Zend-Avesta Part 2

THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST TRANSLATED BY VARIOUS ORIENTAL SCHOLARS AND EDITED BY F. MAX HOLLER VOL. XXIII OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1883 [Att rigkts reserved] THE ZEND-AVESTA PART II THE SIR6ZAHS, YA5TS, AND TRANSLATE) BT JAMES DARMESTET'ER OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1883 [All rfgte restrvef\ CONTENTS. PAGE INTRODUCTION ix TRANSLATIONS. Preliminary Observations to the Yarts and Sirdzahs . i Sir6zah 1 3 Sfr&zah II 13 I. Ormazd Yart 21 (Bahman Yatf) 31 II. Haptin Ywt .... 35 III. Ardibehirt Yajt 41 IV. Khordad Yart 48 V. Abdn Yart 52 VI. Kh&rshfe* Ysurt 85 VII. M&h Yart 88 VIIL Tir Yart 92 IX. Gdj Yart no X. MihSr Yajt 119 XL Srdsh Yajt Hftdhdkht ig9 XII. Rashn Ya^t 168 XIII. Farvardin Yajt 179 XIV. Bahram Yajt ,231 XV. Rfim Yart 249 XVL Din Yart 264 Vlll CONTENTS. PAGE XVII. Ashi Yart 270 XVIII. Adid Yart 283 XIX. ZamyfidYajt 286 XX. Vana/Yart 310 XXI. Yart Fragment 311 XXII. Yart 314 XXIIL Afrtn Paighambar Zartfot 324 XXIV. VfotSspYart 328 Preliminary Observations to the Nyiyir .... 349 I. Kh6rsh&f Ny&yij 349 II. Mihir Nyfiyiy 353 III. M&I Nyiyh 355 IV. ibln NySyw 356 V. Atsu Ny^yw 357 INDEX to the Translations of the Vend!dd, Slr6zahs, Yarts, and Nyiyw 363 Transliteration of Oriental Alphabets adopted for the Trans- lations of the Sacred Books of the East . .381 INTRODUCTION. THE present volume contains a translation of the SIrdzahs and Yarts, and of the Nyiyis. This part of the Avesta treats chiefly of the mythical and legendary lore of Zoroastrianism. For a satisfactory translation of these texts, the etymological 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work to its narrowest limits, with the help of different Pahlavi, Persian, and Sanskrit translations, which are as yet unpublished, and have been neglected by former trans- lators.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 SIrdzahs, for 1 Yarts I, VI, VII, XI, XXIII, XXIV, and for the Nyiyfc (besides the already published translations of Yarts XXI and XXII). Of the remaining Yarts, which are mostly of an epical character, there is no direct translation available; but a close comparison of the legends in Firdausi's Shih N&mah seems to throw some light, even as regards philological points, on not a few 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 2 others . 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 interpretation of several passages. JAMES DARMESTETER. PARIS, 13 December, 1882. 1 These translations have been edited in one Etudes Iraniennes, II, 253 seq. (Paris, Vieweg, 1883). 8 See ibidem, II, 206 seq. YASTS AND SIROZAHS. YASTS AND SfR6ZAHS. * THE word yajt, in Zend yfcjti, 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 particularly applied to a certain number of writings in which the several Izeds 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 Axnshaspand and every Ized had his particular Yart, but we now possess only twenty 1 Yarts and fragments of another . The writings known as Yart fragments, the Afrfci Zarttirt, and Vtrtisp Yart (printed as Yarts XXI, XXII, XXIII, XXIV in Westergaard's edition), are not proper Yarts, and have no liturgical character; they are not devoted to the praise of any Ized. The order in which the Yarts have been arranged by the Parsis follows exactly the oider of the Strdzah, which is the proper introduction to the Yarts. S1R6ZAH. Strdzah 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 Sfrdzahs, but the only difference between them is 9 is that the formulas in the former are shorter , and there also, occasionally, some difference in the epithets, which are fuller in the latter. 1 The Bahman Yajt (see Yt. I, 24 and following). * In the greater Strdzah the names of the gods invoked are introduced with the word yazamaidS, 'we sacrifice to;' in the lesser SJrdzah there is no introductory word, the word khshnao- c thra, propitiation/ being understood, as can be seen from the introductory formulas to the several Yarts. D3] B YASTS AND In India the Sirdzah 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 Sfrdzah and the Yarts is as follows : 1. Ormazd. Ormazd Yart (1, 1-23). Yart 2. Bahman. Bahman (I, 24-33). Ardibehert 3. Ardibehert. Yart (III). 4. ShahrSvar. 5. Sapendftpnad. 6. Khordid. Khorda-d Yart (IV). 7. Munttd 8. Dai pa Adar. 9. Adar. 10. AbSn. 11. Khorshfid. KhorshSd Yart (VI). 12. Mill. MSh Yajt (VII). 13. Ttr. T!r Yart (VIII). 14. Gds. Yart (IX). 15. DaipaMihir. 16. Mihir. Mihir Yart (X . 17. Sr6sh. Srdsh Yart (XI). 18. Rashn. Rashn Yart (XII). 19. Farvardfa. Farvardfn Yart (XIII). 20. Bahrim. Bahram Yart (XIV). 21. Rim. RSm Yart (XV). 22. Bad. 23. Dai pa Din. 24. Din. Din Yart (XVI). 25. Ard. Ashi Yart (XVII). 26. ArtSd Yart (XVIII). 27. 28. Zemyftd. Zemyad Yart (XIX), 29. Mahraspand. 30. An6rdn. The Yarts that have been lost those of Khsha- are^therefore, thra-vairya, Spe^ta-Armaiti, AmeretaV, Atar, V&ta, Asman, Mathra- Spenta, and Anaghra rao&zu. The second Yart, or Yart of the seven Amshaspands, appears to have been no independent Yart : it was common to all the seven Yarts devoted to the several SIR6ZAH I. 3 Amshaspands, and, accordingly, it is recited on the first seven days of the month. One might suppose that it was originally a part of the Ormazd Yarf, as the Amesha-Sperctas are invoked in company with Ahura Mazda (Strdzah i, 8, 15, 23). There may, indeed, have been several Yarfs for one and the same formula of the Strdzah, as in all of these formulas more than one Ized are invoked : this would apply not only to the Yart of the seven Amshaspands, hut also to the Vanaw/ Yart (Yart XX), which, in that case, ought to follow the Ttr Yart (see Strdzah 13). Not every Yart, however, is devoted to the Ized whose name it bears : thus the Ardibehejt Yart is mostly devoted to Airyaman; the Rim-Yart and the ZemySd-Yart are devoted to Vayu and to the JSfoarend : but Airyaman, Vayu, and the 2foarend are invoked in the same Strdzah formulas as Ardibehert, Rm, and Zemy&d, and a Yart is named from the opening name hi the correspondent Strdzah formula. The systematic order so apparent in the Strdzah pervades the rest of the liturgy to a great extent : the enumeration of Izeds in Yasna XVII, 12-42 (XVI, 3-6) follows exactly the order of the Strdzah, except that it gives only the first name of each formula; and the question may be raised whether this passage in the Yasna is taken from the Strdzah, or whether the Strdzah is developed from the Yasna. The very idea of the Stidzah, that is to say the attribution of each of the thirty days of the month to certain gods, seems to have been borrowed from the Semites: the tablets found in the library of Assurbanipal contain an Assyrian Strdzah, that is, a complete list of the Assyrian gods that preside over the thirty 1 days of the month . S1R6ZAH I. i. Ormazd. and 2 and to To Ahura Mazda, bright glorious , 8 the Amesha-Spe#tas . 1 fitudes 188. J. Hale*vy, Revue des Juives, 1881, October, p. a 8 See Yt. 1, 1-23. See Yt. II. B 2 YASTS AND 2. Bahman. 1 2 is To Vohu-Mand ; to Peace , whose breath 3 and who is more to than friendly , powerful destroy * 6 all to the other creatures ; heavenly Wisdom , made and to the Wisdom the by Mazda ; acquired through ear 5 made Mazda. , by 3. Ardibehe-rt. 6 To Asha-Valmta, the fairest ; to the much- desired made 7 instru- Airyaman, by Mazda ; to the ment made Mazda 8 and to the Saoka 9 by ; good , with of love 10 eyes , made by Mazda and holy. * See Yt. I, 24-33- 3 Akhjti does not so much mean Peace as the power that secures peace ; see note 4. 3 HSm-vaiti, from hm-v (Yt. X, 141); possibly from van, ' to strike : Peace that smites/ * Taradhtem anydij dmn, interpreted: tarvtnitartflm min zakf fin dimin pun anshtth ak&r kartan (Phi. Comm.), 'more than destroying other creatures, to make Non-peace (And- khjti) powerless/ 8 Asnya khratu, the inborn intellect, intuition, contrasted with gaoshfi-srftta khratu, the knowledge acquired by hearing and learning. There is between the two nearly the same relation as between the parftvidyft and aparftvidyS, in Brahmanism, the former reaching Brahma in se (parabrahma), the latter jabda- the word-Brahma as brahma, (Brahma taught and revealed).

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