Makaranda Madhukar Anand Mahendale Festshrift

Author(s): M A Dhaky, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

Page 248

Avestan Eschatology
237
the soul at the dawn of the fourth day after death, either in the form of a lovely maiden, or in the shape of a hideous hag. The maiden appears amid a breath of balmy wind, fragrant with scents and perfumes; the hag arrives amid the chill of a foul blast heavy with sickening stench25. According to the account given in the Dātastān i Mēnāk i Khrat, the soul of the righteous commences its journey to the great beyond with the help of the powers of Good, but not without facing opposition and impediments thrown in its way by the powers of Evil. The latter are ever eager to drag it to hell, without making any distinction whether it be a righteous or a wicked soul, and without waiting for the trial which it must undergo at the Judgment Seat before its destiny is determined26. The Denkart informs that if a person becomes a follower of the Principle of Evil by doing deeds that help sinfulness, the Daēnā appears in the guise of a courtesan, who drags him to hell27. The Shkand-vimanik Vichār also furnishas the converse picture to that of the lovely damsel, namely the ghastly form of the courtesan, who is a tormentor and comes to meet the wicked soul with the store of its sin28. However, the Iranian Bundahishn supplements its account of the hideous Hag, in contrast with the Maiden, by logically adding a lean cow and a barren garden to offset the figure of the milch-cow and the flourishing vineyard seen by the soul of the righteous. No sooner has the wicked breathed the stench of a foul wind than he beholds these frightful apparitions. They are the grim messengers of the coming retribution; and the soul, filled with anguish, questions each of them in turn as to its significance, and learns in answer that each typifies the individual Conscience (dēn), evil in thought, word, and deed, as the result of a life of sin in this world29.
The soul now stands at the Individual Judgment in the presence of one or more heavenly assessors before whom the life-account is rendered. The good and evil deeds are weighed in the balance; and the final decision is made according to the turn of the scales, which are counterpoised with perfect justice. Next comes the crossing of the Chinvat Bridge, the Bridge of Judgment, over which the righteous and the wicked alike must pass—the one to felicity, the other to damnation. This doctrine of an individual judgment at the Bridge is clearly discernible throughout the Zoroastrian scriptures, from the Gāthās to the latest Persian religious writings 30. This doctrine of a