In the same way the six other crimes, repeated eight, or seven, or six, or five, or four, or three times make the committer go through the whole series of penalties up to the Peshétanu penalty.
1 The general formula is literally, ‘Let (the priest ; probably, the Sraoshavarez) strike so many strokes with the Aspahé-astra, so many strokes with the Sraosh6-éarana,’ Astra means in Sanskrit ‘a goad,’ so that Aspahé-astra may mean ‘a horse-goad ;’ but Aspendifirji translates it by darra, ‘a thong,’ which suits the sense better, and agrees with etymology too (‘an instrument to drive a horse, a whip;’ astra, from the root az, ‘to drive;’ it is the Aspahé-astra which is referred to by Sozomenos II, 13: indow dpois xaAewds atriv tBacaveoay of péryor (the Sraosh&-varez), Bia(épevor spooxurijcas roy fArcv). Sraoshdé- Aarana is translated by £Abuk, ‘a whip,’ which agrees with the Sanskrit translation of the st-srésh54aranam sin, ‘yat tribhir gosarmasa/aghatdis prayasdityam bhbavati tavanmatram, a sin to be punished with three strokes with awhip.’ It seems to follow that Aspahé-astra and Sraoshé-sarana are one and the same instrument, designated with two names, first in reference to its shape, and then to its use (Sraoshé-Zarana meaning ‘the instrument for penalty,’ or “the instrument of the Sraoshf-varez?’). The Aspahé-astra is once called astra mairya, ‘the astra for the account to be given,’ that is, ‘for the payment of the penalty’ (Farg. XVIII, 4).
§ 20. If one reviews the different crimes described in the Vendidad, and the respective penalties prescribed for them, one cannot but wonder at first sight at the strange inequality between crime and penalty. Beccaria would have felt uncomfortable while reading the Vendid4d. It is safer to kill a man than to serve bad food to a shepherd’s dog, for the manslayer gets off with ninety stripes, whereas the bad master is at once a Peshétanu!, and will receive two hundred stripes. Two hundred stripes are awarded if.one tills land in which a corpse has been buried within the year *, if a woman just delivered of a child drinks water, if one suppresses the menses of a woman ¢, if one performs a sacrifice in a house where a man has just died °, if one neglects fastening the corpse of a dead man so that birds or dogs may not take dead matter to trees and rivers ® Two hundred stripes if one throws on the ground a bone of a man’s corpse, or of a dog’s carcase, as big as two ribs ; four hundred if one throws a bone as big as an arm bone, six hundred if one throws a skull, one thousand if the whole corpse’. Four hundred stripes if one, being in a state of uncleanness, touches water or trees °, four hundred if one covers with a cloth a dead man’s feet, six hundred if one covers his legs, one thousand if the whole body® be so covered. Five hundred stripes for killing a whelp, six hundred for killing a stray dog, seven hundred for a house-dog, eight hundred for a shepherd’s dog, one thousand stripes for killing a Vangh4para dog”, ten thousand stripes for killing a water-dog 1.
Capital punishment is expressly pronounced only against the false cleanser ™ and the ‘ carrier alone 3%,’
Yet any one who bethinks himself of the spirit of the old Aryan legislation will easily conceive that there may be in
1 Farg. IV, 40, and XIII, 24. ® Farg. VI, 5. : Pare: yi Jo seq. ‘ Fare. xvi 13 seq. arg. V, 39-44. arg. VI, 47 seq. T Farg. VI, 18 seq. ® Farg. VIII, 104 seq. ® Farg. VIII, 23 seq. ” Farg. XIII, 8 seq. and 4. " Farg. XIV, 1 seq. 9 Farg. 1X, 47 seq.
its eyes many crimes more heinous, and to be punished more severely, than manslaughter: offences against man injure only one man; offences against gods endanger all | mankind. Noone should wonder at the unqualified cleanser '' being put to death who reads Demosthenes’ Neaera ; the Persians who defiled the ground by burying a corpse were not more severely punished than the Greeks were for defiling with corpses the holy ground of Delos’, or than the conquerors at Arginousae ; nor would the Athenians, who put to death Atarbes?, have much stared at the awful revenge taken for the murder of the sacred dog. There is hardly any prescription in the Vendidad, however odd and absurd it may seem, but has its counterpart or its explanation in other Aryan legislations: if we had a Latin or a Greek Vendidéd, I doubt whether it would look more rational.
§ 21. Yet, if theoretically the very absurdity of its principles is nothing peculiar to the Mazdean law, nay, is a proof of its authenticity, it may be doubted whether it could ever have been actually applied in the form stated in the texts. It may be doubted whether the murder of a shepherd’s dog could have actually been punished with eight hundred stripes, much more whether the murder of a water-dog could have been really punished with ten thousand stripes, unless we suppose that human endurance was different in ancient Persia from what it is elsewhere, or even in modern Persia herself*. Now as we see that in modern tradition bodily punishment is estimated in money value, that is to say, converted into fines, a conversion which is alluded to in the Pahlavi translation‘, it may readily be admitted that as early as the time of the last edition of the Vendid4d, that conversion had already been made. In the Ravéets, two hundred stripes, or a Tanafahr, are estimated as equal to three hundred istirs or twelve hundred dirhems, or thirteen hundred and fifty rupees ;
1 Diodor. XII, 58. % Aelianus, Hist. Var. V, 17.
3 In the time of Chardin, the number of stripes inflicted on the guilty never exceeded three hundred; in the old German law, two hundred; in the Hebrew law, forty. * Ad Farg. XIV, 2.
f 3
Ixxxvi VEND{DAD.
XII, 58. % Aelianus, Hist. Var. V, 17.
3 In the time of Chardin, the number of stripes inflicted on the guilty never exceeded three hundred; in the old German law, two hundred; in the Hebrew law, forty. * Ad Farg. XIV, 2.
f 3
Ixxxvi VEND{DAD.
a stripe is therefore about equal to six rupees?. How far that system prevailed in practice, whether the guilty might take advantage of this commutation of his own accord, or only with the assent of the judge, we cannot decide. It is very likely that the riches of the fire-temples came for the most part from that source, and that the sound of the dirhems often made the Sraoshé-#arana fall from the hands of the Mobeds. That the system of financial penalties did not, however, suppress the system of bodily penalties, appears from the customs of the Parsis who apply both, and from the Pahlavi Commentary which expressly distinguishes three sorts of atonement: the atonement by money (khvAastak), the atonement by the Sraoshé-farana, and the atonement by cleansing.
§ 22. This third element of atonement is strictly religious. It consists in repentance, which is manifested by avowal of the guilt and by the recital of a formula of repentance, the Patet. The performance of the Patet has only a religious effect: it saves the sinner from penalties in the other world, but not from those here below; it delivers him before God, but not before man. When the sacrilegious cleanser has repented his sin, he is not the less flayed and beheaded, but his soul is saved?. Yet, although it has no efficacy in causing the sin to be remitted, the absence of it has power to cause it to be aggravated °.
§ 23. Thus far for sins that can be atoned for. There are some that are an4peretha, ‘inexpiable, which means, as it seems, that they are punished with death here below, and with torments in the other world.
Amongst the anaperetha sins are named the burning of the dead, the burying of the dead ‘, the eating dead matter ®, unnatural sin®, and self-pollution’. Although
' In later Parstism every sin (and every good deed) has its value in money fixed, and may thus be weighed in the scales of Rashnu. If the number of the good-deed dirhems outweigh the number of sin dirhems, the soul is saved. Herodotos noticed the same principle of compensation in the Persian law of his time (I, 137; cf. VII, 194).
3 Farg. IX, 49,n.; ef. III, 20 seq. > Farg. IV, 20, 24, 28, 32, 35, &c.
it is not expressly declared that these sins were punished with death, yet we know it of several of them, either from Greek accounts or from Parsi tradition. There are also whole classes of sinners whose life, it would seem, can be taken by any one who detects them in the act, such as the courtezan, the highwayman, the Sodomite, and the corpseburner ?.
There are also whole classes of sinners whose life, it would seem, can be taken by any one who detects them in the act, such as the courtezan, the highwayman, the Sodomite, and the corpseburner ?.
§ 24. Such are the most important principles of the Mazdean law that can be gathered from the Vendidad. These details, incomplete as they are, may give us an idea, if not of the Sassanian practice, at least of the Sassanian ideal. That it was an ideal which intended to pass into practice, we know from the religious wars against Armenia, and from the fact that very often the superintendence of justice and the highest offices of the state were committed to Mobeds.
We must now add a few words on the plan of the following translation. As to our method we beg to refer to the second chapter above. It rests on the Parsi tradition, corrected or confirmed by the comparative method. The Parsi tradition is found in the Pahlavi Commentary °, the understanding of which was facilitated to us first by the Gujarati translation and paraphrase of Aspendiarji %, and by a Persian transliteration and translation belonging to the Haug Collection in Munich*4, for the use of which we were indebted to the obliging kindness of the Director of the State Library in Munich, Professor von Halm. The
" See p. 113, n. 43 Farg. XVIII, 65.
? Our quotations refer to the text given in Spiegel’s edition, but corrected after the London manuscript.
3 Bombay, 1842, 2 vols. in 8vo.
* Unfortunately the copy is incomplete: there are two lacunae, one from I, 11 to the end of the chapter; the other, more extensive, from VI, 26 to IX. The perfect accordance of this Persian translation with the Gujarati of Aspendiarji shows that both are derived from one and the same source. Their accordance is striking even in mistakes; for instance, the Pahlavi avastar Soren, a transliteration of the Zend a-vastra, ‘ without pastures’ (VII, 26), is misread by the Persian translator Avastir, Leal oe ‘he who wishes,’ owing to the ambiguity of the Pahlavi letter » (av or 4v), and it is translated by Aspendiarji £4h4n4r, ‘ the wisher.’
Ixxxviii VEND{DAD.
Ravaets and the Saddar?! frequently gave us valuable information as to the traditional meaning of doubtful passages. As for the works of European scholars, we are much indebted to the Commentary on the Avesta by Professor Spiegel, and to the translations in the second edition of Martin Haug’s Essays.
frequently gave us valuable information as to the traditional meaning of doubtful passages. As for the works of European scholars, we are much indebted to the Commentary on the Avesta by Professor Spiegel, and to the translations in the second edition of Martin Haug’s Essays.
We have followed the text of the Avesta as given by Westergaard ; the division into paragraphs is according to Westergaard; but we have given in brackets the corresponding divisions of Professor Spiegel’s edition. The singularly exact analysis of the Vendidad contained in the Dinkart has proved of great value. For the first chapter we owe much to the Commentary in an unpublished chapter of the Great Bundahis. The analyses of the Nasks in the Dinkart, the Great Bundahis and the essay of Jiwanji Modi on the funeral customs of the Parsis have thrown valuable light on many points of detail.
Many passages in the Vendidad Sada are mere quotations from the Pahlavi Commentary which have crept into the Sada text: we have not admitted them into the text. They are generally known to be spurious from their not being translated in the Commentary ?: yet the absence of a Pahlavi translation is not always an unmistakable sign of such spuriousness. Sometimes the translation has been lost in our manuscripts, or omitted as having already been given in identical or nearly identical terms. When we thought that this was the case, we have admitted the untranslated passages into the text, but in brackets *.
We have divided the principal Fargards into several sections according to the matter they contain: this division, which is meant as an attempt to resolve the Vendidad into its primitive fragments, has, of course, no traditional
1 The prose Saddar (as found in the Great Raviet), which differs considerably from the Saddar in verse, as translated by Hyde.
* Without speaking of their not being connected with the context. See Farg. I, 4, 15, 20; II, 6, 20; V,4; VII, 53-54.
3 Farg. VII, 3; VIII, 95. Formulae and enumerations are often left untranslated, although they must be considered part of the text (VIII, 72; XI, 9, 12; XX, 6, &c.)
INTRODUCTION, X. Ixxxix
authority, the divisions into paragraphs being the only ones that rest upon the authority of the manuscripts.
The translation will be found, in many passages, to differ greatly from the translations published heretofore’. The nature of this series of translations did not allow us to give full justificatory notes: but we have endeavoured in most cases to make the explanatory notes commend to scholars the new meanings we have adopted ; and, in some instances, we hope that the original text, read anew, will by itself justify our translation.
We must not conclude this introduction without tendering our warmest thanks to Mr. E. W. West, who kindly revised the MS. of the translation before it went to press, and who has, we hope, succeeded in making our often imperfect English more acceptable to English readers.
JAMES DARMESTETER.
We must not conclude this introduction without tendering our warmest thanks to Mr. E. W. West, who kindly revised the MS. of the translation before it went to press, and who has, we hope, succeeded in making our often imperfect English more acceptable to English readers.
JAMES DARMESTETER.
Paris: October, 1894.
' Complete translations of the Vendidad have been published by Anquetil Duperron in France (Paris, 1771) ; by Professor Spiegel in Germany (Leipzig, 1852); by Canon de Harlez in Belgium (Louvain, 1877). The translation of Professor Spiegel was translated into English by Professor Bleeck, who added useful information from inedited Gujarati translations (Hertford, 1864).
A LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS VOLUME.
Asp. = Aspendiarji’s translation.
Bund. = Bundahis; Arabic numbers refer to the chapter (according to Justi’s edition); Roman numbers refer to the page and line.
Comm. = The Pahlavi Commentary.
Gr. Rav. = Le Grand Ravéet (in the Bibliothéque Nationale in Paris, Supplément Persan, No. 47).
Orm. Ahr. = Ormazd et Ahriman, Paris, Vieweg, 1877.
VENDIDAD.
VENDIDAD.
Farcarp I.
Turs chapter is an enumeration of sixteen perfect lands created by Ahura Mazda, and of as many plagues created in opposition by Angra Mainyu.
Many attempts have been made, not only to identify these sixteen lands, but also to draw historical conclusions from their order of succession, as representing the actual order of the migrations and settlements of the old Iranian tribes?. But there is nothing in the text to support such wide inferences. We have here nothing more than a geographical description of Iran, seen from the religious point of view.
Of these sixteen lands there are nine, as follows :—
ZEND NAME. OLD PERSIAN. GREEK. MODERN NAME. Sughdha (2) Suguda oykav Soghd 3x. (Samarkand) Méuru (3) Margu = Mapyav)_ = Marv 9,
Bakhdhi (4) Bakhtri Béerpa = Balkh , Har6yu (6) Haraiva ‘Apela Haré(sd) SP Vehrkina (9) Warkéna ‘Ypxavia Gurgan, Goede wWFole 7 Harahvaiti (10) Harauvati ’Apaywoia Ar-rokhag 5 Arghand- -(ab ” at 1 Haétumant (11) *Eripardpos Helmend scele Ragha (12) Rag&? = ‘Payal Rat , Hapta hindu (15) Hindava 'Iv8oi Hind J22 (Pafigab), which can be identified with certainty, as we are able to follow their
1 Rhode, Die heilige Sage des Zendvolks, p. 61 ; Heeren, Ideen zur Geschichte, I, p. 498; Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde I, p. 526; Haug in Bunsen’s work, Aegypten’s Stellung, V, 2nd part, p. 104; Kiepert, Monatsberichte der Berliner Akademie, 1856, p. 621. Cf. the mythological interpretation by M. Bréal, ‘De la géographie de V’Avesta’ (in the Mélanges de mythologie et de linguistique, p. 187 seq.)
* See however § 16, note 3.
[4] B vYp. 2 names from the records of the Achaemenian kings or the works of classical writers down to the map of modern Iran.
For the other lands we are confined for information to the Pahlavi Commentary, from which we get :
187 seq.)
* See however § 16, note 3.
[4] B vYp. 2 names from the records of the Achaemenian kings or the works of classical writers down to the map of modern Iran.
For the other lands we are confined for information to the Pahlavi Commentary, from which we get :
ZEND NAME. PAHLAVI NAME. MODERN NAME. Vaékereta (7) K4pfal iS Kébul Urva (8) Méshan Mesene Varena (14) Patashkhvargar or Dailam Tabaristén or Gflan Rangha (16) = Arvast4ni Rom Eastern Mesopotamia
The identification of Nisfya (5) and Kakhra (13) remains an open question, as there were several cities of that name. We know, however, that Nisfya lay between Balkh and Marv. The first province Airyanem Vaég6, or Iran-Vég, we identify with the mediaeval Arran (nowadays known as Karabagh).
There must have been some systematical idea in the order followed, though it is not apparent, except in the succession of Sughdha, Méuru, Bakhdhi, NisAya, Haréyu, Vaékereta (numbers 2-7), which form one compact group of north-eastern provinces ; the last two provinces, Hizdu and Rangha (numbers 15-16), are the two limitroph provinces, east and west (Indus and Tigris); and the Rangha brings us back to the first province, Iran-Vég, whose chief river, the Vanguhi D4itya, or Aras, springs from the same mountains as the Rangha-Tigris.
The several plagues created by Angra Mainyu to mar the native perfection of Ahura’s creations give instructive information on the religious condition of several of the Iranian countries at the time when this Fargard was written. Harat seems to have been the seat of puritan sects that pushed rigorism to the extreme in the law of purification. Sorcery was prevalent in the basin of the Helmend river, and the Paris were powerful in Cabul, which is a Zoroastrian way of saying that the Hindu civilisation prevailed in those parts, which in fact in the two centuries before and after Christ were known as White India, and remained more Indian than Iranian till the Musulman conquest.
? Or Spitamide. Zarathustra was descended from Spitama at the fifth generation.
p. 3
I have made every land dear (to its people), even though it had no charms whatever in it!: had I not made every land dear (to its people), even though it had no charms whatever in it, then the whole living world would have invaded the Airyana Vaégd*.
3 (5). The first of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the Airyana Vaég6 *, by the Vanguhi Daitya +.
1 “Every one fancies that the land where he was born and has been brought up is the best and fairest land that I have created’ (Comm.)
3 (5). The first of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the Airyana Vaég6 *, by the Vanguhi Daitya +.
1 “Every one fancies that the land where he was born and has been brought up is the best and fairest land that I have created’ (Comm.)
* Greater Bundahish : ‘ It is said in the Sacred Book: had I not created the Genius of the native place, all mankind would have gone to Eran-Vég, on account of its pleasantness.—On Airyanem Vaégd or Erfin-Vég, see following note.—Clause 2 in the Vendidad Sada is composed of Zend quotations in the Commentary that illustrate the alternative process of the creation: ‘First, Ahura Mazda would create a land of such kind that its dwellers might like it, dnd there could be nothing more delightful. Then he who is all death would bring against it a counter-creation.’
* Airyanem Vaég6, Iran-Vég, is the holy land of Zoroastrianism : Zoroaster was born and founded his religion there (Bund. XX, 32; XXXII, 3): the first animal couple appeared there (Bund. XIV, 4; ZAd Sparam, IX, 8). From its name, ‘ the Iranian seed,’ it seems to have been considered as the original seat of the Iranian race. It has been generally supposed to belong to Eastern Iran, like the provinces which are enumerated after it, chiefly on account of the name of its river, the Vanguhi Déitya, which was in the Sassanian times (as Véh) the name of the Oxus. But the Bundahish distinctly states that Iran-Vég is ‘bordering upon Adarbaigan’ (XXIX, 12); now, Adarbaigin is bordered by the Caspian Sea on the east, by the Rangha provinces on the west, by Media proper on the south, and by Arran on the north. The Rangha provinces are out of question, since they are mentioned at the end of the Fargard (§ 20), and the climatic conditions of Iran-Vég with its long winter likewise exclude Media and suit Arrin, where the summer lasts hardly two months (cf. § 4, note 6). The very name agrees, as the country
‘ For this note see next page. B2
p. 4
Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created the serpent in the river 5 and Winter, a work of the Daévas ®.
4 (9). There are.ten winter months there, two summer months’; and those are cold for the waters 8, cold for the earth, cold for the trees®. Winter falls there, the worst of all plagues.
5 (13). The second of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the plain’? which the Sughdhas inhabit".
Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, known as Arrfn seems to have been known to the Greeks as *Aptavia (Stephanus Byz.), which brings it close to our Airyanem. On the Vanguhi Daitya, see following note.
‘ The Vanguhi D4itya, belonging to Arran, must be the modern Aras (the classic Araxes). The Aras was named Vanguhi, like the Oxus, but distinguished from it by the addition Déitya, which made it ‘the Vanguhi of the Law’ (the Vanguhi by which Zoroaster received the Law).
‘ The Vanguhi D4itya, belonging to Arran, must be the modern Aras (the classic Araxes). The Aras was named Vanguhi, like the Oxus, but distinguished from it by the addition Déitya, which made it ‘the Vanguhi of the Law’ (the Vanguhi by which Zoroaster received the Law).
5 ‘There are many Khrafstras in the Daitfk, as it is said, The Déitik full of Khrafstras’ (Bund. XX, 13). Snakes abound on the banks of the Araxes (Morier, A Second Journey, p. 250) nowadays as much as in the time of Pompeius, to whom they barred the way from Albania to Hyrcania (Plut.)
® Arran (Karabagh) is celebrated for its cold winter as well as for its beauty. At the Naurdz (first day of spring) the fields still lie under the snow. The temperature does not become milder before the second fortnight of April; no flower is seen before May. Summer, which is marked by the migration of the nomads from the plain to the mountains, begins about the 20th of June and ends in the middle of August.
7 Vendidad Sada: ‘It is known that [in the ordinary course of nature] there are seven months of summer and five of winter’ (see Bund. XXV).
® Some say: ‘Even those two months of summer are cold for the waters...’ (Comm. ; cf. Mainy6-i-khard XLIV, 20).
® Vend. Sada: ‘There reigns the core and heart of winter.’
% Doubtful. ™ Old P. Suguda ; Sogdiana.
p. 5
and he counter-created the locust’, which brings death unto cattle and plants.
6 (17). The third of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the strong, holy Moéuru ’,
Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created plunder and sin *.
7 (21). The fourth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the beautiful Bakhdhi‘ with high-lifted banners.
Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created the ants and the anthills’.
8 (25). The fifth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Nisdya °, that lies between Méuru and Bakhdhi.
1 <The plague that fell to that country was the bad locust: it devours the plants and death comes to the cattle’ (Gr. Bund.)
2 Margu ; Mapy:avy ; Marv.
% Doubtful.—The Gr. Bd. has: ‘The plague that fell to that country was the coming and going of troops: for there is always there an evil concourse of horsemen, thieves, robbers, and heretics, who speak untruth and oppress the righteous. —Marv continued to be the resort of Turanian plunderers till the recent Russian annexation.
* Bakhtri; Bderpa; Balkh.
5 «The corn-carrying ants’ (Asp.; cf. Farg. XIV, 5).
—Marv continued to be the resort of Turanian plunderers till the recent Russian annexation.
* Bakhtri; Bderpa; Balkh.
5 «The corn-carrying ants’ (Asp.; cf. Farg. XIV, 5).
* By contradistinction to other places of the same name. There was a Nisdya, in Media, where Darius put to death the Mage Gaumfta (Bahistfin I, 58). There was also a Nis& in Fars, another in Kirm4n, a third again on the way from Amol to Marv (Tabari, tr. Noeldeke, p. 101, 2), which may be the same as Nicata, the capital of Parthia (Map@aimoa ap. Isid. of Charax 12); cf. Pliny VI, 25 (29). One may therefore be tempted to translate, ‘ Nisdya between which and Bakhdhi Méuru lies ;’ but the text hardly admits of that construction, and we must suppose the existence of another Nis4ya on the way from Balkh to Marv.
p. 6
Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created the sin of unbelief}.
9 (29). The sixth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the housedeserting Haréyu ?.
Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created tears and wailing °.
10 (33). The seventh of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Vaékereta *, of the evil shadows.
Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created the Pairika Knathaiti, who clave unto KeresAspa °,
’ There are people there ‘who doubt the existence of God’ (Comm.)
* Haréyu, Old P. Haraiva (transcribed in Greek and Latin ’Apeta Aria instead of ‘Apefa Haria, by a confusion with the name of the Aryans); P. Haré (in Firdausi and in Haré-rid ; Hart is an Arabicised form.—‘ The house-deserting Haré: because there, when a man dies in a house, the people of the house leave it and go. We keep the ordinances for nine days or a month: they leave the house and absent themselves from it for nine days or a month’ (Gr. Bd.) Cf. Vd. V, 42.
* <The tears and wailing for the dead,’ the voceros. The tears shed over a dead man grow to a river that prevents his crossing the Kinvat bridge (Saddar 96; Ard& Viraf XVI, 7, ro).
4 Vaékereta, an older name of Kébul (K4p@1: Comm. and Gr. Bd.) ; perhaps the Ptolemeian Baydpda in Paropanisus (Ptol. VI, 18).
5 The Pairika, in Zoroastrian mythology, symbolises idolatry (uzdés-parastfh). The land of Kébul, till the Musulman invasion, belonged to the Indian civilisation and was mostly of Brahmanical and Buddhistic religion. The Pairika Khnathaiti will be destroyed at the end of the world by Saoshyafit, the unborn son of Zarathustra (when all false religions vanish before the true one; Vd. XIX, 5).—S4ma Keres4spa, the Garsh4sp of later tradition, is the type of impious hervism: he let himself be seduced to the Daéva-worship, and Zoroaster saw him punished in hell for his contempt of Zoroastrian observances.
p. 7
11 (37). The eighth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Urva of the rich pastures}.
p. 7
11 (37). The eighth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Urva of the rich pastures}.
Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created the sin of pride *.
12 (41). The ninth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Khnezta which the Vehrk4nas ® inhabit.
Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created a sin for which there is no atonement, the unnatural sin 4.
13 (45). The tenth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the beautiful Harahvaiti 5.
Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created a sin for which there is no atonement, the burying of the dead *.
14 (49). The eleventh of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the bright, glorious Haétumant 7.
1 Urva, according to Gr. Bd. Méshan, that is to say Mesene (Meoqyn), the region of lower Euphrates, famous for its fertility (Herodotos I, 193): it was for four centuries (from about 150 B.C. tO 225 a.D.) the seat of a flourishing commercial state.
? <The people of Méshan are proud: there are no people worse than they’ (Gr. Bd.)
* «Khnenta is a river in Vehrkfna (Hyrcania)’ (Comm.); consequently the river Gorg4n.
* See Farg. VIII, 31-32.
® Harauvati; "Apaywoia; corrupted into Ar-rokhag (name of the country in the Arabic literature) and Arghand (in the modern name of the river Arghand-4b).
* See Farg. III, 36 seq.
7 The basin of the ‘Ervpardpos or Erymanthus, now Hermend, Helmend, that is to say, the region of Saistan.
p. 8
Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created the evil work of witchcraft.
15 (53). And this is the sign by which it is known, this is that by which it is seen at once: wheresoever they may go and raise a cry of sorcery, there? the worst works of witchcraft go forth. From there they come to kill and strike at heart, and they bring locusts as many as they want?
16 (59). The twelfth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Ragha® of the three races ‘¢,
Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created the sin of utter unbelief.
17 (63). The thirteenth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the strong, holy Kakhra °,
Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
1 In Haétumaat.—‘ The plague created against Saist4n is abundance of witchcraft: and that character appears from this, that all people from that place practise astrology: those wizards produce. . . snow, hail, spiders, and locusts ’(Gr. Bd.) Saist4n, like KAbul, was half Indian (Magoudi, II, 79-82), and Brahmans and Buddhists have the credit of being proficient in the darker sciences.
* This clause seems to be a quotation in the Pahlavi Commentary.
. . snow, hail, spiders, and locusts ’(Gr. Bd.) Saist4n, like KAbul, was half Indian (Magoudi, II, 79-82), and Brahmans and Buddhists have the credit of being proficient in the darker sciences.
* This clause seems to be a quotation in the Pahlavi Commentary.
* Ragha, transcribed R4k and identified by the Commentary with Adarbaig&n and ‘according to some’ with Rai (the Greek ‘Payai in Media). There were apparently two Raghas, one in Atropatene, another in Media.
‘ «That means that the three classes, priests, warriors, and husbandmen, were well organised there’ (Comm. and Gr. Bd.)
5 «They doubt themselves and cause other people to doubt’ (Comm.)
* There were two towns of that name (Xarkh), one in Khorasan, and the other in Ghaznin.
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and he counter-created a sin for which there is no atonement, the cooking of corpses '.
18 (67). The fourteenth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the four-cornered Varena 2, for which was born Thraétaona, who smote Azi Dah4dka.
Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created abnormal issues in women ® and barbarian oppression +.
19 (72). The fifteenth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the Seven Rivers °.
Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created abnormal issues in women and excessive heat.
20 (76). The sixteenth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the land by the sources (?) of the Rangha °, where people live who have no chiefs’.
1 «Cooking a corpse and eating it. They cook foxes and weasels and eat them’ (Gr. Bd.) See Farg. VIII, 73-74.
* Varn, identified by the Comm. either with Patashkhvargar or with Dailam (that is to say Tabaristan or Gflan). The Gr. Bd. identifies it with Mount Dam4vand (which belongs to Patashkhv4rgar): this is the mountain where Asi Dahaka was bound with iron bonds by Thraétaona.—‘ Four-cornered:’ Tabaristin has rudely the shape of a quadrilateral.
* Farg. XVI, 11 seq.
* The aborigines of the Caspian littoral were Anarian savages, the so-called ‘Demons of MAzana.’
5 Hapta hindava, the basin of the affluents of the Indus, the modem Pafigib (=the Five Rivers), formerly called Hind, by contradistinction to Sindh, the basin of the lower river.
* « Arvastn-i-Rfm (Roman Mesopotamia)’ (Comm.), that is to say, the basin of the upper Tigris (Rangha= Arvand = Tigris).
™ «People who do not hold the chief for a chief’ (Comm.), which
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Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created Winter!, a work of the Daévas *.
21 (81). There are still other lands and countries °, beautiful and deep, longing and asking for the good, and bright.
Farcarp II.
Yima (Gamshéa).
This Fargard may be divided into two parts.
Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created Winter!, a work of the Daévas *.
21 (81). There are still other lands and countries °, beautiful and deep, longing and asking for the good, and bright.
Farcarp II.
Yima (Gamshéa).
This Fargard may be divided into two parts.
First part (1-20). Ahura Mazda proposes to Yima, the son of Vivanghat, to receive the law from him and to bring it to men. On his refusal, he bids him keep his creatures and make them prosper. Yima accordingly makes them thrive and increase, keeps death and disease away from them, and three times enlarges the earth, which had become too narrow for its inhabitants.
Second part (21 to the end). On the approach of a dire winter, which is to destroy every living creature, Yima, being advised by Ahura, builds a Vara to keep there the finest representatives of every kind of animals and plants, and they live there a life of perfect happiness.
It is difficult not to acknowledge in the latter legend a Zoroastrian adaptation of the deluge, whether it was borrowed from the Bible or from the Chaldaean mythology. The similitude is so striking that it did not escape the Musulmans, and Magoudi states that certain authors place the date of the deluge in the time of Gamshéd. There are essential and necessary differences between the two legends, the chief one being that in the monotheistic narration the is the translation for asraosha (Comm. ad XVI, 18), ‘rebel against the law,’ and would well apply to the non-Mazdean people of Arvast4n-i-Ram.
1 The severe winters in the upper valleys of the Tigris.
* The Vendfdéd Sada has here: taosy4ka danheus aiwistara, which the Gr. Bd. understands as: ‘and the Tajik (the Arabs) are oppressive there.’
* ‘Some say: Persis’ (Comm.)
FARGARD II. I!
deluge is sent as a punishment from God, whereas in the dualistic version it is a plague from the Daévas: but the core of the two legends is the same: the hero in both is a righteous man who, forewarned by God, builds a refuge to receive choice specimens of mankind, intended some day to replace an imperfect humanity, destroyed by a universal calamity.
I.
1. Zarathustra asked Ahura Mazda :
O Ahura Mazda, most beneficent Spirit, Maker of the material world, thou Holy One!
Who was the first mortal, before myself, Zarathustra, with whom thou, Ahura Mazda, didst converse !, whom thou didst teach the Religion of Ahura, the Religion of Zarathustra ?
2 (4). Ahura Mazda answered :
The fair Yima, the good shepherd?*, O holy Zarathustra! he was the first mortal, before thee, Zarathustra, with whom I, Ahura Mazda, did converse, whom I taught the Religion of Ahura, the Religion of Zarathustra.
3(7). Unto him, O Zarathustra, I, Ahura Mazda, spake, saying: ‘Well, fair Yima, son of Vivanghat, be thou the preacher and the bearer of my Religion !’
And the fair Yima, O Zarathustra, replied unto me, Saying :
‘I was not born, I was not taught to be the preacher and the bearer of thy Religion.’
Unto him, O Zarathustra, I, Ahura Mazda, spake, saying: ‘Well, fair Yima, son of Vivanghat, be thou the preacher and the bearer of my Religion !’
And the fair Yima, O Zarathustra, replied unto me, Saying :
‘I was not born, I was not taught to be the preacher and the bearer of thy Religion.’
4 (11). Then I, Ahura Mazda, said thus unto him, O Zarathustra :
* «On the Religion’ (Comm.)
* ‘His being a good shepherd means that he held in good condition herds of men and herds of animals’ (Comm.)
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‘Since thou dost not consent to be the preacher and the bearer of my Religion, then make thou my world increase, make my world grow: consent thou to nourish, to rule, and to watch over my world.’
5 (14). And the fair Yima replied unto me, O Zarathustra, saying :
‘Yes! I will make thy world increase, I will make thy world grow. Yes! I will nourish, and rule, and watch over thy world. There shall be, while I am king, neither cold wind nor hot wind, neither disease nor death.’
7 (t7). Then I, Ahura Mazda, brought two implements unto him: a golden seal and a poniard inlaid with gold?, Behold, here Yima bears the royal sway !
8 (20). Thus, under the sway of Yima, three hundred winters passed away, and the earth was replenished with flocks and herds, with men and dogs and birds and with red blazing fires, and there was room no more for flocks, herds, and men.
9. Then I warned the fair Yima, saying: ‘O fair Yima, son of Vivanghat, the earth has become full of flocks and herds, of men and dogs and birds and of red blazing fires, and there is room no more for flocks, herds, and men.’
2 §6 is composed of unconnected Zend quotations, which are no part of the text and are introduced by the commentator for the purpose of showing that ‘although Yima did not teach the law and train pupils, he was nevertheless a faithful and a holy man, and rendered men holy too (?).’ See Fracments to the Vendfdad.
3 As the symbol and the instrument of sovereignty. ‘ He reigned supreme by the strength of the ring and of the poniard’(Asp.) Thus Faridin gives royal investiture to Irag ‘with the sword and the seal, the ring and the crown’ (Firdausi).—The king is master ‘of the sword, the throne, and the ring.’
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10. Then Yima stepped forward, in-light', southwards %, on the way of the sun ’, and (afterwards) he pressed the earth with the golden seal, and bored it with the poniard, speaking thus:
‘O Spenta Armaiti‘, kindly® open asunder and stretch thyself afar, to bear flocks and herds and men.’
11. And Yima made the earth grow larger by one-third than it was before, and there came flocks and herds and men, at their will and wish, as many as he wished.
12 (23). Thus, under the sway of Yima, six hundred winters passed away, and the earth was replenished with flocks and herds, with men and dogs and birds and with red blazing fires, and there was room no more for flocks, herds, and men.
12 (23). Thus, under the sway of Yima, six hundred winters passed away, and the earth was replenished with flocks and herds, with men and dogs and birds and with red blazing fires, and there was room no more for flocks, herds, and men.
13. And I warned the fair Yima, saying: ‘O fair Yima, son of Vivanghat, the earth has become full of flocks and herds, of men and dogs and birds and of red blazing fires, and there is room no more for flocks, herds, and men.’
14. Then Yima stepped forward, in light, south-
* That is to say, his body being all resplendent with light. Cf. Albfrfini’s Chronology (tr. by Sachau, p. 202): ‘Jam rose on that day (Naur6z) like the sun, the light beaming forth from him, as though he shone like the sun.’
* The warm South is the region of Paradise (Yasht XXII, 7): the North is the seat of the cold winds, of the demons and hell
(Vd. XIX, 1; VII, 2).
* Thence is derived the following tradition recorded by G. du Chinon: ‘Ils en nomment un qui s’allait tous les jours promener dans le Ciel du Soleil d’od il aportait la sciance des Astres, aprez les avoir visités de si prez. Ils nomment ce grand personnage Gemachid ’ (Relations nouvelles du Levant, Lyon, 1671, p. 478).
* The Genius of the Earth.
® ‘Do this out of kindness to the creatures’ (Comm.)
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wards, on the way of the sun, and (afterwards) he pressed the earth with the golden seal, and bored it with the poniard, speaking thus :
‘O Spenta Armaiti, kindly open asunder and stretch thyself afar, to bear flocks and herds and men.’
15. And Yima made the earth grow larger by two-thirds than it was before, and there came flocks and herds and men, at their will and wish, as many as he wished.
16 (26). Thus, under the sway of Yima, nine hundred winters passed away’, and the earth was replenished with flocks and herds, with men and dogs and birds and with red blazing fires, and there was room no more for flocks, herds, and men.
17 (28). And I warned the fair Yima, saying: ‘O fair Yima, son of Vivanghat, the earth has become full of flocks and herds, of men and dogs and birds and of red blazing fires, and there is room no more for flocks, herds, and men.’
18 (31). Then Yima stepped forward, in light, southwards, on the way of the sun, and (afterwards) he pressed the earth with the golden seal, and bored it with the poniard, speaking thus:
‘O Spenta Armaiti, kindly open asunder and stretch thyself afar, to bear flocks and herds and men.’
19 (37). And Yima made the earth grow larger by three-thirds than it was before, and there came
1 Yima, according to Yt. IX, 10, made immortality reign on the earth for a thousand years. The remaining century was spent in the Vara (‘for a hundred years, Gim was in the Var,’ says the Gr. Bund.) On Yima’s fall, see Yt. XIX, 34; cf. Yt. V, 25-31.
p. 15
flocks and herds and men, at their will and wish, as many as he wished.
II.
The remaining century was spent in the Vara (‘for a hundred years, Gim was in the Var,’ says the Gr. Bund.) On Yima’s fall, see Yt. XIX, 34; cf. Yt. V, 25-31.
p. 15
flocks and herds and men, at their will and wish, as many as he wished.
II.
21 (42). The Maker, Ahura Mazda, called together a meeting of the celestial Yazatas in the Airyana Vaég6 of high renown, by the Vanguhi Daitya *.
The fair Yima, the good shepherd, called together a meeting of the best of the mortals *, in the Airyana Vaégé of high renown, by the Vanguhi Daitya.
To that meeting came Ahura Mazda, in the Airyana Vaégé of high renown, by the Vanguhi Daitya ; he came together with the celestial Yazatas.
To that meeting came the fair Yima, the good shepherd, in the Airyana Vaég6 of high renown, by the Vanguhi Déitya; he came together with the best of the mortals.
22 (46). And Ahura Mazda spake unto Yima, saying :
‘O fair Yima,son of Vivanghat! Upon the material world the evil winters are about to fall, that shall bring the fierce, deadly frost; upon the material world the evil winters * are about to fall, that shall
1 § 20 belongs to the Commentary. See Fracments to the Vendidad.
3 See Farg. I, notes to § 2.
* The best types of mankind, chosen to live in the Var during the MalkésAn and repeople the earth when the Var opens.
* The Commentary has here Malkésan, a word wrongly identified with the Hebrew Malqé6s, which designates the beneficent autumn rains. Malk6sGn are the winters let loose by a demon or wizard named Malkés, in Zend Mahrkfsha ‘the death-causing’ (see Westergaard’s Fragments, VIII).
p. 16
make snow-flakes fall thick, even an aredvt deep on the highest tops of mountains’.
23 (52). ‘And the beasts that live in the wilderness*, and those that live on the tops of the mountains 8, and those that live in the bosom of the dale ‘ shall take shelter in underground abodes.
24 (57). ‘Before that winter, the country would bear plenty of grass for cattle, before the waters had flooded it. Now after the melting of the snow, O Yima, a place wherein the footprint of a sheep may be seen will be a wonder in the world.
25 (61). ‘Therefore make thee a Vara, long as a riding-ground on every side of the square, and thither bring the seeds of sheep and oxen, of men, of dogs, of birds, and of red blazing fires °.
‘Therefore make thee a Vara, long as a ridingground on every side of the square, to be an abode for men; a Vara, long as a riding-ground on every side of the square, for oxen and sheep.
26 (65) ‘There thou shalt make waters flow in a bed a hathra long; there thou shalt settle birds, on the green that never fades, with food that never fails, There thou shalt establish dwelling-places, consisting of a house with a balcony, a courtyard, and a gallery’.
* «Even where it (the snow) is least, it will be one Vitasti two fingers deep’ (Comm.); that is, fourteen fingers deep.
* The Comm. has, strangely enough, ‘for instance, Isp&h4n.’
* «Even where it (the snow) is least, it will be one Vitasti two fingers deep’ (Comm.); that is, fourteen fingers deep.
* The Comm. has, strangely enough, ‘for instance, Isp&h4n.’
* ‘For instance, Aparsén (the Upairisaéna or Hindd-Kfsh).’
* ‘For instance, Khorastan (the plain of Khorasan).’
5 «Two hathras long on every side’ (Comm.) A hf&thra is about an English mile.
* That is to say, specimens of each species.
" The last three words are draf Aeyéueva of doubtful meaning.
FARGARD It. 17
27 (70). ‘ Thither thou shalt bring the seeds of men and women, of the greatest, best, and finest on this earth’; thither thou shalt bring the seeds of every kind of cattle, of the greatest, best, and finest on this earth.
28 (74). ‘Thither thou shalt bring the seeds of every kind of tree, of the highest of size and sweetest of odour on this earth *; thither thou shalt bring the seeds of every kind of fruit, the best of savour and sweetest of odour®. All those seeds shalt thou bring, two of every kind, to be kept inexhaustible there, so long as those men shall stay in the Vara.
30 (87). ‘In the largest part of the place thou shalt make nine streets, six in the middle part, three in the smallest. To the streets of the largest part thou shalt bring a thousand seeds of men and women ; to the streets of the middle part, six hun-
1 The best specimens of mankind, to be the origin of the more perfect races of the latter days.
2 «The highest of size, like the cypress and the plane-tree; the sweetest of odour, like the rose and the jessamine’ (Comm.)
* ‘The best of savour, like the date; the sweetest of odour, like the citron’ (Comm.)
* In order that the new mankind may be exempt from all moral and physical deformities.
[4] Ccp. 18 dred; to the streets of the smallest part, three hundred}, That Vara thou shalt seal up with thy golden seal, and thou shalt make a door, and a window self-shining within.’
31 (93). Then Yima said within himself: ‘ How shall I manage to make that Vara which Ahura Mazda has commanded me to make?’
And Ahura Mazda said unto Yima: ‘O fair Yima, son of Vivanghat! Crush the earth with a stamp of thy heel, and then knead it with thy hands, as the potter does when kneading the potter's clay *’
[32. And Yima did as Ahura Mazda wished ; he crushed the earth with a stamp of his heel, he kneaded it with his hands, as the potter does when kneading the potter's clay*.]
And Yima did as Ahura Mazda wished ; he crushed the earth with a stamp of his heel, he kneaded it with his hands, as the potter does when kneading the potter's clay*.]
33 (97). And Yima made a Vara, long as a ridingground on every side of the square. There he brought the weds of sheep and oxen, of men, of dogs, of birds, and of red blazing fires. . He made a Vara, long as a riding-ground on every side of the square, to be an abode for men; a Vara, long as a riding-ground on every side of the square, for oxen and sheep.
34 (101). There he made waters flow in a bed a hathra long; there he settled birds, on the green that never fades, with food that never fails. There
? This division of the Var into three quarters very likely answers the distinction of the three classes.
* In the Shah Namah Gamshid teaches the Divs to make and knead clay ‘by mixing the earth with water;’ and they build palaces at his bidding. It was his renown, both as a wise king and a great builder, that caused the Musulmans to identify him with Solomon.
* From the Vendidad Sada.
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he established dwelling-places, consisting of a house with a balcony, a courtyard, and a gallery.
35 (106). There he brought the seeds of men and women, of the greatest, best, and finest on this earth; there he brought the seeds of every kind of cattle, of the greatest, best, and finest on this earth.
36 (110), There he brought the seeds of every kind of tree, of the highest of size and sweetest of odour on this earth; there he brought the seeds of every kind of fruit, the best of savour and sweetest of odour. All those seeds he brought, two of every kind, to be kept inexhaustible there, so long as those men shall stay in the Vara.
37 (116). And there were no humpbacked, none bulged forward there; no impotent, no lunatic; no one malicious, no liar; no one spiteful, none jealous ; no one with decayed tooth, no leprous to be pent up, nor any of the brands wherewith Angra Mainyu stamps the bodies of mortals.
38 (123). In the largest part of the place he made nine streets, six in the middle part, three in the smallest. To the streets of the largest part he brought a thousand seeds of men and women; to the streets of the middle part, six hundred; to the streets of the smallest part, three hundred. That Vara he sealed up with the golden ring, and he made a door, and a window self-shining within.
39 (129). O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! What are the lights that give light in the Vara which Yima made ?
40 (131). Ahura Mazda answered: ‘There are uncreated lights and created lights. The one |
1 The endless light, which is eternal, and artificial lights. The Commentary has here the following Zend quotation: ‘The un-
“C2p. 20 thing missed there is the sight of the stars, the moon, and the sun’, and a year seems only asa day *.
The one |
1 The endless light, which is eternal, and artificial lights. The Commentary has here the following Zend quotation: ‘The un-
“C2p. 20 thing missed there is the sight of the stars, the moon, and the sun’, and a year seems only asa day *.
41 (133). ‘Every fortieth year, to every couple two are born, a male and a female® And thus it is for every sort of cattle. And the men in the Vara which Yima made live the happiest life 4
42 (137). O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Who is he who brought the Religion of Mazda into the Vara which Yima made ?
Ahura Mazda answered: ‘It was the bird Karshipta®, O holy Zarathustra!’
43 (140). O Maker of the material world, thou created light shines from above; all the created lights shine from below.’
‘ The people in the Var cannot see them, since the Var is underground. That is why the Var has lights of its own.
* As there is no daily revolution of the sun.
* Cf. the description of Iran-v€g according to a later source, the Mainy6-i-khard (as translated by West): ‘ Hérmeazd created Zr&-véz better than the remaining places and districts; and its goodness was this, that men’s life is three hundred years; and cattle and sheep, one hundred and fifty years; and their pain and sickness are litle, and they do not circulate falsehood, and they make no lamentation and weeping; and the sovereignty of the demon of Avarice, in their body, is little, and in ten men, if they eat one loaf, they are satisfied; and in every forty years, from one woman and one man, one child is born ; and their law is goodness, and religion the primeval religion, and when they die, they are righteous (=blessed); and their chief is Gépatsh&h, and the ruler and king is Srésh’ (XLIV, 24).
“ «They live there for 150 years; some say, they never die ~ (Comm.)
5 «The bird Karshipta dwells in the heavens: were he living on the earth, he would be the king of birds. He brought the Religion into the Var of Yima, and recites the Avesta in the language of birds’ (Bund. XIX and XXIV). The Comm. identifies the Karshiptan with the Kakhravak, that is the Kakravaka of poetical reputation in India.
FARGARD III. 2I
Holy One! Who are the Lord and the Master there ? Ahura Mazda answered : ‘ Urvatad-nara!, O Zarathustra ! and thyself, Zarathustra.’
Farcarp III.
The Earth.
The Comm. identifies the Karshiptan with the Kakhravak, that is the Kakravaka of poetical reputation in India.
FARGARD III. 2I
Holy One! Who are the Lord and the Master there ? Ahura Mazda answered : ‘ Urvatad-nara!, O Zarathustra ! and thyself, Zarathustra.’
Farcarp III.
The Earth.
‘Les Gutbres,’ says Chardin (ed. Langlés, VIII, 358), ‘ regardent l'agriculture,non seulement comme une profession belle et innocente, mais aussi comme méritoire et noble, et ils croient que c’est la premitre de toutes les vocations, celle pour quoi le Dieu souverain et les dieux inférieurs, comme ils parlent, ont le plus de complaisance et qu’ils recompensent le plus largement. Cette opinion, tournée . en.créance parmi eux, fait qu’ils se portent naturellement & travailler 4 la terre et qu’ils s’y exercent le plus: leurs prétres leur enseignent que la plus vertueuse activité est d’engendrer des enfants (cf. Farg. IV, 47) et aprés de cultiver une terre qui serait en friche (cf. infra, § 4), de planter un arbre soit fruitier, soit autre.’
The classical writers (Xenophon, Oeconomica, IV, 4 seq.; Polybius, X, 28, quoted § 4, note) express themselves to the same effect, and their testimony has been lately corroborated, in a most unexpected way, by a Greek inscription *, emanating from no less an authority than King Darius himself, who congratulates his satrap in Asia Minor, Gadates, ‘for working well the King’s earth and transplanting in lower Asia the fruits of the country beyond
1 Zarathustra had three sons during his lifetime, Isad-vAstra, Hvare-Aithra, and Urvatad-nara, who were respectively the fathers and chiefs of the three classes, priests, warriors, and husbandmen. Urvatad-nara, as a husbandman, was chosen to be the ahu or temporal Lord of the Var, on account of the Var being underground. Zarathustra, as a heavenly priest, was, by right, the ratu or Spiritual Lord in Airyana Vaég6, where he founded the Religion by a sacrifice (Bund. XXXITI and Introd. III, 15).
* Discovered at Deremendjik, near Magnesia, on the Maeander : by Cousin and Deschamps (Bulletin de Correspondance hellénique, XIII, 529).
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Euphrates (Gre rv dpi» éxrroveis viv, robs mépay Eippdrov xapmovs ért ra xdre tis Agias pépn xarapuretor).
The third Fargard may serve as a Commentary to those texts. The principal subject is, as the Dinkard has it:
What comforts most the Genius of the Earth (§§ 1-6)?
What discomforts most the Genius of the Earth (§§ 7-11)?
What rejoices the Earth most (§§ 12-35)? In each of these three developments a series of five objects is considered. Series I and II, though expressed in symmetrical terms, do not answer one another: there is greater symmetry, as to the ideas, between the second series and the third. Series I and II are a dry enumeration. The third series contains two interesting digressions, one on the funeral laws (§§ 14-21), and the other on the sanctity of husbandry (§§ 24-33).