The Teachings of the Master-Hearts

Abstract

Abstract: ‘The Teachings of the Master-Hearts’ explores a compelling and often overlooked expression of modern Zoroastrianism: Ilme Kṣnum, or the ‘science of bliss’. Introduced by Behramshah Naoroji Shroff, who claimed initiation from reclusive Zoroastrian sages, the master-hearts (sāheb delān), in the mountains of Iran, this esoteric interpretation of the religion emerged from the entangled histories of British colonialism, scientific modernity, and Persianate revivalism. Far from passive inheritors of East–West exchange, Parsi Zoroastrians are portrayed here as active agents navigating a pluralistic world of religious and intellectual currents. Drawing on archival sources and previously untranslated Gujarati texts, the book shows how missions to Iran, Bombay’s knowledge economy, Freemasonry, and Theosophy became fertile grounds for constructing competing claims of religious authenticity. These spaces were inhabited by ontological brokers, community members who mediated between divergent worldviews, shaping the contours of modern Zoroastrianism through hybrid forms of thought and practice. This book situates Ilme Kṣnum within this broader terrain of hermeneutical contestation, revealing a polyphony of interpretation that undermines static binaries such as orthodoxy versus reform. Through this lens, Zoroastrianism emerges not as a monolithic tradition, but as a dynamic field of debate, creativity, and existential inquiry. By foregrounding the interpretive strategies of Ilme Kṣnum adherents, the book repositions esotericism as a generative force within South Asian religious modernity. In doing so, it reveals how the engagement with multiple ontologies enabled one of India’s most influential communities to reimagine the sacred in an age of unprecedented change.