Zend Avesta Part 01

SR No.: 007671
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Darmesteter
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1895
Total Pages: 2695
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 149

54
VENDIDÂD.
13 (44). 'And as soon as the birds begin to fly, the plants to grow, the hidden floods to flow, and the wind to dry up the earth, then the worshippers of Mazda shall lay down the dead (on the Dakhma), his eyes towards the sun.
14 (46). "If the worshippers of Mazda have not, within a year, laid down the dead (on the Dakhma), his eyes towards the sun, thou shalt prescribe for that trespass the same penalty as for the murder of one of the faithful"; until the corpse has been rained on, until the Dakhma has been rained on, until the unclean remains have been rained on, until the birds have eaten up the corpse.'
IV. 15 (49). O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Is it true that thou, Ahura Mazda, seizest the waters from the sea Vouru-kasha’ with the wind and the clouds ?
. 16 (51). That thou, Ahura Mazda, takest them down to the corpses 3 ? that thou, Ahura Mazda, takest them down to the Dakhmas ? that thou, Ahura Mazda, takest them down to the unclean remains ? that thou, Ahura Mazda, takest them down to the bones? and that then thou, Ahura Mazda, makest them flow back unseen ? that thou, Ahura Mazda, makest them flow back to the sea Puitika * ?
See Farg. III, 41, note ; cf. below, $$ 21-26. • Vouru-kasha or Fråkh-kart, the Ocean, wherefrom all waters come and whereto they return (Farg. XXI, 4).
3 Zoroaster wonders that Ormazd fears so little to infringe his own laws by defiling waters with the dead. In a Ravâet, he asks him bluntly why he forbids men to take corpses to the water, while he himself sends rain to the Dakhmas (Gr. Rav. 125).
* The sea where waters are purified before going back to their
Digitized by
Digitized by Google