Sheriar Irani
| Sheriar Mundegar Irani | |
|---|---|
Father of Meher Baba
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| Born |
21 March 1853 Khorramshaar, Yazd province, Iran |
| Died | 30 April 1932 (aged 79) Bombay, India |
| Occupation | Shop owner |
| Spouse(s) | Shireen Irani |
| Children | Jamshed, Merwan, Freiny, Jal, Beheram, Adi, Mani |
Sheriar Mundegar Irani (March 21, 1853 - April 30, 1932) was a mystic and the father of Meher Baba.
Sheriar was born into a poor Zoroastrian family in the village of Khorramshahr, near Yazd, Iran. His mother died when he was aged five, and he was then raised by his father Mundegar, caretaker of the local Zoroastrian funeral site. The Tower of Silence (dakhma) was a place where the dead were left exposed to the elements and to birds of prey, and Sheriar was often left in charge in these eerie surroundings while still a boy. Alienated from his peers by his occupation, oppressed by the Muslim majority because of his religion, unschooled and illiterate, he left his birthplace at the age of twelve. For the next eight years he adopted the life of a solitary wandering dervish.
In 1874 he emigrated from Iran with his brother to India, in search of economic opportunities among the long-established Parsi community. After brief employment in Bombay, he gave away most of the money he had saved and resumed his mystical quest. He wandered through Gujarat and Sindh among other places for another ten years, begging only when he was hungry. Disappointed that nearly two decades of dervishi had not led him to spiritual realization, he returned to Bombay where his sister Piroja now lived. Slowly integrating into conventional life, he reluctantly became betrothed to a young girl, Shireen Khuramshahi, whose family had also immigrated from his birthplace. The marriage took place 8 years later in 1892 when Shireen came of age: she was 14 and Sheriar 39. To support his new lifestyle he became first a gardener and later the owner of a successful palm wine business in Poona (present-day Pune) where the couple moved in 1893. In all Sheriar and Shireen had nine children – seven sons and two daughters. Of these, three died in childhood: one son Shirmund at seven months, a second Jehangir at two years, and a daughter Freiny who died of plague at age six in 1902.
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