The Parsees, or Fire-Worshippers, of Bombay.--A Visit to a
Fire-priest and Astrologer.--His Astral Predictions.--The
Gâthas.--Zoroaster.--His Life and Religion.--History of the
Settlement of the Parsees in India.
The race which more than others attracted my attention in India was the
Parsees in Bombay. As we drove almost daily to or from the fort to
Malabar Point, we passed a Fire-temple, and there are also two others in
the old fort. These are held very sacred, and none but Parsees are
allowed to enter them. The one, however, which stood between the fort
and our house was less guarded, by which means it was more accessible to
strangers and visitors.
At my earnest request, I was invited by the wife of our Parsee neighbor
to witness the worship of this interesting people. It was on the
occasion of the "Khurdad-Sal," the anniversary of the birthday of
Zoroaster, that I repaired to the above-mentioned Fire-temple. Seeing a
large crowd centred about the building, I ventured to peep in, in the
hope of seeing my friend. No one paid the slightest attention to me;
presently a young Parsee lad came forward and conducted me to a quiet
corner, and I found myself the sole spectator of a very curious and
interesting worship performed by the Fire-priests alone, with a crowd of
Parsee women and children, and some very aged Parsee men scattered here
and there among them.
The building was quite small, circular in shape, with a sort of pent
roof, small iron-grated windows, and an iron-bound door, which was
padlocked the moment the service was over. Under the central arch of the
temple was a low altar on which burned a clear bright fire; the smoke
had no means of escaping but through the windows, which made the place
rather unpleasant to stay in for any length of time. A number of priests
clad in simple white robes and quite unadorned fed the sacred fire[11]
with the different kinds of precious woods, and while some chanted,
passing each his sacred thread through the fingers of his hands, others
dropped perfumes and consecrated oil into the Fire.
The Parsee women and children sat or stood around this central fire,
most of them beautifully dressed. I was struck with the beauty and
nobility of their faces as they worshipped here with their hands folded,
their eyes closed, listening reverently to the chants or praying
silently to themselves.
A great many silver trays full of fruit, sweetmeats, and white robes
were placed on one side, offerings from the women to the Fire-priests.
At the close of the service the entire congregation folded their hands
across their breasts, and, having bowed their heads, retired, leaving
the priests to heap precious fuel on the sacred fire, so as to preserve
it from going out, for which purpose the temple is regularly visited
during each day, and the fire is carefully preserved from year to year
by certain priests who take turns to perform this most religious duty.
One evening we went to visit, by appointment, one of the oldest
Fire-priests in Bombay, who was also a famous astrologer. The
appointment was made by our nearest European neighbor on Malabar Hill, a
Mr. S----, an Englishman who had lived a long time in India, and one of
our intimate friends. Although Mr. S---- was personally acquainted with
him, the old priest had declined to receive strangers until prevailed
upon to do so by Mr. S----'s Parsee friend and partner in business.
We started about six o'clock in the evening, and after a long drive
through the Parsee settlement of the native town and through a crowded
and noisy bazaar, our carriage drew up before a high, dilapidated wooden
building. The balcony projected into the street, supported by rickety
wooden pillars, under which there was a small garden filled chiefly with
herbs and plants. Mr. S----, who had often visited the house and was
familiar with its ways, led us through the little garden and up a great
flight of wooden steps into a corridor or hall, crossing which we at
length stood before a very old door which was slightly ajar, through the
opening of which a light streamed upon us in the dark passage. Mr. S----
tapped, and a voice feeble and tremulous bade us enter. We did so, and
in another moment we were standing side by side with an old Fire-priest,
perhaps the oldest in the world. He did not move or speak, or even turn
his eyes upon us.
An old Ethiopian servant present pointed to us to be seated on some
cushions near by until his master had finished his evening prayer. We
silently took our places on the seats and looked on. In the centre of
the room, which was woefully shabby and coarsely built, stood a
three-legged stand, and on it was a round earthen lamp filled with
cocoanut oil and containing depressions at the sides for wicks, of which
there were just seven burning. Before it stood the Fire-priest, his
dress, a long dingy-looking robe which might once have been white,
flowing down to his emaciated feet, which were bare. But as his lips
moved in prayer, and his thin dark fingers passed over and over his
sacred thread or girdle, that mystic emblem of his faith, there was an
indescribable reflection of some unseen interior light on his wan and
pallid features; he hardly looked old, so wonderfully was his
countenance lit up with a serene and beautiful expression of peace and
happiness.
The floor of the room was made of planks roughly hewn and rudely put
together. A number of curious old parchments were piled up on one side;
pots, earthen lamps, vases, flowers, shawls, carpets, bedding, and a
number of embroidered silk cushions lay in seeming confusion about the
floor. The Ethiopian attendant, who looked almost as old as his master,
grinned at us from his corner, showing plainly that he had lost nearly
all his teeth; but no word was spoken.
His prayers over, the aged Fire-priest put off his long robe and dark
conical cap, which were replaced by a short gray angraka, or coat, and
close-fitting skull-cap, revealing a few locks of long scanty gray hair.
He then turned to Mr. S----, took both his hands kindly in his own, and
saluted him by raising them to his forehead three times, and then he did
the same to us.
After an interval of about an hour or so spent in pleasant conversation,
during which we learned that the Dustoor or Fire-priest Bhèjah was a
native of Surat, and had come to the island of Bombay about forty years
before with his family, every member of whom he had survived save some
distant connections still living in Surat, we begged him to read our
horoscopes for us.
The old Dustoor rose at once, as if pleased at our request, and with
great alacrity led the way through a long narrow passage and up another
old wooden staircase into a small chamber open to the sky by a curious
contrivance, a sort of trapdoor, which was let down in rainy weather.
There was a bench in one corner of this room; in the middle a circular
table which revolved on a pivot, painted with curious hieroglyphics, and
beside it a three-legged stool. As soon as we had taken our seats on
the bench, the Dustoor drew out from under the table a board chequered
black and red and a piece of chalk, and, taking the dim horn lantern
that stood in a niche in the wall, set it on the table. This done, he
turned to me and questioned me very closely in Hindostanee about the
day, year, hour, and almost moment, of my birth. All such questions as I
had it in my power to reply to he put down in what seemed to me signs
and figures in one of the squares on his peculiar black and red board.
This was a work of some time, for every now and then he seemed doubtful
of his operations, rubbing out and replacing the signs and figures in
new squares. When he had scrawled on the board to his satisfaction he
began to compare it with the hieroglyphics on his revolving table,
deciphering and studying the stars on each of his tablets with the
utmost care. He then turned up his wan face and began to gaze
alternately at the bit of sky seen through the open trapdoor and to
examine the strange hieroglyphics on the table. The stars presiding at
my birth were evidently unpropitious. He foretold for me many deaths
among relations and friends, long and cruel separations by strange seas
and oceans being placed between my friends and me; softening it off,
however, by predicting a long life, a happy old age, and a numerous
progeny of grand- and great-grandchildren; which, indeed, are the chief
sources of happiness in the Parsee household.
He then foretold my husband's future, which was even less auspicious,
saying that a great shadow of one of the planets would cross his path in
middle life, which if he survived he would live to a good old age, etc.,
etc.
It was not what the old astrologer and Fire-priest said so much as his
perfect faith in his own rendering of the position of the stars that
most impressed me. The floating locks of gray hair, the serious brow,
the deep, thoughtful, contemplative look on that face, were all very
striking: his head full of the mystery of the stars and his heart ever
revolving the secret destiny of human life were as strange and marked as
any of the many lives whose future he believed he could so easily
decipher.
In the Zend-Avesta--or, more properly, the Avesta-Zand--the religious
books of the Parsees, we find the Gâthas, or sacred hymns, of the
ancient Fire-priests, and these in their turn may be traced directly to
the Rig Vèdas, the oldest of the Aryan Scriptures, a collection of a
thousand hymns, more or less, called "Mantras," or Mind-born songs,
composed and recited by various priests and poets, the earliest of whom
lived about three thousand, and the latest not far from twenty-six
hundred, years ago. These hymns, some of which are very beautiful,
composed and sung long before the Aryans left their home in the Hindoo
Kush[12] Mountains, were inspired by its soaring mountains--"roofs of
the world," as they called them--capped with snow, clear blue skies, and
by the rushing waters leaping in gladness out of the heart of the hills.
"They found the mountains ever near mighty to defend them, the lakes and
rivers eager to serve them."[13] "Sparkling bright with mighty splendor,
she carries the clouds across the plains; the unconquered Sindhui,
Indus, the quickest of the quick, like a beautiful mare, a sight to see;
by their swiftness, depth, as well as by the sweetness of their waters;
the birds by their delicious warbling; the winds by the fragrant dust of
flowers which they bore along on their invisible wings, the clouds by
their refreshing shadows."
Light, as seen in the sun, moon, and stars, dawn and sunrise, fire in
all its mysterious forms--the spark struck from the flint, the fire that
burned their oblations, the holy flames that were lighted on the
domestic hearth--became their earliest objects of worship. These they
celebrate in the Rig Vèda, and in these they saw, with their deep
intuitive insight, thousands of years ago, an "all-productive cosmic
energy."
Thus, the simple act of rubbing two dried pieces of wood together in
order to obtain fire became a religious ceremony, and the tiny flint
which served to kindle fire became their first idol, and gave those
ancient Aryans the first hint of the wonderous power of heat, at once
their god, the ministering angel of their lives, and their first step
toward civilization.
This vital fire of the universe, with every upward dart of flame issuing
out of the cold, hard rock, starting out of dried wood, streaming in
jets spontaneously out of the heart of the earth itself, and flaming
luridly from mountain-tops, was an object so full of mystery, so potent,
ever present, even when invisible, ever within call, lurking in the rock
and air, water and tree, waiting to be called into life, vanishing at a
breath, naturally became the highest symbol of the unseen to those
primitive worshippers of nature.
The early Aryan priest, who was to his race what our poets and thinkers
are to us to-day, on awakening at dawn turned his face to the east, and,
waiting for the light, cried, "Arise! arise! the breath of our life has
come, the darkness has fled." The fire had to be kindled by men. "She,
the Dawn, brought us light by striking down darkness.--Shine for us with
thy best rays, O thou bright Dawn! thou who lengthenest our lives, thou
beloved of all, thou mother of the morning clouds, leader of the days,
gold-colored and lovely to behold!" When the sun at last climbed the
mountain-tops and shone upon his worshipper, he sang a deeper hymn of
joy to the Creator: "In the beginning there arose the source of golden
light. He was the first-born lord of all that is. He established the
earth and the sky. He gives us life, he gives us strength--whose shadow
is immortality, whose absence is death--he who through his power is the
only king of this breathing and awakening world."[14]
These songs were not only sung, but transmitted from father to son, long
before the age of a written alphabet, as a sacred, inviolable
inheritance, preserved from century to century in the religious memory
of the Aryan priest, even as they were recited to us evening after
evening at the "Aviary" by our modern pundit without book or notes or
text.
The pictures these songs present of the deep religious and poetic fervor
of the early Aryans, both before and after their descent into the plains
of India, of their pastoral and agricultural life, divided into separate
and distinct classes, as priest, king, shepherd, warrior, and tiller of
the soil, are in themselves the most comprehensive and valuable of
historical records.
The first and most important fact to be found in the study of these
hymns is that every home, every dwelling, has its own altar, which is
the family hearth, called the "dâdgâh" by the Fire-worshippers--that
"holy of holies" of which father and mother were priest and priestess.
This fire is the ancient "avesta," to which were attached three mystical
interpretations--first, "womanly purity;" second, the "inviolability of
the family;" and third, "the sacredness attached to the mother as the
transmitter of human life."
There is no doubt that from the Assyrians, Chaldeans, and the early
Iranians, who were then one with the purer Hindoos of to-day, this
worship of nature, and especially of fire in its triple significance,
was propagated southward among the Egyptians, westward among the Greeks,
and by them introduced into Italy.
The Greeks met together to worship in their Prytaneia. Here they
consulted together for the public good, and there was a constant fire
burning on the altar, which was called "vesta." The Vestal Virgins of
the Romans had their origin in the same idea. Many of the oldest and
some of the most modern usages still to be found among the Parsees,
Hindoos, Jews, Greeks, Mohammedans, and Roman Catholics bear reference
to this early worship of the "household fire," and many of the problems,
puzzles, and contradictions that are found in the religious symbols of
the world stand clear and evident when submitted to this light.
The word "Light" is used in the New Testament as the highest symbol of
Christ--"the Light of the world," "the Light that lighteth every man who
cometh into the world." Every instance also of God's acceptance of
sacrifice and prayer in the Old Testament is made evident to the people
through the medium of fire, as seen in the case of David, in the
dedication of Solomon's temple, and when Elijah demanded that
extraordinary proof from Jehovah that Baal was not God. From Genesis to
the Revelation, from the first offerings of Cain and Abel to "the city
that had no need of a sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the
glory of the Lord did lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof,"
this symbol of light is the dearest to the human heart, and ever
recurring and conspicuous as the fittest and purest to be applied to
the Deity.
It is as a symbol, not as a material element, that the worshippers of
fire have clung to it through all times; and their adherence and
tenacity are all the more remarkable when we consider the changes that
have passed over all primitive institutions. We ourselves have had a
succession of different religions and gods--the divinities of the
Phoenicians, then those of the Greeks and Romans, which superseded the
terrible gods of the Norsemen and the aboriginal deities of the Druids,
our ancestors. All these in time have given place to the sublime
teachings of Christ. Our religious forms are changing even to-day as
religious convictions become wider, deeper, and more comprehensive than
ever.
But the Parsees, those ancient Sun- and Fire-worshippers, still offer up
their prayers in the old Pehlevi--a language which is the elder sister
of the ancient Sanskrit--in which the Zend-Avesta, the sacred books of
the Zoroastrians, are written, and older by far than the cuneiform
inscriptions of Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes;[15] still wear the same old
conical cap in the form of ascending flame, preserved in the shape of
the bishop's mitre in the Christian symbolic dress; still adhere to the
rites, ceremonies, manners, and customs peculiar to their earliest
fathers, invoking the invisible fire upon which they called centuries
before the building of the temple of Solomon.
The race has survived the destruction of Babylon and Assyria--outlived
the beautiful gods of the Greeks, who beat them down by land and sea. It
has persistently overcome the hatred and persecution of the Scythian and
Tartar hordes, the rage and fury of the Moslems, the intolerance and
prejudice of all sects and nations, and, strange to say, even when
placed between the currents of new ideas, which ceaselessly move and
transform those around them, the Fire-worshipper, like the Jew, stands
alone, as if he were beyond time and above change.
From the time of Xerxes, four hundred and eighty-six years B. C., we
have to date the decline of the Persian empire. Even the old heroic name
of Iran--Ayiran, from the Sanskrit Ariya, "the noble"--has passed away
for the word Persia, which, whether we apply it to the country, to the
people, or to the language, is a misnomer. Pars, or Fars, is only a
province of the great empire of "Iran." It was owing to the fact that
the language of its chief city, Shiraz, was considered the most elegant
and fashionable speech of the Iranians that the name of the province
Pars was gradually used to distinguish the people, the entire country,
and the language.
To the ancient world Zoroastrianism was known by the name of "Mazdasnah"
or "Mazdayasnah," the doctrine of "universal knowledge." It was revealed
by the "Pure Spirit," called also the "Excellent Word," pure,
efficacious--"the word that Zoroaster has conveyed to men," which is the
"Good Law." The priests were called Madhi, or middlemen, go-betweens,
corrupted into Magi, which name is very commonly applied to the priests
of the Zoroastrian religion by the Greek authors, beginning with
Herodotus, who had travelled in Media and confounded the name of the
priests of Magism and the Median religion with that of Zoroastrianism.
It is impossible to fix exactly the era when the great reformer
Zarathustra--"splendor of gold"--lived. The Greek and Roman historians
make him very ancient. Xanthos of Lydia, 470 B. C., the first Greek
writer who mentions Zoroaster, is convinced that he must have
flourished about six hundred years before the Trojan war. Aristotle and
Eudoxus place his era even earlier. Berosus, the Chaldean priest and
historian, who translated the history of his native country, Babylonia,
into the Greek language, and dedicated the work to Antiochus, one of the
Greek kings of Syria, makes him a king, or rather founder of a dynasty
which reigned over Babylon between 2200 and 2000 B. C.[16] The
Fire-worshippers hold that their great priest and reformer lived about
five hundred and fifty years B. C. They identify him with the great
Kavan-Vistaspa of the Zend-Avesta, called Khai Gustasp in the
_Shahnamah_.[17] But it is very evident that even the ancient Persians
themselves were very uncertain as to who this Kavan Vistaspa was. It is
clear, however, that Darius's father, who was also named Vistaspa, and
the Kavan-Vistaspa of the Zend-Avesta and the _Shahnamah_, were entirely
distinct persons.
There is very little doubt that this confusion of opinions is owing to
the similarity of names. A very common habit even in India to-day is to
name persons after heroic kings, great priests, or even after the gods,
without any mark being added to distinguish them in after years; and
when any period of time has elapsed it is almost impossible to separate
the personality of the father from the son, or the disciple from the
teacher, or the priest from the god. Zoroaster, or rather "Zara
Thustra," means illustrious like gold, or, in another sense, simply high
priest; and this being taken afterward as the proper name of the
celebrated priest and reformer of ancient Iran, gave rise to the endless
confusion of dates and opinions which has always prevailed with regard
to the age in which he lived.
There is, however, internal evidence in the language and religion which
he reformed that he lived at a very early age, and there are many traces
of his great antiquity in the Zend-Avesta itself. First, that he stands
at the head of the extensive Zend literature,[18] which must have
required centuries for its growth, and which was already in a state of
perfection when Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born, from four to
five hundred years before Christ; and secondly, that he is expressly
called Aryana Veèdgo, "the celebrated one," in the Aryan home whence the
Aryans, now called Hindoos, emigrated in times immemorial. This title,
Martin Haug justly observes, would not have been given him had his
followers not believed him living at that early time. Under no
circumstance can we assign to him a later date than the year 1000 B. C.
The causes which led to the schism between the early Fire-worshippers
may be readily learned from the Zend-Avesta, where the gods of the
dissenters are called "dèvas" (to whence our word devil) by the orthodox
"Soshyantos," or Fire-priests. It was a vital and successful struggle
against that form of the early religion which inclined to Brahmanism,
and later to open idolatry. Thus, for instance, the Vèdic gods Aditya,
Mitra, Varuna, and Indra became the devils of the Zoroastrian religion;
and this struggle must have taken place when Indra was declared the
chief of the gods by a large portion of the Aryans, before they had
immigrated into Hindostan proper. In the later period of Vèdic
literature we find Indra at the head of the gods; then in the great
epics, the Mahâbhárata and Râmayâna, he gives place to the Trimourtri,
Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. A compromise was thus effected between the
esoteric doctrine of the metaphysicians and the common forms of worship,
giving rise to what was henceforth to constitute the orthodox system of
belief of the Brahmanic caste. The Vèdic pantheon, however, is not
altogether discarded in the Zend-Avesta; the existence of the old gods
is recognized, but in a very different way from that of the mysterious
triple divinity which represents not only the eternal, infinite soul,
but Brahma himself in his active relation to mundane occurrences; and
moreover, as the Trimourtri is never alluded to in the Zend-Avesta,
where most of the other Vèdic gods are named, we are obliged to fix the
religious struggle at a much earlier date than that assigned to the
Indian poems.
The only source whence we derive anything like reliable historical
facts, and those of the most meagre kind, respecting this great reformer
Zoroaster, is in the Yasnahs, where he is distinguished by his family
name S'pitama. His father's name was Poorooshaspa. Of his children,
only his son S'pitama and his daughter Poroochista are mentioned. In
these fragments, rather than books, he appears to us as a real man,
earnest, strong, and true, just and generous in every act of his life,
taking a prominent part in the history of his country and the welfare of
his fellow-creatures. It was he who struck a deathblow to the idolatrous
practices that had crept in among the Fire-priests--who established in
his own country a new community, governed by new laws; he called upon
every man to take his part in the battle between good and evil, adding
the firm assurance that good will always prevail. In his own works he
calls himself a "Dutah"--_i. e._ "a messenger"--sent by the great
Ahura-Mazda. His ideal of home, of father and mother living together
under one roof in freedom and love and unity, cemented by a supreme and
unalterable bond of love and friendship, has never yet been equalled
save by Christianity.
This remarkable reformer, according to the Yasnahs, was born in the
sacerdotal city of Ragha, near Teheran, the capital of Persia. His
father was an aged priest named Poorooshaspa, a man noted for his purity
of life. Like all such histories, his birth was miraculously
ordained.[19] One evening as Poorooshaspa and Dhogdha his wife, a
childless old couple, were praying in a lonely place, the atmosphere
around them became suddenly luminous. They looked up, and saw a form of
exquisite beauty standing in the midst of a bright cloud, and as they
gazed upon this beautiful vision there was handed to them a cup
fashioned out of an amethyst filled with the wine of heaven. "Drink
this," said the angel, "and renew your youth, for Ahura-Mazda has
chosen you to bring a savior into the world." Having drank the wine,
they became the parents of one son, S'pitama.
It is related that the ruler of the city of Ragha sought to destroy the
child; at his command he was snatched from his mother's arms and thrown
into a narrow lane where cattle passed, in the hope that they might
tread him to death; but, lo! in the evening a sensible and motherly cow
brought him on her horns to his weeping, disconsolate mother. Then
again, by the order of the same cruel governor, he was cast into a
blazing fire; but he lay there unscathed, smiling so serenely upon his
persecutors that they were at once converted into friends. In fact,
every attempt made by enemies to destroy the infant is said to have been
arrested by divine agency. At last the child was permitted to grow up
unmolested with his friends and relatives, who were among his earliest
followers.
Zoroaster did not so much reveal a new religion as reform the old
Fire-worship of his country. He abolished stone images, necromancy,
magic, witchcraft, all of which were identified with the worship of
fire. He investigated astrology, and confirmed its practices as true and
elevating. He inspired the old materialistic teaching of the
Fire-priests with a new and more spiritual meaning. He made war on the
idolatrous practices of his fellow-men, and banished from Iran all who
still bowed down before wood and stone. At the age of thirty he
completed a new code of laws, and also the Zend-Avesta, with the
Izeshnee, a still more sacred book. He distinctly recognized, above and
beyond all manifestations of sun, light, or fire, a purer, higher,
unconditioned Being.[20] When moved by deepest awe he bowed his head and
reverently called this Being "the Truth of the Truth, the Wisdom of the
Wise, the Purity of the Pure." So also in his famous prayer of
one-and-twenty words, "The world is produced, and all that is good in
thought, word, and deed, because of the Truth."
The problem of the origin of evil, the most difficult to be solved,
seems to have been constantly before his mind. It seemed to him
impossible that the Truth, whom he conceived to be eternally pure, good,
just, and perfect, had created evil. The ancient Aryans attributed the
struggles in the physical world around them to the strife between good
and evil; Zoroaster seized this idea, applied it with the deepest
emphasis to the moral and spiritual world, and it became the basis of
his system of dualism. Together with Ahura-Mazda, the good principle, he
admitted the existence of an evil principle or spirit equal in power and
of a similar nature[21]--Angra Mainyus; in Persian Ahriman. This spirit
is the author of all moral and physical evil, sin, disease, suffering,
and death.
All things, created by Ahura-Mazda pronouncing the creating,
pre-existing word "Honover," were pure, perfect, and beautiful as
himself until spoiled by the evil influence of Ahriman. And though
Ahriman, like Ahura-Mazda, has been eternal and self-existing in the
past, Zoroaster declares that a day will come when three great prophets
will arise, Ukhsyad-eremah, "the increasing Light," Ukhsyad-eretah, "the
increasing Truth," Açtvad-ereta, "self-existent Truth," who will convert
all mankind; everything created will become as pure as on the first day
when it issued from the breath of the "Wisest of all Intelligence," and
Ahriman will be destroyed and disappear for ever.
Such is the real doctrine of Zoroaster, while the hymns of the
Zend-Avesta glow and burn with the assurance of the mystic and essential
life of the soul with the spiritual essence of all pure thought. The
pure heavens are like light; thought is likened to a drop of pure light,
and the departing spirit has a sunbeam for its guide to conduct it to
immortal light.
In the Gâthas, or Songs, he says: "God appears in the best thought, the
truest speech, and the sincerest action. He gives through his pure
spirit health, prosperity, devotion" (which, more properly translated,
ought to be "love"), "and eternity to this universe. He is the Father of
all truth and the Mother of all tenderness."
It is very remarkable that the early Aryans looked upon disease,
deformity, and weakness in the same light that we are apt to regard the
depraved and vicious. Health was the first and greatest boon, the gift
they supplicated most earnestly from heaven. Health first, then
immortality. They seemed to loathe consumption and scrofula, and many of
their most energetic prayers are supplications to the Deity to be
preserved "from this hateful indwelling sin," as they termed it. Their
laws for the happy treatment of women, especially in certain conditions
of health, of which I shall treat in the chapter on their domestic life,
is full of that reverence for her health and happiness, as well as those
of her offspring, which is seen to penetrate the whole life of the
Fire-worshipper, passing as it did in the course of time into a rigid
etiquette. Stern as it is, it is infinitely better than the careless
indifference with which the mother, "the transmitter of human life," is
so often regarded among us.
In the Zend-Avesta we find a moral code almost as perfect as our own,
with rather a singular account of the creation. In one of the books,
called "Desater," it would seem all animals being created except man,
the dog was dreadfully lonely, and that man was created only out of
compassion for him; and no sooner was man formed than all the animals,
save the dog, broke out into open rebellion against the Great Spirit for
having favored man with speech, reason, and immortality.
As in Genesis, so in the Desater, the Great Spirit brought the animals
to Gelshadèng and made them subject to him, and he it was who divided
them into seven classes. There is a curious dialogue that passed between
the seven great sages of Persia and the seven different animals, and the
reasons given why some are made fierce, others harmless, and yet others
beneficent. In some passages great veneration is expressed for the cow,
and great aversion to some animals, and to the human corpse; this is not
permitted either to find a resting-place in the earth or in the fire,
because of the sacredness of both these elements; and it is commanded
that it be abandoned to birds of prey or to absorption by the air in
enclosures set apart for the purpose.
However, in spite of many things that seem childish and absurd in their
books (the unprejudiced student is not always certain that the right
meaning of the text has been rendered, for the language is full of
difficulties), yet so much is clear: that the "Gâthas" are very
beautiful hymns and full of true religious feeling. They are addressed
to the household fire, to the sun, moon, and stars, to the spirit of the
hills, mountains, trees, birds, and flowers, to the earth, air, and sea.
The earth is often called the "infinite, the all-nourishing cow," and
the sun is consequently, by the same figure, designated "the
fiery-winged one, the immortal bull."
Then there are prayers and songs to the spirits of the righteous dead,
to the seven high angels around the throne, the planets then known. The
most spiritual are those addressed to Ahura-Mazda, "the Everlasting
Light," who is described as an ineffable Being, full of brightness and
glory. Zoroaster discovers God in the eternal invisible Fire. His wonder
and joy over the first kindling of the flame arose from the spiritual
symbolism that interpreted all nature to him. In it he recognizes the
type of the immortal Light and the spiritual resurrection of the soul.
Thrilling with religious fervor, he bows before the radiant light as the
most subtle and all-dissolving element, and in feeling its mystery
acknowledges the mystery of God, its Supreme Creator.
Thus, all the rites and ceremonies of the ancient Fire-worshippers
abound in symbols which typify the operations of nature, not only in the
heavens, but also in the hidden recesses of the earth. They attribute
the maturing of precious gems and metals to the peculiar influence of
the sun, moon, and stars; and it is a curious fact that they called the
seven metals by the very same names by which they denominated the seven
planets, and the same peculiar hieroglyphic characters are used to this
day to distinguish both. Among them certain stones represented certain
virtues, and not a few were famed for their magical properties. The
months of the year were spirits who exerted their influence over certain
precious stones, which in their turn had power over the destiny of any
person born during the period of their sway. Thus each month has its own
presiding genius in the heavens and its appropriate symbol in the heart
of the earth, bound up with the life and character of the individual
born under their combined influence. The garnet, symbol of the presiding
spirit of January, means constancy; the amethyst, of February,
sincerity; the bloodstone, of March, courage and presence of mind; the
diamond, of April, innocence; the emerald, of May, love; the agate, of
June, health and long life; the carnelian, of July, contentment;
sardonyx, of August, happiness; chrysolite, of September, antidote
against madness, sane mind; opal, of October, hope; topaz, of November,
fidelity; turquoise, of December, prosperity.
Rings are still used among the more superstitious of the Parsees as
charms and talismans against the evil eye, demons, and most of the ills
inherent to the human flesh. Sometimes the virtue exists in the stone,
sometimes in the magical letters engraved upon it, which are thought to
have the power to preserve the owner from thunder, lightning,
witchcraft, the evil eye, from sin, and from taking cold even when
exposed to biting frosts and storms.
The ancient history of the Fire-worshippers presents no nobler picture
than that of Zoroaster traversing the wilds of Persia to preach a purer
doctrine to his fellow-men. Before his death he is said to have reduced
the twenty-one books he had written to three immortal maxims: Pure
thoughts, Pure words, Pure deeds. "All pure thought is spirit-worship,
or religion," said he, going at once to the root of the matter, "and all
pure actions are fed by the immortal dew of heaven;" this dew is
_virtue_, and he calls it the vapor which the pure-hearted inhale from
the heart of the eternal Sun.
What a nation does thoroughly, she does for all time. So it was with the
ancient Persians: centuries after the death of their great teacher they
kept their faith in one God firm and inviolate amid the most crushing
persecution. On the final conquest of Persia the unrelenting soldiers of
the Caliphat forced at the point of the sword one hundred thousand
persons daily to abjure their faith. Thousands upon thousands were
slaughtered daily; only a few escaped and fled to the mountains of
Khorasan, taking with them a lamp lighted from the sacred Fire. From
these mountains they were again driven forth by the Mohammedans four
hundred years after, and the little band of Zoroastrians fled once more,
to the beautiful island of Ormuzd, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.
Here persecution still followed them, and, driven out again, the little
colony put to sea, still taking with them their sacred lamp, which had
been preserved from extinction through all those troublous years.
They had hardly lost sight of land when a terrific storm overtook them,
and their little fleet was soon deprived of all hope of escape.
Voluntarily exiled from their native land, they had fled from place to
place for protection; the mountains refused to hide them, the earth to
shelter them, and now even the sea and all the elements rose up against
them--all but their little feeble lamp, which, according to their
historians, continued to burn brightly in spite of the dreadful storm.
At length the high priest of Zoroaster resolved to hoist their sacred
lamp as a signal to the tempest-driven little fleet to join in prayer.
Up rose the horn lantern containing the sacred light to the masthead of
the dahstur's (or high priest's) vessel. The little fleet of boats and
ships tried to draw near to the precious beacon, but the winds blew and
the tempest beat upon their vessels. All undismayed, straining their
utmost and peering through the gloom, they turned them in the direction
of the sacred light. Then up above the din and roar of that angry
surging sea the prayer of that faithful little company ascended to the
Invisible, the shining Ahura-Mazda, for help in their sore distress.
Next morning the storm had abated, and they landed at Diva, on the coast
of Western Hindostan, where they disembarked, and remained nineteen
years, whence they migrated in a body to Sajan, twenty-four miles south
of Damaun. The Hindoo king, Ranah Jayadeva, granted an asylum to the
fugitives.
After centuries of cruel persecution the exiles at length found refuge
from the enemies of their faith among the Hindoos, who had separated
from them in the dim dawn of history because of a religious feud, but
whose antagonism touched only names and other non-essential rites, the
worship of light as the Creator's highest symbol remaining unchanged for
both. Though they had drifted farther and farther apart, the latter in
the multiplying of symbols, while the former gradually dispensed with
even those they once regarded as a part of their worship, they still
remained united in their worship of fire.
In 721 A. D. they erected their first Fire-temple on Indian soil at
Sajan, and the sacred fire was once more kindled on its altars by means
of their little lamp, the flame of which they had so religiously
preserved. To the Fire-worshipper this first temple on Indian soil
seemed a resurrection of hope, of reality, striking deep into their
fervent hearts and binding them to one another by a subtler and diviner
fire. From this time the Parsees rose to importance in India. They
greatly aided the Portuguese and Dutch settlers in the establishment of
mills and factories all along the coast of Guzerat. Owing to their
enterprising spirit, Surat, Cambay, and Baroda grew into large and
influential cities and attracted all the extensive commerce of the East.
When the island of Bombay was ceded to the British a colony of Parsees
emigrated thither, and, having purchased a part of Malabar Hill from the
British, built there a Fire-temple and a tower of silence, or tomb for
the reception of their dead, and here was brought the same sacred fire
and rekindled once more on the altar of their first temple in Bombay.
No country in the world has witnessed so many revolutions as Persia.
Nevertheless, the moral and physical condition of the Fire-worshippers,
who are still found centring about Yezd and Ispahan, has remained much
the same as when they called the country their own. They certainly are
superior in moral character to the Mohammedans of Persia to-day. In the
garden adjoining the harem of the present shah none are employed save
Zoroastrians, and this is because of their national character for
purity. As for the Parsee women, they are remarkable for their chastity,
an unchaste woman being unknown among them.
In Persia, however, the Parsees are subject to heavy taxation, from
which the Moslem population is entirely free, and the distress to which
the poorer Parsees are reduced in order to pay this tax is deplorable.
Unheard-of cruelties are practised, and many as a last resource abandon
their homes to escape the extortions of the annual tax-gatherer. All
means of instruction are also closed to the children of the
Fire-worshippers in Persia. "The Parsees of Bombay, hearing of the
distress of their co-religionists, have recently caused schools to be
established in various parts of Persia, where instruction is imparted
gratuitously to the children of the Zoroastrians."
When we remember that the Parsees of Bombay are the descendants of a
small colony of ancient Fire-worshippers who emigrated from Persia more
than a thousand years ago under circumstances the most overwhelming, it
is a matter of wonder that this people should have risen with the
progress of British power in India to wealth, honor, and dignity in
every condition of life. More than once, even after they had established
themselves in Guzerat, they were all but decimated by the sword of the
conquering Moslem. But up again they rose each time, creating anew the
old life, starting afresh on the same old basis, nothing discouraged,
remembering with deeper appreciation the old promise of their earliest
priest and founder, "that to persevering mortals the blessed immortals
are swift."
It is impossible not to be struck with the life and history of this
people--a history of endless defeat and persecution, a life of the
closest unity and steadfastness. And this oneness of purpose, by which
they have distinguished themselves for so many centuries, has a still
closer relation to their moral and religious character. Whatever may be
the errors and defects of the religion of the Fire-worshipper, the
comprehensiveness and unity of his national character demand our respect
and admiration.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] Minute instructions for the preparation of this sacred fire in case
of its accidental extinction or in the first building of a temple are
given in the "Fargard," one of the books of the Zend-Avesta. Fires from
sixteen different places are necessary. One of the most indispensable
ingredients in the building of the Fire is the flame by which a _dead
body is burned_, though the body itself is held as the most impure of
all things. Still, the fire which has consumed it is essential, as
containing the most mysterious of all created substances, "electricity,"
which is thought to be more abundant in the human body than elsewhere in
nature; it is called "naçupâka." This fire is purified by a very
extraordinary process. A certain number of holes are prepared in the
ground called "handarèza," or, in modern Parsee, "andaza," a measure.
The fire is then placed in each of these holes in turn, prayed over by
the chief priest with closed eyes, and blown over with the breath,
already purified by the prayers just uttered.
The dyer's fire, the potter's, the glass-blower's, blacksmith's,
bricklayer's, gold- and silversmith's, with phosphorus, beeswax,
odoriferous gums, many different kinds of wood, the ashes of the rose
and jessamine-flower, salt of various kinds, etc.,--all these fires and
substances must be brought, after having been purified by the prayers
said over them, to one and the same hearth or altar, called in the
ancient Pehlevi Dâityo-gatus, now corrupted into "Dâdhgah." The
collective fire, combined into one and thus obtained, represents the
essence of nature, the mystic wine of the poets, pervading the whole
universe, even to the most distant stars. This "mystic wine" or
"life-water" is held to be the cause of all the growth, vigor, and
splendor of the physical and mental qualities of animals, men, birds,
beasts, and plants. It is therefore regarded with the deepest reverence.
Before the collection and preparation of this fire the priests who are
to take part in the ceremony must undergo great purification for nine
nights, nine being the most sacred number, as it is the period in which
the human offspring is perfected. The priest must drink the urine of a
cow, sit on stones within the enclosures of certain magic circles; while
moving from one circle to another he must rub his body with cow-urine,
and then with sand, and lastly wash himself from head to foot nine times
in pure cold water.
[12] The "Hindoo Kush," name for the Caucasian Mountains.
[13] See Max Müller's _The Origin and Growth of Religion_, p. 195, "The
Gâthas, or Sacred Songs of the Parsees." See Haug's essays on "the
Zend-Avesta."
[14] See Max Müller's _Chips from a German Workshop_.
[15] See Max Müller's _Science of Religion_, Lecture IV., page iii.
[16] See Rawlinson's _Ancient Monarchies_, where he identifies Zoroaster
with the celebrated Median king Kudur-Nakhunta, and says: "A king of
Elam, whose court was held at Susa, led in the year B. C. 2286 (or a
little earlier) an expedition against the cities of Chaldæa, succeeded
in carrying all before him, ravaged the country, took the towns,
plundered the temples, and bore off the images of the deities which the
Babylonians especially reverenced. This king's name, which was
Kudur-Nakhunta, is thought to be the exact equivalent of one which has a
worldwide celebrity--to wit, Zoroaster. Now, according to Polyhistor,
who certainly repeats Berosus, Zoroaster was the first of those eight
Median kings who composed the second dynasty in Chaldæa and occupied the
throne from about B. C. 2286 to 2052. The Medes are represented by him
as capturing Babylon at this time, and imposing themselves as rulers
upon the country. Eight kings reign in the space of 234 or 224 years,
after which we hear no more of Medes, the sovereignty being (as it would
seem) recovered by the natives. The coincidences of the conquest, the
date, the foreign sovereignty, and the name Zoroaster, tend to identify
the Median dynasty of Berosus with a period of Susanian supremacy which
the monuments show to have been established in Chaldæa at a date not
long subsequent to the reigns of Urukh and Ilgi, and to have lasted for
a considerable period."
[17] A collection of heroic poems on the ancient histories of Persia and
her kings, by Firdoosi.
[18] See Martin Haug's _Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and
Religion of the Parsees_.
[19] The Persian writers of the Middle Ages ascribed to Zoroaster a long
series of prodigies and miracles without end; to which both Pliny and
Eubulus, giving the last echoes of popular traditions, allude.
[20] The Uncreated, the Eternal. He has had no beginning, and will have
no end.--_The Yasnahs._
[21] To reconcile the existence of these two absolute Beings, coequal
and coeternal, the doctrine of the Zarvanians was conceived in later
times. This sect, which flourished about the time of Alexander the
Great, supposed an unconditioned existence prior and Superior to
Ahura-Mazda, Ormuzd, and Ahriman, called "time without limit,"
Zaravan-Akarana, from whom emanated the two spirits or principles of
good and evil.