Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/98

Rh privileged race—we have a parallel in the historical evolution of Buddhism, as a religion of pure humanity aspiring to universality, out of the narrow exclusiveness of Brahmanism with its rigorous politico-ethnological system of hereditary caste.

If, however, we go back to an earlier period, we meet with a most striking example of the workings of these conflicting forces in the disintegration and reconstruction of old Aryan society, thirty centuries ago, in the highlands of Bactria. The nature of this epoch-making movement, which took place as the result of Zarathustra's teachings and under his leadership, and the deep and enduring enmity it excited between people of the same blood, are perceptible in the solemn pledge or confession of faith by which the proselyte was received into the fellowship of the Iranian community.

This remarkable document, written in the ancient Gatha dialect, which is surmised to have been the vernacular of Zarathustra's native province and the mother-tongue of the prophet, begins with an abjuration of the ancestral deva worship and a vow of devotion to the glorious and munificent Ahuramazda, and then proceeds to a renunciation of all evil works, and especially of those deeds of violence peculiar to nomadic freebooters: "I choose the beneficent Armaiti (earth), the good. May she be mine! I detest all fraud and injury done to the spirit of the earth, and all damage and destruction to the homes of the Mazdayasnians. I permit the good spirits, which dwell on the earth in the form of good animals (such as sheep and kine), to roam undisturbed according to their pleasure. I j)raise, besides, all offerings and prayers to promote the growth of life. I will never do harm or hurt to the habitations of the Mazdayasnians, neither with my body nor with my soul. I forsake the devas, the wicked and malicious workers of iniquity, the most baneful, most malignant, and basest of beings. I forsake the devas and their like, the wizards and their allies, and all creatures whatsoever of such kind. I forsake them in thought, in word, and in deed. I forsake them hereby publicly, and declare that all their deceits and lies shall be put away." After further asseverations in the same strain, and after renouncing anew the devas, and entering into covenant with the waters, the woods, and the living spirit of Nature, and accepting the creed of the fire-priests, the diffusers of light and of truth, the convert concludes by avowing himself to be a disciple of Zarathustra, an adherent of the pure Ahuryan religion, and a member of the righteous brotherhood. Henceforth he is a sworn foe of the evil-doing, ancestral deities, and a zealous co-worker with Ahuramazda in promoting good thoughts, good words, and good deeds—humata, hûkhta, hvarshta.

With this proclamation of a purer religion the promulgation