41. King Gustásp next asks Z. to pray for information as to the king's future position in the other world, also that he may become invulnerable, omniscient as to worldly affairs, and immortal; but Z. tells him that he must be satisfied with the first wish for himself, and the remaining three for other persons. The next day, while the king is sitting in court with Z. present, horsemen arrive, who are the archangels Bahman and Ardabahist, with the spirits of the Khürdád and Gusásp fires. They are sent to testify the truth of Z.'s mission, and to urge the king to accept the religion ; this he does, and they then depart; when Z. informs the king that his four wishes will be granted, as he will soon see. For some of these details see Dk. VII, iv, 74-82.
42. Zartust then performs the Darun ceremony, having provided wine, perfume, milk, and a pomegranate. After reciting prayers from the Avesta, he gives the wine to the king to drink, who then falls into a trance and sees his own future position in heaven, and those of others. His son Peshótan receives the milk which makes him immortal. The perfume, or incense, is given to Gámásp who obtains knowledge of all events till the resurrection. And Isfendyár, the warlike son of Gustásp, eats one grain of the pomegranate and becomes invulnerable. The Pahlavi versions are silent about the king’s four wishes and their fulfilment, except such hints as may be conveyed in Dk. VII, iv, 84-86. Afterwards, Z. reads the Avesta to the king and comments upon it; concluding with piaises of the creator.
43. To this narrative Zartust Bahram adds a further episode of Z. asking for immortality, at the time when he went with Bahman to confer with the creator. His request is refused, but the creator gives him a drop of liquid to drink, like honey, and he sees everything in both worlds, as in a vision. When he wakes up, he relates what he saw in heaven and hell; and also describes a tree with seven branches of gold, silver, copper, brass, lead, steel, and mixed iron, respectively, overshadowing the world. The creator explains that these seven branches represent seven
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powerful personages who arise in successive ages of the world. The golden branch is Z. himself, the silver is Gustásp, the copper is an Askánian king, the brass is Ardashir the Sásánian, the lead is king Bahram (Gêr), the steel is Nóshérván who destroys the heretic Mazdak, and the mixed iron is the malicious monarch who upsets the true faith. Then follow many details of the lamentable evils which then occur; and when the Hazárahs! appear, the condition of Irán becomes still worse, as described in Byt. II, III, until the arrival of king Bahrám the Hamávand from India, and Peshótan from Kangdiz, who restore the Iránian monarchy and religion.
44. This additional narrative is evidently a paraphrase of the Pahlavi Bahman Yast, translated in S. B. E., vol. v, pp. 191-235; and that Pahlavi text appears to be merely an enlarged edition of Fargard VII of the Sügkar Nask, of which a short summary is given in Dk. IX, viii.
45. From the foregoing epitome of the Persian Zartust- namah, it will be evident that its author's information was a combination of the statements still surviving in Dk. VII and Zs. XII-XXIII, so far as they suited his fancy and convenience. Many statements are omitted, others either condensed, or greatly elaborated ; but very few novelties can be detected, excepting such as are clearly due to the writers own imagination. Whether any small residuum of these novelties car. be attributed to other sources than the Persian writers fancy, must remain doubtful until some older av thority for such details is discovered.
46. With regard to Z.'s vision of heaven and hell, which is mentioned in Zartust Bahrám's final episode, his immediate informant was certainly Byt. II, 11-13; but the original authority was the Spend Nask, as summarized in Dk. VIII, xiv, 7, 8, although Dk. VII omits this incident, and Zs. XXI, 21, 22 merely mentions the bodily appearance of the omniscient wisdom, without referring to Z.'s vision.
The details of the conferences with the six archangels,
———M — a
* Those specially belonging to the latter millenniums, probably meaning the
people who were expected to make most of the last two centuries intolerably wicked,
Introduction. Xxv
which are summarized in Dk. VIII, xiv, 9, as having
existed in the Spend Nask, are also omitted in Dk. VII,
though briefly stated in Zs. XXII.
47. It is worthy of notice that Z. was first sent to offer his religion to the Kigs and Karaps and their sovereign, Aürváitá-dang the Tür (see Dk. VII, iv, 2-20) who seem to have received his doctrines favourably, excepting his advocacy of Khvétük-das!, which led to their rejection of his proposal. He was next sent to the Karap Védvóist (ibid. 21-28), whom Aüharzmaz4 had hitherto befriended ; but this Karap was rejected for illiberality and arrogance. Z. then went to ParshaZ-tórà in Sagástán (ibid. 31-35), taking some Hóm-water with him, to cure an infirm bull belonging to this chieftain, as soon as the latter had accepted the religion in public; the chieftain assented to the religion, though only privately, but this was sufficient to obtain the cure of his bull. It was only after these three trials that the conversion of king Vistásp was attempted.
48. There is some difficulty in understanding the exact difference between the primeval religion and that taught by Zaratüst. When Dk. VII, i, g-11 speaks of Atharmazd talking with Masyé and Masyáói; or Hadish tells them of AühazmazZ, the archangels, and the Ahunavair (ibid. 12, 13); or the sacred beings are said to have taught them the primitive arts (ibid. 14); or we are told of the existence of demons in the times of Hósháng and Tákhmórup (ibid. 18, 19); or of Ashavahistó in the time of king Pátakhsróbó (ibid. 34) ; it may be urged that the mention of these beings in connection with the men of those times is no proof that their existence was known then. Because it only shows that the old writers, being satisfied that these beings existed in their own time and were immortal, only logically assumed that they must have existed in formertimes. The really weak point in their argument being the assumption of the existence of such beings in their own time.
49. Safer conclusions may be formed by noticing the
ne
1 For the meaning of this term, as defined by the texts which use it, see S. B. E., vol. xviii, pp. 389-430.
xxvi PAHLAVI TEXTS.
dogmas that Zaratüst most strongly advocates and repro- bates. When he goes to his first conference (Dk. VII, iii, 56—62) he goes in search of righteousness. When he went to A drvaita-dang, as mentioned above, he advocated the praise of righteousness, scorn of the demons, and the observance of ceremonies; but it was only his scorn of the demons, which took the form of Khvétük-das, that the Karaps really rejected. In Dk. VII, iv, 14, he says, ‘worldly righteousness is the whole worship of the demons, and the end of the Mazda-worship of Z? Though the Hôm plant was sacred before Z.'s birth (ibid. ii, 22-47), the Hóm-water (ibid. iv, 29-35) seems to have been a distinctive token of Z.’s religion ; also chanting the Ahunavair (ibid. iv, 38, 41, 42, 56, 61) and the Avesta in general (ibid. 63). The perverted religion and demonizing of the Kigs and Karaps appear to have been the worst faults he had to find with them (ibid. 64, 67). And the archangels tell Vistásp that the world requires the good religion which proceeds through Z.s recitation, so he should chant the Ahunavair and Ashem-vohü, and not worship the demons (ibid. 79, 8o). Again, when Dürásrób and Brágrók-résh partake of food with Pórüsháspó and Zaratüst (ibid. iii, 34, 38), the latter does not object to the form of worship proposed, but to the person selected to conduct it; and he then proclaims his own reverence for the righteous and the poor.
50. From these statements we may conclude that the old writers, who have handed down these legends from ancient times, were of opinion that Zaratüst was not so much the founder of a totally new religion, as he was a reformer who retained as much of the prior religion as was not seriously objectionable. While strongly insisting upon the necessity of reverencing all good spirits, he strictly prohibited all propitiation of evil spirits. His law was to resist and destroy all that is evil and injurious to man, and to respect and honour all that is good and beneficial to him. According to the legends, he seems to have found little gross idolatry, in the form of image-worship, to reprobate. F rom the times of the idol-worship encouraged by Dahak in Bapél (Dk. VII, iv, 72), and of the destruction of the
INTRODUCTION. xxvii
celebrated idol-temple on the shore of Lake Kékast by Kai-Khüsrói (ibid. i, 39; Mkh. ii, 95), we find nothing in the legends about this form of idolatry, till *the oppres- siveness of infidelity and idol-worship, shortly after the downfall of the Sásánians, is lamented (Dk. VII, viii, 6). Demon-worship (ibid. iii, 35; iv, 30; vii, 17, 36, 37 ; viii, 7, 34), although a term sometimes applied to idolatry, seems to be often used in its literal sense of ‘worship of evil spirits, one form of which is described by Zaratüst (ibid. iv, 47-53).
51. Another interesting study, for which these Zoroastrian
legends supply materials, is the traditional chronology
which they contain; and how far it will be found, upon
examination, to harmonize with the system stated in Bd.
XXXIV, or to explain the manifest inaccuracies of that
system. The matter is rather complicated, but the
Zoroastrian system can be connected with the European
system of chronology with some degree of probability.
52. The epoch of Zoroastrian chronology is ‘the coming of the religion, but it has long been doubtful whether this event was the birth of Zaratûst, or his going to conference with the saçred beings, or the acceptance of the religion by Vistâsp. Any doubt, however, as to the meaning of the phrase, has now been removed by the statement in Dk. VII, viii, 51, that the first century of the religion is that from the time when Zaratûst came forth to his conference, which event happened when he was thirty years old (ibid. iii, 51, 60, 62). It is also stated, in Ed. XXXIV, 7, that Vistasp reigned thirty years before the coming of the religion, that is, before Zaratüst went to his conference. From these data it is evident that the tradi- tional Zoroastrian chronology makes the birth of Zaratüst coincide with the accession of Vistásp.
53. The nearest date to these events, which is well defined in both the Zoroastrian and European systems of chronology, is that of the death of Alexander, near mid- summer in B.C. 323, which Bd. XXXIV, 7, 8, places 272 years after the coming of the religion, that is, after the thirtieth year of Vistásp's reign. And if this were the first
xxviil PAHLAVI TEXTS.
ccc MR
year of the religion, the death of Alexander must have
occurred in its 273rd year, according to the Bundahis.
55. If we now adopt the abbreviations A.R. for ‘anno religionis? and B.R. for ‘ before the religion, we are prepared to compile the following synopsis of Zoroastrian Chronology according to the millennial system of the Bundahis, extended to the end of time, but dealing only with tradi- tional matters, combined with the European dates of the same events, deduced from the synchronism of A.R. 300 with B. C. 331, as stated above in § 54 :—
B.R. 9000, B.C. 9630. Beginning of the first millennium of Time ; and formation of the Fravashis, or primary ideas of the good creations, which remain insensible and motionless for 3000 years (Bd. I, 8; XXXIV, r).
» 6000, B.C. 6630. Beginning of the fourth millennium, when the spiritual body of Zaratüst is framed together, and remains 3000 years with the archangels (Dk. VII, ii, 15, 16), while
Introduction. Xxix
the primeval man and ox exist undisturbed in the world,
because the evil spirit is confounded and powerless (Bd. I, 20,
32; II], 1, 3, 5; XXXIV, 1).
B.R. 3000, B.C. 3630. Beginning of the seventh millennium,
when the evil spirit rushes into the creation on new-year's day, destroys the primeval ox, and distresses GáyÓmard, the primeval man (Bd. I, 20; III, 10-20, 24-27; XXXIV, 2). Z. appears to remain with the archangels for 2969 years longer.
2970, B.C. 3600. Gaydémard passes away (Bd. III, 21-23; XXXIV, 2).
2930, B.C. 3560. Masyé and Masyáói had grown up (Bd. XV, 2; XXXIV, 3).
2787, B. c. 3417. Accession of Héshang (Bd. XXXIV, 3).
2747, B.C. 3377. Accession of Tákhmórup (ibid. 4).
2717, B.C. 3341. Accession of Yim (ibid.).
