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The pious Foundations of the Zoroastrians

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

In ancient Iran there was evidently a strong sense of existence after death, which was reinforced by Zoroaster's reform and his teachings about heaven and hell, so the life on earth came to be lived with the hereafter continually in mind. An orthodox Zoroastrian combines an appreciation of the good creation of Ōhrmazd, and an acceptance of his allotted tasks within it, with a conviction that this world is nevertheless only a halting-place, and that true life comes after death. The moral requirements of his faith make him self-reliant, bearing the responsibility for his own conduct and ultimate fate; yet there is also a striking sense of community, of a bond between all those of the ‘good religion’, united by their common purpose and way of life. This senṣe of community extends to a remarkable degree to the righteous dead, to those souls ‘who have overcome for righteousness’ (yōi ašāi vaonarə). Religious works from the remote past (notably the Farvardīn Yašt) show that the Irani and Parsi Zoroastrians are at one with their ancestors in being aware of the spirits of the departed, in wishing to please them, and in rejoicing at a sense of their continuing care and protection.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1968

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References

1 The sense of community is discussed by J. J.Modi in his article ‘A Zoroastrian view of brotherhood’, journal of the KRCama Oriental Institute, 16, 1930, 6780Google Scholar

2 Y, XXVI, 6(pŰ kē uch mard i ahraw hēnd).

3 The is a striking passage in the Tansar nāme (ed.M.Minovi, Techran, 1932,9; transl. Boyce, Rome Orjental Series, Literary and Historical Texts form Iran, I,1968,34), in which the Sasanian Tansar is represented as saying: ‘ I have various kinds of pleasure....A second (Pleasure)is that the spirits of the virtuous dead (arvāh-i guzaśtagān-i nikŰkārān) rejoice in my understanding and wisdom and achievements.It is as if I heard their voices uttering praise, and saw the gladness and radiance of their eountenances.’ Cf. a passage in the ‘ Testament of Ardaśir’ apund M. Grignaschi, ‘Quelques spēcimens de la littērature sassanide ’, J A, CCLIV, 1, 1966, 50 (text), 71 (transl.).

4 After I had enjojed for some time the hospitality of Irani Zoroastrians, but before I had begun to comprehend this feeling for the dead, I ventured, still haunted by associations of death with sorrowm to ask if they never celebrated a feast-day without an accompanying ritual for the dead.The reply, made with mild astonishment, was ‘But of course not. We always want them to share our happiness’. A striking example of this wish, coupled with the desire for the protection of the frevaśis, is to be found in the old parsi custom whereby on the second (khīchdī)day if the preliminary wedding-celerations a stūm ceremony is performed by both families in invitation to their fravaśis to share in the rejoicings. [Information from Ervad Dr. Firoze M. Kotwal of Nacsari, to whose kindness I owe all material concerning the Parsis in the present article for which a written source is not cited. As usual, I am much indebted to Ervad Kotwal for the fullness and precision of his information, most generously given.

5 See N. SŐderblom. ‘Les Fravashis&II’ RHR, XXXIX, 1899, 394 f., 408.

6 See, e.g., the Pazand dibāče of the yasna, 16.

7 A general formula, wherby the departed soul is distinguished from that of a living person(zīnde ravān

8 See SŐderblom, ‘, Les Fravashis [&I]’, RHR XXXIX, 1899,238.

9 The thirtieth and the anniversary days are called among the Iranis the sīrōze and sālrōz); among the parsis Parsis sīrōja and varsī(‘year (day)’), but more commonly simply the bāj days, from the ceremonies Perfirmed on them.The tenth-day rituals are called dahom in Iran,dasmu„ in India; those of the thirty-first are māsīSŌ in India. The six-monthly observance is named by the Parsis the sīrōja of āhamsī, or the ćhamsī-nō Sōrōjō.

10 It is generally held that after this period the individual soul joins the great company of the fravaŚis; but nevertheless individual annual rites are ofter maintained for very much longer in wealthy or distinguished familoes.

11 Nowadays this source of income may actually be lost if the heirs turn Muslim; there are cases in Sharīfābābād of registered endowed religious trusts being given to Zoroastrians to administer, since the heirs have apostatized. Doubtless in the past such trusts were merely misappropriated in these eircumstances.

12 See Mehejirana, R.J.Dustoor, The genealogy of the Naosari priests, London, 1926 151Google Scholar

13 One of Ervad Ratanji's sons and heirs is Raj Ratne Dinshah Dabu, who held high office under the late Gaekwads of Baroda.

14 See Meherjirana, op.cot., 80. Ervad Heera, son of Ervad kaus, had four sons, Fram, Kaus, Faredun, and Dada (or Darab). Faredun died chikless, and his youngest brother Dada was made his pālak. Dada was panthakī to a rich layman, Burjoreji Garda, who esteemed him, and sold to him at a low price ofa land for this pious fiundation. Dada improved the Property, which he named Heerabagh in momory of his natural fater.

15 The sister of Ervad Jamsheed and Ervad Pheeroozshah, see Meherjirana, op.cit., 144. The trustees are the Bhagarsāth Anjoman.

16 For the precise figures I am indebted, through Ervad Kotwal, to the kindness of Dastur Meherji Rana, the vada Dastur of Navsari.

17 Under the trust-deed the panthkī should, if possible, be a Kotwal. The post is held at present by Ervad Hormuz, son of Ervad Bapu, son of Ervad Mehervan(the first panthakī, first eousin of Bai Dosibai).

18 On ćāśnīsee ‘ Rapithwin and the feast of Sade’, festschrift F.B.J.Kuiper, The Hague, in the press, n.46.

19 A few of the passages relating to yaziśn nihādag were brought together by C. Bartholomae in his ‘Mitteliranisehe Studien IV’, WZKM, XXVII, 1931, 369–73; all of them have since been set out convenientlu by J.de Menasce in his recent feux et fondations pieuses dans le droit sassanide, Paris, Printed 1964, Published 1966. For a discussion on some of the passages regerring to sacred Fires see BSO AS, XXXI, 1,1968,52–68. Citations from the MHD in thepassages regerring to saered Facsimile edition of the first part, part, Published by J.J. Modi, Bombay, 1901.

20 MHD,29.9–11(de M.,13).

21 MHD,24.12–13(de M.,7).

22 MHD,29.9–11.

23 MS ‘BYDWNx1.

24 MS YXBWB-yt.

25 The expression paydāg kardan is used in the MHD in the legal sense ‘to devise’, i.e. to bequeath property by will. The idiom appears cognate with the rare Persian usage padīd kardan ‘to designate, appoint’ (see M.Minovi(ed.), Tasar nāme, Tehran, 1932,49). In general Sasanian law seems deficient in legal terms of art. Thus dāśtan appears to be used both in an ordinary sense, ‘to have, hold, possess (absolutely)’, and in a specialized one, ‘to hold (in trust), administer’. Dādan is used with similar ambiguity (see de Menasce,8) for ‘to give (absolutely)’and ‘to give in trust, entrust’. Wimāh, which in ordinary usage indicates moral wrong-doing or sin, is used in law for a civil offernce (see further, below, P.276), and probably also for a crime. In the light of such imprecison it is debatable whether a translator should use the technical terms of English law to render the less well-defined MPersian vocabulary; but by doing so he at lest makes clear his own interpretation of the text.

26 cf. also MHD, 24.16–17 (zan udfrazand...pad agnēn dārišn ‘the wife and children are to administer (it) jointly’.

27 MHD,34.6–7 (de M., 15).

28 MHD, 34.2–3 (de M.,15).

29 lit.‘one uses up, finishes’.

30 On arg ‘ work, labour’ see Bartholomae,Zur kenntnis der mitteliranischen Mundarten, I, 10 f., where examples are given for the phrases arg ud ranz and arg ud bār. The present passage is translated there, slightly differently, on p. 14.

31 MHD, 34.9–12 (de M., 16).

32 MS YBLWN-x2 written overx1.

33 MS L’.

34 MS‘L.

35 MS YBLWN-x2

36 MHD. 35.9–16(de M..17).

37 Here and in 1.11 the MS has wxt, which Bartholomae points out (Mir. st. IV, p.372, n.1) is awell-attested by-form of wxš ‘interest, income’. De M.gives waxš in both places, without comment.

38 MS XN’.

39 Or kunēh; MS ‘BYDWN-x1.

40 MHD, 29.3–6(de M.,13).

41 On ābār ‘ waste, destroyed; void, null’ (so read, as apār, by S.J.Bulsara, The laws of the ancient persians, 185;a010d;ār, de M.) See Bartholomae, Zum sasanidischen recht, V, 8 (ef.P. Horn, grundriss der neupersischen Etymologie, No.53; H. HŰbschmann, persische Studien,9–10). The word occurs frequently in its legal sense in the Rivāyat ī Ašawahištān.

42 MHD, 35.7–9(de M.,17).

43 Bulsara (op. cit.,212)correctly understands zyān wizār-to mean ‘atone for damage’ but renders wināhas ‘(there has been committed)a erimonal breach (of trust)’.In the light of the frequency of the idiom wināh wizār-‘atone for a fault, expiate a wrong’ the abive translation seems preferable. As Bulsara points out, the phrase zyār-occurs again in MHD,29.3:KA...ān zyārēd, abāz gumārišn ‘If he makes good that damage, he should be reappointed’. On the imprecision of the word wināh (here rendered as ‘breach of trust’)see above P.274, n.25.

44 MHD, 35.13–14(de M.,17).

45 Zend-Avesta, I, lxvii.

46 M.R. Unvala (ed.),Dārāb Hormazyār‘s Rivāyat, I,75.5; B.N.Dhabhar,The persian rivāyats of Hormazyar Framarz,66(see further below, p.281).

47 The Iranis term the five days of each of the six seasonal gahārs a 010D;cxre, or more colloquislly a čāra; and they distinguish between a fixed gahāmbār-i tōjī, a relatively brief observance which can be celebrated at any time.

48 The above information about the former celebration of this anjomanī gahāmbār comes form Dastur Khodadad Neryosangi of Sharīfābād, who was formerly ātaś-band of the Yazdī Ātaī Bahrām. In was permitted, on an icy January morning, to attend an anjomanī Visperad in the new Ātaś Bahrām in Yazd. There were then present only one vilage woman and myself in addition to the , Dastur Siyavakhsh, and the rāspī, his son Dastur Mihraban (the two ātaš-bands od the fire-temple); and at the appropriate point Dastur Mihraban had himself to withdraw to other dutoes, leaving his father as zōt to eomplete the service alone.The celebration lasted from about 6.30 to 11 a.m.-Dastur Khodadad estimates that whern he was a small child there were still some 200 priests in Yazd; now the number barely reaches double figures, even including part-time priests.

49 Unvala, op.cit., I, 435, col.b, 1.1

50 Theus Agha Rustam Belivani's forbears are Noshiravan-i Gushtasp-i Khodarahm-i Gushtasp-i Belivan-i Jamshid-i Pavarza. Every one of these seven endowed a gahāmbār; and these gahāmbārs are still celebrated in Sharīfād by various branches of the family.

51 See J.J. Modi, The religious ceremonies and custims of the parsees, second ed., 1937,427. The rising cost of living has reduced the valiue of old endowments in both countries, so that in Iran some gahāmbārs which were endowed as guštī(i.e. with a sacrifieial animal) are now celebrated only with lurk (i.e.myazd or offered fruits. In India the celebration sometimes perforce takes place less often under the original terms of the foundation.

52 This is not according to what is said by Modi, himself a Bhagaria priest, op. cit., 315:‘Ordinarly the visperad is recited whenever the Vendidād is recited. But there are special periods of the year when the Visperad is specially recited.These periods are known as the Gāhambārs’ Ervad Kotwal, Bhagaria yōzda0ragar, told me that this statement of Modi's was not in accord with present Navsari practice; and at my request he very kindly consulted with the oldest yōzdaQragars of Navsari, who eonfirmed that by practice and tradition the Visperad is celenrated in Navsari only on the above three occasions. It is suggested that Modi may have made this error because ha was not a practising yōzdaqragar, that is, he did not himself perform AvestaII,572) that ‘the Vendīdād, Yazišn(i.e. Yasna), and Visperad are celebrated every day’ is presumably also an error.

53 Edited by Anklesaria, P. K. Ph.D. thesis,University of London, 1958), 158.26–7; transl. by E. W. West, SBE, XVIII,240.Google Scholar

54 See PP.42–7 of this MS, i.e. section XXXIX apud B.N.Dhabhar, Descriptive catalogue of all manuscripts in the First Dastur Meherji Rana Library, Navsari, P. 56.

55 Pāw-mahal-nē lagtīyāō, bāj-dharnu anē nirangastān ‘Rituals concerning high lityrgies (and) the consecration of bāj and nīrang’ P.58, n.

56 MHD,35.17–36.1(de M.,18)

57 S. J. Bulsara, op.eit., p.215, n.11.

58 See ibid., preface,11.

59 OP.cit.,18.

60 idbid., 60. De Menasce calls these services ‘Prières chuchotès’; but this is to confuse the word bāj used (as in this case) for the drōn-ceremony, and bāj used as a term for a manner of recital, usually of Pazand texts.

61 i.e.on the third day. These four bāj can be said to be performed on the fourth day only if one considers the 24-hour day to begin at midnight, which is un-Zoroastrian. To the Zoroastrian the day begins at dawn, with the Hāvan Gāh; and these bāj, being celebrated in the Ušahin Gāh, belong to rites of the third day after death. It is a little confusing for jiddīns that they are nevertheless called by the Parsis the čahārom-ni bājō ‘the fourth-day bājs’ but this is because their intention is to aid the soul at its judgment on the fourth day.

62 The Visperad of Nāvar was celebrated in Iran woth the xšnŭman of mīvar, see Unvala, op. cit., II,34; Dhabhar, op. cit., 420; but the Bhagarias of Navsari celenrate this Visperad also with the xšnūman of Ōhrmazd ī xodāy.

63 See Unvala, op.cit., I, 429.9–10; Dhabhar, op.cit., 324. The Practice of the Bhagarias of Navsari is that the Visperad and the bāj(drōn) of the gahāmbārs have the same xšnūmans, i.e., in the Pazand xšnūman is, e.g., mainyō raqwō barazat buland gāh i gāhāmbār hamaspaqmaidyam ham krfa hamā wēhān haft kišwar zamin be rasād, whereas in the Avestan liturgy the xšnūman (in its lesser form) is ahurahe mazdā raevatō xwaranahatō, i.e. the usual xšnūman of Ōhrmazd the Lord.

64 See Unvala, op. cit., I, 434–6; Dhabhar, op. cit., 324.

65 Unvala, op. cit., I, 435, col. a, 1. 9 (gahāmbār-i Astād bunyād kard, ravān-i niyāgān-i x ad šād kard).

66 Unvala, op. cit., I 75.5–6; Dhabhar, op. cit., 66.

67 See, e.g., Unvala, op. cit., I, 429.9; and for the later Irani usage above, p.277. Modi, op. cit., 422, refers to the Visperad as the yesna(i.e.yazišn) of the gāhambār. In current Irani usage, if the Visperad is spoken if without a ceremonial context, it is referred as a yašt-i Visferad.

68 See, e.g., MHD, 35.13; Unvala, op. cit., I, 467.7, 482.11. Dhabhar in his translation of the passage from the Rivāyat of Kamdin Shapur evidently understands the yašt-ē Ōrmazd-i xodāy as a Visperad; but without noting any variants he translates this expression twice, perhaps through a confusion between draft translations. His rendering os as follows: ‘During (those) Gahāmbārs... one Visparad ceremony should be performed. One Yasna for Ahuramazda Khodai and one Yasna on day Sarosh should be performed’. There is no expression for Visperad in Unvala's text other than yašt-ē Ōrmazd-i xodāy.

69 The length of time between the two ceremonies would of course vary with the gahāmbār. If the Visperad were celebrated on the day Sarōš of te month Dai the second of the fourth gahāmbār, Maiyōš there are 20 days.

70 MHD,35.16 (de M., 18).

71 P.275.

72 MHD, 25.2 (de m., 8).

73 MHD, 34.3(de m., 15).

74 MS’ YKt.

75 The MS has paydāg kardan after ruwān rāy, presumably a mechanical scribal addition because of the frequency of this phrase.

76 MHD,34.12–16 (de M., 16).

77 MS YNSBWN-X1.

78 MHD, 34.16–35.1 (de M.,16).

79 op. cit., 210, 211.

80 As Bartholomae has shown (Zum sas. Recht, III, 49) xānag is used in legal terminology for the actual dwelling-house, as distinct from other buildings on a messuage. Its use in a sense parallel to that of dūdag is not therefore a priori improbable.

81 MHD, 35. 1–3.

82 The MS has lwb’n l’y ycšn L’ pyt’k.

83 MHD, 35.1–6 (de M., 17). The first sentence has been transcribed and translated by Bartholomae (Mir. st., Iv, 370).

84 MS MZBNWx1.

85 This sentence could as well be translated: ‘have entrusted it to Mihrēn to administer’. The Possibilities for litigation in such ambiguities seem almost limitless.

86 See J. J. Modi, The Parsees at the court of Akbar and Dastur Meherjee Rānā, Bombay, 1903, 63

87 MHD,1.7–16 (de M., 7).

88 On the expression ātaxš-bandag see BSOAS, XXXI,1,1968, 59–60.

89 See Modi, Religious ceremonies and customs. 455. The brief account which he gives amplified here by information from Ervad Firoze Kotwal.

90 Called in the Saddar Bundaheš, lix (ed. B. N. Dhabhar, p. 132), the vāj ī Ōhrmazd.

91 See Modi, op. eit., 350.

92 See Bhimbhāi Kirpārām, ‘Gujarāt Hindus’, Gazatteer of the Bombay presidency, IX, Part I, 1901, p.xxv: ‘One leading peculiarity of the mode of living among the Hindus of Gujarāt is their fondness for public feasts... This practice is eomoner in the south than in the north, and is much more usual amog town than among country-people. public dinners in Gujarāt belong to three chief classes: trade dinners, social dinners, and religionus dinners’. Among the many such feasts are ‘special feasts...given by rich men... to do honour to the memory of some deceased relation’, ibid., p. xxvii.

93 Nāhn is used by the Parsis as a synonym forbarašnom. Nāhnyā is thus synonymous with baraŠnomvālā as a term for a Priest who has undergone and is retaining the baraŠnom.

94 The existence of such Zoroastrian observances makes it possible that there was Zorosstrian influence on Mani's doctrine of the sacramental nature of the one daily meal of the Elect.

95 MHD, 34.1.

96 i.e. that part of the pazand introduction to a service where the names of those who are especially (nāmčiŠtī) to be remembered are rebearsed. That the endowment of a sacred Fire in the mane of an individual, for the benefit of his or hersoul, was a Practice of the Sasanian kings is shown by the inscription pf Šābuhr I on the ka'ba-yi ZarduŠt.

97 see 'The fire-temples of Kerman,' Acta Orientalia, 1966,63–4.

98 Dastur Mirza 's reading.

99 Dhabhar 's reading.

100 This passage was understood rather differently by Dastur Mirza; but cf. GreatbundahiŠn, xviii, 10, 11 (ed.T.D. Anklesatia, Bombay, 1908, 125.1 f., 125.8 f.): 'The fire Farnbag saved the Glory of Yima from the hands of Dahāg⃜ When Zoroaster of immortal soul brought his faith, the Fire Burzēn-Mihr revealed many things clearly, for davancing the faith and establishing (it) beyond doubt, so that ViŠtāsp and (his) children should accept the faith of the Gods' (xvarrah ī Jam az dast ī Dahāg Adur Farnbag bōzēnīd⃛ Adur Burzēn-Mihr⃛ ka anōŠag ruwān ZarduxŠt dēn āward, pad rawāgēnīdan ī dēn ud abē-gumān kardan, tā WiŠtāsp ud frazendān [pad] dēn ī yazdān ēstēnd, was tis wēnābdagīhā nimūD kard).

101 ed. T.D.A., 124.14–15, 125.15.