Indian Antiquary Vol 34

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 24

18
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JANUARY, 1905.
beyond the bounds of tradition. Not the faintest trace of a single myth is found in the Gathas which were subsequently current in connection with Zarathushtra. There is no vestige in the Cathas of his miraculous birth, his temptation, his struggle with the Evil Spirit, his expected apparition at the end of time. The Zarathushtra of the most ancient records is in fact another than the one figuring in the younger works. Here, in general, he is the sublime seer to whom Mazda Ahura imparts his profound wisdom, a sort of Moses, who communes with the Supreme Deity as a man does with his friend. He is the chosen prophet. Occasionally he is raised to a still higher eminence. He is no doubt no god or theomorphic man. He is not installed by the side of Ahura Mazda as the head of the mundane, as Ahora Mazda is of the celestial, economy. If he is appointed Ratu or spiritual champion of Geash Urva, that is only a figurative phrase to suggest that his new doctrine is the basis of a more humane social order; though it closely approaches the dogma of his domination of all temporal concerns, for already at the genesis it was he who bebeld Mazda and received his revelation. To be brief, his glorification has perceptibly commenced, though it is yet in its undeveloped stage.
The circle of his kindred and stannch followers, so far as the Gathas are concerned, is purely human. Though Vishtaspat has become a king for the Gatha .poet and as such he is invariably viewed from here downwards), bis realm is ethereal - Maghahya kbshatra ; whatever its meaning, science or sagacity according to tradition, or the community of the faithful, according to Geldner and Jackson. He is a Kava, which is his constant epithet and which primarily signified nothing save sage or seer for a certainty. And as Kava he was also a poet-a fact which is explicitly stated. Be belonged indeed to the Magavans, for he is styled the intrepid, and is erer celebrated as the most intimate friend of Zarathushtra and the defender of his following,
Of the brothers Frashaobhtra and De-Jarcaspe, who are called Hvogvas, whatever the import of the term, at least the second seems to have been a minstrel also. But as to the enigmatic Maidhyo-maongha it is distinctly asserted that he volunteered to receive instruotion in the canon of Mazdaism with intent to profess the creed all his life. Despite the circumstance that so early as in the old hymns they show lineaments, which time has somewhat helped fade, I do not see why we should deny them all, excepting perhape Maidhyo-maongha, historic existence. Whether this is true of Zarathushtra also is another question. Similar suspicions have been entertained about persons of undoubted reality. The employment of the term Zarathushtra for priests so frequently in the Gathas and even in the superlative degree, sarathushtrotemo, to indicate the arch-hierophant, tends to demonstrate that the expression stands for the personification of a school or denomination of priest-prophets or sages, who in combined league brought about & social and religious upheaval or a general amelioration. But this inference is not absolutely inevitable. The possibility remains that & person Zarathushtrs by name was the great reformer, the story of whose life shrouded in & nimbus of legends, erades successful investigation,
(To be continued.)
Here are the most important passages treating of Vishtaspa mostly along with his other early proselytes : Yama 28, 7:46, 16; 51, 16. The last is very noteworthy.
• Hvogva, later hoota, is used as a family name, but may mean " well-situate" or "noble." The daughter of Jamaap is also so surnamed in the Yachts, De, as used before Jamaap, is usually explained by "wise." For Maidbyo maongha, see Yasna 51, 19.