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350
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[DECEMBER, 1882.
tifying the sixteen lands produced by Ahura | cause, in that case, Varena ought to have been Mazda and vitiated by Angra Mainyu, as detailed occupied from Vehrkâna before the extension to in the first fargard of the Vendidid. The old Ragha. This difficulty would be overcome by theory is that these lands are named in the order identifying Varena with Gilân (as suggested by in which they received the Avesta religion, either Haug) which could be occupied in natural seby conversion or conquest; but a more recent quence from Ragha. Of the last two lands, hypothesis assumes that they are merely enume. Hapta Hindva, in the extreme north-west of the rated as the lands which had adopted the faith Panjab, might have been entered from either down to a certain date, and that this accounts for Vaêkereta or Urva, and the plains of Rangha (if the irregular order in which they are mentioned. on the Yazartes) could have been occupied at This is a plausible assertion, but one that hardly any period, early or late, from either of the first bears strict investigation.
two lands mentioned in the Vendidad. An enumeration must be made in some parti- It appears from these details, which are illuscular order, and if the enumerator does not followtrated by a carefully-drawn map of the whole any chronological arrangement, he will most pro- region described, that the apparent irregulari. bably adopt the order of the positions in which ties in the arrangement of the names of these the things enumerated happen to stand. In other lands are quite consistent with the assumpwords, a mere enumerator of a number of lands tion that they are mentioned in the order in would be likely to mention them in the order in which their inhabitants accepted the Avesta which they were mapped in his mind, and not in religion. And as half the names are readily idenany irregular succession. But the progress of tified with the names of places mentioned by religion and conquest is much more irregular in Darius in his cuneiform inscriptions, or by Greek its course, and, after extending some distance in writers, and still in use, it seems most probable one direction, it will often branch off in a new that the other half are also old names of lands direction from some point in its earlier course, still existing on the earth's surface, and are my. and two or more such branches may be extending thic only in so far as our present knowledge is inat the same time, so that a chronological state. sufficient to identify them with absolute certainty. ment of their progress would lead to a seemingly As an effect of the extension of the Avesta irregular succession of names of places.
religion from east to west, the author shows that Thus, having placed Airyana Vaėjö on the certain names of well-remembered mountains, apper waters of the Zarafshan (which he identifies seas, and rivers, were transferred to new localities; with the Daitya river, said to flow out of that much in the same manner as emigrants from mythic land) Dr. Geiger finds no more difficulty Europe to America have transferred many old. than others before him, in tracing the progress world names to their new homes. Thus, the of the Avesta down that river into Sughdha, near Hara berezaiti, lofty mountain,' which Bukhara, and thence in two branches across the originally meant the lofty mountains to the east of Oxus (which he supposes to be the water of Ard- the Pamir plateau, was a name transferred at an visūra) into Mộuru (Merv) and Bakhdhi (Balkh), early date to the mountains south of the Caspian, from the latter into Nisêya (near Maimane), and hence called Alburz; and the sea Vou ru-kasha, from the former into Harûyu (the province of the wide-shored,' originally the Caspian and Herât). Then by a fresh branch, through the Aral, has become the Arabian Sea in the Bundah. mountain passes, from Bakhdhi to Vaêkereta, ish, which book endeavours to adapt the old names which the Pahlavi writers identify with Kábul, and traditions of the Avesta to the geographical and thence into Urva, south of the Kurum river. and scientific knowledge current in Sasanian times. In the meantime another branch left Mouru for Not the least interesting and important part of Vehrkana, on the Gurgån and Atrek rivers, near the work is that which treats of the allusions to the south-east angle of the Caspian. Then Hara- manners and customs found in the Avesta, the khvaiti, on the Arghandab, near Qandahår, was habits of the people with regard to birth and occupied from Vaêkereta; and this advance was education, marriage and death, their belief in a pushed on into Haêtumend, on the lower Hilmand future state and spirit-world, their religion, suin Seistån. After the Vehrkana branch had ex- perstitions, and moral condition, their ranks and tended to Ragha (near Teherin), Chakhra (which occupations, their settlements, laws, and governGeiger supposes to have been near Nishåpar and ment, regarding all which matters the author has Mashhad) may have been annexed to Harôyu; but, collected much useful information, interspersed by placing the next land, Varena, in Tabaristan with many original investigations, the result of the author has raised an unnecessary hindrance his own special studies of the texts. to the acceptance of the theory he adopts, be
E. W. WEST.
