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Please do not assume that a book's appearance in 'The Builder' library means it can be used in any manner anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe. The Webmaster 'l,onb'on HENRY FROWDE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE '1 PATERNOSTER ROW Digitized by Coogle THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST TRANSLATED BY VARIOUS ORIENTAL SCHOLARS AND EDITED BY F. MAX MULLER VOL. XXIII ®~forb AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1883 [A /I rigkts reserved] Digitized by Goog Ie ·THE ZEND-AVESTA PART II THE SiRl>ZAHS, VASTS, AND NvAvIS TRANSLATED BY JAMES DARMESTETE~ AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1883 [All rights reserved] Digitized by Coogle CONTE NT S. " l'AGIt INTRODUCTION ix TRANSLATIONS. Preliminary Observations to the Vasts and Sir~zahs. 1 Sir6zah I . 3 Shazah II .13 I. Ormazd Yast . 21 (Bahman Vast) 31 II. Haptan Yast . 35 III. Ardibehist Yast 41 IV. Khordad Vast 48 V. .AMn Vast 52 VI. Kh6rshU Vast 85 VII. Mah Vast 88 VIII. Tir Yast 92 IX. G6s Vast 110 X. Mihir Vast 119 XI. Srosh Yast HadMkht 159 XII. Rashn Vast 168 XIII. Farvardin Yast 179 XIV. Bahram Yast. 231 XV. Ram Vast 249 XVI. Din Yast 264 Digitized by Coogle V111 CONTENTS. PAGE XVII. Ashi Vast XVIII. AstM Vast . XIX. Zamydd Yast XX. Vanant Yast · 310 XXI. Vast Fragment 311 XXII. Vast · 314 XXIII. Afrin Paighambar Zartftst . • 324 XXIV. Vistasp Vast 328 Preliminary Observations to the Nyayis 349 I. KhOrshCdNyayis 349 II. Mihir Nyayis • 353 III. Mah Nyayis 355 IV. AMn Nyayis 356 V. Atas Nyayis 357 INDEXto the Translations of the Vendiddd, Sirozahs, Vasts, and Nyayis . 363 Transliteration of Oriental Alphabets adopted for the Trans- lations of the Sacred Books of the East . 381 Digitized by Coogle INTRODUCTION. THE present volume contains a translation of the Strozahs and Vasts, and of the Nyayir. This part of the Avesta treats chiefly of the mythical and legendary lore of Zoroastrianism. For a satisfactory translation of these texts, the etymo• logical and comparative method is generally considered as the best or as the only possible one, on account of the entire absence of any traditional interpretation. I have tried, however, to reduce the sphere of etymological guess• work to its narrowest limits, with the help of different Pahlavi, Persian, and Sanskrit translations, which are as yet unpublished, and have been neglected by former trans• lators. I found such translations for the Sirozahs, for Yasts I, VI, VII, XI, XXIII, XXIV, and for the Nyayis ! (besides the already published translations of Vasts XXI and XXII). Of the remaining Yasts, which are mostly of an epical character, there is no direct translation available; but a close comparison of the legends in Firdausi's Shah Narnah seems to throw some light, even as regards philological points, on not a lew obscure and important passages. This has enabled me, I believe, to restore a few myths to their original form, and to frame a more correct idea of others 2. In this volume, as in.the preceding one, I have to thank Mr. West for his kind assistance in making my translation more readable, as well as for valuable hints in the inter• pretation of several passages. JAMES DARMESTETER. PARIS, 13 December, 1882. 1 These translations pave been edited in our ttudes Iraniennes, II, 353 seq. (Paris, Vieweg. 1883). 3 See ibidem, II, 306 seq. Digitized by Coogle AA VASTS AND SIROZAHS. Digitized by Goog Ie A VASTS OZAHS. THE word yast, in Zend y s'l, means properly' the act of wor• shipping,' the performance of the yasna; and it is often used in Parsi tradition as synonymous with yasna. But it has also been particularlyapplied to a certain number of writings in which the severalIzeds are praised and magnified. These writings are generally of a higher poetical and epical character than the rest of the Avesta, and are most valuable records of the old mythology and historical legends of Iran. The Parsis believe that formerly every Amshaspand and every Ized had his particular Yast, but we now possess only twenty Vasts and fragments of another 1. The writings known as Vast fragments, the Arrin Zarturt, and Vistbp Vast (printed as Yasts XXI, XXII, XXIII, XXIV in Westergaard's edition),are not proper Yasts, and have no liturgicalcharacter; they are not devoted to the praise of any Ized. The order in which the Vasts have been arranged by the Parsis follows exactly the order of the Sirozah, which is the proper in• troduction to the Yasts. SiR6zAH. Shozah means' thirty days:' it is the name of a prayer com• posed of thirty invocations addressed to the several Izeds who preside over the thirty days of the month. There are two Sirozahs,but the only differencebetween them is .... that the formulas in the former are shorter i, and there is also, occasionally, some difference in the epithets, which are fuller in the latter. 1 The BahmanVast (seeYt. I, §§ 24 and following). I In the greater Sirozah the names of the gods invoked are introduced with the word yazamaide, 'we sacrifice to;' in the lesser Sirozah there is no introductory word, the word khshnao• thra, 'propitiation,' being understood, as can be seen from the introductoryformulas to the severalVasts. :, [23] B Digitized by Coogle 2 YASTS AND SIR6zAHs. In India the Sirazah is recited in honour of the dead, on the thirtieth day after the death, on the thirtieth day of the sixth month, on the thirtieth day of the twelfth month, and then every year on the thirtieth day from the anniversary day (Anquetil, Zend• Avesta, II, 315). The correspondence between the formulas of the Sirozah and the Vasts is as follows: I. Ormazd. Ormazd Vast (I, 1-23). 2. Bahman. Bahman Vast (I, 24-33). 3. Ardibehest. Ardibehest Yast (III). 4. Shahrevar, 5. Sapenddrrnad. 6. Khordad. Khordad Yast (IV). 7. Murddd. 8. Dai pa Adar. 9. Adar. 10. Aban. AMn Vast (V). I I. Khorshed. Khorshed Yast (VI). 12. Mah. l\Uh Yast (VII). 13. Ttr, Tir Vast (VIII). 14. Gol'. ce. Vast (IX). 15. Dai pa Mihir. 16. Mihir. Mihir Yast (X). 17. Srosh. Srosh Yast (XI). 18. Rashn. Rashn Yast (XII). 19- Farvardln. Farvardin Vast (XIII). 20. Bahram. Bahram Yast (XIV). 21. Ram. Ram Vast (XV). 22. Bad. 23. Dai pa mn. 24. Din. Din Yast (XVI). 25. Ard. Ashi Yast (XVII). 26. Astad. Astad Vast (XVIII). 27. Asman. 28. Zemyad. Zemydd Vast (XIX). 29. Mahraspand. 30. Aneran. The Vasts that have been lost are, therefore, those of Khsha• thra-vairya, Spenta-Armaiti, Amereta/, Atar, Vata, Asman, Mathra• Spenta, and Anaghra raokau. The second Vast, or Vast of the seven Amshaspands, appears to have been no independent Yast : it was common to all the seven Yasts devoted to the several Digitized by Coogle SiR6zAH Y. 3 Amshaspands, and, accordingly,it is recited on the first seven days of the month. One might suppose that it was originallya part of the Ormazd Yast, as the Amesha-Spentas are invoked in company with Ahura Mazda (Sirozah 1,8, 15, 23). There may,indeed,have been severalVasts for one and the same formula of the Sirozah,as in all of these formulas more than one Ized are invoked: this would apply not only to the Vast of the seven Amshaspands, but also to the Vanan/ Yast (Yast XX), which, in that case, ought to follow the Ttr Yast (see Sirdzah 13). Not every Vast, however, is devoted to the Ized whose name it bears: thus the ArdibehestVast is mostly devoted to Airyaman; the Ram-Yast and the Zemyad-Yastare devoted to Vayu and to the Hvareno: but Airyaman, Vayu, and the Hvareno are invoked in the same Sirozah formulas as Ardibehest, R4m, and Zemyad, and a Yast isnamedfromthe opening name in the correspondent Sirozah formula.