The Ilm-e-Khshnoom SkyDrive digitization project

Roj Khorshed Mah Ardibehesht, 1380 Yz.

A great hurdle to the serious student of our religion and its mystic side has been the acute shortage of good and reliable books. The great surge of printing books happened at the beginning of the 20th century. However, these books have been long out of print or stored in libraries inaccessible to the normal student.

In case of Khshnoom, the experience was no better. Despite a huge output of books, magazines, newspapers and articles, many students found it difficult to obtain the books or were swindled by book dealers who used to charge in the thousands for rare copies of Dr. Framroze Chiniwalla’s books.

Fortunately, the era of digitization has come to our help. A few of us serious students felt the need to scan and digitize all the Khshnoom books for future generations, as the paper on which these books had been printed was slowly decaying and there was a real danger of losing out on this valuable heritage.

Thanks to the singular effort of one such very young volunteer (despite my appeals, he refuses to reveal his name to the general public), whom we shall call Mr. N, it is my very happy duty to announce to readers of Frashogard that the vast majority of Khshnoom literature has been scanned, digitized and saved as Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) files. This huge effort has been done patiently and lovingly by Mr. N, without any reward or expectation. He has scanned thousands of pages, collated the files, optimized them for on-screen viewing or printing, reduced their image size to lower the file size and basically handed over everything to me on a platter to put up on the Frashogard blog.

To say that I am deeply indebted to Mr. N is an understatement of the highest magnitude.

In order to make this treasure trove of information available to all students of our religion and readers of this blog, I have set up the Ilm-e-Khshnoom SkyDrive, with 10GB of space. Beginning today, I will slowly start uploading a few of these books on to the SkyDrive, and providing a link to download these books on the Frashogard website. Each book can be either downloaded on to your computer or read on screen. Along with the link, I will write a very short synopsis of the book and trace its history.

The vast majority of the Khshnoom literature is in Gujarati. However, there are a few very good books in English too. I have therefore divided the SkyDrive into English and Gujarati sections and then provided links to the various books.

This digitization project is a great step forward in making the real information about our religion accessible to all. I am indeed very grateful to Mr. N and others who may have helped him in compiling this treasure. He will surely receive his just reward from Nature.

I hope readers of Frashogard blog will make active use of this service and download, read and study the books which have been put up.

Please visit https://www.frashogard.com/ilm-e-khshnoom-skydrive to have a look at the books available.

Ervad Marzban J. Hathiram

28
SEP

Percy Patel September 28, 2010

My most sincere salutations, congratulations & thanks to this unknown Mr. N for going such good work. May Ahura Mazda grant him all his wishes N bless him & his family.
Sincerly,
Percy
nauzad September 28, 2010

Thank you Mr. N.
Ruby September 28, 2010

thanks you all so much. Have downloaded all the books. Such deep thoughts. Need to really concentrate and read to actually follow it. No DOUBT that our religion is so Mysteriously beautiful. Thank you once again.
Ketayun Bamji September 29, 2010

Thank you both so much. I have tried many avenues to get hold of our Kshnoom books but have had limited success. This is a treasure trove. Thank you once more.
Ketayun
Phiroze Panthaki September 29, 2010

Many thanks to all those involved in making this possible and a special thanks to Mr. N., he remains as mystical as the ILM 😉
One more request, can the Gujarati books have english refernces for ease of those like me who are not very familiar with the written gujarati language.
Once again a heartfelt thanks to all.
khursheed b irani September 29, 2010

ignorance of our religion has led to its downfall… i do hope and pray the youth as also the elderly read these books and be wise enough to accept the “written word”rather than start controversies… May Ahura Mazda bless Mr.N in his endeavour. Thank you and thank you Ahura Mazda for sending us “someone” who will take us further in our knowledge
Zubin September 30, 2010

Respected Humdins, Saw the comment on the link to Avesta-ba-Kshnoom as ‘This is a sacred work and contains the very words of Ahura Mazda and Zarathushtra. Please download and treat it with care and reverence.’
Considering that many of the books have our Manthras, and are the ‘WORD’, a highlight/bold note of request NOT to take printouts be made in the main body of the BLOG. Further attention be drawn to the post on ‘How to dispose religious items’ if at all unavoidably few printouts are taken. Means, the printouts deserve the same reverence and treatment as our Holy Avesta Books. Best recourse – do NOT take prints.
Respectfully Yours
Percy Madon September 22, 2011

I know a friend who has a book full of Ajemti-Nirangs, do we have this on ilme- khshnoom? Can anyone find those nirangs on net?
Ervad Marzban J. Hathiram September 23, 2011

Please see Er. Phiroze Masani’s Pazand Nirangs available on the SkyDrive.
https://www.frashogard.com/ilm-e-khshnoom-skydrive/books-by-er-phiroze-masani
Percy Madon September 23, 2011

That Photograph of dasoorji resembles my uncle Nariman Kaka. Wow! thanks Sir Marzban.
Tehmton Bacha July 17, 2012

Sir,

Is it possible to track down and scan in the book – Atharvan Zarathustra: The Foremost Prophet; by Jatindra Mohan Chatterji. I had read this book many years ago by chance, when I met an old Parsi gentleman who lent it to me upon an undertaking to return it within one week. I was so entranced, that I finished reading it twice in that period. Ever since, I have been wanting to possess a copy of it but have not managed to find it. Amazingly another book by the same author (The Hymns of Atharvan Zarathushtra) is ready to access on http://www.avesta.org/chatterj_opf_files/

A copy (in these days – at least digital) of this book should be in all Zoroastrian homes. If one wants to learn about the immense depth of our Mazdayasni Din and our stalwart prophet Lord Zarathustra, there is no other book out there that can come close. What’s fascinating, is that its written by a non-Zoroastrian scholar.

Thank you
Aspy Minoo Khan November 8, 2012

Sirs,
It is a great and noble service that both of you provide and for that mere thanks would be an understatement.
The Kshnoom books are not easy to procure, and thus this is a big help.
Best Regards,
Aspy.
Percy Italia July 17, 2014

Dastur Meherjee Rana Library of Navsari, Gujarat, India has all treasure. I was amazed when I found all books by Jatindra Mohan Chatterjee there which I was searching since 1992 and found there in 2009. Ironically, Navsari is very near from my village and I studied at Navsari for two years. Pl visit at once.