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VENDIDAD.
$ 5. The practical and utilitarian morality of the Avesta was one of the older traits of the national character. In the eyes of king Darius and the contemporaries of Herodotos, as in those of the writer of Vendidad III, and of all good Parsis of the present day, the two greatest merits of a citizen were the begetting and rearing of a numerous family, and the fruitful tilling of the soil. Truthfulness was already considered the paramount virtue, and the balance of merits and demerits was already known at least to the earthly judge.
$ 6. The worship of the elements, water, fire, and earth, and respect for their purity were already in practice. It was forbidden to sully the waters or the fire, to throw a corpse into the fire, or to bury it in the earth until reduced to a fleshless, incorruptible skeleton.
$ 7. There were two sorts of sacrifices: the bloody sacrifice, of which a survival has lingered to this day in the Atash zôhr, and the bloodless sacrifice, consisting essentially of the Haoma-offering and libations, of which there is no direct mention in the classics, but which indirect evidence obliges us to ascribe to the older religion.
$ 8. Thus the principles of the Achaemenian religion may be summed up as follows:
(1) As far as dogma goes: the existence of two conflicting supreme powers, one good and the other evil, Ormazd and Ahriman; the final defeat of Ahriman after twelve thousand years; and the resurrection. Also a number of naturalistic deities, amongst which were Mithra and Anahita.
(2) Morals: veneration of truth, family, and agriculture.
(3) Liturgy: a bloody sacrifice and a bloodless sacrifice (Haoma). Certain laws of purity extending to the waters, the fire, and the earth. Burning or burying corpses forbidden.
$ 9. The Achaemenian religion was practised in the south as well as in the north of Iran, in Persia as well as in Media. It had its centre in Media and its sacerdotal class belonged to a Median tribe, the Magi. The priesthood was hereditary-as it still is nowadays amongst the
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| SR No. | 007671 |
| Book Title | Zend Avesta Part 01 |
| 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 |