Fasli calendar introduced; CCWV.LIFE

In 1906 the scholar Kharshedji Rustomji Cama and the Zarthosthi Fasli Sal Mandal promote the Fasli calendar in Bombay, realigning the year to the seasons and to the Iranian reckoning so that Navroz falls at the spring equinox. The three living variants, Shenshai, Kadmi, and Fasli, fix the New Year on different days, and the choice of calendar remains a marker of community identity.

Tagged: Parsi Zoroastrianism

The Event

Date: 1906 (exact)
Era: Modern and Diaspora; Standard periodization of Zoroastrian history
Location: Bombay; today India
Traditions: Zoroastrianism
Streams: Parsi
Key figures: Kharshedji Rustomji Cama

How the Tradition Tells It

Fasli's promoters presented it as the restoration of the true calendar; Shenshai and Kadmi authorities largely declined it, and most Iranian Zoroastrians later adopted a Fasli-aligned national calendar while Parsi practice stayed divided.

Connections

Illustration for Kadmi-Shenshai calendar split

History Event Kadmi-Shenshai calendar split 1740s answers

Primary Sources

Publications of the Zarthosthi Fasli Sal Mandal.

Secondary Sources

Boyce, Mary. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. London: Routledge, 1979.
Choksy, Jamsheed K. Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian Society. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
Encyclopaedia Iranica, entries on the Avesta, the Sasanians, and the Parsi calendar disputes.
Hinnells, John R. The Zoroastrian Diaspora: Religion and Migration. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Rose, Jenny. Zoroastrianism: An Introduction. London: I.B. Tauris, 2011.

Provenance: HIST-1018; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-28.