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 563

INTRODUCTION.
the reigns of the earlier Sasanian monarchs; but it was, no doubt, very different in its details from the epitome of its commentary which still exists.
These hypotheses, regarding the threefold origin of the present form of this Yast, derive some confirmation from the inconsistencies in its chronological details; especially those relating to the periods of the invaders' reign and of Hushédar's birth. The Zoroastrians have for ages been expecting the appearance of Hashedar, the first of their last three apostles, but have always had to postpone their expectations from time to time, like the Jews and other interpreters of prophecy; so that they are still looking forward into the future for his advent, although his millennium has long since expired according to the chronology adopted in the Bahman Yast. This chronology, of course, represents the expectations of Zoroastrians in past times, and seems to express three different opinions. First, we have the statement that the last great battle of the demonraces is to take place at the end of Zaratůst's millennium (see Chap. III, 9), when the wicked will be so destroyed (compare III, 22, 23) that none will pass into the next millennium (III, 11), which is that of Hushedar (III, 43). And that the reign of evil is to precede the end of Zaratūst's millennium is evidently assumed also in Chap. II, 41, 63. Such opinions may reasonably be traced to the original Avesta writer, who must have expected only a short reign of evil to arise and fall near the latter end of Zaratūst's millennium, which was still far in the future, and to be followed by the appearance of Hûshedar to restore the 'good' religion. Secondly, we are told (1, 5, II, 22, 24, 31) that the invasion of the demon-races, with its attendant evils, is to take place when Zaratast's millennium is ended ; on their appearance Hûshedar is born (III, 13), and when he is thirty years old (compare III, 14 with III, 44) Vährâm the Vargåvand is also born, who at the age of thirty (III, 17) advances into Iran with an innumerable army to destroy the invaders. Such statements may be attributed to the original Pahlavi translator and commentator who, writing about A.D. 570-590, would have before his eyes the disastrous
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