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 635

CHAPTER XIV, 30-XV, 4.
53
the light of the sun, and Nêryôsang 1 kept charge of two portions, and Spendarmad 2 received one portion. 2. And in forty years, with the shape of a one-stemmed Rivâs-plants, and the fifteen years of its fifteen leaves, Matro and Matrôyâð 4 grew up from the earth in such a manner that their arms rested behind on their shoulders (dôsh), and one joined to the other they were connected together and both alike. 3. And the waists of both of them were brought close and so connected together that it was not clear which is the male and which the female, and which is the one whose living soul (nismo) of Adharmazd is not away 6. 4. As it is said thus : 'Which is created before, the soul (nismo) or the body? And Adharmazd said that the soul is created before, and the body after, for him who was
1 Av. Nairyô-sangha of Yas. XVII, 68, LXX, 92, Vend. XIX, 111, 112, XXII, 22, &c.; the angel who is said to be Adharmazd's usual messenger to mankind.
* The female archangel who is supposed to have special charge of the earth (see Chap. I, 26).
• A plant allied to the rhubarb, the shoots of which supply an acid juice used by the Persians for acidulating preserves and drinks.
• These names are merely variants of the Mâshya and Mashyôî of the latter part of this chapter (nom. dual, m. and f., of Av. mashya, 'mortal'). This is shown by the Pandnâmak-i Zaratůst, saying: 'and my human nature is from Matrôîh and Matrô. yâðîh, from which first generation and seed from Gâyômard I have sprung.' And the names are also found in the more Persian forms Maharîh and Maharîyâôyîh (see the note to $ 22). Windischmann considered the meaning to be that they grew up on the day Mitrô of the month Mitrô,' that is, the sixteenth day of the seventh month of the Parsi year ; this is not confirmed, however, by Zadsparam in his Selections, Chap. X, 4 (see App. to Bund.)
6 That is, whether they had souls or not. That nismô is the Huzvâris for râbân, 'soul,' appears clearly in § 4, where both words are used for the same thing.
Digitized by
Digitized by Google