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 54

INTRODUCTION, V.
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the Turanians of Ådarbaigân1; so that the wars of Frangrasyan and Zainigau may be an echo of the predatory struggles between the Arabs from the south and those Turanians of north-western Iran who were for centuries the plague of that country, and whom Khusro Nôshirvân tried at last to imprison in the Caucasus.
CHAPTER V.
BRAHMANICAL, BUDDHIST, AND GREEK ELEMENTS.
§ 1. The political and social circumstances which the Avesta reflects being those of the Parthian time, one may easily expect to find in its doctrine the reaction of those civilisations, or religions, which flourished during that period either in Iran or in the neighbouring countries. In fact, we find in the Avesta either polemics against, or loans from, the great contemporary systems, the Brâhmanical, the Buddhist, the Greek, and the Jewish.
§ 2. The true Zoroastrian is called a Mazdayasna, ‘a worshipper of Mazda 2,' in contradistinction to the Daêvayasna, 'the worshipper of the Daêvas.' Daêva is generally understood as 'a demon,' and that is the meaning it has in the derived dêv and in most of the Zend texts generally; as it is applied to the evil forces of nature, like the WindDaêva, or to the evil forces of the soul, like Aêshma, 'Wrath;' Akem Manô, 'Bad Thought;' Tarômaiti, ' Pride.' But it must also have applied to false gods, for the Daêvayasna is not a bad Zoroastrian, it is a man who does not belong to the Zoroastrian system, it is a foreigner, an Anaryan. Doctors must practise on Daêvayasnas before treating Mazdayasnas, which is a rule clear and practical only if the Daêvayasna is a worshipper of the false gods, of Indian, Assyrian, or Greek idols; for the test is simple enough. The word may have applied first and more
1 Tabari, I, 505; Hamza, tr. p. 98.
'The Sassanian kings took on their coins the title of Mazdayasn, instead of the Philhellen of the Arsacidae.
d 2
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