Parallel fra Persien 1

Avesta er en gruppe af religiøse skrifter, som er tilknyttet den religion, vi betegner som zoroastrisme eller zarathustrisme. Religionen er opkaldt efter dens ophavsmand Zoroaster eller Zarathustra, som han også kaldes. De fleste kender ham måske bedst som hovedfiguren fra Nietzsches Also Sprach Zarathustra. Zoroaster levede i det 7. årh. f.v.t.

Religionen er centreret omkring guden Ahura Mazdah, og teksterne, som er blevet til over en meget lang periode, er ofte udformet som en samtale mellem denne og hans profet. Zoroasters slægtsnavn er Spitama, og han omtales under dette navn i teksten.

Teksten her er en senere udgave af Avesta - beskrivelsen af verdenstræet fra Avesta har vi ikke længere. Den er hentet fra www.sacred-texts.com og kan være lidt svær at læse, da den er forsynet med noter. Afsnittene om verdensaldrene står med blå skrift.

Se også http://www.avesta.org/, hvis du vil vide mere om Avesta og Zoroastrisme.

BAHMAN YAST,

OR ZAND-I VOHÛMAN YASNO, OF WHICH ZAND, OR COMMENTARY, THIS WORK SEEMS TO BE AN EPITOME.

{p. 190}

OBSERVATIONS

1-5. (The same as on p. 2.)

6. Abbreviations used are:--Av. for Avesta. Bund. for Bundahis, as translated in this volume. Dâd. for Dâdistân-i Dînîk. Gr. for Greek. Haug's Essays, for Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion of the Parsis, by Martin Haug, 2nd edition. Huz. for Huzvâris. Pahl. for Pahlavi. Pâz. for Pâzand. Pers. for Persian. Sans. for Sanskrit. Sls. for Shâyast la-shâyast, as translated in this volume. SZS. for Selections of Zâd-sparam, as translated in this volume. Vend. for Vendîdâd, ed. Spiegel. Yas. for Yasna, ed. Spiegel. Yt. for Yast, ed. Westergaard.

7. The manuscripts mentioned in the notes are:--

K20 (about 500 years old), No. 20 in the University Library at Kopenhagen.

Pâz. MSS. (modern), No. 22 of the Haug Collection in the State Library at Munich, and a copy of one in the library of the high-priest of the Parsis at Bombay.

Pers. version (composed A.D. 1496, copied A.D. 1679) in a Rivâyat MS., No. 29 of the University Library at Bombay.

BAHMAN YAST.

CHAPTER I.

0. May the gratification of the creator Aûharmazd, the beneficent, the developer, the splendid, and glorious, and the benediction of the archangels, which constitute the pure, good religion of the Mazdayasnians, be vigour of body, long life, and prosperous wealth for him whose writing I am[1].

[1. Or, possibly, 'for whom I am written,' the meaning of mûn yektîbûnîhêm being not quite clear. In fact, the construction of the whole of this initial benediction is rather obscure.

2. It is possible that this is to be read in connection with Chap. II, 1, with the meaning that 'as it is declared by the Stûdgar Nask that Zaratûst asked for immortality from Aûharmazd, so in the Vohûman Yast commentary it is declared that he asked for it a second time.' This introductory chapter is altogether omitted in both the Pâz. MSS. which have been examined, but it is given in the Pers. version. It is also omitted in the epitome of the Bahman Yast contained in the Dabistân (see Shea's translation, vol. i. pp. 264-271).

3. This was the first nask or 'book' of the complete Mazdayasnian literature, according to the Dînkard, which calls it Sûdkar; but according to the Dînî-vagarkard and the Rivâyats it was the second nask, called Stûdgar or Istûdgar. For its contents, as given by the Dînî-vagarkard (which agrees with the account in the Rivâyats), see Haug's Essays, p. 126. In the Dînkard, besides a short description of this Nask, given in the eighth book, there is also a detailed account of the contents of each of its fargards, or chapters, occupying twenty-five quarto pages of twenty-two lines each, in the ninth book. From this detailed statement it appears {footnote p. 192} that the passage mentioned here, in the text, constituted the seventh fargard of the Nask, the contents of which are detailed as follows:--

'The seventh fargard, Tâ-ve-ratö (Av. tâ ve urvâtâ, Vas. XXXI, 1), is about the exhibition to. Zaratûst of the nature of the four periods in the Zaratûstian millennium (hazangrôk zim, "thousand winters"). First, the golden, that in which Aûharmazd displayed the religion to Zaratûst. Second, the silver, that in which Vistâsp received the religion from Zaratûst. Third, the steel, the period within which the organizer of righteousness, Âtarô-pâd son of Mârspend, was born. Fourth, the period mingled with iron is this, in which is much propagation of the authority of the apostate and other villains (sarîtarânö), along with destruction of the reign of religion, the weakening of every kind of goodness and virtue, and the departure of honour and wisdom from the countries of Iran. In the same period is a recital of the many perplexities and torments of the period for that desire (girâyîh) of the life of the good which consists in seemliness. Perfect is the excellence of righteousness (Av. ashem vohû vahistem astî, Yas. XXVII. 14, W.).'

If this be a correct account of the contents of this fargard, the writer was evidently consulting a Pahlavi version of the Nask, composed during the later Sasanian times.]

{p. 192}

[1. Generally understood to mean 'descendant of Spitama,' who was his ancestor in the ninth generation (see Bund. XXXII, 1).]

{p. 193}

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