THE REFORM OF THE FAITH.
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
Ardvicura that he might unite with Zarathrustra the son of Pourushacpa,
to the end that the latter might think, speak, and act according to the
law.[198] Pourushacpa, _i.e._ rich in horses, of the race of
Haechatacpa,[199] was the fourth who offered the sacrifice of Haoma in
Airyana Vaeja after Vivanghana, Athwya, and Thrita. For this
Zarathrustra was born to him.[200] At his birth and his growth the grass
and the trees increased, and all the creatures of Auramazda greeted each
other because the priest had been created who would sacrifice for them
and spread abroad the law of Auramazda, over the seven Kareshvare of
the earth.[201] Craosha, accompanied by the sublime Asha, appeared to
Zarathrustra, and the latter declared himself ready to swear enmity
against the liars, and to be a mighty source of help to the truth. And
the god Haoma appeared to Zarathrustra and commanded him to press out
his juice and to praise him, as other fire-priests praise him. And
Zarathrustra praised Haoma and his mother the earth, and addressed six
prayers to him (p. 125). Ashi vanguhi also came at Zarathrustra's
command on her chariot, and inquired: "Who art thou who callest on me,
whose speech is the most beautiful which I have heard from all those who
invoke me? Come nearer to me; approach my chariot." Then she surrounded
him with her right arm and her left and said: "Beautiful art thou,
Zarathrustra, well grown, with strong legs and long arms. To thy body
has been given brilliance, and to thy soul long prosperity."[202] And
when Zarathrustra sacrificed to Verethraghna, he granted him strength of
arm, health, and vigour of body, and power of vision, such as that of
the horse, which sees by night, and the gold-coloured vulture.[203] But
Auramazda taught Zarathrustra "the best words," prayers, and
invocations, and charms against the evil spirits.[204] "How,"
Zarathrustra inquires of Auramazda, "how ought I to protect the
creatures from the evil spirits, from the wicked Angromainyu?" Then
Auramazda answers: "Praise Auramazda, the creator of the pure creation;
praise the victorious Mithra; praise the Amesha Cpentas (the immortal
saints), which rule over the seven parts of the earth; praise the holy
Craosha, who holds the club against the head of the Daevas; praise
Verethraghna, created by Ahura, the bearer of the splendour; praise the
shining heavens, and the glowing Tistrya; praise Vayu, the swift; praise
Cpenta Armaiti (the holy earth), the beautiful daughter of Auramazda.
Praise the tree, the good, the pure, created by Ahura, the well-grown
and strong; praise the glittering Haetumant (Etymandros); praise Yima
Kshaeta, the possessor of good herds. Praise the good laws, the law
against the Daevas, the law of the worshippers of Auramazda; praise the
splendour of the Arian land; praise the abode of the pure. Praise the
fire Vazista (p. 123), which smites the Daeva Cpenjaghra. Bring hard
wood and perfumes, and water of purification to the fire."[205]
Zarathrustra first proclaimed the words which Auramazda had taught him
to Maidhyomao,[206] the son of Aracta, his father's brother, and spoke
to the members of his race, the Haechatacpas: "Ye holy Haechatacpas, to
you will I speak; ye distinguish the right and the wrong." The
announcement did not remain confined to the circle of the family and the
race: "To you that come," we are told in another passage, "I will
announce the praises of the all-wise lord, and the praises of Vohumano.
Look on the beams of fire with pious mind. The fair sayings of the
fire-priests are the way of Vohumano. Thou gavest ancient sayings, O
Ahura; by these will I annihilate among you the sacrifices of the lying
gods. The worshipper of fire should accurately understand the correct
words which have come from Vohumano (the good disposition and its
spirit) in order that truth may be his portion." In other poems
Zarathrustra laments: "The liar possesses the fields of the true man,
who protects the earth; none of the servants worship me; none of the
lords of the land, who are unbelievers. The dominion is in the hands of
the priests and prophets of the lying gods; whither shall I go for
refuge?--to what land shall I turn? I cry for help for Frashaostra and
myself. May the fire grant this help to both of us."[207] Frashaostra of
the race of Hvova, is mentioned in the Avesta as the closest adherent of
Zarathrustra, and often in connection with Jamacpa. The help for which
Zarathrustra cried in this invocation was granted to him by King
Vistacpa. Zarathrustra offered the Haoma draught in Airyana Vaeja to
Ardvicura, and prayed to her: "Grant to me that I may combine with the
son of Aurvatacpa, the strong Kava Vistacpa, to the end that he may
think, speak, and act according to the law;" and the goddess granted him
this favour.[208] And Zarathrustra sacrificed to the Drvacpa (the
goddess of flocks) in Airyana Vaeja, to the end that he might unite with
the good and noble Hutaoca (the wife of Vistacpa), that she might
impress the good law on her memory.[209] Finally, we read: "Who is thy
true friend on the great earth; who will proclaim it? Kava Vistacpa, the
warlike, will do this."[210]
Of King Vistacpa and Frashaostra the Avesta then tells us, "that they
prepared the right path for the faith which Ahura gave to the
fire-priests." In the prayers Kava Vistacpa is praised because as an
arm, an assister, and helper, he has subjected himself to the law of
Ahura, the law of Zarathrustra; because he has opened a wide path for
purity, and has established the law in the world. The mighty brilliance
of the ruler supported Zarathrustra, "in establishing the law and
making it highly esteemed."[211] When Jamacpa saw the army of the
Daeva-worshippers approach, he sacrificed to Ardvicura a hundred horses,
a thousand oxen, and ten thousand head of small cattle, and Ardvicura
granted to him to fight victoriously against all the non-Arians. And
Zairivairi, the brother of Vistacpa, besought Ardvicura that he might
smite the skilful Peshana, who worshipped the Daevas, and Arejatacpa.
Kava Vistacpa himself offered sacrifice in order to obtain the victory
over Asta-aurva, over the Daeva worshippers Cpinjauruska, and Darsinika,
and the murderous Arejatacpa.[212] And Vistacpa smote Peshana and
Arejatacpa, and Zarathrustra blessed him: "I praise thee, O ruler of the
lands. May life be given to thy wives and thy children, which shall be
born from thy body. Be thou possessed of swift horses, like the sun,
shining like the moon, glowing as fire, sharp as Mithra, a conqueror of
enemies like Verethraghna, well grown and victorious as Craosha. Mayest
thou be a ruler like Yima; mayest thou be victorious and rich in cattle
like Thraetaona, bold and strong as Kerecacpa, wise as Urvakshaya,
brilliant as Kava Uca, without sickness and death, like Kava Hucrava,
stainless as Cyavarshana, rich in horses as Pourushacpa, a friend of the
heavenly ones, and conqueror of men."[213]
The Avesta gives Zarathrustra three sons: Urvatatnara, Hvarecithra,
Daevotbi (Punisher of the Daevas); and three daughters: Freni, Thriti,
and Pourushicta.[214] His work is summed up in the fact that he
compelled the Daevas, who previously had been in human form upon the
earth, to hide themselves in the earth.[215] His doctrine prevents the
Daevas from injuring the creation, as before, and gives to all the
creatures of the good god the means of protecting themselves more
effectually against the evil. Hence Zarathrustra is the increaser of
life; in this sense he is described, invoked, and worshipped as the lord
and master of all created life. But in time Caoshyant will be born, who
will make the evil creatures wholly powerless, and bring on for man the
time of undisturbed happiness, in which there will no more be any
battle; the time of uninterrupted life, _i.e._ of immortality. In this
period all who once had life will have life again; _i.e._ the life
destroyed by Angromainyu and the evil spirits will be restored, and the
dead will rise to a new life.
Zarathrustra's birth and growth struck terror into the evil spirit
Angromainyu. "The Yazatas" (the gods), he exclaimed, "have not forced me
from the earth, crossed with paths, round, and wide-reaching; but
Zarathrustra will drive me from it."[216] And the Daevas took counsel on
the summit of Arezura, whither they are wont to come together from their
caves with the Druj: "Alas! in the dwelling of Pourushacpa the pure
Zarathrustra has been born. He is the weapon with which the Daevas are
smitten; he takes away the power from the Daevi Druj, and the Daevi Nacu
([Greek: nekys], _i.e._ the spirit of the dead), and the false lies; how
shall we compass his death?" And from the region of the north
Angromainyu dashed forward, who is full of death, the Daeva of Daevas,
and said: "O Druj, go up and slay the pure Zarathrustra." And
"Zarathrustra said in the spirit: The wicked, evil-minded Daevas are
considering my death. And he arose and went forth, bearing in his hand
stones of the size of a Kata, which he had received from the creator
Auramazda, and he praised the good waters of the good creation, and the
law of the worshippers of Auramazda, and uttered the prayer: _Yatha ahu
vairyo_. The Druj ran round about him, and the Daeva Buiti, the deceiver
of mortals; and the Druj ran in alarm from him and said to Angromainyu,
the tormentor: In him, in the holy Zarathrustra, I see no death. And
Zarathrustra said to Angromainyu: Evil-minded Angromainyu, I will smite
the creation which is created by the Daevas; I will smite the spirit of
the dead which the Daevas have created, until Caoshyant the victorious
shall be born from the water of Kancava, in the region of the east.
Angromainyu answered him: Wherewith wilt thou smite my creatures? With
what weapons wilt thou destroy them? Then spake Zarathrustra: The
pestle, the bowl, the Haoma, these are my best weapons, and the words
which Auramazda has spoken. By this sacred word will I annihilate thy
creatures, O evil Angromainyu. Slay not my creatures, O pure
Zarathrustra, answered Angromainyu. Thou art the son of Pourushacpa, and
hast life from a mother. Curse the good law of the worshippers of
Auramazda, and attain the prosperity which Vadhaghna has attained, the
ruler of the lands. But Zarathrustra spake: I will not curse the good
law of the worshippers of Auramazda; no, not though my bones and soul
and power of life were torn asunder. Then the evil Daevas ran and took
counsel on the summit of Arezura, and Angromainyu spoke: What will the
Daevas bring thither? But they said: 'The evil eye;' and hastened to the
bottom of hell, the dark, the evil, the wicked."[217]
With Zarathrustra, according to the Avesta, a new era begins. He is the
proclaimer of a new law. But along with this we are told that even in
Yima's time the earth glowed with red fires; the power of the old
sayings of the fire-priests is extolled; the professors of the first,
and those of the new law receive commendation. Zarathrustra is born to
his father as a reward for offering an ancient sacrifice, the sacrifice
of Haoma. He himself dresses the fire at daybreak before he comes forth
to announce his new doctrine; and even while announcing it he sacrifices
to the old gods Verethraghna and Ardvicura; the gods whom the heroes of
the old days invoke appear to him also, the prophet of the new teaching;
they demand that he shall offer sacrifice, and insist on their worship;
they grant him favour and gifts. It is precisely the ancient sacrifice
of Haoma, the common possession of the Arians in Iran and India, which
is declared by Zarathrustra to be the best means of repelling the evil
ones, and not Zarathrustra only, but also Auramazda sacrifices to an
ancient divinity that the son of Pourushacpa may be obedient to his
commands, and then directs the latter to invoke the ancient gods,
Mithra, Verethragna, Craosha, Vayu, and Tistrya, and to worship fire.
Hence it was no new religion which Zarathrustra taught; it was nothing
more than a reform of the ancient faith, and traditional modes of
worship.
We were able definitely to ascertain from the fragments of the Avesta
that it arose in the east of Iran; the districts of the north-east are
especially prominent in it. It denotes Bactra as the abode of dominion
(p. 31). A doctrine which, as we shall see, lays the greatest stress on
the cultivation of the land, could not have grown up in the deserts of
the Gedrosians, or the steppes of the Sagartians. If, according to the
Avesta, "the evil custom of the burial of the dead prevails" in
Arachosia (Harahvaiti);[218] if Haetumat (Drangiana) is reproved for the
sins which are practised there;[219] if we are told of Haraeva (the land
of the Arians) that it is indeed rich in houses but full of poverty and
idleness,[220] and of Ragha that it is indeed Zoroastian but full of
utter unbelief[221]--if the sin of burning corpses prevails in Chakhra
(Chirhem?),[222] it is clear that these lands are distinct from the
region in which the pure doctrine of Zarathrustra, proclaimed in the
Avesta, arose, and became so firmly established as to be universally
current. Hence of all the lands in Iran, mentioned in the Avesta, only
Airyana Vaeja, Margiana, Sogdiana, and Bactria remain. In the Avesta
Zarathrustra is famous in Airyana Vaeja; in that land he sacrifices;
and, as the Avesta allots but two months of summer and ten months of
cold winter to this region, we must look for it on the high mountain
range of the North-east (p. 73). Zarathrustra stands in a close relation
to Queen Hutaoca and King Vistacpa, who fights against the worshippers
of the Daevas and Arejatacpa, and prepares a way for the new doctrine.
Among the heroes of the ancient time and the spirits of the pious who
are invoked in the prayers of the Avesta, the immortal part of King
Vistacpa is repeatedly invoked besides Zarathrustra and Frashaostra. We
have already shown in what a contrast the Bactrians and Sogdiani stood
to the nations of the steppes of the Oxus, and what a position is
allotted to King Vistacpa as repelling the Iranians. In thus celebrating
him as the protector of Zarathrustra, the Avesta plainly puts
Zarathrustra himself in Bactria.
If we may assume the fact that the reform of the religion must have
proceeded from Bactria and Sogdiana in the north-east of Iran, the next
question to be decided is, whether it is possible to determine the
meaning and import of this reform. The forms and views, which are found
to agree in the Avesta and Rigveda, we have already established, with
complete certainty, to be the ancient possession of the Arians of Iran.
The elements of the religious conception, and several very definite
forms and traits in the belief and worship, were the same in the Panjab
and Iran. The leading principle was the contrast of the bright
beneficent powers who give life and increase and the evil spirits of
darkness, drought, and death. This possession was therefore in existence
before the reform. This principle must have become more prominent among
the Arians of Iran owing to the nature of their country. The fertile
land and the desert were in far greater proximity there than in the
Panjab. The centre of Iran was filled with a vast desert; wide and
barren table-lands spread out on north and south; the most favoured
regions were almost like oases. Closely adjacent to the most fruitful
valleys and slopes lay endless steppes; blooming plains, shaded by thick
groups of trees, were surrounded by hot deserts of sand. If the alpine
districts of the north possessed the most splendid forests and luxuriant
pastures, yet the snow fell early, and the winter was severe; if
vegetation ran riot on the fringe of the Caspian, fever and reptiles
infested the marshy plains. Close beside abundant productiveness lay
drought and desert, bare flats of rock, deserts of sand, and fields of
snow. The inhabitants of Iran had not only to suffer from the heat of
summer but also from the cold of winter, from the scorching winds of the
desert as well as from the snow-storms which came from the table-lands
of the north. On the one hand, pastures and fields were covered for many
weeks with snow; on the other, sand-storms from the desert ruined the
tillage; in one district camels succumbed to the cold of the lofty
terraces, or slipped from the icy slopes down the precipices; in
another, the desert wind dried up fountains and springs. Here the
winter, "which flies past to slay the herds, and is full of snow," as
the Avesta says, was "of endless duration;" it was "on the water, the
trees, and the field," and "its cold penetrated to the heart of the
earth;" there the herds were tormented by the fly in the heat, bears and
wolves fell upon the folds, and it was necessary to find protection
against serpents and ravenous beasts of prey.[223] In this land life was
a conflict against the heat of summer and the south, against the chill
of winter and the mountain heights, a struggle for the maintenance and
protection of the herds; and as soon as these tribes had become settled
in the more favoured regions and passed over to agriculture, there began
on the edge of those oases the struggle against the desert and the
steppe. Here water must be conveyed to the dry earth, there the tillage
must be protected against the sand-storms of the desert. To these
difficulties and contrasts in the nature of the land was added a
contrast in the mode of life of the population. The majority of the
tribes of the table-land of the interior, and a part of the inhabitants
of the mountainous rim, could not, owing to the nature of the land, pass
beyond a nomadic pastoral life, and even to this day the population of
Iran is to a considerable extent nomadic;[224] while other tribes
toiled laboriously in the sweat of their brows, these wandered with
their herds in idleness, ever ready for battle; and thus there could be
no lack of ambuscades and plunder, of attacks and raids on the
cultivated districts.
All these contrasts are most marked on the slopes of the north-eastern
edge, in Margiana, Bactria, and Sogdiana, which lay open to the steppes
of the Caspian Sea. Here were fruitful, blooming valleys with luxuriant
vegetation on the banks of the mountain streams, yet, wherever the
mountains receded, the endless desert at once began. If the stars shone
clear through the night on mountains and table-lands, in the pure and
vapourless atmosphere of Iran, sand-storms and mist lay on the northern
desert. The winds blowing from the north brought icy cold in the winter;
in the summer they drove the sand of the deserts over the fruitful
fields, to which water has to be laboriously conveyed in the time of the
greatest heat, while eternal winter reigned in the heights of Belurdagh
and Hindu Kush. There was also the continual fear of the nomads who
dwelt on the steppes to the north, who made attacks on the fruitful
slopes and valleys. We have already shown that it was precisely on the
slopes of the Hindu Kush that the necessity of protection against the
nations of the steppes led to a combination of the forces of the tribes
who were settled there, and gave the impulse to the formation of a
larger polity.
In such a territory, when the tribes had once become settled in the more
favoured regions, amid such struggles against nature and the plundering
neighbours, it is clear that the conception of the contrast between good
and evil spirits must become more widely developed and sharply
pointed--that it should indeed form the hinge of all religious ideas.
The good spirits had given fruit and increase to many excellent lands;
but the evil spirits destroyed these blessings with their storms of sand
and snow, their cold and heat, their beasts of prey and serpents.
Wherever the herds throve and the fields were fruitful, there the good
spirits were gracious; where the pastures withered, and the fields were
covered with sand, the wicked spirits had maliciously rendered of no
avail the labours of men. In the valleys of Bactria and Sogdiana there
was labour, industry, increase and fruit; beyond, in the steppe, all was
barren; the storms went whirling round, and wild hordes of robbers
roamed to and fro. Thus in these regions the conception of the struggle
of the good spirits, and the evil, which injure, torment, punish and
murder men, was most lively, the religious feeling of these conceptions
most completely penetrated and governed the minds of men.
All creatures were oppressed by the evil spirits, so the Avesta told us
(p. 129); and therefore Auramazda determines to teach Zarathrustra "the
wise sayings." No new belief or new forms of worship are to be
introduced; the means of protection against the evil ones were to be
multiplied and strengthened. We know what importance the Arians in India
ascribed to the correct prayer and invocation, what power over the
spirits and indeed over the deities themselves they ascribed to the
correct words, what a defensive power they attributed to the sayings of
the Atharvan. The same ideas were current among the Arians of Iran. The
heaven of the good god and holy spirits is, in the Avesta, the "dwelling
of invocations" (Garonmana). Hence the first point in the reform was
that new formulae and prayers should be added to the old prayers and
incantations. The fire that slays demons is to burn day and night on
the hearth, and must always be tended with hard, dry, well-hewn wood;
the spirits of light, the great Mithra, the sun, the stars, are to be
earnestly invoked along with the victorious Verethraghna, and Craosha
the slayer of demons, the life-giving god, to whom Haoma is to be
offered; and the libation of Haoma is to be frequently offered to the
spirits of light. If men prayed constantly to the good spirits, and
cursed the evil, if they made use of the holy sayings when they observed
that the evil beings came, then wicked creatures would certainly remain
far from house, and farm, and field. According to the Avesta,
Zarathrustra first uttered the Ahuna vairya, and Angromainyu says that
though the deities have not been able to drive him from the earth,
Zarathrustra will smite him with the Ahuna vairya.[225] In the minds of
the priests of the Avesta, this prayer is itself a mighty being to which
worship is to be offered, just as in the Vedas the holy prayers and some
parts of the ritual--nay even the verse-measure of the hymns--are
treated as divine powers.
It was an old Arian conception, which we have observed widely spread on
the Ganges, that filth and pollution and contact with what is impure and
dead gave the evil spirit power over those who had contracted such
defilement. This uncleanness must be removed, and its operation checked.
The reform, which bears the name of Zarathrustra, must have extended and
increased in Iran the rules for purification and the removal of
uncleanness. These regulations, carried out in long and wearisome detail
on the basis of this new movement, are before us in the Vendidad. The
Avesta says: Zarathrustra was the first who praised the Asha Vahista
(_i.e._ the best truthfulness which is at the same time the highest
purity) and represents Angromainyu as exclaiming; "that Zarathrustra
made him as hot by the Ashi Vahista as metal is made in the
melting."[226]
Whatever gave increase and life, water and trees and good soil, and the
animals which were useful to men, were the work of the good spirits, the
good creation; the steppes, the desert, the heat, the fierce cold, the
beasts of prey, these were the work of the evil ones, the bad creation.
Did not a man increase life and growth if he industriously cultivated
his field, watered it well, and extended it towards the desert, if he
destroyed the animals and insects which did harm to the fields and
trees, if he gave room to fruitfulness against unfertility? Did he not
extend and sustain the good creation, and lessen the evil, if he planted
and watered, and diminished the harmful animals, the serpents, the
worms, and beasts of prey? By such work a man took the side of the good
spirits against the evil, and fought with them. It was in the will and
power of man by the act of his hands, by labour and effort, to
strengthen the good creation. The importance which the Avesta ascribes
to the cultivation of the land, we may regard as a prominent trait of
the reform, as an essential part of its ethical importance. Beside
warriors and priests the Avesta knows only the agricultural class.
In the Veda the gods of the light and the highest heaven, Mithra and
Varuna, are the guardians of truth and purity, the avengers and
punishers of evil deeds. The invocation of Mithra in the Avesta, given
above, showed us that the Arians of Iran recognised in this deity the
spirit of purity, the inevitable avenger of injustice. With his
all-penetrating eye he watches, not only over purity of body, but also
over purity of soul. We may regard it as certain that the reform carried
a long step forward the ethical impulse which lay in this conception of
Mithra--a conception current on both sides of the Indus. This view is
supported by the great importance which the Avesta ascribes to
truthfulness, in the decisive value given to this virtue for the purity
of the soul, and the identification of purity with truthfulness. As
filth defiles the body, so, according to the Avesta, does a lie defile
the soul. Lying and deception are the worst sins of which a man can be
guilty. The ethical advance is obvious when the evil spirits are not
merely regarded as doing harm to men, but it is emphatically stated that
they deceive men, and a lie is the essence of the evil spirits. In the
Avesta a part of them have simply the name of the spirits of deception,
of the Druj. The suppliants of the true gods are called _Ashavan, i.e._
the true, the pure; the worshippers of the evil spirits are liars.
The ideas of the Veda about the hosts of the spirits of ancestors, and
the entrance of the good and pious into the heaven of light, are also
current among the Arians of Iran. These the reform could not leave
untouched. From the ethical characteristic which marks them, from the
severe inculcation of a pure, true, active life, it proceeded to the
idea of a sort of judgment on the souls after death. The detailed form
in which this idea is presented to us in the Avesta will be given below.
In all religions, when they have reached a certain stage of development,
the impulse arises to find the unity of the divine being among the
multifarious crowd of deities. On the Ganges the Brahmans or priests
attained to this unity by elevating the power of the holy acts which
controlled the deities, and was mightier than they, into the lord of the
gods, by uniting with this conception the great breath or world-soul,
the source of life springing up in nature. In Iran the reform did not
look on nature as one, like the Brahmans on the Ganges, and owing to the
character of the land and the strong contrasts there met with it could
not easily perceive in it any single whole; on the contrary, it
comprehended in unity, on the one hand, the good beneficent side of
nature, which gives increase, light, and life to men; and, on the other,
ranged the harmful powers together in opposition to the good. Hence it
came about that the spirits which worked on either side were, so to
speak, combined, and the two totals came forward in opposition. To these
totals the reform sought to give unity by placing a chieftain at the
head of each, the good and the bad. The chief of the good was Ahura,
_i.e._ the lord, who is also denoted by the name Mazda, _i.e._ the wise,
but he is generally invoked by the united title Ahura Mazda (Auramazda
in the dialect of Western Iran), the wise lord; occasionally, in the
Avesta, he is called Cpentomainyu, _i.e._ the spirit of holy mind, the
holy spirit. In the Rigveda the name Ahura Mazda, in the form Asura
Medha, is used for more than one god of light. The chief of the evil
spirits was Angromainyu, _i.e._ he that thinks evil, the destroying
spirit.
The good and the evil spirits are regarded as active, the one on the
beneficent, the other on the injurious side of nature. It was a step in
advance when the reform arrived at the conception, that as the good and
evil spirits ruled the life of nature and man, so in the beginning of
the world, at the time of its origin, the good and evil spirits must
have been active; the good was from the beginning the work of the good;
the evil the work of the evil. As the heavenly and infernal spirits were
regarded as in perpetual activity, the reform could not here, as in
India, look on nature and men as emanations from a being in repose--from
the world-soul--the nature of which became ever less pure and bright,
less really itself, as the emanations advanced. Instead of an emanation,
the active force and contrast of the spirits gave rise to the idea that
the world was brought into being by the will and power of the two
supreme spirits to a creation of the world. The good side of the world
must have been the work of the chief of the good spirits, the evil side
the work of the evil. Auramazda created the good, but immediately he
created it, Angromainyu created the evil in order to destroy the good.
And as at the creation, so also in the created world, the mutual
opposition of the good and evil god, the struggle of their hosts, goes
on. There is no direct contest between Auramazda and Angromainyu; they
operate against each other for increase and destruction, life and death,
and for the souls of men; the direct conflict against evil remains, even
after the reform, with the old spirits, with Mithra, Verethragna,
Craosha, and Tistrya.
From this we may without hesitation draw the inference that Auramazda
and Angromainyu did not belong to the original belief of the Arians of
Iran. From the absence of any myth about Auramazda, and the character of
the names, "the wise lord," "the destroying spirit," it further follows
that the gods thus named could not be the creation of any primitive
religious feeling. These names belong to a period of reflection, which
strives to make a presentment of the general operation of the good and
evil powers, of their intellectual and ethical characteristics, and at
the same time seeks to express their nature, as well as their relation
to the world. Finally, the wavering position which Auramazda takes up in
the Avesta towards the old deities, shows that he is of later origin.
Though now the supreme deity, he sacrifices to Tistrya, in order to give
him strength for the victory over Apaosha (p. 120); to Ardvicura, that
Zarathrustra may be obedient to him (p. 129); and to other gods of the
old period. Beside him Mithra is praised in the old style as the highest
power; he instructs Zarathrustra to invoke the old gods, who still
continue in their traditionary activity. But we have express evidence
that Auramazda belongs to the reform. "The first man," so the Avesta
says, "who sacrificed to Auramazda was the sacred Zarathrustra."[227]
In the transformation, however loose, of the divine nature into "the
wise lord," with his change from a natural force to an ethical and
intellectual power, and elevation to be the creator "of the heaven and
the earth" (p. 87), lay the most decisive step taken by the reform; by
these conceptions it had raised the ancient possession of the Arians of
Iran to a new stage.
It is a remarkable fact that the evil spirits in the Avesta bear the
name of Daevas. The Arians of India called their good gods, the gods of
light, Devas; from the same root has sprung the general name of the gods
among the Greeks, Italians, and the Celts. Hence among the Arians of
Iran also it must once have been in use for the spirits of light. Why
the names Bagha and Yazata became used in the Avesta for the good gods,
while the evil spirits received the name of Daevas we cannot discover;
nor can we decide whether this change of name came in with the reform.
We can only discover that an analogous change has taken place in India
also. In the Rigveda the good gods are comprised under the name Asura
(old Bactrian Ahura), _i.e._ the lord; at a later time the evil spirits
among the Indians were always called Asuras, while in Iran the name is
allotted to the highest among the good spirits.
FOOTNOTES:
[197] "Yacna," 29; Roth; "Z. D. M. G." 25, 6 ff. _Geus urva_ means soul
of the bull; the priests identified the soul of the first created bull
with the protectress of the flocks, the Drvacpa, _i.e._ having mighty
horses. Spiegel, "Avesta," 3, 74.
[198] "Aban Yasht," 17-19.
[199] "Afrin Zartusht," 4.
[200] "Yacna," 9, 42.
[201] "Farvardin Yasht," 93, 94.
[202] "Ashi Yasht," 17 ff.
[203] "Bahram Yasht," 28-33.
[204] "Yacna," 13, 18; 64, 38; 69, 65.
[205] "Vend." 19, 36-137.
[206] "Farvardin Yasht," 95.
[207] "Yacna," 28, 9, 44, 45; 46, 1-4; 49, 8; 50, 16, 18, according to
Haug's translation, which however has been called in question.
[208] "Aban Yasht," 104-106.
[209] "Gosh Yasht;" cf. "Ram Yasht," 36; "Farvardin Yasht," 142.
[210] "Yacna," 45, 14 ff.
[211] "Farvardin Yasht," 99; "Zamyad Yasht," 84 ff.
[212] "Ashi Yasht," 49; "Aban Yasht," 112.
[213] "Afrin Zartusht," 1-4.
[214] "Yacna," 52, 3; "Farvardin Yasht," 98.
[215] "Yacna," 9, 46.
[216] "Ashi Yasht," 19.
[217] "Vend." 3, 23; 19, 1-32, 140-147.
[218] "Vend." 1, 46-48.
[219] "Vend." 1, 50-52.
[220] "Vend." 1, 30-32.
[221] "Yacna," 19, 51, 52; "Vend." 1, 60-62.
[222] "Vend." 1, 64-66.
[223] "Vend." 1, 9-12, 24; 7, 69.
[224] Herodotus states expressly that some tribes of the Persians were
nomads (1, 125); beside the Sagartians nomadic tribes are also mentioned
among the Carmanians, Areians, etc.
[225] "Yacna," 9, 41; "Ashi Yasht," 20.
[226] "Ashi Yasht," 20.
[227] "Ashi Yasht," 18.