Avesta

“ But as a religious book—the most important document of the Zoroastrian faith, and the sole literary monument of ancient Iran—the Avesta occupies a prominent position in the literature of the world. At the present day its significance is decidedly underrated. The future will doubtless be more just with regard to the importance of the book for the history of religion in general and even of Christianity.
Editions.—Zend-Avesta, ed. by N. L. Westergaard (Copenhagen, 1852–54) , complete; F. Spiegel, Avesta (Vienna, 1853–58) , only Vendidad, Vispered and Yasna, but with the Pahlavi translation ”

“ The truth is that we possess but a trifling portion of a very much larger Avesta, if we are to believe native tradition, carrying us back to the Sassanian period, which tells of a larger Avesta in twenty-one books called nasks or nosks, as to the names of which we have several more or less detailed accounts, particularly in the Pahlavi Dīnkard (9th century A.D.) and in the Rivayats. From the same sources we learn that this larger Avesta was only a part of a yet more extensive original Avesta, which is said to have existed before Alexander. ”

“ Such a work can hardly be other than authentic; for men do not forge liturgies, and, if they did, could hardly introduce them into the worship of a religious community.
The Avesta consists of the Vendidad, of which twenty-two Fargards, or chapters, have been preserved; the Vispered, in twenty-seven; the Yaçna, in seventy; and the Khordah Avesta, or Little-Avesta, which contains the Yashts, Patets, and other prayers for the use of the laity. Of these, Spiegel considers the Gâthâs of the Yaçna to be the oldest, next the Vendidad, lastly, the first part of the Yaçna, and the Khordah Avesta. ”

“ These titles represent the functions of different beings in the Avesta. The conception of the work of Jesus on earth is largely Zoroastrian. The Majesty on high has a colony and a people on earth, which otherwise is under the supremacy of the Evil One. As we have seen the Avestan definitions of Ahuramazda and Angra Mainyu, “the Living and the Not Living,” are reflected in the phrases of this Epistle,—the “Power of Imperishable Life” (vii. 16) and the “Power of Death” (ii. 14) . ”

“ The kingdom of the good spirits is truth, increase, and life; the kingdom of the evil is deception and falsehood, lying, destruction, and death. The Avesta praises Auramazda as purity itself; and next to him Asha vahista, i. e. the best purity; the gods are chiefly extolled as "the pure," and Zarathrustra as the master and teacher of purity. The Avesta repeatedly declares "that purity after birth is the best thing for men." Hence it is the foremost of all duties to keep the soul and body pure. The worshipper of Auramazda must preserve his purity by good thoughts, words, and works ”

“ Avesta's prince, the gracious Banissat,
Is now your sworn defender.
Ard. [Turning] And asks no price?
Bion. No more than your fair self, my sister.
Vig. [As Ardia stands silent] You doubt?
'Tis true. He'll make you princess!
Ard. He is old....
Bion. What call you old? He's in the fairest top
Of manhood.
Vig. Old!
Ard. And cannot sing....
Vig. Not sing!
Ard. What need have we of him? Can Oswald scale
These rock-barred heights?
Vig. Starvation can.
Ard. We've food
Will last three harvest moons.
Bion. And Oswald camps
Where plain and sea will feed ten thousand men
As many years. ”

“ The Pairikas in the oldest Avesta are the fiendish females, who rob the gods and men of the heavenly waters. They hover between heaven and earth in the midst of the sea Vourū-Kasha, to keep off the rain floods, working in harmony with Apaosha, the drouth fiend. There are many other female demons, which it is unnecessary to describe, as their characteristics are most revolting. ”

“ But aside from some of the inscriptions, the earliest literature we now have belonging to this people is the Zend-Avesta, our present version of which was possibly derived from texts which already existed in the time of the Achæmenian kings. Although there are no facts to prove that the text of the Avesta as we now possess it was committed to writing previous to the Sassanian dynasty [16] Prof. Darmesteter thinks it possible that “Herodotus may have heard the Magi sing, in the fifth century before Christ, the very same Gāthas which are sung now a days by the Mobeds of Bombay.” ”

“ Some students of the Avesta have thought that here could be found the elements of the Dualism which formed the essential doctrine of Mazdaism. But it is almost certain that no real Dualism existed in oldest Iran. The Avesta once contrasts the worshippers of God with the worshippers of Daevas, of those who breed the cow and have the care of it with those who ill-treat it and slaughter it at their sacrifices. But Indra-worship has no connexion with devil-worship, nor does this or similar texts prove that devil-worship, properly so called, ever flourished in Iran. ”

“ They were believed to be conversant with all medicaments.
Thrita of the Parsis, the Trita of the Hindus, is a remarkable healing, semi-divine personage, of whom a great deal is said in the “Zend Avesta” and other sacred books of Aryan peoples of the east. According to the “Zend Avesta,” which is from a common source with the “Vedas,” he is the curer of the diseases caused by the great evil spirit, Ahriman. In the “Vedas” he is said to extinguish illness in men as the gods extinguished it in him, and he can grant long life. ”

“ The belief in the spirits of the ancestors, and their continued relation to their descendants, existed also among the Arians of Iran, and the Avesta alters it only so far as to limit consistently the assistance given by the spirits of the fathers to the souls of those who have lived in truth and purity, and have thus found entrance into heaven. ”

“ But, even granting that a certain obscurity still hangs undispelled over the problem of the old Avesta, with its twenty-one nasks, we may well believe the Parsees themselves, when they affirm that their sacred literature has passed through successive stages of decay, the last of which is represented by the present Avesta. ”

“ It is evident that the migrating tribes, in consequence of their separation from their brethren in Īrān, soon became estranged from them, and their most favored gods fell slowly into neglect or disfavor. Considerable time 114must have been required for the accomplishment of so great a change. The oldest portions of the Avesta may therefore fall a few centuries this side of the hymns of the Ṛig-veda, while the oldest portions of the later Avesta may be placed at a period somewhat later than Darius. ”

“ In the Gathas of the Avesta the spirit who keeps watch over the increase of the flocks speaks to the heavenly powers, saying: "All creatures are distressed; whom have ye for their assistance?" Auramazda makes answer: "I have one only who has received my commands, the holy Zarathrustra; he will proclaim my exhortations and those of Mazda and Asha, for I will make him practised in speech." [197] Then Auramazda sacrificed to Ardviçura that he might unite with Zarathrustra the son of Pourushaçpa, to the end that the latter might think, speak, and act according to the law. ”

“ As the Pārsīs are the ruins of a people, so also their sacred books represent the ruins of a religion. There has been no other great belief in the world that left such poor monuments of its fallen splendor. Yet great is the value of the Avesta, and the belief of the few surviving Pārsīs, in the eyes of the historian, as they present to us the last reflex of the ideas which prevailed in Īrān during the five centuries which preceded and the seven which followed the birth of Christ. ”

“ Of this Burnouf was fully [87] aware, and this was the reason why he postponed the publication of his researches into the antiquities of the Iranian nation. The same conviction is shared by Westergaard and Spiegel, who are each engaged in an edition of the Avesta, and who, though they differ on many points, agree in considering the Veda as the safest key to an understanding of the Avesta. ”

“ In the earth shall Ahriman hide, In the earth, the demons hide. Up, the dead again shall rise And within their lifeless bodies Incorporate life shall be restored.
Other interesting fragments might be quoted which have escaped the ravages of 'the accursed Iskander' (Alexander) , the fanaticism of Islam, and the devouring maw of time. These fragments give us some idea of certain lost parts of the original Avesta the outlines of whose contents are preserved in the account found in the Pahlavi Dinkart, of the Zoroastrian 21 Nasks. ”

“ He will make the world to live for ever, without age and death; the dead will rise again, and the living will be immortal. Vohumano will smite Akomano, Asha will kill the lies. Haurvatat and Ameretat will destroy thirst and hunger: "The evil-doer Angromainyu, robbed of his dominion, bows himself." [305] This doctrine of the Avesta also was well known to the western world. In Herodotus Prexaspes tells Cambyses that when the dead rise again he will see Smerdis and Astyages. ”

“ The word Asura, although used in a good sense in the early songs of the Rig-veda, becomes, in the later portions of that literature, as well as in the Brāhmaṇas and Purāṇas, a term which is applied only to evil spirits; they are represented as the constant enemies of the Hindū gods, always making attacks upon the sacrifices offered by devotees. In the Avesta, Asura, in the form of Ahura, becomes a component part of Ahura Mazda, which is the name of God among the 405Pārsīs, whose faith is called “the Ahura religion” [289] in order to distinctively indicate its opposition to the Deva religion. ”

“ The wicked strive to hinder the good work of those who further Asha's righteousness by prospering the cattle by their diligence. [168] Ahura Mazda created plants for the cattle. [169] Diligent persons gain cattle through Asha. [170] The prophet is awarded precious animals and weal and immortality by Ahura Mazda through Asha. [171]
The path of righteousness. The Rig Veda refers to the path of ṛta. [172] The Gathas similarly speak of the path of Asha, righteousness, and the idea, as we shall see later, is developed in the Later Avesta. ”

“ That I will ask Thee, tell me it right, thou living God! Who is holding the earth and the skies above it? Who made the waters and the trees of the [127] field? Who is in the winds and storms that they so quickly run? Who is the Creator of the good-minded beings, thou Wise?
This is a short specimen of the earliest portion of the Zend-Avesta. The following is an account of one of the latest, the so-called Ormuzd Yasht:
'Zarathustra asked Ahuramazda after the most effectual spell to guard against the influence of evil spirits. ”

“ He has created all that is evil, but nevertheless he is without any independent power of creation. If the Gathas express this merely in such a manner that they give prominence to Auramazda as the creator, they were as far from setting up a dualism of equally-balanced forces, as any other religion has been from attempting such a task, and carrying it out. The other fragments of the Avesta leave no doubt of the fact, that Angromainyu was not in a position to create the world according to his own will; he can only implant the form of evil in the good creation of Auramazda ”

“ By his edicts and inscriptions he proclaimed himself to be a Mazdayasn, or devout servant of Ahura-Mazda, and the dynasty he founded was always noted {384} for its firm adherence to the national religion. [50] On his accession Ardeshír undertook the restoration of the Avesta, a great part of which had been neglected or altogether lost, and under the supervision of the Magi he caused a purification or reformation of the faith of Zarathushtra to be begun. ”

“ During the third period of 3,000 years the war between good and evil, between Ormuzd and Ahriman, began with the utmost fierceness; and it will gradually abate during the fourth period of 3,000 years, which is still to elapse before the final victory of good. Where here is the similarity between Genesis and the Avesta? We are referred by Dr. Spiegel to Dr. Windischmann's 'Zoroastrian Studies,' and to his discovery that there are ten generations between Adam and Noah, as there are ten generations between Yima and Thraêtaona ”

“ In fact, the whole Chaldæan theory of the future life is very rudimentary, notwithstanding the great proficiency in several departments of culture to which the Accadian and Assyrian races had attained.
The Median conquest of Assyria and Babylon introduced the Hebrew exiles to the Zoroastrian religion, with its mythology richer than any which the Semitic or Pre-Semitic [71] races had evolved, and taught them an eschatology more elaborate than their own. The Avesta inculcated an ethic of high morality, and taught a very systematic theory of rewards and punishments in the future life. ”

“ In the 5th Gatha it is stated that among those who "know the right paths, the law which Ahura gave to the Profitable," is Pourutschista the "Holy worthy of adoration among the daughters of Zarathustra.... wise female worker of Wisdom." (112)
112) Spiegel's Translation.
Ormuzd, or Ahura Mazda, which was the essence of heat or light, was the principle adored by the followers of the reformed religion in Persia. Throughout the Avesta the most desirable possession, and that which is most praised, is purity of life.
"We praise the pure man. "The best purity praise we. ”

“ The earliest Avestan account of the earthly condition of men describes them as living in a garden which Yima or Jemschid had enclosed at the command of Ormuzd.12 During the golden age of his reign they were free from heat and cold, sickness and death. "In the garden which Yima made they led a most beautiful life, and they bore none of the marks which Ahriman has since made upon men." ”