Parsi architects and engineers such as Merwanji Bana, Sohrabji Mehta, engineer architect Dorabjee Mistree, Perin J Mistri (the first woman architect), her father Jamshedji P. Mistri and  Pallonji Mistry created a plethora of buildings that were funded, designed and constructed by Parsis, as an expression of Parsi ownership of the city of Bombay. Apart from the built heritage of the Parsis, the many Parsi statues, such as Pherozeshah Mehta standing as a sentinel overseeing the city he looked after as its Municipal Commissioner or the sitting figure of Dadabhoy Naoroji over-looking Flora Fountain and Dinshaw Wacha’s statue at the crossroad of Church Gate and the Oval have added to the vista that marks the Parsi presence and their contribution to Bombay.

Perhaps the most iconic are the several fire temples  more than fifty in Bombay and its suburbs, fronted with Persian motifs and elaborate Persipolitan bull capitals that tell the story of where the Parsis came from and who they are. These are magnificent examples of a migrant community’s tangible living heritage. Perhaps the most inspirational is the lone stone-canopied structure which shelters the Bhika Behram water well built by an iterant  Parsi Trader who found his way to this ‘City of Gold’ and made his money in the bazaars of Bombay. He gave back to the city free drinking water for all, centuries before Bisleri bottles littered the streets. This stand-alone structure epitomizes the ethos of the Parsis, of giving back to a city that gave them so much.

Together these buildings, statues and fire temples are visible markers of the tangible heritage of a living community that gave back to the city they called their home.

Firoza Punthakey Mistree