shahenshahi'' calendar although the ''Kadmi'' calendar does have its adherents among the Parsi communities of Surat and Bharuch. The ''Fasli'' calendar does not have a significant following among Parsis, but, by virtue of being compatible with the ''Bastani'' calendar (an Iranian development with the same salient features as the ''Fasli'' calendar), it is predominant among the Zoroastrians of Iran.

==== Effect of the calendar disputes ====
Since some of the [[Avesta]] prayers contain references to the names of the months, and some other prayers are used only at specific times of the year, the issue of which calendar is "correct" also has theological ramifications.

To further complicate matters, in the late 18th century (or early 19th century) a highly influential head-priest and staunch proponent of the ''Kadmi'' calendar, Phiroze Kaus Dastur of the Dadyseth Atash-Behram in Bombay, became convinced that the pronunciation of prayers as recited by visitors from Iran was correct, while the pronunciation as used by the Parsis was not. He accordingly went on to alter some (but not all) of the prayers, which in due course came to be accepted by all adherents of the ''Kadmi'' calendar as the more ancient (and thus presumably correct). However, scholars of [[Avestan language]] and linguistics attribute the difference in pronunciation to a vowel-shift that occurred only in Iran and that the Iranian pronunciation as adopted by the ''Kadmi''s is actually more recent than the pronunciation used by the non-''Kadmi'' Parsis.

The calendar disputes were not always purely academic, either. In the 1780s, emotions over the controversy ran so high that violence occasionally erupted. In 1783 a ''Shahenshahi'' resident of Bharuch named Homaji Jamshedji was sentenced to death for kicking a young ''Kadmi'' woman and so causing her to miscarry.

Of the eight Atash-Behrams (the highest grade of [[fire temple]]) in India, three follow the ''Kadmi'' pronunciation and calendar, the other five are ''Shahenshahi''. The ''Fassali''s do not have their own Atash-Behram.