Indian Antiquary Vol 31

SR No.: 032523
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 556
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(SEPTEMBER, 1902.
ancient Iranian language, a sister-tongue to the old Persian which the Achæmenides employed in their inscriptions, though in two somewhat divergent dialects. Formerly this language was mostly known as the Zend, which is indubitably a preposterous designation, inasmuch as no tongue was ever understood by the term Zend. Now, as a rule, it is denominated Avesta. However, the name Baktrian already used by Benfy and Spiegel seems to me to be still the most appropriate, Baktria being one of the most important lands where this speech was current. The Avests or the Sacred LAW was brought to Europe by Aquetel du Perron in the year 1761, after a voyage testifying to an uncommon devotion to science and an iron perseverance, and was tentatively translated by him. Subsequently a few new fragments have come to light. Probably only these remnants are preserved to us, because they were employed in the liturgy and had to be chanted in the old language, though they were unintelligible without the auxiliary of a vulgar rendering. The scanty compass of the Apesta and the corrupt condition of the texts are no trivial obstacles to its correct interpretation. The first pioneer to pave the way to a scientific exegesis was Eugene Burnouf. Since his days, amid no doubt many an aberration, as often as a sound philological method is resorted to, constant advance has been made in the stady of Zarathushtrian literature. And so it has become possible to unravel the evolutions of the religion, the pristine documents of which the Avesta contains in its main features, and to draw to a certain measure an accurate outline of it. It would not be relevant at this place to sketch the history of the Avesta exegesis or to examine the right method for it -- an inquiry which cannot be attempted without entering into a discussion of all manner of technical minutiæ, I expect substantial results from none but a critical philological treatment, which takes into account all writings, whether dating from early or late periods, and in which an intelligent regard for traditional interpretation ensures material assistance. To slavishly follow the latter is an impudent repudiation of all science.
The Apesta is made up of five principal constituents. The Yasna is exclusively a ritualistic book, in which the texts are arranged in order of the sacrificial operations at which it is recited or sung. The Vispered, Visperatado, " AU Lords," i. e., the invoked holy ones, is so-called in that it was used in sacrificial ceremonies involving the invocation of all the Lords. The Vendidad, the Vidaeva data, or what is enacted against the Daevas, the anti-demoniso ordinance, is a law book in twenty-two Fargards or Chapters, containing prescriptions, which the pious must observe in order to preserve or recover religious purity; for without this purity they would fall into the power of the fiends. The Yashts represent sacrificial hymns composed, for the most part, ad majorem gloriam of the Yazatas, of whom twenty-seven are sacred to the thirty days of the month; the first, fifteenth, and twenty-fifth days of the month had no angels proper to themselves, but served as preludes to the great festivals immediately following, namely, those of Atar, Mithra, and Daeda. On these preparatory days were invoked Ahura Mazda and the Amesha Spentas. The fifth and the last division of the Avestu embraces a few minor writings, prayers, calendars, and maxims, which conjointly with, or even without, the Yashts is comprehensively denominated the Lesser or Khorda Avesta, and is appointed, not for public or priestly, but the private, service of every believer. The solitary book of all these, answering in its totality to a Nask of the Sassanide Avesta, is the Vendidad. The Yasna includes the stot Yasht Nask - Staota Yeonya, - bat, in combination with three chapters from the Bako Nask, three older Yaskts,20 some litanies and reiterations, it has been artificially distended to seventy-two Has or Sections. Finally, the body of Yashte includes the Bakan or Baghan Nask, which consisted of sixteen such hymns, increased by several more that are posterior, borrowed from other Nasks of a dissimilar category.
It is not possible to affirm that any one of these books is per se more ancient than the rest. Each has assimilated older and younger elements. Perhaps as a book the Vendidad is the most
15 Collected, ditod, and, so far as possible, translated by Darmestetor in Part III. of his Zond Avesta. 19 Ha 19 to 21.
+ These are: the Hm. Yasht, Ha 9.11, the Brosh. Yasht, Ha 57, the 80-called Maga. Yashl, Ha 65, and in A certain songe also Ha 62, the main contents of whioh coincide with the Atash. Yasht.