Calligrapher Perin Pudumjee Coyaji’s
second book illustrates the little known
text of Ahura Mazda’s 1,001 names
Farrokh Jijina
When Poona-based copywriter turned calligraphist Perin Pudumjee Coyaji was at Bombay’s H. B. Wadia Atash Behram on the eve of her twin sons’ navar initiation process in 2013, the priest in attendance "bade me follow him into a large side room where lay a pile of old, dusty books on a windowsill… He wished for us to accept any of these texts lying there.” Spotting a booklet in Gujarati "which distinctly looked like 1001 Names of Ahura Mazda,” Pudumjee Coyaji helped herself to it. "The little Gujarati booklet by Ervad Edulji Karkaria with a preface dated August, 19, 1951 by......