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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(SEPTEMBER, 1902.
Herodotus relates that which he or his authority bad ascertained or experienced of the actual state of religion among the Iranians, and of an analogous description are the reports of the ancients, particularly Strabo. The inscriptions of the Achæmenides inform us of the Mazdayaenian creed so far as it prevailed as the State religion of the empire ; in other words, as it was officially acknowledged. The Apesta presents a picture of the development of Zarathushtrianism, as it was never perhaps instituted prior to Alexander in Media and Persis (at best only in a solitary spot, say the ecclesiastical Ragba), but an outline of it as it lived in the schools of divines and theologians by whom, it is possible, it was introduced into North-West and Eastern Iran.
8. The Age of the Avesta. We have examined the sacred Scripture of the Zarathushtrians, and are now confronted with the problem to what period does it belong, and how far can we rely on it with success? Do the texts of our Avesta and the lost books on which the Sassanian Zend-Avesta was based, along with fragments recently put together, emanate mainly from the times of the Achæmenides, possibly from still earlier centuries; or were they composed after the fall of that dynasty P Formerly the first was the generally accepted view. And there were scholars who assigned the compilation of the Avestic writings to an epoch preceding the Median Empire. Till very recently eminent authorities concurred in this opinion. But now distinguished Ryants oppose thie theory, championing with more or less vehemence the last-mentioned hypothesis. We are consequently compelled to make a choice between the two conflicting pronouncements,
The first to strenuously defend the comparatively later origin of the Avesta - viow to which Spiegel, Justi, and de Harlez were more and more inclined with a brilliant array of arguments - was the late erudite Frenchman, James Darmesteter, whose death is, with justice, deeply mourned. Darmesteter brought to bear on his researches a profound study of the original sources, rich knowledge, rare critical acumen, and at the same time he could command a consummate diction. We cannot onter upon a refutation of all the ingenious but uncurbed conjectures of the author conjuctures which show that his penetration not unfrequently got the better of bis historical sense and his sane jadgment. Most of what he has propounded, to give only a single instance, relative to the Keresáni of the Apesta (who is assuredly neither more nor less than the Krishna of the Voda, and therefore an unmistakably mythological personage) as being identical with Alexander the Great, will not, indeed, live longer than the scintillation of a splendid firework. But Darmeetetor takes his stand on another and apparently more solid ground; hence our obligation to inquire into its validity.
To begin with, then, he appeals to tradition. According to, at least, two divergent, it in Darmesteter's eyes, essentially concordant traditions, the official text of the complete body of the Zarathushtrian Holy Writ, which was for reasons of State preserved in two separate transcripts, was destroyed with Alexander's co-operation, or at least in consequence of the confusion occasioned by his invasion. Valkash, the Arsacide, who was either Volgoses (51-55 A. D.), the contemporary of Nero, or another king of the same name, and of & posterior age, is reported to have commenced the collecting of the ancient documents, the fragments committed to writing as well as the oral sections, which survived among the sacerdotal order. The first prince of the house of Sasan, Ardoshir (Artaxetx08) I., 226-240 A. D., we are told, continued the pious undertaking with the assistance of Tansar or Tosar. His successor, Shahpuhr I., 241-272 A. D., is credited with causing to be rendered again into the vernacular the Iranian texts, which had been translated into the Greek and Indian languages. Finally, the great hierarch Atarpad,isen of Maharespand under Shahpur II. (809-879), definitively concluded the last redaction of the Baronnide ZendApesta.
Ia ble latest translation of the Bond Avela, cepeally in the Introduction to the third Part. In the Roone de l'Histoire des Religions, 1CP4, Vol. XXIX. p. 68 q., I bave dinonaned and given a statement of the contents of the work: Une nowolle hypothes our l'antigues de l'Aveta; and I have spokem on the age of the Avete in the X. Ahedenda von Wetenschappen to amatordam, Verslagen Mededelingen, & Reeks. I must refer the ronder to pre psy for the details which cannot be gone into in the text.
