Now shall I speak of things which ye who seek them shall bear
in mind, Namely, the praises of Ahura Mazda and the worship
of Good Thought, And the joy of [_lit_. through]
Righteousness which is manifested through Light.
2
Hearken with your ears to what is best; with clear
understanding perceive it.
Awakening to our advising every man, personally, of the
distinction Between the two creeds, before the Great Event
[i.e., the Resurrection].
3
Now, Two Spirits primeval there were twins which became known
through their activity,
To wit, the Good and the Evil, in thought, word, and deed.
The wise have rightly distinguished between these two; not so
the unwise.
4
And, now, when these Two Spirits first came together, they
established Life and destruction, and ordained how the world
hereafter shall be, To wit, the Worst World [Hell] for the
wicked, but the Best Thought [Heaven] for the righteous.
5
The Wicked One [Ahriman] of these Two Spirits chose to do
evil, The Holiest Spirit [Ormazd]--who wears the solid
heavens as a robe--chose Righteousness [Asha], And [so also
those] who zealously gratified Ormazd by virtuous deeds.
6
Not rightly did the Demons distinguish these Two Spirits; for
Delusion came Upon them, as they were deliberating, so that
they chose the Worst Thought [Hell]. And away they rushed to
Wrath [the Fiend] in order to corrupt the life of Man
[Maretan].
7
And to him [i.e., to Gaya Maretan] came Khshathra [Kingdom],
Vohu Manah [Good Thought] and Asha [Righteousness], And
Armaiti [Archangel of Earth] gave [to him] bodily endurance
unceasingly; Of these, Thy [creatures], when Thou earnest
with Thy creations, he [i.e., Gaya Maretan] was the first.
8
But when the retribution of the sinful shall come to pass,
Then shall Good Thought distribute Thy Kingdom, Shall fulfill
it for those who shall deliver Satan [Druj] into the hand of
Righteousness [Asha].
9
And so may we be such as make the world renewed, And may
Ahura Mazda and Righteousness lend their aid, That our
thoughts may there be [set] where Faith is abiding.
10
For at the [final] Dispensation, the blow of annihilation to
Satan shall come to pass; But those who participate in a good
report [in the Life Record] shall meet together In the happy
home of Good Thought, and of Mazda, and of Righteousness.
11
If, O ye men, ye mark these doctrines which Mazda gave, And
[mark] the weal and the woe--namely, the long torment of the
wicked, And the welfare of the righteous--then in accordance
with these [doctrines] there will be happiness hereafter.
The _Visperad_ (all the masters) is a short collection of prosaic
invocations and laudations of sacred things. Its twenty-four sections
form a supplement to the Yasna. Whatever interest this division of the
Avesta possesses lies entirely on the side of the ritual, and not in the
field of literature. In this respect it differs widely from the book of
the Yashts, which is next to be mentioned.
The _Yashts_ (praises of worship) form a poetical book of twenty-one
hymns in which the angels of the religion, "the worshipful ones"
(_Yazatas, Izads_), are glorified, and the heroes of former days. Much
of the material of the Yashts is evidently drawn from pre-Zoroastrian
sagas which have been remodeled and adopted, worked over and modified,
and incorporated into the canon of the new-founded religion. There is a
mythological and legendary atmosphere about the Yashts, and Firdausi's
'Shah Nameh' serves to throw light on many of the events portrayed in
them, or allusions that would otherwise be obscure. All the longer
Yashts are in verse, and some of them have poetic merit. Chiefly to be
mentioned among the longer ones are: first, the one in praise of Ardvi
Sura Anahita, or the stream celestial (Yt. 5); second, the Yasht which
exalts the star Tishtrya and his victory over the demon of drought (Yt.
8); then the one devoted to the Fravashis or glorified souls of the
righteous (Yt. 13) as well as the Yasht in honor of Verethraghna, the
incarnation of Victory (Yt. 14). Selections from the others, Yt. 10 and
Yt. 19, which are among the noblest, are here given.
The first of the two chosen (Yt. 10) is dedicated to the great divinity
Mithra, the genius who presides over light, truth, and the sun (Yt.
10, 13).
Foremost he, the celestial angel,
Mounts above Mount Hara (Alborz)
In advance of the sun immortal
Which is drawn by fleeting horses;
He it is, in gold adornment
First ascends the beauteous summits
Thence beneficent he glances
Over all the abode of Aryans.
As the god of light and of truth and as one of the judges of the dead,
he rides out in lordly array to the battle and takes an active part in
the conflict, wreaking vengeance upon those who at any time in their
life have spoken falsely, belied their oath, or broken their pledge. His
war-chariot and panoply are described in mingled lines of verse and
prose, which may thus be rendered (Yt. 10, 128-132):--
By the side of Mithra's chariot,
Mithra, lord of the wide pastures,
Stand a thousand bows well-fashioned
(The bow has a string of cowgut).
By his chariot also are standing a thousand vulture-feathered,
gold-notched, lead-poised, well-fashioned arrows (the barb is of iron);
likewise a thousand spears well-fashioned and sharp-piercing, and a
thousand steel battle-axes, two-edged and well-fashioned; also a
thousand bronze clubs well-fashioned.
And by Mithra's chariot also
Stands a mace, fair and well-striking,
With a hundred knobs and edges,
Dashing forward, felling heroes;
Out of golden bronze 'tis molded.
The second illustrative extract will be taken from Yasht 19, which
magnifies in glowing strains the praises of the Kingly Glory. This
"kingly glory" (_kavaem hvareno_) is a sort of halo, radiance, or mark
of divine right, which was believed to be possessed by the kings and
heroes of Iran in the long line of its early history. One hero who bore
the glory was the mighty warrior Thraetaona (Feridun), the vanquisher of
the serpent-monster Azhi Dahaka (Zohak), who was depopulating the world
by his fearful daily banquet of the brains of two children. The victory
was a glorious triumph for Thraetaona (Yt. 19, 37):--
He who slew Azhi Dahaka,
Three-jawed monster, triple-headed,
With six eyes and myriad senses,
Fiend demoniac, full of power,
Evil to the world, and wicked.
This fiend full of power, the Devil
Anra Mainyu had created,
Fatal to the world material,
Deadly to the world of Righteousness.
Of equal puissance was another noble champion, the valiant Keresaspa,
who dispatched a raging demon who, though not yet grown to man's estate,
was threatening the world. The monster's thrasonical boasting is thus
given (Yt. 19, 43):--
I am yet only a stripling,
But if ever I come to manhood
I shall make the earth my chariot
And shall make a wheel of heaven.
I shall drive the Holy Spirit
Down from out the shining heaven,
I shall rout the Evil Spirit
Up from out the dark abysm;
They as steeds shall draw my chariot,
God and Devil yoked together.
Passing over a collection of shorter petitions, praises, and blessings
which may conveniently be grouped together as 'Minor Prayers,' for they
answer somewhat to our idea of a daily manual of morning devotion, we
may turn to the Vendidad (law against the demons), the Iranian
Pentateuch. Tradition asserts that in the Vendidad we have preserved a
specimen of one of the original Nasks. This may be true, but even the
superficial student will see that it is in any case a fragmentary
remnant. Interesting as the Vendidad is to the student of early rites,
observances, manners, and customs, it is nevertheless a barren field for
the student of literature, who will find in it little more than
wearisome prescriptions like certain chapters of Leviticus, Numbers, and
Deuteronomy. It need only be added that at the close of the colloquy
between Zoroaster and Ormazd given in Vend. 6, he will find the origin
of the modern Parsi "Towers of Silence."
Among the Avestan Fragments, attention might finally be called to one
which we must be glad has not been lost. It is an old metrical bit
(Frag. 4, 1-3) in praise of the Airyama Ishya Prayer (Yt. 54, 1). This
is the prayer that shall be intoned by the Savior and his companions at
the end of the world, when the resurrection will take place; and it will
serve as a sort of last trump, at the sound of which the dead rise from
their graves and evil is banished from the world. Ormazd himself says to
Zoroaster (Frag. 4, 1-3):--
The Airyama Ishya prayer, I tell thee,
Upright, holy Zoroaster,
Is the greatest of all prayers.
Verily among all prayers
It is this one which I gifted
With revivifying powers.
This prayer shall the Saoshyants, Saviors,
Chant, and at the chanting of it
I shall rule over my creatures,
I who am Ahura Mazda.
Not shall Ahriman have power,
Anra Mainyu, o'er my creatures,
He (the fiend) of foul religion.
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.
Inadequate as brief extracts must be to represent the sacred books of a
people, the citations here given will serve to show that the Avesta
which is still recited in solemn tones by the white-robed priests of
Bombay, the modern representatives of Zoroaster, the Prophet of ancient
days, is a survival not without value to those who appreciate whatever
has been preserved for us of the world's earlier literature. For readers
who are interested in the subject there are several translations of the
Avesta. The best (except for the Gathas, where the translation is weak)
is the French version by Darmesteter, 'Le Zend Avesta,' published in the
'Annales du Musée Guimet' (Paris, 1892-93). An English rendering by
Darmesteter and Mills is contained in the 'Sacred Books of the East,'
Vols. iv., xxiii., xxxi.
[Illustration: Signature: A.V. Williams Jackson]