Zoroaster and the Zend Avesta.
§ 1. Ruins of the Palace of Xerxes at Persepolis.
§ 2. Greek Accounts of Zoroaster. Plutarch's Description of his Religion.
§ 3. Anquetil du Perron and his Discovery of the Zend Avesta.
§ 4. Epoch of Zoroaster. What do we know of him?
§ 5. Spirit of Zoroaster and of his Religion.
§ 6. Character of the Zend Avesta.
§ 7. Later Development of the System in the Bundehesch.
§ 8. Relation of the Religion of the Zend Avesta to that of the Vedas.
§ 9. Is Monotheism or pure Dualism the Doctrine taught in the Zend
Avesta?
§ 10. Relation of this System to Christianity. The Kingdom of Heaven.
§ 1. Ruins of the Palace of Xerxes at Persepolis.
In the southwestern part of Persia is the lovely valley of Schiraz, in the
province of Farsistan, which is the ancient Persis. Through the long
spring and summer the plains are covered with flowers, the air is laden
with perfume, and the melody of birds, winds, and waters fills the ear.
The fields are covered with grain, which ripens in May; the grapes,
apricots, and peaches are finer than those of Europe. The nightingale (or
bulbul) sings more sweetly than elsewhere, and the rose-bush, the national
emblem of Persia, grows to the size of a tree, and is weighed down by its
luxuriant blossoms. The beauty of this region, and the loveliness of the
women of Schiraz awakened the genius of Hafiz and of Saadi, the two great
lyric poets of the East, both of whom resided here.
At one extremity of this valley, in the hollow of a crescent formed by
rocky hills, thirty miles northwest of Schiraz, stands an immense
platform, fifty feet high above the plain, hewn partly out of the mountain
itself, and partly built up with gray marble blocks from twenty to sixty
feet long, so nicely fitted together that the joints can scarcely be
detected. This platform is about fourteen hundred feet long by nine
hundred broad, and its faces front the four quarters of the heavens. You
rise from the plain by flights of marble steps, so broad and easy that a
procession on horseback could ascend them. By these you reach a landing,
where stand as sentinels two colossal figures sculptured from great blocks
of marble. The one horn in the forehead seems to Heeren to indicate the
Unicorn; the mighty limbs, whose muscles are carved with the precision of
the Grecian chisel, induced Sir Robert Porter to believe that they
represented the sacred bulls of the Magian religion; while the solemn,
half-human repose of the features suggests some symbolic and supernatural
meaning. Passing these sentinels, who have kept their solitary watch for
centuries, you ascend by other flights of steps to the top of the terrace.
There stand, lonely and beautiful, a few gigantic columns, whose lofty
fluted shafts and elegantly carved capitals belong to an unknown order of
architecture. Fifty or sixty feet high, twelve or fifteen feet in
circumference, they, with a multitude of others, once supported the roof
of cedar, now fallen, whose beams stretched from capital to capital, and
which protected the assembled multitudes from the hot sun of Southern
Asia. Along the noble upper stairway are carved rows of figures, which
seem to be ascending by your side. They represent warriors, courtiers,
captives, men of every nation, among whom may be easily distinguished the
negro from the centre of Africa. Inscriptions abound, in that strange
arrow-headed or wedge-shaped character,--one of the most ancient and
difficult of all,--which, after long baffling the learning of Europe, has
at last begun yielded to the science and acuteness of the present century.
One of the inscriptions copied from these walls was read by Grotefend as
follows:--
"Darius the King, King of Kings, son of Hystaspes, successor of the
Ruler of the World, Djemchid."
Another:--
"Xerxes the King, King of Kings, son of Darius the King, successor of
the Ruler of the World."
More recently, other inscriptions have been deciphered, one of which is
thus given by another German Orientalist, Benfey:--[107]
"Ahura-Mazda (Ormazd) is a mighty God; who has created the earth, the
heaven, and men; who has given glory to men; who has made Xerxes king,
the ruler of many. I, Xerxes, King of Kings, king of the earth near and
far, son of Darius, an Achæmenid. What I have done here, and what I
have done elsewhere, I have done by the grace of Ahura-Mazda."
In another place:--
"Artaxerxes the King has declared that this great work is done by me.
May Ahura-Mazda and Mithra protect me, my building, and my
people[108]."
Here, then, was the palace of Darius and his successors, Xerxes and
Artaxerxes, famous for their conquests,--some of which are recorded on
these walls,--who carried their victorious arms into India on the east,
Syria and Asia Minor on the west, but even more famous for being defeated
at Marathon and Thermopylæ. By the side of these columns sat the great
kings of Persia, giving audience to ambassadors from distant lands. Here,
perhaps, sat Cyrus himself, the founder of the Persian monarchy, and
issued orders to rebuild Jerusalem. Here the son of Xerxes, the Ahasuerus
of Scripture, may have brought from Susa the fair Esther. For this is the
famous Persepolis, and on those loftier platforms, where only ruinous
heaps of stones now remain, stood that other palace, which Alexander
burned in his intoxication three hundred and thirty years before Christ.
"Solitary in their situation, peculiar in their character," says Heeren,
"these ruins rise above the deluge of years which has overwhelmed all the
records of human grandeur around them, and buried all traces of Susa and
Babylon. Their venerable antiquity and majestic proportions do not more
command our reverence, than the mystery which involves their construction
awakens the curiosity of the most unobservant spectator. Pillars which
belong to no known order of architecture, inscriptions in an alphabet
which continues an enigma, fabulous animals which stand as guards at the
entrance, the multiplicity of allegorical figures which decorate the
walls,--all conspire to carry us back to ages of the most remote
antiquity, over which the traditions of the East shed a doubtful and
wavering light."
Diodorus Siculus says that at Persepolis, on the face of the mountain,
were the tombs of the kings of Persia, and that the coffins had to be
lifted up to them along the wall of rock by cords. And Ctesias tells us
that "Darius, the son of Hystaspes, had a tomb prepared for himself in the
double mountain during his lifetime, and that his parents were drawn up
with cords to see it, but fell and were killed." These very tombs are
still to be seen on the face of the mountain behind the ruins. The figures
of the kings are carved over them. One stands before an altar on which a
fire is burning. A ball representing the sun is above the altar. Over the
effigy of the king hangs in the air a winged half-length figure in fainter
lines, and resembling him. In other places he is seen contending with a
winged animal like a griffin.
All this points at the great Iranic religion, the religion of Persia and
its monarchs for many centuries, the religion of which Zoroaster was the
great prophet, and the Avesta the sacred book. The king, as servant of
Ormazd, is worshipping the fire and the sun,--symbols of the god; he
resists the impure griffin, the creature of Ahriman; and the half-length
figure over his head is the surest evidence of the religion of Zoroaster.
For, according to the Avesta, every created being has its archetype or
Fereuer (Ferver, Fravashis), which is its ideal essence, first created by
the thought of Ormazd. Even Ormazd himself has his Fravashis,[109] and
these angelic essences are everywhere objects of worship to the disciple
of Zoroaster. We have thus found in Persepolis, not only the palace of the
great kings of Persia, but the home of that most ancient system of
Dualism, the system of Zoroaster.
§ 2. Greek Accounts of Zoroaster. Plutarch's Description of his Religion.
But who was Zoroaster, and what do we know of him? He is mentioned by
Plato, about four hundred years before Christ. In speaking of the
education of a Persian prince he says that "one teacher instructs him in
the magic of Zoroaster, the son (or priest) of Ormazd (or Oromazes), in
which is comprehended all the worship of the gods." He is also spoken of
by Diodorus, Plutarch, the elder Pliny, and many writers of the first
centuries after Christ. The worship of the Magians is described by
Herodotus before Plato. Herodotus gives very minute accounts of the
ritual, priests, sacrifices, purifications, and mode of burial used by the
Persian Magi in his time, four hundred and fifty years before Christ; and
his account closely corresponds with the practices of the Pârsîs, or
fire-worshippers, still remaining in one or two places in Persia and India
at the present day. "The Persians," he says, "have no altars, no temples
nor images; they worship on the tops of the mountains. They adore the
heavens, and sacrifice to the sun, moon, earth, fire, water, and
winds."[110] "They do not erect altars, nor use libations, fillets, or
cakes. One of the Magi sings an ode concerning the origin of the gods,
over the sacrifice, which is laid on a bed of tender grass." "They pay
great reverence to all rivers, and must do nothing to defile them; in
burying they never put the body in the ground till it has been torn by
some bird or dog; they cover the body with wax, and then put it in the
ground." "The Magi think they do a meritorious act when they kill ants,
snakes, reptiles."[111]
Plutarch's account of Zoroaster[112] and his precepts, is very
remarkable. It is as follows:--
"Some believe that there are two Gods,--as it were, two rival workmen; the
one whereof they make to be the maker of good things, and the other bad.
And some call the better of these God, and the other Dæmon; as doth
Zoroastres, the Magee, whom they report to be five thousand years elder
than the Trojan times. This Zoroastres therefore called the one of these
Oromazes, and the other Arimanius; and affirmed, moreover, that the one of
them did, of anything sensible, the most resemble light, and the other
darkness and ignorance; but that Mithras was in the middle betwixt them.
For which cause, the Persians called Mithras the mediator. And they tell
us that he first taught mankind to make vows and offerings of thanksgiving
to the one, and to offer averting and feral sacrifice to the other. For
they beat a certain plant called homomy[113] in a mortar, and call upon
Pluto and the dark; and then mix it with the blood of a sacrificed wolf,
and convey it to a certain place where the sun never shines, and there
cast it away. For of plants they believe, that some pertain to the good
God, and others again to the evil Dæmon; and likewise they think that such
animals as dogs, fowls, and urchins belong to the good; but water animals
to the bad, for which reason they account him happy that kills most of
them. These men, moreover, tell us a great many romantic things about
these gods, whereof these are some: They say that Oromazes, springing from
purest light, and Arimanius, on the other hand, from pitchy darkness,
these two are therefore at war with one another. And that Oromazes made
six gods[114], whereof the first was the author of benevolence, the second
of truth, the third of justice, and the rest, one of wisdom, one of
wealth, and a third of that pleasure which accrues from good actions; and
that Arimanius likewise made the like number of contrary operations to
confront them. After this, Oromazes, having first trebled his own
magnitude, mounted up aloft, so far above the sun as the sun itself above
the earth, and so bespangled the heavens with stars. But one star (called
Sirius or the Dog) he set as a kind of sentinel or scout before all the
rest. And after he had made four-and-twenty gods more, he placed them all
in an egg-shell. But those that were made by Arimanius (being themselves
also of the like number) breaking a hole in this beauteous and glazed
egg-shell, bad things came by this means to be intermixed with good. But
the fatal time is now approaching, in which Arimanius, who by means of
this brings plagues and famines upon the earth, must of necessity be
himself utterly extinguished and destroyed; at which time, the earth,
being made plain and level, there will be one life, and one society of
mankind, made all happy, and one speech. But Theopompus saith, that,
according to the opinion of the Magees, each of these gods subdues, and is
subdued by turns, for the space of three thousand years apiece, and that
for three thousand years more they quarrel and fight and destroy each
other's works; but that at last Pluto shall fail, and mankind shall be
happy, and neither need food, nor yield a shadow.[115] And that the god
who projects these things doth, for some time, take his repose and rest;
but yet this time is not so much to him although it seems so to man, whose
sleep is but short. Such, then, is the mythology of the Magees."
We shall see presently how nearly this account corresponds with the
religion of the Pârsis, as it was developed out of the primitive doctrine
of Zoroaster.[116]
Besides what was known through the Greeks, and some accounts contained in
Arabian and Persian writers, there was, until the middle of the last
century, no certain information concerning Zoroaster and his teachings.
But the enterprise, energy, and scientific devotion of a young Frenchman
changed the whole aspect of the subject, and we are now enabled to speak
with some degree of certainty concerning this great teacher and his
doctrines.
§ 3. Anquetil du Perron and his Discovery of the Zend Avesta.
Anquetil du Perron, born at Paris in 1731, devoted himself early to the
study of Oriental literature. He mastered the Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian
languages, and by his ardor in these studies attracted the attention of
Oriental scholars. Meeting one day in the Royal Library with a fragment of
the Zend Avesta, he was seized with the desire of visiting India, to
recover the lost books of Zoroaster, "and to learn the Zend language in
which they were written, and also the Sanskrit, so as to be able to read
the manuscripts in the _Bibliothèque du Roi_, which no one in Paris
understood."[117] His friends endeavored to procure him a situation in an
expedition just about to sail; but their efforts not succeeding, Du Perron
enlisted as a private soldier, telling no one of his intention till the
day before setting out, lest he should be prevented from going. He then
sent for his brother and took leave of him with many tears, resisting all
the efforts made to dissuade him from his purpose. His baggage consisted
of a little linen, a Hebrew Bible, a case of mathematical instruments, and
the works of Montaigne and Charron. A ten days' march, with other
recruits, through wet and cold, brought him to the port from whence the
expedition was to sail. Here he found that the government, struck with his
extraordinary zeal for science, had directed that he should have his
discharge and a small salary of five hundred livres. The East India
Company (French) gave him a passage gratis, and he set sail for India,
February 7, 1755, being then twenty-four years old. The first two years in
India were almost lost to him for purposes of science, on account of his
sicknesses, travels, and the state of the country disturbed by war between
England and France[118]. He travelled afoot and on horseback over a great
part of Hindostan, saw the worship of Juggernaut and the monumental caves
of Ellora, and, in 1759, arrived at Surat, where was the Pârsî community
from which he hoped for help in obtaining the object of his pursuit. By
perseverance and patience he succeeded in persuading the Destours, or
priests, of these fire-worshippers, to teach him the Zend language and to
furnish him with manuscripts of the Avesta. With one hundred and eighty
valuable manuscripts he returned to Europe, and published, in 1771, his
great work,--the Avesta translated into French, with notes and
dissertations. He lived through the French Revolution, shut up with his
books, and immersed in his Oriental studies, and died, after a life of
continued labor, in 1805. Immense erudition and indomitable industry were
joined in Anquetil du Perron to a pure love of truth and an excellent
heart.
For many years after the publication of the Avesta its genuineness and
authenticity were a matter of dispute among the learned men of Europe; Sir
William Jones especially denying it to be an ancient work, or the
production of Zoroaster. But almost all modern writers of eminence now
admit both. Already in 1826 Heeren said that these books had "stood the
fiery ordeal of criticism." "Few remains of antiquity," he remarks, "have
undergone such attentive examination as the books of the Zend Avesta. This
criticism has turned out to their advantage; the genuineness of the
principal compositions, especially of the Vendidad and Izeschne (Yaçna),
has been demonstrated; and we may consider as completely ascertained all
that regards the rank of each book of the Zend Avesta."
Rhode (one of the first of scholars of his day in this department) says:
"There is not the least doubt that these are the books ascribed in the
most ancient times to Zoroaster." Of the Vendidad he says: "It has both
the inward and outward marks of the highest antiquity, so that we fear not
to say that only prejudice or ignorance could doubt it[119]."
§ 4. Epoch of Zoroaster. What do we know of him?
As to the age of these books, however, and the period at which Zoroaster
lived, there is the greatest difference of opinion. He is mentioned by
Plato (Alcibiades, I. 37), who speaks of "the magic (or religious
doctrines) of Zoroaster the Ormazdian" (_magedan Zoroastran ton
Oromazon_[120]). As Plato speaks of his religion as something established
in the form of Magism, or the system of the Medes, in West Iran, while the
Avesta appears to have originated in Bactria, or East Iran[121], this
already carries the age of Zoroaster back to at least the sixth or seventh
century before Christ. When the Avesta was written, Bactria was an
independent monarchy. Zoroaster is represented as teaching under King
Vistaçpa. But the Assyrians conquered Bactria B.C. 1200, which was the
last of the Iranic kingdoms, they having previously vanquished the Medes,
Hyrcanians, Parthians, Persians, etc. As Zoroaster must have lived before
this conquest, his period is taken back to a still more remote time, about
B.C. 1300 or B.C. 1250[122] It is difficult to be more precise than this.
Bunsen indeed[123] suggests that "the date of Zoroaster, as fixed by
Aristotle, cannot be said to be so very irrational. He and Eudoxus,
according to Pliny, place him six thousand years before the death of
Plato; Hermippus, five thousand years before the Trojan war," or about
B.C. 6300 or B.C. 6350. But Bunsen adds: "At the present stage of the
inquiry the question whether this date is set too high cannot be answered
either in the negative or affirmative." Spiegel, in one of his latest
works,[124] considers Zoroaster as a neighbor and contemporary of Abraham,
therefore as living B.C. 2000 instead of B.C. 6350. Professor Whitney of
New Haven places the epoch of Zoroaster at "least B.C. 1000," and adds
that all attempts to reconstruct Persian chronology or history prior to
the reign of the first Sassanid have been relinquished as futile.[125]
Döllinger[126] thinks he may have been "somewhat later than Moses, perhaps
about B.C. 1300," but says, "it is impossible to fix precisely" when he
lived. Rawlinson[127]| merely remarks that Berosus places him anterior to
B.C. 2234. Haug is inclined to date the Gâthâs, the oldest songs of the
Avesta, as early as the time of Moses.[128] Rapp,[129] after a thorough
comparison of ancient writers, concludes that Zoroaster lived B.C. 1200 or
1300. In this he agrees with Duncker, who, as we have seen, decided upon
the same date. It is not far from the period given by the oldest Greek
writer who speaks of Zoroaster,--Xanthus of Sardis, a contemporary of
Darius. It is the period given by Cephalion, a writer of the second
century, who takes it from three independent sources. We have no sources
now open to us which enable us to come nearer than this to the time in
which he lived.
Nor is anything known with certainty of the place where he lived or the
events of his life. Most modern writers suppose that he resided in
Bactria. Haug maintains that the language of the Zend books is
Bactrian[130]. A highly mythological and fabulous life of Zoroaster,
translated by Anquetil du Perron, called the Zartusht-Namah[131],
describes him as going to Iran in his thirtieth year, spending twenty
years in the desert, working miracles during ten years, and giving lessons
of philosophy in Babylon, with Pythagoras as his pupil. All this is based
on the theory (now proved to be false) of his living in the time of
Darius. "The language of the Avesta," says Max Müller, "is so much more
primitive than the inscriptions of Darius, that many centuries must have
passed between the two periods represented by these two strata of
language[132]." These inscriptions are in the Achæmenian dialect, which is
the Zend in a later stage of linguistic growth.
§ 5. Spirit of Zoroaster and of his Religion
It is not likely that Zoroaster ever saw Pythagoras or even Abraham. But
though absolutely nothing is known of the events of his life, there is not
the least doubt of his existence nor of his character. He has left the
impress of his commanding genius on great regions, various races, and long
periods of time. His religion, like that of the Buddha, is essentially a
moral religion. Each of them was a revolt from the Pantheism of India, in
the interest of morality, human freedom, and the progress of the race.
They differ in this, that each takes hold of one side of morality, and
lets go the opposite. Zoroaster bases his law on the eternal distinction
between right and wrong; Sakya-muni, on the natural laws and their
consequences, either good or evil. Zoroaster's law is, therefore, the law
of justice; Sakya-muni's, the law of mercy. The one makes the supreme good
to consist in truth, duty, right; the other, in love, benevolence, and
kindness. Zoroaster teaches providence: the monk of India teaches
prudence. Zoroaster aims at holiness, the Buddha at merit. Zoroaster
teaches and emphasizes creation: the Buddha knows nothing of creation, but
only nature or law. All these oppositions run back to a single root. Both
are moral reformers; but the one moralizes according to the method of
Bishop Butler, the other after that of Archdeacon Paley. Zoroaster
cognizes all morality as having its root within, in the eternal
distinction between right and wrong motive, therefore in God; but
Sakya-muni finds it outside of the soul, in the results of good and evil
action, therefore in the nature of things. The method of salvation,
therefore, according to Zoroaster, is that of an eternal battle for good
against evil; but according to the Buddha, it is that of self-culture and
virtuous activity.
Both of these systems, as being essentially moral systems in the interest
of humanity, proceed from persons. For it is a curious fact, that, while
the essentially spiritualistic religions are ignorant of their founders,
all the moral creeds of the world proceed from a moral source, i.e. a
human will. Brahmanism, Gnosticism, the Sufism of Persia, the Mysteries of
Egypt and Greece, Neo-Platonism, the Christian Mysticism of the Middle
Ages,--these have, strictly speaking, no founder. Every tendency to the
abstract, to the infinite, ignores personality.[133] Individual mystics we
know, but never the founder of any such system. The religions in which the
moral element is depressed, as those of Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, Greece,
Rome, are also without personal founders. But moral religions are the
religions of persons, and so we have the systems of Confucius, Buddha,
Zoroaster, Moses, Mohammed.[134] The Protestant Reformation was a protest
of the moral nature against a religion which had become divorced from
morality. Accordingly we have Luther as the founder of Protestantism; but
mediæval Christianity grew up with no personal leader.
The whole religion of the Avesta revolves around the person of Zoroaster,
or Zarathustra. In the oldest part of the sacred books, the Gâthâs of the
Yaçna, he is called the _pure_ Zarathustra, good in thought, speech, and
work. It is said that Zarathustra alone knows the precepts of Ahura-Mazda
(Ormazd), and that he shall be made skilful in speech. In one of the
Gâthâs he expresses the desire of bringing knowledge to the pure, in the
power of Ormazd, so as to be to them strong joy (Spiegel, Gâthâ Ustvaiti,
XLII. 8), or, as Haug translates the same passage (Die Gâthâs des
Zarathustra, II. 8): "I will swear hostility to the liars, but be a strong
help to the truthful." He prays for truth, declares himself the most
faithful servant in the world of Ormazd the Wise One, and therefore begs
to know the best thing to do. As the Jewish prophets tried to escape their
mission, and called it a burden, and went to it "in the heat and
bitterness of their spirit," so Zoroaster says (according to Spiegel):
"When it came to me through your prayer, I thought that the spreading
abroad of your law through men was something difficult."
Zoroaster was one of those who was oppressed with the sight of evil. But
it was not outward evil which most tormented him, but spiritual
evil,--evil having its origin in a depraved heart and a will turned away
from goodness. His meditations led him to the conviction that all the woe
of the world had its root in sin, and that the origin of sin was to be
found in the demonic world. He might have used the language of the Apostle
Paul and said, "We wrestle not with flesh and blood,"--that is, our
struggle is not with man, but with principles of evil, rulers of darkness,
spirits of wickedness in the supernatural world. Deeply convinced that a
great struggle was going on between the powers of light and darkness, he
called on all good men to take part in the war, and battle for the good
God against the dark and foul tempter.
Great physical calamities added to the intensity of this conviction. It
appears that about the period of Zoroaster, some geological convulsions
had changed the climate of Northern Asia, and very suddenly produced
severe cold where before there had been an almost tropical temperature.
The first Fargard of the Vendidad has been lately translated by both
Spiegel and Haug, and begins by speaking of a good country, Aryana-Vaêjo,
which was created a region of delight by Ahura-Mazda (Ormazd). Then it
adds that the "evil being, Angra-Mainyus (Ahriman), full of death, created
a mighty serpent, and winter, the work of the Devas. Ten months of winter
are there, two months of summer." Then follows, in the original document,
this statement: "Seven months of summer are (were?) there; five months of
winter were there. The latter are cold as to water, cold as to earth, cold
as to trees. There is the heart of winter; there all around falls deep
snow. There is the worst of evils." This passage has been set aside as an
interpolation by both Spiegel and Haug. But they give no reason for
supposing it such, except the difficulty of reconciling it with the
preceding passage. This difficulty, however, disappears, if we suppose it
intended to describe a great climatic change, by which the original home
of the Aryans, Aryana-Vaêjo, became suddenly very much colder than before.
Such a change, if it took place, was probably the cause of the emigration
which transferred this people from Aryana-Vaêjo (Old Iran) to New Iran, or
Persia. Such a history of emigration Bunsen and Haug suppose to be
contained in this first Fargard (or chapter) of the Vendidad. If so, it
takes us back further than the oldest part of the Veda, and gives the
progress of the Aryan stream to the south from its original source on the
great plains of Central Asia, till it divided into two branches, one
flowing into Persia, the other into India. The first verse of this
venerable document introduces Ormazd as saying that he had created new
regions, desirable as homes; for had he not done so, all human beings
would have crowded into this Aryana-Vaêjo. Thus in the very first verse of
the Vendidad appears the affectionate recollection of these emigrant races
for their fatherland in Central Asia, and the Zoroasterian faith in a
creative and protective Providence. The awful convulsion which turned
their summer climate into the present Siberian winter of ten months'
duration was part of a divine plan. Old Iran would have been too
attractive, and all mankind would have crowded into that Eden. So the
evil Ahriman was permitted to glide into it, a new serpent of destruction,
and its seven months of summer and five of winter were changed to ten of
winter and two of summer.[135]
This Aryana-Vaêjo, Old Iran, the primeval seat of the great Indo-European
race, is supposed by Haug and Bunsen to be situated on the high plains
northeast of Samarcand, between the thirty-seventh and fortieth degrees of
north latitude, and the eighty-sixth and ninetieth of east longitude. This
region has exactly the climate described,--ten months of winter and two of
summer. The same is true of Western Thibet and most of Central Siberia.
Malte-Brun says: "The winter is nine or ten months long through almost the
whole of Siberia." June and July are the only months wholly free from
snow. On the parallel of 60°, the earth on the 28th of June was found
frozen, at a depth of three feet.
But is there reason to think that the climate was ever different?
Geologists assure us that "great oscillations of climate have occurred in
times immediately antecedent to the peopling of the earth by man."[136]
But in Central and Northern Asia there is evidence of such fluctuations of
temperature in a much more recent period. In 1803, on the banks of the
Lena, in latitude 70°, the entire body of a mammoth fell from a mass of
ice in which it had been entombed perhaps for thousands of years, but with
the flesh so perfectly preserved that it was immediately devoured by
wolves. Since then these frozen elephants have been found in great
numbers, in so perfect a condition that the bulb of an eye of one of them
is in the Museum at Moscow.[137] They have been found as far north as 75°.
Hence Lyell thinks it "reasonable to believe that a large region in
Central Asia, including perhaps the southern half of Siberia, enjoyed at
no very remote period in the earth's history a temperate climate,
sufficiently mild to afford food for numerous herds of elephants and
rhinoceroses."
Amid these terrible convulsions of the air and ground, these antagonisms
of outward good and evil, Zoroaster developed his belief in the dualism of
all things. To his mind, as to that of the Hebrew poet, God had placed all
things against each other, two and two. No Pantheistic optimism, like that
of India, could satisfy his thought. He could not say, "Whatever is, is
right"; some things seemed fatally wrong. The world was a scene of war,
not of peace and rest. Life to the good man was not sleep, but battle. If
there was a good God over all, as he devoutly believed, there was also a
spirit of evil, of awful power, to whom we were not to yield, but with
whom we should do battle. In the far distance he saw the triumph of good;
but that triumph could only come by fighting the good fight now. But his
weapons were not carnal. "Pure thoughts" going out into "true words" and
resulting in "right actions"; this was the whole duty of man.
§ 6. Character of the Zend Avesta.
A few passages, taken from different parts of the Zend Avesta, will best
illustrate these tendencies, and show how unlike it is, in its whole
spirit, to its sister, the Vedic liturgy. Twin children of the old Aryan
stock, they must have struggled together like Esau and Jacob, before they
were born. In such cases we see how superficial is the philosophy which,
beginning with synthesis instead of analysis, declares the unity of all
religions before it has seen their differences. There _is_ indeed, what
Cudworth has called "the symphony of all religions," but it cannot be
demonstrated by the easy process of gathering a few similar texts from
Confucius, the Vedas, and the Gospels, and then announcing that they all
teach the same thing. We must first find the specific idea of each, and we
may then be able to show how each of these may take its place in the
harmonious working of universal religion.
If, in taking up the Zend Avesta, we expect to find a system of theology
or philosophy, we shall be disappointed. It is a liturgy,--a collection of
hymns, prayers, invocations, thanksgivings. It contains prayers to a
multitude of deities, among whom Ormazd is always counted supreme, and the
rest only his servants.
"I worship and adore," says Zarathustra (Zoroaster), "the Creator of all
things, Ahura-Mazda (Ormazd), full of light! I worship the Amĕsha-çpentas
(Amshaspands, the seven archangels, or protecting spirits)! I worship the
body of the primal Bull, the soul of the Bull! I invoke thee, O Fire, thou
son of Ormazd, most rapid of the Immortals! I invoke Mithra, the lofty,
the immortal, the pure, the sun, the ruler, the quick Horse, the eye of
Ormazd! I invoke the holy Sraosha, gifted with holiness, and Racnçu
(spirit of justice), and Arstat (spirit of truth)! I invoke the Fravashi
of good men, the Fravashi of Ormazd, the Fravashi of my own soul! I praise
the good men and women of the whole world of purity! I praise the Haŏma,
health-bringing, golden, with moist stalks. I praise Sraosha, whom four
horses carry, spotless, bright-shining, swifter than the storms, who,
without sleeping, protects the world in the darkness."
The following passages are from the oldest part of the Avesta, the
Gâthâs:--
"Good is the thought, good the speech, good the work of the pure
Zarathustra."
"I desire by my prayer with uplifted hands this joy,--the pure works of
the Holy Spirit, Mazda,.... a disposition to perform good actions,....
and pure gifts for both worlds, the bodily and spiritual."
"I have intrusted my soul to Heaven.....and I will teach what is pure
so long as I can."
"I keep forever purity and good-mindedness. Teach thou me, Ahura-Mazda,
out of thyself; from heaven, by thy mouth, whereby the world first
arose."
"Thee have I thought, O Mazda, as the first, to praise with the
soul,.... active Creator,.... Lord of the worlds,.... Lord of good
things,.... the first fashioner,.... who made the pure creation,....
who upholds the best soul with his understanding."
"I praise Ahura-Mazda, who has created the cattle, created the water
and good trees, the splendor of light, the earth and all good. We
praise the Fravashis of the pure men and women,--whatever is fairest,
purest, immortal."
"We honor the good spirit, the good kingdom, the good law,--all that is
good."
"Here we praise the soul and body of the Bull, then our own souls, the
souls of the cattle which desire to maintain us in life,.... the good
men and women,.... the abode of the water,.... the meeting and parting
of the ways,.... the mountains which make the waters flow,.... the
strong wind created by Ahura-Mazda,.... the Haŏma, giver of increase,
far from death."
"Now give ear to me, and hear! the Wise Ones have created all. Evil
doctrine shall not again destroy the world."
"In the beginning, the two heavenly Ones spoke--the Good to the
Evil--thus; 'Our souls, doctrines, words, works, do not unite
together.'"
"How shall I satisfy thee, O Mazda, I, who have little wealth, few men?
How may I exalt thee according to my wish!.... I will be contented with
your desires; this is the decision of my understanding and of my soul."
The following is from the Khordah Avesta:--
"In the name of God, the giver, forgiver, rich in love, praise be to
the name of Ormazd, the God with the name, 'Who always was, always is,
and always will be'; the heavenly amongst the heavenly, with the name
'From whom alone is derived rule.' Ormazd is the greatest ruler,
mighty, wise, creator, supporter, refuge, defender, completer of good
works, overseer, pure, good, and just.
"With all strength (bring I) thanks; to the great among beings, who
created and destroyed, and through his own determination of time,
strength, wisdom, is higher than the six Amshaspands, the circumference
of heaven, the shining sun, the brilliant moon, the wind, the water,
the fire, the earth, the trees, the cattle, the metals, mankind.
"Offering and praise to that Lord, the completer of good works, who
made men greater than all earthly beings, and through the gift of
speech created them to rule the creatures, as warriors against the
Daêvas.[138]
"Praise the omniscience of God, who hath sent through the holy
Zarathustra peace for the creatures, the wisdom of the law,--the
enlightening derived from the heavenly understanding, and heard with
the ears,--wisdom and guidance for all beings who are, were, and will
be, (and) the wisdom of wisdoms; which effects freedom from hell for
the soul at the bridge, and leads it over to that Paradise, the
brilliant, sweet-smelling of the pure.
"All good do I accept at thy command, O God, and think, speak, and do
it. I believe in the pure law; by every good work seek I forgiveness
for all sins. I keep pure for myself the serviceable work and
abstinence from the unprofitable. I keep pure the six powers,--thought,
speech, work, memory, mind, and understanding. According to thy will am
I able to accomplish, O accomplisher of good, thy honor, with good
thoughts, good words, good works.
"I enter on the shining way to Paradise; may the fearful terror of hell
not overcome me! May I step over the bridge Chinevat, may I attain
Paradise, with much perfume, and all enjoyments, and all brightness.
"Praise to the Overseer, the Lord, who rewards those who accomplish
good deeds according to his own wish, purifies at last the obedient,
and at last purifies even the wicked one of hell. All praise be to the
creator, Ormazd, the all-wise, mighty, rich in might; to the seven
Amshaspands; to Ized Bahrâm, the victorious annihilator of foes."
"HYMN TO A STAR.
"The star Tistrya praise we, the shining, majestic, with pleasant good
dwelling, light, shining, conspicuous, going around, healthful,
bestowing joy, great, going round about from afar, with shining beams,
the pure, and the water which makes broad seas, good, far-famed, the
name of the bull created by Mazda, the strong kingly majesty, and the
Fravashi of the holy pure, Zarathustra.
"For his brightness, for his majesty, will I praise him, the star
Tistrya, with audible praise. We praise the star Tistrya, the
brilliant, majestic, with offerings, with Haŏma bound with flesh, with
Maúthra which gives wisdom to the tongue, with word and deed, with
offerings with right-spoken speech."
"The star Tistrya, the brilliant, majestic, we praise, who glides so
softly to the sea like an arrow, who follows the heavenly will, who is
a terrible pliant arrow, a very pliant arrow, worthy of honor among
those worthy of honor, who comes from the damp mountain to the shining
mountain."
"HYMN TO MITHRA.
"Mithra, whose long arms grasp forwards here with Mithra-strength; that
which is in Eastern India he seizes, and that which [is] in the Western
he smites, and what is on the steppes of Raúha, and what is at the ends
of this earth.
"Thou, O Mithra, dost seize these, reaching out thy arms. The
unrighteous destroyed through the just is gloomy in soul. Thus thinks
the unrighteous: Mithra, the artless, does not see all these evil
deeds, all these lies.
"But I think in my soul: No earthly man with a hundred-fold strength
thinks so much evil as Mithra with heavenly strength thinks good. No
earthly man with a hundred-fold strength speaks so much evil as Mithra
with heavenly strength speaks good. No earthly man with a hundred-fold
strength does so much evil as Mithra with heavenly strength does good.
"With no earthly man is the hundred-fold greater heavenly understanding
allied as the heavenly understanding allies itself to the heavenly
Mithra, the heavenly. No earthly man with a hundred-fold strength hears
with the ears as the heavenly Mithra, who possesses a hundred
strengths, sees every liar. Mightily goes forward Mithra, powerful in
rule marches he onwards; fair visual power, shining from afar, gives he
to the eyes."
"A CONFESSION, OR PATET.[139]
"I repent of all sins. All wicked thoughts, words, and works which I
have meditated in the world, corporeal, spiritual, earthly, and
heavenly, I repent of, in your presence, ye believers. O Lord, pardon
through the three words.
"I confess myself a Mazdayaçnian, a Zarathustrian, an opponent of the
Daêvas, devoted to belief in Ahura, for praise, adoration,
satisfaction, and laud. As it is the will of God, let the Zaŏta say to
me, Thus announces the Lord, the Pure out of Holiness, let the wise
speak.
"I praise all good thoughts, words, and works, through thought, word,
and deed. I curse all evil thoughts, words, and works away from
thought, word, and deed. I lay hold on all good thoughts, words, and
works, with thoughts, words, and works, i.e. I perform good actions, I
dismiss all evil thoughts, words, and works, from thoughts, words, and
works, i.e. I commit no sins.
"I give to you, ye who are Amshaspands, offering and praise, with the
heart, with the body, with my own vital powers, body and soul. The
whole powers which I possess I possess in dependence on the Yazatas. To
possess in dependence upon the Yazatas means (as much as) this: if
anything happens so that it behoves to give the body for the sake of
the soul, I give it to them.
"I praise the best purity, I hunt away the Dévs, I am thankful for the
good of the Creator Ormazd, with the opposition and unrighteousness
which come from Ganâ-mainyo, am I contented and agreed in the hope of
the resurrection. The Zarathustrian law created by Ormazd I take as a
plummet. For the sake of this way I repent of all sins.
"I repent of the sins which can lay hold of the character of men, or
which have laid hold of my character, small and great which are
committed amongst men, the meanest sins as much as is (and) can be, yet
more than this, namely, all evil thoughts, words, and works which (I
have committed) for the sake of others, or others for my sake, or if
the hard sin has seized the character of an evil-doer on my
account,--such sins, thoughts, words, and works, corporeal, mental,
earthly, heavenly, I repent of with the three words: pardon, O Lord, I
repent of the sins with Patet.
"The sins against father, mother, sister, brother, wife, child, against
spouses, against the superiors, against my own relations, against those
living with me, against those who possess equal property, against the
neighbors, against the inhabitants of the same town, against servants,
every unrighteousness through which I have been amongst sinners,--of
these sins repent I with thoughts, words, and works, corporeal as
spiritual, earthly as heavenly, with the three words: pardon, O Lord, I
repent of sins.
"The defilement with dirt and corpses, the bringing of dirt and corpses
to the water and fire, or the bringing of fire and water to dirt and
corpses; the omission of reciting the Avesta in mind, of strewing about
hair, nails, and toothpicks, of not washing the hands, all the rest
which belongs to the category of dirt and corpses, if I have thereby
come among the sinners, so repent I of all these sins with thoughts,
words, and works, corporeal as spiritual, earthly as heavenly, with the
three words: pardon, O Lord, I repent of sin.
"That which was the wish of Ormazd the Creator, and I ought to have
thought, and have not thought, what I ought to have spoken and have not
spoken, what I ought to have done and have not done; of these sins
repent I with thoughts, words, and works," etc.
"That which was the wish of Ahriman, and I ought not to have thought
and yet have thought, what I ought not to have spoken and yet have
spoken, what I ought not to have done and yet have done; of these sins
I repent," etc.
"Of all and every kind of sin which I have committed against the
creatures of Ormazd, as stars, moon, sun, and the red burning fire, the
dog, the birds, the five kinds of animals, the other good creatures
which are the property of Ormazd, between earth and heaven, if I have
become a sinner against any of these, I repent," etc.
"Of pride, haughtiness, covetousness, slandering the dead, anger, envy,
the evil eye, shamelessness, looking at with evil intent, looking at
with evil concupiscence, stiff-neckedness, discontent with the godly
arrangements, self-willedness, sloth, despising others, mixing in
strange matters, unbelief, opposing the Divine powers, false witness,
false judgment, idol-worship, running naked, running with one shoe, the
breaking of the low (midday) prayer, the omission of the (midday)
prayer, theft, robbery, whoredom, witchcraft, worshipping with
sorcerers, unchastity, tearing the hair, as well as all other kinds of
sin which are enumerated in this Patet, or not enumerated, which I am
aware of, or not aware of, which are appointed or not appointed, which
I should have bewailed with obedience before the Lord, and have not
bewailed,--of these sins repent I with thoughts, words, and works,
corporeal as spiritual, earthly as heavenly. O Lord, pardon, I repent
with the three words, with Patet.
"If I have taken on myself the Patet for any one and have not performed
it, and misfortune has thereby come upon his soul or his descendants, I
repent of the sin for every one with thoughts," etc.
"With all good deeds am I in agreement, with all sins am I not in
agreement, for the good am I thankful, with iniquity am I contented.
With the punishment at the bridge, with the bonds and tormentings and
chastisements of the mighty of the law, with the punishment of the
three nights (after) the fifty-seven years am I contented and
satisfied."
The Avesta, then, is not a system of dogmatics, but a book of worship. It
is to be read in private by the laity, or to be recited by the priests in
public. Nevertheless, just such a book may be the best help to the
knowledge of the religious opinions of an age. The deepest convictions
come to light in such a collection, not indeed in a systematic statement,
but in sincerest utterance. It will contain the faith of the heart rather
than the speculations of the intellect. 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.
§ 7. Later Development of the System in the Bundehesch.
The Bundehesch is a book later than these, and yet, in its contents,
running back to a very early period. Windischmann,[140] who has recently
given us a new translation of this book, says: "In regard to the
Bundehesch, I am confident that closer study of this remarkable book, and
a more exact comparison of it with the original texts, will change the
unfavorable opinion hitherto held concerning it into one of great
confidence. I am justified in believing that its author has given us
mainly only the ancient doctrine, taken by him from original texts, most
of which are now lost. The more thoroughly it is examined the more
trustworthy it will be found to be."
The following summary of the Pârsî system is mostly derived from the
Bundehesch, and the later writings of the Pârsîs. We have abridged it from
Rhode. In the time of Zoroaster himself, it was probably far from being so
fully elaborated. Only the germs of it are to be found in the elder books
of the Avesta. It has been doubted if the doctrine of Zerâna-Akerana, or
the Monad behind the Duad, is to be found in the Avesta; though important
texts in the Vendidad[141] seem indeed to imply a Supreme and Infinite
Being, the creator both of Ormazd and Ahriman.
In the beginning, the Eternal or Absolute Being (Zerâna-Akerana) produced
two other great divine, beings. The first, who remained true to him, was
Ahura-Mazda, King of Light. The other was Ahriman (Angra-Mainyus), King of
Darkness. Ormazd found himself in a world of light and Ahriman in
boundless darkness, and the two became antagonists.
The Infinite Being (Zerana-Akerana) now determined, in order to destroy
the evil which Ahriman had caused, to create the visible world by Ormazd;
and he fixed its duration at twelve thousand years. This was divided into
four periods of three thousand years each. In the first period Ormazd
should rule alone; in the second Ahriman should begin to operate, but
still be subordinate; in the third they should both rule together; and in
the fourth Ahriman should have the ascendency.
Ormazd began the creation by bringing forth the Fereuers (Fravashi).
Everything which has been created, or which is to be created, has its
Fravashi, which contains the reason and basis of its existence. Even
Ormazd has his Fravashi in relation to Zerâna-Akerana (the Infinite). A
spiritual and invisible world preceded, therefore, this visible material
world as its prototype.
In creating the material world, which was in reality only an incorporation
of the spiritual world of Fravashis, Ormazd first created the firm vault
of heaven, and the earth on which it rests. On the earth he created the
high mountain Albordj[142] which soared upward through all the spheres of
the heaven, till it reached the primal light, and Ormazd made this summit
his abode. From this summit the bridge Chinevat stretches to the vault of
heaven, and to Gorodman, which is the opening in the vault above Albordj.
Gorodman is the dwelling of the Fravashis and of the blessed, and the
bridge leading to it is precisely above the abyss Duzahk,--the monstrous
gulf, the home of Ahriman beneath the earth.
Ormazd, who knew that after the first period his battle with Ahriman would
begin, armed himself, and created for his aid the whole shining host of
heaven,--sun, moon, and stars,--mighty beings of light, wholly submissive
to him. First he created "the heroic runner, who never dies, the sun," and
made him king and ruler of the material world. From Albordj he sets out on
his course, he circles the earth in the highest spheres of heaven, and at
evening returns. Then he created the moon, which "has its own light,"
which, departing from Albordj, circles the earth in a lower sphere, and
returns; then the five smaller planets, and the whole host of fixed stars,
in the lowest circle of the heavens. The space between the earth and the
firm vault of heaven is therefore divided into three spheres, that of the
sun, of the moon, and of the stars.
The host of stars--common soldiers in the war with Ahriman--was divided
into four troops, with each its appointed leader. Twelve companies were
arranged in the twelve signs of the zodiac. All these were grouped into
four great divisions, in the east, west, north, and south. The planet
Tistrya (Jupiter) presides over and watches that in the east, and is named
Prince of the Stars; Sitavisa (Saturn) presides over the western division;
Vanant (or Mercury) over that of the south; and Hapto-iringa (Mars) over
the stars of the north. In the middle of the heavens is the great star
Mesch, Meschgah (Venus). He leads them against Ahriman.
The dog Sirius (Sura) is another watchman of the heavens; but he is fixed
to one place, at the bridge Chinevat, keeping guard over the abyss out of
which Ahriman comes.
When Ormazd had completed these preparations in the heavens, the first of
the four ages drew to an end, and Ahriman saw, from the gloomy depths of
his kingdom, what Ormazd had done. In opposition to this light creation,
he created a world of darkness, a terrible community, equal in number and
power to the beings of light. Ormazd, knowing all the misery that Ahriman
would cause, yet knowing that the victory would remain with himself,
offered to Ahriman peace; but Ahriman chose war. But, blinded by Ormazd's
majesty, and terrified by the sight of the pure Fravashis of holy men, he
was conquered by Ormazd's strong word, and sank back into the abyss of
darkness, where he lay fettered during the three thousand years of the
second period.
Ormazd now completed his creation upon the earth. Sapandomad was guardian
spirit of the earth, and the earth, as Hethra, was mother of all living.
Khordad was chief of the seasons, years, months, and days, and also
protector of the water which flowed from the fountain Anduisur, from
Albordj. The planet Tistrya was commissioned to raise the water in vapor,
collect it in clouds, and let it fall in rain, with the aid of the planet
Sitavisa. These cloud-compellers were highly reverenced. Amerdad was
general deity of vegetation; but the great Mithra was the god of
fructification and reproduction in the whole organic world; his work was
to lead the Fravashis to the bodies they were to occupy.
Everything earthly in the light-world of Ormazd had its protecting deity.
These guardian spirits were divided into series and groups, had their
captains and their associated assistants. The seven Amshaspands (in Zend,
Amĕsha-çpentas) were the chief among these, of whom Ormazd was first. The
other six were Bahman, King of Heaven; Ardibehescht, King of Fire;
Schariver, King of the Metals; Sapandomad, Queen of the Earth; Amerdad,
King of Vegetables; and Khordad, King of Water.
So ended the second age. In it Ormazd had also produced the great
primitive Bull, in which, as the representative of the animal world, the
seeds of all living creatures were deposited.
While Ormazd was thus completing his light-creation, Ahriman, in his dark
abyss, was effecting a corresponding creation of darkness,--making a
corresponding evil being for every good being created by Ormazd. These
spirits of night stood in their ranks and orders, with their seven
presiding evil spirits, or Daêvas, corresponding to the Amshaspands.
The vast preparations for this great war being completed, and the end of
the second age now coming, Ahriman was urged by one of his Daêvas to begin
the conflict. He counted his host; but as he found nothing therein to
oppose to the Fravashis of good men, he sank back in dejection. Finally
the second age expired, and Ahriman now sprang aloft without fear, for he
knew that his time was come. His host followed him, but he alone succeeded
in reaching the heavens; his troops remained behind. A shudder ran over
him, and he sprang from heaven upon the earth in the form of a serpent,
penetrated to its centre, and entered into everything which he found upon
it. He passed into the primal Bull, and even into fire, the visible symbol
of Ormazd, defiling it with smoke and vapor. Then he assailed the heavens,
and a part of the stars were already in his power, and veiled in smoke and
mist, when he was attacked by Ormazd, aided by the Fravashis of holy men;
and after ninety days and ninety nights he was completely defeated, and
driven back with his troops into the abyss of Duzahk.
But he did not remain there, for through the middle of the earth he built
a way for himself and his companions, and is now living on the earth
together with Ormazd,--according to the decree of the Infinite.
The destruction which he produced in the world was terrible. Nevertheless,
the more evil he tried to do, the more he ignorantly fulfilled the
counsels of the Infinite, and hastened the development of good. Thus he
entered the Bull, the original animal, and injured him so that he died.
But when he died, Kaiomarts, the first man, came out of his right
shoulder, and from his left Goshurun, the soul of the Bull, who now became
the guardian spirit of the animal race. Also the whole realm of clean
animals and plants came from the Bull's body. Full of rage, Ahriman now
created the unclean animals,--for every clean beast an unclean. Thus
Ormazd created the dog, Ahriman the wolf; Ormazd all useful animals,
Ahriman all noxious ones; and so of plants.
But to Kaiomarts, the original man, Ahriman had nothing to oppose, and so
he determined to kill him. Kaiomarts was both man and woman, but through
his death there came from him the first human pair; a tree grew from his
body, and bore ten pair of men and women. Meschia and Meschiane were the
first. They were originally innocent and made for heaven, and worshipped
Ormazd as their creator. But Ahriman tempted them. They drank milk from a
goat and so injured themselves. Then Ahriman brought them fruit, they ate
it, and lost a hundred parts of their happiness, so that only one
remained. The woman was the first to sacrifice to the Daêvas. After fifty
years they had two children, Siamak and Veschak, and died a hundred years
old. For their sins they remain in hell until the resurrection.
The human race, which had thus become mortal and miserable by the sin of
its first parents, assumed nevertheless a highly interesting position. The
man stands in the middle between the two worlds of light and darkness,
left to his own free will. As a creature of Ormazd he can and ought to
honor him, and assist him in the war with evil; but Ahriman and his Daêvas
surround him night and day, and seek to mislead him, in order to increase
thereby the power of darkness. He would not be able at all to resist these
temptations, to which his first parents had already yielded, had not
Ormazd taken pity on him, and sent him a revelation of his will in the law
of Zoroaster. If he obeys these precepts he is safe from the Daêvas, under
the immediate protection of Ormazd. The substance of the law is the
command, "THINK PURELY, SPEAK PURELY, ACT PURELY." All that comes from
Ormazd is pure, from Ahriman impure; and bodily purity has a like worth
with moral purity. Hence the multitude and minuteness of precepts
concerning bodily cleanliness. In fact the whole liturgic worship turns
greatly on this point.
The Fravashis of men originally created by Ormazd are preserved in heaven,
in Ormazd's realm of light. But they must come from heaven, to be united
with a human body, and to go on a path of probation in this world, called
the "Way of the Two Destinies." Those who have chosen the good in this
world are received after death by good spirits, and guided, under the
protection of the dog Sura, to the bridge Chinevat; the wicked are dragged
thither by the Daêvas. Here Ormazd holds a tribunal and decides the fate
of the souls. The good pass the bridge into the mansions of the blessed,
where they are welcomed with rejoicing by the Amshaspands; the bad fall
over into the Gulf of Duzahk, where they are tormented by the Daêvas. The
duration of the punishment is fixed by Ormazd, and some are redeemed
earlier by means of the prayers and intercessions of their friends, but
many must remain till the resurrection of the dead.
Ahriman himself effects this consummation, after having exercised great
power over men during the last three thousand years. He created seven
comets (in opposition to the seven planets), and they went on their
destructive paths through the heavens, filling all things with danger, and
all men with terror. But Ormazd placed them under the control of his
planets to restrain them. They will do so, till by the decree of the
Infinite, at the close of the last period, one of the comets will break
from his watchman, the moon, and plunge upon the earth, producing a
general conflagration. But before this Ormazd will send his Prophet
Sosioçh and bring about the conversion of mankind, to be followed by the
general resurrection.
Ormazd will clothe anew with flesh the bones of men, and relatives and
friends will recognize each other again. Then comes the great division of
the just from the sinners.
When Ahriman shall cause the comet to fall on the earth to gratify his
destructive propensities, he will be really serving the Infinite Being
against his own will. For the conflagration caused by this comet will
change the whole earth into a stream like melted iron, which will pour
impetuously down into the realm of Ahriman. All beings must now pass
through this stream: to the righteous it will feel like warm milk, and
they will pass through to the dwellings of the just; but all the sinners
shall be borne along by the stream into the abyss of Duzahk. Here they
will burn three days and nights, then, being purified, they will invoke
Ormazd, and be received into heaven.
Afterward Ahriman himself and all in the Duzahk shall be purified by this
fire, all evil be consumed, and all darkness banished.
From the extinct fire there will come a more beautiful earth, pure and
perfect, and destined to be eternal.
* * * * *
Having given this account of the Pârsî system, in its later development,
let us say that it was not an _invention_ of Zoroaster, nor of any one
else. Religions are not invented: they grow. Even the religion of Mohammed
grew out of pre-existent beliefs. The founder of a religion does not
invent it, but gives it form. It crystallizes around his own deeper
thought. So, in the time of Zoroaster, the popular imagination had filled
nature with powers and presences, and given them names, and placed them in
the heavens. For, as Schiller says:--
"'Tis not merely
The human being's pride which peoples space
With life and mystical predominance;
For also for the stricken heart of Love,
This visible nature and this lower world
Are all too common."
Zoroaster organized into clearer thought the pre-existing myths, and
inspired them with moral ideas and vital power.
§ 8. Relation of the Religion of the Zend Avesta to that of the Vedas.
That the Vedic religion and that of the Avesta arose out of an earlier
Aryan religion, monotheistic in its central element, but with a tendency
to immerse the Deity in nature, seems evident from the investigations of
Pictet and other scholars. This primitive religion of the Aryan race
diverged early in two directions, represented by the Veda and the Avesta.
Yet each retains much in common with the other. The names of the powers,
Indra, Sura, Naoghaithya, are in both systems. In the Veda they are gods,
in the Avesta evil spirits. Indra, worshipped throughout the Rig-Veda as
one of the highest deities, appears in the Avesta as an evil being.[143]
Sura (Çura), one of the most ancient names of Shiva, is also denounced and
opposed in the Avesta[144] as a Daêva, or Dew. And the third (Nâoghaithya,
Nâouhaiti), also an evil spirit in the Avesta, is the Nâsatya of the
Veda,[145] one of the Açvinas or twins who precede the Dawn. The Dews or
Daêvas of the Avesta are demons, in the Vedas they are gods. On the other
hand, the Ahuras, or gods, of the Avesta are Asuras, or demons, in the
Vedic belief. The original land of the race is called Aryavesta in the
Laws of Manu (II. 22), and Aryana-Vaêjo in the Avesta. The God of the Sun
is named Mithra, or Mitra, in both religions. The Yima of the Pârsî system
is a happy king; the Yama of the Hindoos is a stern judge in the realms of
death. The dog is hateful in the Indian system, an object of reverence in
that of Zoroaster. Both the religions dread defilement through the touch
of dead bodies. In both systems fire is regarded as divine. But the most
striking analogy perhaps is to be found in the worship paid by both to the
intoxicating fermented juice of the plant _Asclepias acida_, called Soma
in the Sanskrit and Haŏma in the Zend. The identity of the Haŏma with the
Indian Soma has long been proved.[146] The whole of the Sáma-Veda is
devoted to this moon-plant worship; an important part of the Avesta is
occupied with hymns to Haŏma. This great reverence paid to the same plant,
on account of its intoxicating qualities, carries us back to a region
where the vine was unknown, and to a race to whom intoxication was so new
an experience as to seem a gift of the gods. Wisdom appeared to come from
it, health, increased power of body and soul, long life, victory in
battle, brilliant children. What Bacchus was to the Greeks, this divine
Haŏma, or Soma, was to the primitive Aryans.[147]
It would seem, therefore, that the two religions setting out from the
same point, and having a common stock of primitive traditions, at last
said each to the other, "Your gods are my demons." The opposition was
mutual. The dualism of the Persian was odious to the Hindoo, while the
absence of a deep moral element in the Vedic system shocked the solemn
puritanism of Zoroaster. The religion of the Hindoo was to dream, that of
the Persian to fight. There could be no more fellowship between them than
there is between a Quaker and a Calvinist.
§ 9. Is Monotheism or pure Dualism the Doctrine of the Zend Avesta?
We find in the Avesta, and in the oldest portion of it, the tendencies
which resulted afterward in the elaborate theories of the Bundehesch. We
find the Zeârna-Akerana, in the Vendidad (XIX. 33,44,55),--"The Infinite
Time," or "All-embracing Time,"--as the creator of Ahriman, according to
some translations. Spiegel, indeed, considers this supreme being, above
both Ormazd and Ahriman, as not belonging to the original Persian
religion, but as borrowed from Semitic sources. But if so, then Ormazd is
the supreme and uncreated being, and creator of all things. Why, then, has
Ormazd a Fravashi, or archetype? And in that case, he must either himself
have created Ahriman, or else Ahriman is as eternal as he; which latter
supposition presents us with an absolute, irreconcilable dualism. The
better opinion seems, therefore, to be, that behind the two opposing
powers of good and evil, the thesis and antithesis of moral life, remains
the obscure background of original being, the identity of both, from which
both have proceeded, and into whose abyss both shall return.
This great consummation is also intimated by the fact that in the same
Fargard of the Vendidad (XIX. 18) the future restorer or saviour is
mentioned, Sosioçh (Çaoshyanç), who is expected by the Pârsîs to come at
the end of all things, and accomplish the resurrection, and introduce a
kingdom of untroubled happiness.[148] Whether the resurrection belongs to
the primitive form of the religion remains as doubtful, but also as
probable, as when Mr. Alger discussed the whole question in his admirable
monograph on the Doctrine of the Future Life. Our remaining fragments of
the Zend Avesta say nothing of the periods of three thousand years'
duration. Two or three passages in the Avesta refer to the
resurrection.[149] But the conflict between Ormazd and Ahriman, the
present struggle between good and evil, the ideal world of the Fravashis
and good spirits,--these unquestionably belong to the original belief.
§ 10. Relation of this System to Christianity. The Kingdom of Heaven.
Of this system we will say, in conclusion, that in some respects it comes
nearer to Christianity than any other. Moreover, though so long dead, like
the great nation of which it was the inspiration and life,--though swept
away by Mohammedanism,--its influence remains, and has permeated both
Judaism and Christianity. Christianity has probably received from it,
through Judaism, its doctrine of angels and devils, and its tendency to
establish evil in the world as the permanent and equal adversary of good.
Such a picture as that by Retzsch of the Devil playing chess with the
young man for his soul, such a picture as that by Guido of the conflict
between Michael and Satan, such poems as Milton's Paradise Lost and
Goethe's Faust, could perhaps never have appeared in Christendom, had it
not been for the influence of the system of Zoroaster on Jewish, and,
through Jewish, on Christian thought. It was after the return from Babylon
that the Devil and demons, in conflict with man, became a part of the
company of spiritual beings in the Jewish mythology. Angels there were
before, as messengers of God, but devils there were not; for till then an
absolute Providence ruled the world, excluding all interference of
antagonistic powers. Satan, in Job, is an angel of God, not a devil; doing
a low kind of work, indeed, a sort of critical business, fault-finding,
and looking for flaws in the saints, but still an angel, and no devil. But
after the captivity the horizon of the Jewish mind enlarged, and it took
in the conception of God as allowing freedom to man and angels, and so
permitting bad as well as good to have its way. And then came in also the
conception of a future life, and a resurrection for ultimate judgment.
These doctrines have been supposed, with good reason, to have come to the
Jews from the influence of the great system of Zoroaster.
There is no doubt, however, that the Jewish prophets had already prepared
a point of contact and attachment for this system, and developed
affinities therewith, by their great battle-cry to the nation for right
against wrong, and their undying conviction of an ultimate restoration of
all good things. But the Jews found also in the Persian faith the one
among all religions most like their own, in this, that it had no idols,
and no worship but that addressed to the Unseen. Sun and fire were his
symbols, but he himself was hidden behind the glorious veil of being. And
it seems as if the Jews needed this support of finding another nation also
hating idolatry, before they could really rise above their tendency to
backslide into it. "In the mouth of two witnesses," the spiritual worship
of God was established; and not till Zoroaster took the hand of Moses did
the Jews cease to be idolaters. After the return from the captivity that
tendency wholly disappears.
But a deeper and more essential point of agreement is to be found in the
special practical character of the two systems, regarding life as a battle
between right and wrong, waged by a communion of good men fighting against
bad men and bad principles.
Perhaps, in reading the New Testament, we do not always see how much
Christianity turns around the phrase, and the idea behind it, of a
"kingdom of Heaven." The Beatitudes begin "Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven." Both John the Baptist and Christ
announce that the _kingdom of Heaven_ is at hand. The parables revolve
round the same idea of "the kingdom." which is likened first to this, and
then to that; and so, passing on into the Epistles, we have the "kingdom
of Heaven" still as the leading conception of Christianity. "The kingdom
of God is not meat nor drink";--such are common expressions.
The peculiar conception of the Messiah also is of the King, the Anointed
one, the Head of this divine Monarchy. When we call Jesus the Christ, we
repeat this ancient notion of the kingdom of God among men. He himself
accepted it; he called himself the Christ. "Thou sayest," said he, to
Pilate, "that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came
I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth."
All through antiquity there ran the longing for a communion or association
of the wise and good, in order to establish truth and justice in the
world. The tendency of error is to divide; the tendency of selfishness is
to separation. Only goodness and truth are capable of real communion,
interpenetration, and so of organic life and growth. This is their
strength, power, and hope. Hence all the efforts at associated action in
antiquity, such as the College of Pythagoras, the ideal Republic of Plato,
the Spartan Commonwealth, the communities of the Essenes, the monastic
institutions of Asia and Europe; and hence, too, the modern attempts, in
Protestantism, by Fourier, the Moravians, the Shakers, Saint-Simon, Robert
Owen, and others.
But among the Jews this desire appeared, first in their national
organization, as a theosophic and theocratic community, and afterward,
when this broke down and the nation was divided, in a larger prophetic
hope of the Messianic times. There is a tendency in the human mind, when
it sees a great work to be done, to look for a leader. So the Jewish hope
looked for a leader. Their true King was to come, and under him peace and
righteousness were to reign, and the kingdom of heaven begin on earth. It
was to be on earth. It was to be here and now. And so they waited and
longed.
Meantime, in the Persian religion, the seed of the same hope was sown.
There also the work of life was, to unite together a community of good men
and good angels, against bad men and devils, and so make a kingdom of
heaven. Long and sore should the conflict be; but the victory at last
would be sure. And they also looked for a Sosioch, or Mediator, who was to
be what the Messiah was to be to the Jews. And here was the deep and real
point of union between the two religions; and this makes the profound
meaning of the story of the Star which was seen in the East and which
guided the Magi of Zoroaster to the cradle of Christ.
Jesus came to be the Messiah. He fulfilled that great hope as he did
others. It was not fulfilled, in the sense of the letter of a prophecy
being acted out, but in the sense of the prophecy being carried up and on
to its highest point, and so being filled full of truth and value. The
first and chief purpose of Christianity was, not to save the souls of men
hereafter, as the Church has often taught, but to found a kingdom of
heaven here, on earth and in time. It was not to say, "Lo here!" or "Lo
there!" but to say, "_Now_ is the accepted time"; "the kingdom of God is
among you." In thus continuing and developing to its highest point the
central idea of his national religion, Jesus made himself the true Christ
and fulfilled all the prophecies. Perhaps what we need now is to come back
to that notion of the kingdom of heaven here below, and of Jesus the
present king,--present, because still bearing witness to the truth.
Christians must give up thinking about Christianity as only a means of
escaping a future hell and arriving at a future heaven. They must show
now, more than ever, that, by a union of loving and truthful hearts, God
comes here, immortality begins here, and heaven lies about us. To fight
the good fight of justice and truth, as the disciples of Zoroaster tried
to fight it,--this is still the true work of man; and to make a union of
those who wish thus to fight for good against evil,--this is still the
true church of Christ.
The old religion of Zoroaster died, Taut as the corn of wheat, which, if
it die, brings forth much fruit.
A small body of Pârsîs remain to-day in Persia, and another in
India,--disciples of this venerable faith. They are a good, moral,
industrious people. Some of them are very wealthy and very generous. Until
Mr. George Peabody's large donations, no one had bestowed so much on
public objects as Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeeboy, who had given to hospitals,
schools, and charities, some years since, a million and a half of dollars.
During our Rebellion, some of the Pârsîs sent gifts to the Sanitary
Commission, out of sympathy with the cause of freedom and Union.
Who can estimate the power of a single life? Of Zoroaster we do not know
the true name, nor when he lived, nor where he lived, nor exactly what he
taught. But the current from that fountain has flowed on for thousands of
years, fertilizing the souls of men out of its hidden sources, and helping
on, by the decree of Divine Providence, the ultimate triumph of good over
evil, right over wrong.