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Insler 1975 the Gathas of Zarathustra 1975 SOUS LE HAUT PATRONAGE DE S.M.I. LE SHAHINSHAH ARYAMEHR ACTA IRANICA ENCYCLOPEDIE PERMANENTE DES ETUDES IRANI EN NES FONDEE A L'OCCASION DU 2500' ANN I VERSAIRE DE LA FONDATION'DE L'EMPIRE PERSE PAR CYRUS LE GRAND TROISIEME SERIE TEXTES ET MEMOIRES Acta Iranica 8 nniisioN BRILL BIBLIOTHEQL'E PAH LAV i EJ. TEHERAN-LIEGE LEIDEN t- -. r, s" YYY?*t ACTA IRANICA TROISIEME SERIE VOLUME 1 ft# ? ; TEXTES ET MEMOIRES VOLUME ! THE GATHAS OF ZARATHUSTRA by S. INSLER V\V :':*,-- ; vm^- -S,Z 1975 jgg|. ES&gffi-M DIFFUSION EDITION E.J. BRILL BIBLIOTHEQUE PAHLAVI - / LEIDEN TEHERAN-LIEGE COMITE INTERNATIONAL Prof. Sir Harold B,,u:v (Grande-Bretagne): Prof. George Cameron (E,U.) S. Exc. Prof. Ennco Cerull, (halie,: t S. Exc. Dr Tara Chand (Inde); Prof Henri Com.* (France): Pro f. J acques ' D.chesne-GuJLn"N (Belgique(Belgique); " '"." "'• " u,iL' 1,n c,LE »s (AMcmagne): , Prof S.q Ednanr Erz.c ,-r (Turqu.e): Prof. Richard Ett.nghal«n G <E.-tl): AcTd <L R - SS1: Pmr Ro«».«..n ,~*1..- -, ™ GhirshmanuniMHM.^' (France):(r-runce): ™ !:.- S~ Exc. Prof Garc.n Cc.mez _<hspagne): Prof. Janos Harm*tta ,H„ nCne>: Prn f. Dr Wmihcr ' H.N* (.A.lemagne): Prof. Yahva AL-Khashah (Egypteh S. Em Dr. Franz KOnic; Ci lAmriche): Pror. Georg Mobgenstif.i S. Nvni-KCi (Suede): Pir Husamuddin Rasmhi (Pakistan). DIRECTION Le Conseil Cullurel Imperial de I'lran ' Vke minis ' ImJI^t"^ re * " °'ur >"< *™» * - REDACTEUR EN CHEF J. .DuniBN, ; -Gni,.B„ N . professeur ordinaire a ; PUniversUe de Liege, assist de P.rre Lecoc, docteur en ni.stoire c , «„*„,„« orien.alc, « de Jean a KzLsllLtn 1 bmvcrsilc Johannes Gutenberg. Mayence. Universiie de Liege. Place du 20 a out 16, B 4000 Lieee. ISBN 90 04 03902 3 90 04 04399 3 by © 1975 Bibliotheque Pahlavi. Tehran-Liege All rights reserved No pan of this hook may he reproduced or translated ,n any arm. hy J print, photoprint, mierofilm. or microfiche any other means without written permission from the publisher PRINTED IN BELGIUM For Paul Thieme vidvii has hucistiscd y5 ma mqQnmqm paQo sisat yascd mai asa daxsat yaBci vohu urvcije mcmaijhd tarn paowvyqm hugorsbqm aesqm vahistanqm sravaijhqm uhva vahmai stutaecd a torn yaBanam vcwclcivdmalu CONTENTS Introduction 1 The text 3 The translation 20 The commentary 21 Yasna 28 24 Yasna 29 28 Yasna 30 32 Yasna 31 36 Yasna 32 44 Yasna 33 50 Yasna 34 54 Yasna 43 60 Yasna 44 66 Yasna 45 74 Yasna 46 80 Yasna 47 88 Yasna 48 90 Yasna 49 94 Yasna 50 98 Yasna 51 102 Yasna 53 110 Commentary 114 Addenda 327 References 335 Abbreviations 33S Complete glossary to the gathas 339 Index locorum 365 Index verborum 375 INTRODUCTION Because of their relative brevity and the almost total lack of other earlier or contemporary works of Old Iranian literature, the Gathas of Zarathustra are truly a text bound with seven seals. Much of the grammar, the vocabulary and the syntax encountered in these lyrics remains unique in relationship to the language appearing in the later texts assembled in the A vesta. Likewise, the prophet's hymns are laden with ambiguities resulting both from the merger of many grammatical endings and from the intentionally compact and often elliptical style which characterizes his poetic art. The higher level question of the interpretation of the Gathas' content, frequently expressed in metaphoric and allegorical terms, is even more proble- matic. The noted literary isolation of the text within the ancient period has excluded the possibility of fixing a true position to the prophet's theology within the preceding developments of Iranian religion. Similarly, there exist no early analytical commentaries of the Zoroastrian tradition, written in the wake of Zarathustra 's influence, which could present in detail the meaning of his message to the community of his adherents. And finally, the mechanical arrangement of the Gathas within the A vesta according to their metrical schemes has effaced all certain chances of even following the prophet's intellectual evolution within his own fragmentary works. Thus, to anyone struggling with these lyrics, the Gathas truly appear to be a book of riddles. But like all riddles, the problems encountered within the Gathas beg to be solved, and many have been solved. Most of the grammatical forms have been puzzled out through the help of the related Indian Rigveda, which has also provided the source for establishing much of the fundamental vocabulary of Zarathustra's lyrics. This literary monument of India has likewise revealed a number of stylistic figures and syntactic conventions which have aided in the interpretation of various passages in the prophet's hymns. And the Rigveda has moreover furnished a textual counterpart against which the dominant themes of Zarathustra *s teachings can be compared and judged. Other progress in understanding this ancient A vesta n text has been achieved, primarily through the efforts of Humbach, by the careful internal analysis of recurrent literary devices and repeated expressions within the INTRODUCTION language or the Gathas. For. besides establishing without doubt the unity of composmon of these lyric poems, this type of philological study has been extremely helpful in revealing several basic techniques or the syntactic and expressive organization of the prophet's words Yet many riddles still persist which prevent us from sraspin" unequivocally the meaning of Zaraihustras poetry. The transmitted text of the Gathas has suffered profound corruption in a few important passages which escape assured reconstruction. Furthermore, various items of the vocabulary of these lyrics remain unknown; others particularly those which appear to have connections with the Ri-vedic vocabulary, continue to be a source of dispute owing to the possibility of either a difference in meaning between cognate words or a false basis of comparison. But overshadowing all the difficulties inherent in properly understanding the Gathas is the problem of disentangling the intricacies of their syntax. Because, as long as little certainty exists m the establishment of definite rules for inlerpretinc the 'various possibilities of syntactic coordination within the special eloquence o Zarathustra s poetry, there can be no assurance that the translation ol.a given passage approaches the intentions orminally formulated by the prophet. When this lack of certitude exists for ihe'arcater number of .-verses within the limited corpus of the Gathas, the^i we are faced with the realization that much of our knowledge of these poems is highly doubtful. This present work results from the attempt to offer some solutions to the persistent problems of the text, the grammar, the vocabulary and especially, the syntax of the Gathas. which can better aid our understanding of the prophet's words on several levels. In this regard I have followed the main philological principles which have been described above: analysis and explanation through comparative and internal material. For the abundant data of the Riavecla not only provides a means ol access to the problems of Gathic philology but equally offers a well tried touchstone against which one can teVnevv suggestions concerning the interpretation of the Iranian evidence Equally, the remarkable unity of composition and content of the Gathas allows us to search within the framework of that text itself for evidence of parallel or equivalent formulations. For Zarathustra is a man haunted by a vision, which has pursued him relentlessly throughout his life, and his poetry is in as many ways the autobiography of an idea as much it is as the self-portrait of the prophet. In this last regard, it is precisely the recognition of this obsessive INTRODUCTION 3 determination lying behind the formulations of these lyrics which obliges us in turn to seek a coherent and uniform interpretation of their teachings. For where doubt and hesitation exist in the under- standing of the Gathas, they exist only for us. For Zarathustra, who composed these exalted poems with all the craft of his admirable poetic art, the compelling character of his message was undoubtedly clear, and he surely labored with great pains to express his thoughts in a fashion ultimately comprehensible to those who cared to listen to him. And for us, too, the approach to these lyrics must be the same : an effort founded upon the careful labor and examination into the composition of the prophet's poetry to reveal its underlying unity of thought and language. There can be only one correct inter- pretation of each line for us as there was for the man who first formulated them. The text 1 have followed in general the text of the Gathas given by Humbach (1959, I), since he has proposed a few helpful improvements to the readings, while adopting the many variants favored by Barthotomae (1904) which are more in keeping with the regular orthographic practices of the Mss. than those presented in the standard text in Geldner's edition (1896). Where I have differed from his text with regard to a critical readina. I have indicated in the notes to each Gatha the Ms. source(s) which I have followed, and I have explained in the commentary to the pertinent passages the reasons for preferring the selected variants. A similar approach has been chosen with respect to the emendations which I have accepted from previous studies of the Gathas and which I myself have conjectured. These emendations are noted in the apparatus at the end of each Gatha and are further discussed in the commentary. No attempt, however, has been made to correct all the instances of false vowel length or to restore all underlying forms masked by orthographic conventions. Only those forms which contribute a substantial change to the understanding of a passage are included in the notes.
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