Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/372

AVESTA. was able to restore sense to many passages of which Anquetil had often made nonsense, and he was thus able to throw a flood of light upon many an obscure point. The employment of Sanskrit, instead of depending upon the priestly traditions and interpretations, was a new step; it introduced a new method. This fresh dis- covery and gain of vantage-ground practically settled the discussion as to authenticity. The testimony, moreover, of the ancient Persian in- scriptions deciphered about this time by Grote- fend, Burnouf, Lassen, and by Sir Henry Raw- linson, showed still more by their contents and languages, so closely allied to the Avesta, that the work must be genuine. The foundation laid by Burnouf was now built upon by other scholars — Bopp, Haug, Westergaard, Spiegel, Roth, Justi, and later by de Harlez, Mills, Hübschmann, Bartholomæ, and especially Geldner and Darmesteter, in addition to some hardly less known names, Parsis among them. These schol- ars, using partly the Sanskrit key for the inter- pretation and meaning of words, and partly the Parsi tradition contained in the Pahlavi transla- tion, have now been able to give us a clear idea of the Avesta and its contents, so far as the books have come down to us. Upon minor points of interpretation, of course, there are, and always will be, individual differences of opinion.

Contents, Arrangement, Extent, and Character. — The Avesta, as we now have it, is but a small remnant of a once great literature. It has come down in a more or less fragmentary condition: not even a single manuscript contains all the texts that we now have; whatever we possess has been collected together from various codices. All that survives is commonly classed under the following divisions or books: (1) The Yasna, (2) the Vīspered, (3) the Yashts, (4) a collection of minor texts, (5) the Vendīdād, (6) Fragments. Among these divisions, not counting the Fragments, two groups are recognized. As used in the service of worship, the Vendīdād, Vīspered, and the Yasna are traditionally classed together for liturgical purposes, and form the Avesta proper. In the manuscripts these three books appear in two different forms. If they are kept separate as three divisions, each part is then usually accompanied by a Pahlavi version. On the other hand, since these three books are not recited each as a whole, but the chapters of one book for liturgical purposes are mingled with another, on this account the MSS. often present them in their intermingled form, portions of one inserted with the other, and arranged exactly in the order that they are to be used in the service. In this latter case the Pahlavi translation is omitted, and the collection is called the Vendīdād Sādah, or Vendīdād pure — i.e. text without commentary. The second group, the minor prayers and the Yashts, which the MSS. often include with these, is called the Khordah Avesta, or 'Small Avesta.' Of the greater part of the latter there is no Pahlavi rendering. The contents and character of the several divisions may now be taken up in detail.

(1) The Yasna, 'sacrifice, worship,' is the chief liturgical work of the sacred canon. It consists principally of ascriptions of praise and prayer, and in it are inserted the Gāthās, or 'hymns,' verses from the sermons of Zoroaster (q.v.), which are the oldest and most sacred part of the Avesta. The Yasna (Skt. yain̄á) comprises 72 chapters, called Hā, Hāiti. These are the texts recited by the priests at the ritual ceremony of the Yasna (Izashne). The book falls into three nearly equal divisions. The first part (chap. 1-27) begins with an invocation of the god Ormazd and the other divinities of the religion; it gives texts for the consecration of the holy water, zaothra, and of the huresma, or bundle of sacred twigs, for the preparation and dedication of the Haoma, the juice of a certain plant — the Indian Soma — which was drunk by the priests as a sacred rite, and the offering of blessed cakes, as well as a meat-offering, which likewise were partaken of by the priests. Interspersed through this portion, however, are a few chapters that deal only indirectly with the ritual; these are Ys. 12, the later Zoroastrian creed, and Ys. 19-21, catechetical portions. Then follow the Gāthās — literally 'psalms,' or 'songs' (chap. 28-53), metrical selections or verses containing the teachings, exhortations, and revelations of Zoroaster. The Prophet exhorts his followers to avoid the evil and choose the good, the kingdom of light rather than that of darkness. (For the theology of the Gāthās, see .) These Gāthās are written in metre, and their language is more archaic than, and somewhat different from, that used elsewhere in the Avesta. The Gāthās, strictly speaking, are five in number, and are arranged according to the metres; they comprise 17 hymns (Ys. 28-34, 43-46, 47-50, 51, 53), and they must have been chanted during the service. In their midst (chap. 35-42) is inserted the so-called Yasna of the Seven Chapters (Haptanghāiti). This is written in prose, and consists of a number of prayers and ascriptions of praise to Ahura Mazda, or Ormazd, the archangels, the souls of the righteous, the fire, and the earth. Though next in antiquity to the Gāthās, and in archaic language, it represents a somewhat later and more developed form of the religion which in the Gāthās proper was just beginning. The third part (chap. 52, 54-72) of the latter Yasna (saparō yasnō) consists chiefly of praises and offerings of thanksgiving to different divinities.

(2) The Vīspered (Av. vīspē ratavō) consists of additions to portions of the Yasna, which it resembles in language and in form. It comprises 24 chapters (called Karde, literally, 'sections'), and it is about one-seventh as long as the Yasna. In the ritual, the chapters of the Vīspered are inserted among those of the Yasna. It contains invocations and offerings of homage to 'all the lords' (vīspē ratavō); hence the name Vīspered.

(3) The Yashts (yešti, 'worship by praise') consist of 21 hymns of praise and adoration of the divinities, or angels, Yasatas (Izads), of the religion. The chief of these are Ardvī-Sūra, the goddess of waters (Yt. 5), the star Tishtrya (Yt. 8), the angel Mithra, the divinity of truth; the Fravashis, or departed souls of the righteous, and the genius of victory, Verethraghna, and of the Kingly Glory (Yt. 19). They are written mainly in metre, with some poetic merit, and they contain much mythological and historical matter that may be illustrated by Firdausi's later Persian epic, the Shāh-Nāmah.