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 66

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Parsis-and the Magi were to Mazdeism what the Levites and Cohanim were to Judaism. The sacerdotal tribe spread wherever Mazdeism extended; and in spite of the intense provincial hatred which the Persians bore to the Medians, their former masters, and which the PseudoSmerdis' usurpation was not sufficient to smother, still the Magi were in the Persian idea the only true, authorised priests. No sacrifice was of any value which had not been performed by a Magus: only a Magus could make himself heard by the gods.
INTRODUCTION, VII.
§ 10. The supposed founder of the religion was named Zarathustra, a personage that must have been known to the pre-Alexandrian religion, as Dino mentions him, and his protectors, king Vistâspa (Toráσnns) and Vistâspa's brother Zairivairi (Zapiádpms), were already, in the time of Alexander, heroes of epic songs which were current in Asia. As to the birthplace of Zarathustra, all Zoroastrian texts agree with the old classic tradition in placing it in Media. Whether Zarathustra was an historical or a legendary personage it is difficult to decide, and to some extent useless, as Zoroastrianism no longer appears to be one homogeneous religious monument, since we are confronted with two Zoroastrianisms, one anterior and the other posterior to Alexander. The Pseudo-Xanthos, which is at any rate anterior to the first century B. C., and may be much older, makes Zarathustra the founder of Magism and the first of a series of grand chiefs of Magism who succeeded one another till Alexander's time. Zarathustra would therefore be an old chief of the priestly caste, a MobedânMobed, a Zarathustrôtema κar' è§oxýv, whether historical or legendary. As his legend is known to us only from Avesta sources, we have no means of distinguishing in it what may be older from what may be a later development.
§ 11. Zoroastrianism, whether prior to Alexander or in its post-Alexandrian form, was never a simple religion; it was the result of an historical elaboration of complex materials. It was a growth in which one easily discerns Aryan elements, which it has in common with India, and new original elements. Its Aryan elements may be termed :
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