The Indian connection to Azerbaijan's Baku Atishgah heritage site continues to ignite automatically over the years.

Baku, November 13, 2023, Monday

There is a bonfire at this place and photos and videos of the flames coming out of it are going viral on social media. Some articles in Devanagari script, Sanskrit and Gurmukhi script (Punjabi) are also written on the walls of this place known as Atishgah. The inscriptions mention Hindu deities Ganesha, Shivaji and Goddess Jawala

98 percent of people practice Islam in the Central Asian country of Azerbaijan, once part of the Soviet Union, but the Indian connection of a place near Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, is under discussion. This is a temple called Temple of Fire, also known as Baku Atishgah.

This Ateshgah or Jawala Temple is a medieval Hindu religious site in the town of Surakhani near the capital Baku. In which there is a temple in the middle of Panch Bhuja shape. Near the outer walls of this temple there are room-like rooms where priests are believed to have lived once. Atish means fire in Persian. Atesh is pronounced in Iranian dialects.

Gah means throne or house. Atishgah like Idgah, Bandargah means house of fire known as fire temple. The city of Surakhani is located on Azerbaijan's Absheron Peninsula, which meets the Caspian Sea. Natural gas and oil have been seeping in the ground here for decades. Hence some places catch fire by themselves. Fire is considered sacred by Zoroastrians. Fire is considered sacred in both Hindu Vedic religion and Zoroastrianism. Therefore, there is a difference of opinion among some scholars regarding this Zoroastrian or Hindu temple. The trishul shape on the temple is considered a sign of Hinduism, so some scholars believe it is a Hindu temple. So some consider Parsis and Hindus to be the same. This place has been glorified for years of automatically burning Jyot Jalati.

There is a bonfire in the temple at this place where the photos and videos of the temple constantly emitting flames are going viral on social media. Some articles in Devanagari script, Sanskrit and Gurmukhi script (Punjabi) are also written on the walls of the temple. The inscriptions mention Hindu deities Ganesha, Shivaji and Goddess Jawala. According to one source, in the late medieval period, the Indian communities in Punjab and Multan were trading with Armenians in Central Asia. Indian craftsmen used to work on the woodwork of the ships plying on the Caspian Sea. Many historians believe that people from an Indian community living in Baku may have built this fire place. Or it may be that the place has been constructed by repairing an old structure.

As European scholars and travelers flocked to the Indian subcontinent, Hindu devotees would also meet traveling at this point between Baku and India. According to one information, the creator of this fire temple was Buddhadev who was a resident of Madja village near Kurukshetra. The year of construction is 1783 and Uttamchand and Shobharaj are also mentioned in the names of the builders of the temple. According to historical witnesses, Indian priests used to perform pujas every day. Even before they came and worshiped as goddess. The temple has been lying dormant ever since the Indian priests left the place in 1860 AD for whatever reason.

Sikhs and Parsis also worshiped in this temple at different times. On 19 December 2007, the Azerbaijan government declared this temple as a historical and architectural reserve. On 30 December 1998, the site was placed on the UNESCO Proposed List, but the Baku Hills are not known to have been included. This region of Azerbaijan has been rich in natural gas.

The gas coming out of small cracks in the rocky surface was exposed to the high velocity of the air, which kept the fire burning, but around 1969 a natural change in the pressure of the natural gas reservoir caused the flame to shut off, so the fire was kept burning by the gas line. The Baku Fireworks has been turned into a museum. About 15000 tourists visit every year. In 2018, the then External Affairs Minister of India Sushma Swaraj visited this place when she went to Azerbaijan.