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 774

192
BAHMAN YAST.
Zaratust asked for immortality from Adharmazd, then Adharmazd displayed the omniscient wisdom to Zaratust, and through it he beheld the root of a tree, on which were four branches, one golden, one of silver, one of steel, and one was mixed up with iron. 2. Thereupon he reflected in this way, that this was seen in a dream, and when he arose from sleep Zaratūst spoke thus : 'Lord of the spirits and earthly existences! it appears that I saw the root of a tree, on which were four branches.'
3. Adharmazd spoke to Zaratast the Spitâmân1 thus: “That root of a tree which thou sawest, and those four branches, are the four periods which will
that the passage mentioned here, in the text, constituted the seventh fargard of the Nask, the contents of which are detailed as follows:
The seventh fargard, Ta-ve-rato (Av. tâ ve urvata, Yas. XXXI, I), is about the exhibition to Zaratůst of the nature of the four periods in the Zaratûstian millennium (hazangrồk zim,“thousand winters "). First, the golden, that in which Adharmazd displayed the religion to Zaratast. Second, the silver, that in which Vistasp received the religion from Zaratůst. Third, the steel, the period within which the organizer of righteousness, Âtarô-pâd son of Mârspend, was born. Fourth, the period mingled with iron is this, in which is much propagation of the authority of the apostate and other villains (sarîtaráno), along with destruction of the reign of religion, the weakening of every kind of goodness and virtue, and the departure of honour and wisdom from the countries of Iran. In the same period is a recital of the many perplexities and torments of the period for that desire (girâyîh) of the life of the good which consists in seemliness. Perfect is the excellence of righteousness (Av. ashem vohů vahistem astî, Yas. XXVII, 14, W.)!'
If this be a correct account of the contents of this fargard, the writer was evidently consulting a Pahlavi version of the Nask, composed during the later Sasanian times.
Generally understood to mean descendant of Spitama,' who was his ancestor in the ninth generation (see Bund. XXXII, 1).
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