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CHAPTER LXXI, 5-LXXII, 6.
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Aharman himself-two are those whom you have mentioned, who are defiled with mutual sin. 3. For, of those seven evil-doers, one was Az-i Dahâk1, by whom witchcraft was first glorified; he exercised the sovereignty of misgovernment, and desired a life of the unintellectual (a hangân khayâ) for the world. 4. One was Azi Sruvar2, by whom infesting the highway in terrible modes, frightful watchfulness (vimag-bidârih) of the road, and devouring of horse and man were perpetrated. 5. One was Vadak the mother of Dahâk, by whom adultery was first committed, and by it all lineage is disturbed, control is put an end to, and without the authority of the husband an intermingling of son with son occurs. 6. One was the Viptak ('pathic')
1 See Chap. XXXVII, 97.
A personification of Av. asi srvara, a serpent or dragon thus described in the Hôm Yt. (Yas. IX, 34-39):-' (Keresâspa) who slew the serpent Srvara which devoured horses and men, which was poisonous and yellow, over which yellow poison flowed a hand'sbreadth (spear's-length?) high. On which Keresâspa cooked a beverage in a caldron at the mid-day hour, and the serpent scorched, hissed, sprang forth, away from the caldron, and upset the boiling water; Keresâspa Naremanau fled aside frightened' (see Haug's Essays, pp. 178, 179). The same account is given in Zamyâd Yt. 40. M14 has bîmînîdârîh, 'terrifying.'
See Chap. LXXVIII, 2. There is possibly some connection between this name and the Av. epithet, Vadhaghana, which is thus mentioned by the evil spirit, speaking to Zaratûst, in Vend. XIX, 23: Curse the good Mazda-worshipping religion! and thou shalt obtain fortune such as the Vadhaghana sovereign obtained;' and Mkh. LVII, 25 calls him 'the Vadagân sovereign Dahâk.' The Pahlavi writers seem to have taken this epithet as a matronymic, owing to its form, but whether the mother's name be really traditional, or merely manufactured from the epithet, is doubtful.
Reading levatman barman barman, instead of levatman bûm barman. M14 omits bûm.
Av. viptô (p. p. of vip, 'to sow, to fecundate'), used in the
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