Page:History of Zoroastrianism.djvu/95

Rh of Mazda's religion. Zarathushtra longs to see Sraosha, and prays that he may come unto every man whom Mazda wills. The prophet teaches the new faith to the world of humanity. He exhorts mankind to pay heed to the words that are best for the mortals to hear and tells them that Ahura Mazda will give them perfection and immortality if they will bring Sraosha's obedience unto him. By teaching mankind to obey the ordinances of Ahura Mazda, and inspiring them to work according to them, through good thoughts, words, and deeds for the furtherance of righteousness in the world, Zarathushtra helps in the inauguration of the Divine Kingdom of Ahura Mazda. In the later period Sraosha acts as a co-assessor with Mithra and Rashnu, who all combine to make up a heavenly tribunal for the judgment of the dead. Mithra and Rashnu, the two brother judges, seated with Sraosha, do not appear in the Gathas, but a passage speaks of Sraosha's coming as a judge with the reward unto the good and evil contending parties. Zarathushtra invokes Sraosha as the greatest of the heavenly beings to appear at the final consummation of the world.

The word sraosha occurs also in several Gathic passages in its ordinary meaning of obedience, and not as the personified spirit of this abstract virtue.

The fire cult. Atar or fire corresponds to the Vedic Agin. Atar's functions are elaborately delineated in the Later Avesta. We shall therefore leave the discussion of the resemblance between them for subsequent pages. The early Aryan settlers of Iran had brought the cult to their new home as their cherished heritage bequeathed to them by their Indo-Iranian ancestors Tradition speaks of several great sacred Iranian fires consecrated by the pre-Zoroastrian kings. The Pahlavi Bundahishn says that Yima and Kavi Haosrava established the fires Froba and Goshasp; and that Vishtaspa, the royal patron of Zarathushtra, consecrated the fire Burzin Mihr. The Mohammedan writers of the tenth century speak of some ten such places dedi-