About
The Ateshgah of Baku, often called the "Fire Temple of Baku", is a syncretic temple in Surakhany town with a Trishul (Trident) on the top of the temple. Out of the 23 inscriptions found at the temple 18 are in Devanagari Script, 2 in Gurumukhi, 2 in Landa scripts and only one in Farsi. The sacred Hindu Swastika symbol is found in six of the inscriptions and the majority of the inscriptions begin with Om Shri Gaṇeshāya Namah. Goddess Jvala Ji is mentioned over a dozen times in these inscriptions. Sarah Ashurbeyli notes that the Atsh is distorted Atesh (“fire”) and Atshi-Baguan means “Fires of Baguan”, referring to Baku. The word Baguan comes from the word Baga, which means “God” in Old Persian, and Bhaga. Baku gets its name from Bagavan/Bagawan/Baguan/Bhagawan. It was called Bagavan during the Sassanian rule.
