Zend Avesta Part 03

SR No.: 007673
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: L H Mills
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1887
Total Pages: 2618
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 196

YASNA XLVII.
145
THE GÅTHA(Å) SPENTÅ MAINYO
(SPENTÂMAINYU(U)). This Gatha, consisting of Yasna XLVII-L, takes its name from its commencing words. Like the other Gathas it owes its existence as a collection to the nature of its metre, as its matter is homogeneous with that of the others. Its metre may be said to be Trishtup, as its lines have each eleven syllables, and are arranged in stanzas of four.
A general view precedes each chapter. The grouping of hymns in this Gâtha has, as usual, little or nothing to do with the question of their relative age.
YASNA XLVII. THE BOUNTIFULNESS OF AHURA. As in every instance, we may have here only the fragments of a more extended piece; but also, as ever, the circumstance does not diminish the value of what remains. Although some signs of authorship apart from Zarathustra are present, the later verses are not at all remote, so far as the period of time which they indicate is concerned, from the Zarathustrian verses, and are therefore of nearly equal interest, possessing the advantage moreover of affording data for estimating the progress of change.
1. The Spentâ mainya here is not identical with Ahura, but is, as so often, His spirit. It is more than possible that the memorable application of the word spenta to the seven, giving us the Ameshôspends, the Amshaspands of literature, derives its origin from the first verse here before us, or from lost verses of a similar character. All the seven seem purposely and artificially grouped here, although
His Spirit' is of course not one of them. The commencing word spenta further attracted attention in so far as to form the theme for a sort of play upon words in the later epilogue of Visparad XIX. By means of this His indwelling Spirit (which idea, or expression, has probably no direct connection with the Holy Spirit of the Old and New Testaments, but which, as giving the designation spirit' to the Ameshồspends, may well have been the original of the seven spirits which are before the throne of God'), by means of this
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