Having heard of several cases of persons taken to the Towers of Silence who recovered consciousness after being laid within the enclosure, I asked Mr. Jivanji Mody what would happen in such a case, and what means of escape there would be? Mr. Mody replied that within the tower there is a chain hanging from the coping to the floor, by which a person could draw himself up to the top of the structure, and he would then be seen and rescued. In a neatly-constructed model of these towers at the museum, Victoria Gardens, Bombay, no chain is visible. The subject of apparent death, or suspended animation, and how to prevent premature burial, premature cremation, and premature exposure in the Towers of Silence, is beginning to excite interest in some parts of India. Mr. Ardeshar Nowroji, Fort Bombay, student of Zoroastrian literature, is to read a paper on the subject before the Debating Society at Elphinstone College. Mr. Soabjee Dhunjeebhoy Wadia is also studying literature bearing on the same topic.
Mr. Dadabhoy Nusserwanje, a Bombay Parsee and merchant, residing at Colombo, Ceylon, informed the author, January 28, 1896, that he knew of two cases where his co-religionists had been declared dead, and the bodies prepared for burial (the preparation including the long religious service as prescribed by their formulas), who were only in a trance. This was proved by their having come back to life when placed in the Towers of Silence in Bombay. It appears that any persons officially and religiously given over for dead were formerly not allowed to be restored to their relatives, or to the society to which they belonged, as they were supposed to carry with them, from their dead associates, liability to plagues or ill luck, and they are consequently obliged to migrate to distant parts of the country. My informant said that this superstition was so deeply rooted in the minds of the Parsee people that he did not think a reform was possible.
Cases of persons in a trance, mistaken for dead, are by no means uncommon, as would appear from the following communication from Mr. Nasarvariji F. Billimoria, a Parsee of Bombay, addressed to Dr. Franz Hartmann, and not previously published:-
“Several cases of revival of the apparently dead among the Parsees,” writes Mr. Billimoria, “have come to my notice.
“A Parsee, whom I shall call M—— B——, was given up as dead. The body was laid on the ground, and the usual ceremonies were being performed, when, to the surprise of the people surrounding the body, he rose and described some spiritual experience. He died long after this event took place, at a good old age, at Bilimora, a town about eighty miles north of Bombay.
“S——, a girl of about ten years, was also taken as dead in the same town, and, after laying her body on the ground, prayers were being recited by the priests. She rose and said that she had been to some other land, where she saw an old lady who ordered her to go away, as she was not required there just then. She died at a good old age a few months ago.
“A woman in the garb of a Hindu beggar was some time ago in the habit of interviewing Parsee ladies at odd times, viz., at about three or four o’clock in the morning, at the same place, and asking several questions pertaining to religion. It was afterwards found that she was K—— (widow of a Parsee priest), who had apparently died a short time before, and, after revival, had emerged from the Tower of Silence, and, a superstition being prevalent among the people that none should be taken back among us who return from the dead, she dared not unite with the Parsees, and hence led a wanderer’s life.
“In Bombay, too, I have heard of some cases of the revival of the apparently dead among the Parsees, the principal of them being a lady of a wealthy family, and a Parsee who afterwards carried on his profession as a physician. The physician was living as a Christian on account of the prejudice among the Parsees before referred to. He was called “Mûtchala Dâktar,” i.e., doctor with big moustache.
“Similar cases had also occurred in Surat, where two Parsee women had returned from the Towers of Silence, one of whom lived afterwards as a Sanyasini. What became of the other I cannot say.”