Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/373

AVESTA. (4) The minor texts, Nyāishes, Gāhs, Sirozahs, Afrīngāns, consist of brief prayers, praises, of blessings recited daily, or on special occasions.

(5) The Vendīdād, or 'law against the dævas, or demons' (vidaēva dāta), is a priestly code of 22 chapters (Fargard), corresponding to the Pentateuch in our Bible. Its parts vary greatly in time and in style of composition. Much of it must be late; some of it even as late, per- haps, as the First or Second Century of the Christian Era; but much of the material is very old. The first chapter (Farg. I.) is a sort of Avestan Genesis, a dualistic account of creation. Chapter 2 sketches the legend of Yima, the Golden Age, and the coming of a destructive winter, an Iranian flood. Chapter 3 teaches the blessings of agriculture; chap- ter 4 contains legal matter — breaches of con- tract, assaults, punishments; chapters 5-12 re- late mainly to the impurity from the dead; chapters 13-15 deal chiefly with the treatment of the dog; chapters 16, 17. and partly 18, are devoted to purification from several sorts of un- clcanness. In chapter 19 is found the tempta- tion of Zoroaster and the reflation; chapters 20-22 are chiefly of medical character. In the ritual, the chapters of the Vendīdād are inserted among the Gāthās.

(6) Besides the above books, there are a number of fragments, one or two among them from the Hādhōkht Nask. There are also quotations or passages from missing Nasks; likewise glosses and glossaries. Here belong the Nīrangistān, Aogemadaēca, Vijtrkarí, Dināk, Frahanjiām, and other fragments. These are all written in the Avesta language, and are parts of a once great collection. Under the Zoroastrian religious literature, though not written in the Avestan language, must also be included the works in Pahlavi (q.v.), many of which are translations from the Avesta, or contain old matter from the original scriptures.

From the summary given, it will be seen that our present Avesta is rather a prayer-book than a bible. The Vendīdād, Vīspered, and Yasna were gathered together by the priests for liturgical purposes. It was the duty of the priests to recite the whole of these sacred writ- ings every day, in order to preserve their own purity, and to perform the rites of purification or give remission of sins to others. The solemn recitation of the Vendīdād, Vīspered, and Yasna at the sacrifice might be compared with our church worship. The selections from the Vendīdād would correspond to the Pentateuch when read; the preparation, consecration, and presentation of the holy water, the Haoma-juice, and the offering of the Yasna and Vīspered would answer to our communion service; the metrical parts of the Yasna would be hymns; the intoning of the Gāthās would somewhat resemble the Lesson and the Gospels, or even the sermon. In the Khordah Avesta. the great Yashts might perhaps be comparable to some of the more epic parts of our Bible; but as being devoted each to some deity and preserv- ing much of the old mythology, they really have hardly a parallel, even in the Apocrypha.

Such, in brief outline, are the contents of our books known as the Avesta to-day; but, as implied above, this is but a remnant of a literature once vastly greater. This we can judge both from internal and from historical evidence. The character of the work itself, in its present form, sufficiently shows that it is a compilation from various sources. This is further supported by the authority of history, if the Parsi tradition, going back to the time of the Sassanidæ, be trustworthy. Pliny (Hist. Nat. 30, 1, 2) tells of 2,000,000 verses composed by Zoroaster. The Arab historian, Tabari, describes the writings of Zoroaster as committed to 12,000 cowhides (parchments); other Arabic references by Masudi, and Syriac allusions to an Avesta, which must have been extensive, have been noted above. The Parsi tradition on the subject is contained in the Rivāyats, and in a Pahlavi book, the Dēnkart. The Dēnkart (Bk. III.) describes two complete copies of the Avesta. These each comprise 21 Nasks, or Nosks (books). The one deposited in the archives at Persepolis perished in the flames when Alexander burned the palace in his invasion of Iran. The other copy, it is implied, fell into the hands of the Greeks, and by them was translated into the Greek language. From that time the scriptures, like the religion under the Græco-Parthian sway, lived on, partly in scattered writings and in the memories of the priests, for nearly 500 years.

The first attempt again to collect these writ- ings seems to have been begun under the reign of the last Arsacidæ (q.v.), just preceding the Sassanian dynasty. Pahlavi tradition, preserved in a proclamation of King Khosru Anushirvan, or Chosroes I. (531-579), says it was under King Valkash that the collection was begun of the sacred writings, as far as they had escaped the ravages of Alexander, or were preserved by oral tradition. The Sassanian dynasty (A.D. 226) next came to the throne. This house were genuine Zoroastrians and warm support- ers of the faith, and they brought back the old religion and raised it to a height it had hardly reached even in its palmiest days. The first Sassanian monarchs, Artakhshīr Pāpakān (Ar- dashīr Bābagān, 226-241) and his son, Shahpuhr I., or Sapor (c. 241-272), eagerly continued the gathering of the religious writings, and the Avesta again became the sacred book of Iran. Under Shahpuhr II. (c. 309-380) the final re- vision of the Avesta texts was made by Atūr- pāt Māraspend, and then the King proclaimed these as canonical, and fixed the number of the Nasks, or books.

Of these Nasks, 21 were counted, and a description of them, as noted, is found in the Rivāyats, and in the Dēnkart; each received a name corresponding to one of the twenty-one words in the Ahuna Vairya (Honovar), the most sacred prayer of the Parsis. Three groups or classes, moreover, were recognized in subdividing these 21 books; First, the Gāthā or Gāsān group, a theological series; second, the group of the law, Dāt; and third, a miscellaneous class, Hadha-Māthra, partly metaphysical. Each of these Nasks contained both Avesta and Zend — i.e. original scripture and commentary. This tradition is too important to be idly rejected. Its contents give an idea of what may have been the original extent and scope of the books of the Avesta. The subjects said to have been treated in the 21 Nasks may practically be described, in brief, as follows; Nask 1 (twenty-two sections), on virtue and piety; 2 (likewise twenty-two sections), religious observance; 3 (twenty-one sections), the Maz-