Vendidad — Chapter 5
Exported from Holy-Writings.com on 2026-07-06 - 1 clipping

Source: Avesta.org. The Vendidad, Chapter 5, translation: L.H. Mills / J. Darmesteter (Sacred Books of the East, 1880-1887), Avesta.org. License: Public domain (translation predates 1928).
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

AVESTA: VENDIDAD (English): Fargard 5. Purity Laws

Home

Contents

Prev

vd5sbe

Next

Avestan

Glossary

AVESTA: VENDIDAD (English): Fargard 5. Purity Laws.

This digital edition prepared by Joseph H. Peterson, 1995.

Translated by James Darmesteter (From Sacred Books of the East,
American Edition, New York, The Christian Literature Company, 1898.)

Compare this chapter with the ancient description given of it in
the Denkard, Book 8, Chapter 44.

This chapter and the following ones, to the end of the twelfth,
deal chiefly with uncleanness arising from the dead, and with
the means of removing it from men and things.

The subjects treated in this Fargard are as follows:--

I (1-7). If a man defile the fire or the earth with dead matter
(Nasu), involuntarily or unconsciously, it is no sin.

II (8-9). Water and fire do not kill.

III (10-14). Disposal of the dead during winter when it is not
possible to take them to the Dakhma.

IV (15-20). Why Ahura, while forbidding man to defile water, sends
water ftom the heavens down to the Dakhmas, covered with corpses.
How he purifies that water.

V (21-26). On the excellence of purity and of the law that shows
how to recover purity, when lost.

VI (27-38). On the defiling power of the Nasu being greater or
less, according to the greater or less dignity of the being that
dies.

VII (39-44). On the management of sacrificial implements [alat] defiled
with Nasu.

VIII (45-62). On the treatment of a woman who has been delivered
of a still-born child; and what is to be done with her clothes.

FARGARD 5. Purity laws

I.

Notes:

1. There dies a man in the depths of the vale: a bird takes flight
from the top of the mountain down into the depths of the vale,
and it feeds on the corpse of the dead man there: then, up it
flies from the depths of the vale to the top of the mountain:
it flies to some one of the trees there, of the hard-wooded or
the soft-wooded, and upon that tree it vomits and deposits dung.

2. Now, lo! here is a man coming up from the depths of the vale
to the top of the mountain; he comes to the tree whereon the bird
is sitting; from that tree he intends to take wood for the fire.
He fells the tree, he hews the tree, he splits it into logs, and
then he lights it in the fire, the son of Ahura Mazda. What is
the penalty he shall pay 1?

1. For defiling the fire by bringing dead matter into it
(see Vd7.25 seq.) contrarily to
the rule, 'Put ye only proper and well-examined fuel (in
the fire).' For the purification of unclean
wood, see Vd7.28 seq.

3. Ahura Mazda answered: 'There is no sin upon a man for any Nasu
that has been brought by dogs, by birds, by wolves, by winds,
or by flies.

4. 'For were there sin upon a man for any Nasu that might have
been brought by dogs, by

birds, by wolves, by winds, or by flies, how soon all
this material world of mine would be only one
Peshotanu2, bent on the destruction of righteousness,
and whose soul will cry and wail3! so
numberless are the beings that die upon the face
of the earth.'

2. 'People guilty of death [i.e. a mortal sin -JHP]' (Comm.)
Cf. Yasna 53.9 b.

3. After their death, 'When the soul, crying and beaten off, is
driven far away from Paradise' (Comm.) This is imitated from
the Gathas (Yasna 46.11c;
51.13b;
cf. Vd13.8-9).

5. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Here is a man
watering a corn-field. The water streams down the field; it streams
again; it streams a third time; and the fourth time, a dog, a
fox, or a wolf carries some Nasu into the bed of the stream: what
is the penalty that the man shall pay4?

4. For defiling the earth and the water: 'If a man wants to irrigate a
field, he must first look after the water-channel, whether there is dead
matter in it or not ..... If the water, unknown to him, comes upon a corpse,
there is no sin upon him. If he has not looked after the rivulet and the
stream, he is unclean' (Saddar 75).

6. [Repeat st. 3.]

7. [Repeat st. 4.]

IIa.

8. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy
One! Does water kill5?

Ahura Mazda answered: 'Water kills no man:
Asto-vidhotu binds him, and, thus bound6, Vayu7
carries him off; and the flood takes him up8, the
flood takes him down9, the flood throws him ashore;
then birds feed upon him. When he goes away10, it
is by the will of Fate he goes.'

5. Water and fire belong to the holy part of the world, and come
from God; how then is it that they kill? 'Let a Gueber light
a sacred fire for a hundred years, if he once fall into it, he shall be
burnt.' Even the Mobeds, if we may trust Elisaeus, complained
that the fire would burn them without regard for their piety, when
to adore it they came too near (Vartan's War, p. 211 of the French
translation by l'Abb&eacute; Garabed). The answer was that it is not
the fire nor the water that kills, but the demon of Death and Fate.
'Nothing whatever that I created in the world, said Ohrmazd, does
harm to man; it is the bad N&acirc;i (read V&acirc;i) that kills the man'
(Gr. Riv. 124).

6. 'Asti-vahat is the bad Vai who seizes the life (of man): when
his hand strokes him, it is lethargy; when he casts his shadow
upon him, it is fever; when he looks in his eyes, he destroys life
and it is called Death' (Bund. 28.35).
Cf. Vd4.49; Vd19.29.

7. 'The bad Vai' (Comm.) Vai (Vayu) is the Genius of Destiny, good or evil.

8. To the surface.

9. To the bottom.

10. When he departs.

IIb.

9. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Does fire kill?
Ahura Mazda answered: 'Fire kills no man: Asto-vidhotu binds him,
and, thus bound, Vayu carries him off; and the fire burns up life
and limb. When he goes away, it is by the will of Fate he goes.'

III.

10. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! If the summer
is past and the winter has come, what shall the worshippers of
Mazda do 11? Ahura Mazda answered: 'In every house, in every borough,
they shall raise three rooms for the dead 12.'

11. 'In case a man dies during the snowy seasdon, while it is
difficult or impossible to take the corpse to the Dakhma, which
usually stands far from inhabited places. The same case is treated
again in Vd8.4 seq.

12. One for men, another for women, a third for children. As
not every house is considerable or rich enough to have these three
accommodations, there will be a common Zad-marj for the village.
The Zad-marj is a small mud house where the corpse is laid, to
lie there till it can be taken to the Dakhma (Anquetil, Zend-Avesta
II, 583). The Zad-marj is still used in Persia, and in the Gujarati
provinces (where it is called Nasa-khana, 'house for corpses').
In Bombay they use the simpler and more economical method
given in Vd8.8.

11. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! How large shall
be those rooms for the dead? Ahura Mazda answered: 'Large enough
not to strike the skull of the man, if he13 should stand erect,
or his feet or his hands stretched out: such shall be, according
to the law, the rooms for the dead.

13. 'Being in life' (Comm.)

12. 'And they shall let the lifeless body lie
there, for two nights, or for three nights, or a
month long, until the birds begin to fly14, the plants
to grow, the hidden floods15 to flow, and the
wind to dry up the earth16.

13. 'And as soon as the birds begin to fly, the plants to grow,
the hidden floods to flow, and the wind to dry up the earth, then
the worshippers of Mazda shall lay down the dead (on the Dakhma),
his eyes towards the sun.

14. To come back.

15. They were hidden under the earth.

16. 'Until the winter is past' (Comm.)

14. 'If the worshippers of Mazda have not, within a year, laid
down the dead (on the Dakhma), his eyes towards the sun, thou
shalt prescribe for that trespass the same penalty as for the
murder of one of the faithful17; until the corpse has heen rained
on, until the Dakhma has heen rained on, until the unclean remains
have been rained on, until the birds have eaten up the corpse.'

17. See Vd3.41; note; cf. below, §§ 21-26.

IV.

15. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Is it true at
thou, Ahura Mazda, seizest the waters from the sea Vouru-kasha18
with the wind and the clouds?

18. Vouru-kasha or Frakh-kart, the Ocean, wherefrom all
waters come and whereto they return (Vd21.4).

16. That thou, Ahura Mazda, takest them down to the corpses19?
that thou, Ahura Mazda, takest them down to the Dakhmas? that
thou, Ahura Mazda, takest them down to the unclean remains? that
thou, Ahura Mazda, takest them down to the bones? and that then
thou, Ahura Mazda, makest them flow back unseen? that thou, Ahura
Mazda, makest them flow back to the sea Puitika20?

17. Ahura Mazda answered: 'It is even so as thou hast said, O
righteous Zarathushtra! I, Ahura Mazda, seize the waters from
the sea Vouru-kasha with the wind and the clouds.

18. 'I, Ahura Mazda, take them to the corpses; I, Ahura Mazda,
take them down to the Dakhmas; I, Ahura Mazda, take them down
to the unclean remains; I, Ahura Mazda, take them down to the
bones; then I, Ahura Mazda, make them flow back unseen; I, Ahura
Mazda, make them flow back to the sea Puitika.

19. Zartosht wonders that Ohrmazd fears so little to infringe
his own laws by defiling waters with the dead. In a Rivayat, he
asks him bluntly why he forbids men to take corpses to the water,
while he himself sends rain to the Dakhmas (Gr. Riv. 125).

20. The sea where waters are purified before going back to their
gathering place, the sea Vouru-kasha (see § 19). 'All the thickness,
salt, and impurity of the sea Putik wishes to go to the Frakh-kart
sea; but a mighty high wind, blowing from the Var Satves, drives
it away: whatever is clean and movable passes to the Frakh-kart
sea, and the rest (the unclean element) flows back to the Putik'
(Bund. 13.10).

19. 'The waters stand there boiling, boiling up in the heart of
the sea Puitika, and, when cleansed there, they run back again
from the sea Puitika to the sea Vouru-kasha, towards the well-watered
tree21, whereon grow the seeds of my plants of every kind by hundreds,
by thousands, by hundreds of thousands.

20. 'Those plants, I, Ahura Mazda, rain
down upon the earth21, to bring food to the faithful,
and fodder to the beneficent cow; to bring food to

my people that they may live on it, and fodder
to the beneficent cow.'

21. The tree of all seeds (Harvisptokhm), which grows in the
middle of the sea Vouru-kasha; the seeds of all plants are on it.
There is a godlike bird, the Sinamru [simurgh], sitting on that tree; whenever
he flies off the tree, there grow out of it a thousand boughs;
whenever he alights on it, there break a thousand boughs, the seeds
of which are scattered about, and rained down on the earth by
Tishtar (Tishtrya), the rain-god (Yt12.17;
Menog-i Khrad 62.37 seq.;
Bundahishn 27;
cf. Vd20.4 seq.)

V.

21. 'This22 is the best, this is the fairest of all things, even
as thou hast said, O pure [Zarathushtra]!'

With these words the holy, Ahura Mazda rejoiced the holy Zarathushtra23:
'Purity is for man, next to life, the greatest good24, that purity,
O Zarathushtra, that is in the Religion of Mazda for him who cleanses
his own self with good thoughts, words, and deeds25.'

22. The cleansing, the purification.

23. 'When Zartosht saw that man is able to escape sin by performing
good works, he was filled with joy' (Comm.)

24. Quotation from the Gathas
(Yasna 48.5c).

25. That is to say, 'Who performs the rites of cleansing according
to the prescriptions of the law.'

22. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! This Law, this
fiend-destroying Law of Zarathushtra26, by what greatness, goodness,
and fairness is it great, good, and fair above all other utterances?

26. The Law (Datem), that part of the religious system of
which the Vendidad is the specimen, and the object of which is
the purification of man.

23. Ahura Mazda answered: 'As much above all other floods as is
the sea Vouru-kasha, so much above all other utterances in greatness,
goodness, and fairness is this Law, this fiend-destroying Law
of Zarathushtra.

24. 'As much as a great stream flows swifter than a slender rivulet,
so much above all other utterances in greatness, goodness, and
fairness is this Law, this fiend-destroying Law of Zarathushtra.

'As high as the great tree27 stands above the small plants it overshadows,
so high above all other utterances in greatness, goodness, and
fairness is this Law, this fiend-destroying Law of Zarathushtra.

27. 'The royal cypress above small herbs' (Comm.)

25. 'As high as heaven is above the earth that it compasses around,
so high above all other utterances is this Law, this fiend-destroying
Law of Mazda.

'[Therefore], he will apply to the Ratu28, he will apply to the
Sraosha-varez29; whether for a draona-service30
that should have been undertaken31 and has not been
undertaken32; or for a draona
that should have been offered up and has not been offered up;
or for a draona that should have been entrusted and has not been
entrusted33.

28. 'To take the rule' (Comm.), which probably means, 'to know
what sort of penance he must undergo;' as, when a man has
sinned with the tongue or with the hand, the Dastur (or Ratu) must
prescribe for him the expiation that the sin requires. The Ratu is
the chief priest, the spiritual head of the community.

29. 'To weep for his crime' (Comm.), which may mean, 'to recite
to him the Patet, or, to receive at his hand the proper number of
stripes.' The Sraosha-varez is the priest that superintends the
sacrifice. He receives the confession of the guilty man and very
likely wields the Sraosho-charana.

30. The Srosh-dron, a service in honour of any of the angels,
or of deceased persons, in which small cakes, called draona, are
consecrated in their names, and then given to those present to eat.

31. When it ought not to be.

32. When it ought to be.

33. The meaning of the sentence is not certain. The Commentary
has: 'Whether he has thought what he ought not to
have thought, or has not thought what he ought to have thought;
whether he has said what he ought not to have said, or has not
said what he ought to have said; whether he has done what he ought
not to have done, or has not done what he ought to have done.'

26. 'The Ratu has power to remit him one-third of his penalty34:
if he has committed any other evil deed, it is remitted by his
repentance; if he has committed no other evil deed, he is absolved
by his repentance for ever and ever35.'

34. When the Ratu remits one-third of the sin, God remits the
whole of it (Saddar 29).

35. Cf. Vd3.41.

VI.

27. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! If there be
a number of men resting in the same place, on the same carpet,
on the same pillows, be there two men near one another, or five,
or fifty, or a hundred, close by one another; and of those people
one happens to die; how many of them does the Druj Nasu36 envelope
with corruption, infection, and pollution?

36. Nasu [Nasa] (nekuV) designates both
the corpse and the corpse-demon (the Druj that produces the
corruption and infection of the dead body).

28. Ahura Mazda answered: 'If the dead one be a priest, the Druj
Nasu rushes forth37, O Spitama Zarathushtra! she goes as far as
the eleventh and defiles the ten38.

'If the dead one be a warrior, the Druj Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama
Zarathushtra! she goes as far as the tenth and defiles the nine.

'If the dead one be a husbandman, the Druj Nasu rushes forth,
O Spitama Zarathushtra! she goes as far as the ninth and defiles
the eight.

37. In opposition to the case when the dead one is an
Ashmogh (§ 35), as no Nasa issues then.

38. Literally, 'If she goes as far as the eleventh, she defiles the
tenth.' That is to say, she stops at the eleventh and defiles the
next ten. In the Rivayats, the
Avesta distinctions are lost, and the defiling power of the
Nasa is the same, whatever may have been the rank of the
dead: 'If there be a number of people sleeping
in the same place, and if one of them happens to die, all those
around him, in any direction, as far as the eleventh, become unclean
if they have been in contact with one another' (Gr. Riv. 470).

29. 'If it be a shepherd's dog, the Druj Nasu rushes forth, O
Spitama Zarathushtra! she goes as far as the eighth and defiles
the seven.

'If it be a house-dog, the Druj Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama Zarathushtra!
she goes as far as the seventh and defiles the six.

30. 'If it be a Vohunazga dog39, the Druj Nasu rushes forth, O
Spitama Zarathushtra! she goes as far as the sixth and defiles
the five.

'If it be a Tauruna dog40, the Druj Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama
Zarathushtra! she goes as far as the fifth and defiles the four.

39. A dog without a master (Vd13.19).

40. A hunting-dog.

31. 'If it be a porcupine dog, the Druj Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama
Zarathushtra! she goes as far as the fourth and defiles the three.

'If it be a Jazu dog41, the Druj Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama Zarathushtra!
she goes as far as the third and defiles the two.

41. This name and the two following, Aiwizu and Vizu, are left
untranslated in the Pahlavi translation.

32. 'If it be an Aiwizu dog, the Druj Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama
Zarathushtra! she goes as far as the second and defiles the next.

'If it be a Vizu dog, the Druj Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama Zarathushtra!
she goes as far as the next, she defiles the next.'

33. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! If it be a weasel42,
how many of the creatures of the good spirit [Spenta Mainyu -JHP] does it directly
defile, how many does it indirectly defile?

42. A weasel. The weasel is one of the creatures of Ahura, for 'it
has been created to fight against the serpent garza and the other
khrafstras that live in holes'
(Bund. 19.27).

34. Ahura Mazda answered : 'A weasel does neither directly nor
indirectly defile any of the creatures of the good spirit [Spenta Mainyu -JHP], but
him who smites and kills it; to him the uncleanness clings for
ever and ever43.'

43. Not that the unclean one cannot be cleansed, but that his uncleanness
does not pass from him to another.

3544. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! If the dead
one be such a wicked, two-footed ruffian, as an ungodly Ashemaogha45,
how many of the creatures of the good spirit [Spenta Mainyu -JHP] does he directly
defile, how many does he indirectly defile?

44. §§ 35-38; cf. Vd12.21-24.

45. Ashemaogha, a heretic.

36. Ahura Mazda answered: 'No more than a frog does whose venom
is dried up, and that has been dead more than a year46. Whilst
alive, indeed, O Spitama Zarathushtra! such a wicked, two-legged
ruffian as an ungodly Ashemaogha, directly defiles the creatures
of the good spirit [Spenta Mainyu -JHP], and indirectly defiles them.

46. The frog is a creature of Ahriman's, and one of the most
hateful. Cf. Vd14.5.

37. 'Whilst alive he smites the water47; whilst alive he blows
out the fire48; whilst alive he carries off the cow49; whilst alive
he smites the faithful man with a deadly blow, that parts the
soul from the body50; not so will he do when dead.

47. By defiling it (a capital crime; see Vd7.25).

48. He extinguishes the Warharan fire (a capital crime;
cf. Vd7.25.)

49. As a cattle-lifter.

50. As an assassin.

38. 'Whilst alive, indeed, O Spitama Zarathushtra! such a wicked,
two-legged ruffian as an ungodly Ashemaogha robs the faithful
man of the full possession of his food, of his clothing, of his
wood, of his bed, of his vessels51; not so will
he do when dead52.'

51. By defiling them, he deprives the faithful of their use.

52. 'When a wicked man dies, the Druj who was with him during his
lifetime, seizes him and drags him down to Ahriman; therefore,
his body, as the Druj is no longer with it, becomes pure. On the
contrary, when it is a righteous man that dies, the Amahraspands
take his soul to Ohrmazd and the Druj settles in the house of the
body and makes it impure' (Gujastak Abalish).

VII.

39. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! When into our
houses here below we have brought the fire, the Baresma, the cups,
the Haoma, and the mortar53, O holy Ahura Mazda! if it come to
pass that either a dog or a man dies there, what shall the worshippers
of Mazda do?

53. In order to perform a sacrifice.

40. Ahura Mazda answered: 'Out of the house, O Spitama Zarathushtra!
shall they take the fire, the Baresma, the cups, the Haoma, and
the mortar; they shall take the dead one out to the proper place54
whereto, according to the law, corpses must be brought, to be
devoured there.'

54. The Dakhma.

41. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! When shall they
bring back the fire into the house wherein the man has died?

42. Ahura Mazda answered: 'They shall wait for nine nights in winter,
for a month in summer55, and then they shall bring back the fire
to the house wherein the man has died.'

55. Corruption being worse in summer.

43. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! And if they
shall bring back the fire to the house wherein the man iias died,
within the nine nights, or within the month, what penalty shall
they pay?

44. Ahura Mazda answered: 'They shall be Peshotanus: two hundred
stripes with the Aspahe-astra, two hundred stripes with the Sraosho-charana.'

VIII.

4556. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! If in the house
of a worshipper of Mazda there be a woman with child, and if being
a month gone, or two, or three, or four, or five, or six, or seven,
or eight, or nine, or ten months gone57, she bring forth a still-born
child, what shall the worshippers of Mazda do?

56. §§ 45-54 = Vd7.60-69.

57. The pregnancy, without lasting more than nine calendar
months (9 times 30 days), generally extends along ten months on
the calendar (for instance from January 10 to October 10).

46. Ahura Mazda answered: 'The place in that Mazdean house whereof
the ground is the cleanest and the driest, and the least passed through
by flocks and herds, by the fire of Ahura Mazda, by the consecrated
bundles of Baresma, and by the faithful;'

47. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! How far from
the fire? How far from the water? How tar fiom the consecrated
bundles of Baresma? How far from the faithful?

48. Ahura Mazda answered: 'Thirty paces from the fire; thirty
paces from the water; thirty paces from the consecrated bundles
of Baresma; three paces from the faithful58;-

58. The carrier alone is kept thirty feet from the faithful
(Vd3.18),
as he is cut off from the community: his food is not brought
to him, he has a store prepared for him. The woman, when
armesht, is only temporarily isolated; she stays in the house and
her food is brought to her all but from hand to hand
(Vd16.6).

49. 'On that place shall the worshippers of Mazda erect an enclosure59,
and therein shall they establish her with food, therein shall
they establish her with clothes.'

59. The place for the man or woman in state of uncleanness, or
Armesht-gah.

50. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! What is the
food that the woman shall first take?

51. Ahura Mazda answered: 'Gomez60 mixed with ashes, three draughts
of it, or six, or nine, to send down the Dakhma within her womb61.

60. Urine of the ox: the so-called Nirang-din;
cf. Vd8.37;
Vd19.21. 'Three cups, or six, or nine, according to her
strength' (Asp.)

61. Her womb is a Dakhma, as it contained a dead body. -- These
nine draughts of gomez mixed with ashes are like an interior
barashnom, as the Barashnom consists of nine successive purifications
with gomez and dust.

52. 'Afterwards she may drink boiling62 milk of mares, cows, sheep,
or goats, with pap or without pap63; she may take cooked milk without
water, meal without water, and wine without water64.'

62. Doubtful.

63. Doubtful.

64. 'The water would be defiled;' cf. Vd7.70 seq.

53. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! How long shall she
remain so? How long shall she live thus on milk, meal, and wine?

54. Ahura Mazda answered: 'Three nights long shall she remain
so; three nights long shall she live thus on milk, meal, and wine.
Then, when three nights have passed, she shall wash her body,
she shall wash her clothes, with gomez and water, by the nine
holes65, and thus shall she be clean.'

65. She shall perform the nine nights' Barashnom, for the
details of which see Vd9. That Barashnom is taken forty
days after the delivery.

55. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! How long shall
she remain so? How long, after the three nights have gone, shall
she sit confined, and live separated from the rest of the worshippers
of Mazda, as to her seat, her food, and her clothing?

56. Ahura Mazda answered: 'Nine nights long shall she remain so:
nine nights long, after the three nights have gone, shall she
sit confined, and live separated from the rest of the worshippers
of Mazda, as to her seat, her food, and her clothing. Then, when
the nine nights have gone, she shall wash her body, and cleanse
her clothes with gomez and water66.'

66. 'If a woman brings forth a still-born child, after a pregnancy
of one month to ten months, the first food she shall take is nirang
(= gomez) ... fire and ashes; and she is not allowed until the
fourth day to take water or salt, or any food that is cooked with
water or salt: on the fourth day they give her nirang, that she
may cleanse herself and wash her clothes with it, and she is not
allowed to wash herself and her clothes with water until the forty-first
day' (Gr. Riv. 568).

5767. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Can those clothes,
when once washed and cleansed, ever be used either by a Zaotar,
or by a Havanan, or by an Atare-vakhsha, or by a Frabaretar, or
by an Abered, or by an Asnatar, or by a Rathwiskar, or by
a Sraosha-varez68,
or by any priest, warrior, or husbandman69?

67. # 57-62 = Vd7.17-22.

68. These are the names of the different priests who were engaged
in the sacrifices. The Havanan strains the Haoma; the Atarevakhsha
kindles the fire; the Frabaretar brings to the Zaotar all
that he needs; the Aberet brings the water; the Asnatar washes
and strains the Haoma; the Rathwishkar mixes the Haoma and
the milk; the Zaotar chants the hymns and says the prayers; the
Sraosh-varez superintends the sacrifice. Nowadays there are only
two priests, the Zaotar (Zot) and the Rathwishkar (Raspi), the latter
performing all the accessory services formerly performed by several
priests. Cf. Nirangistan, 71 sq.

69. In short, by any of the faithful, when in state of purity.

58. Ahura Mazda answered: 'Never can those clothes, even when
washed and cleansed, be used either by a Zaotar, or by a Havanan,
or by an Atare-vakhsha, or by a Frabaretar, or by an Abered, or
by an Asnatar, or by a Rathwiskar, or by a Sraosha-varez, or by
any priest, warrior, or husbandman.

59. 'But if there be in a Mazdean house a woman who is in her
sickness, or a man who has become unfit for work70, and who must
sit in the place of infirmity71, those clothes shall serve for
their coverings and for their sheets72, until they can withdraw
their hands for prayer73.

70. An Armesht; literally, 'an infirm person,' that is to say, one
who is unclean, during the time of his uncleanness
(Vd9.33 seq.),
when all work is forbidden to him.

71. The Armesht-gah, the place of seclusion of the Armesht.

72. The clothing defiled by the dead can only serve for Dashtan
women, even after it has been washed and exposed for six months
to the light of the sun and of the moon
(Saddar 91;
cf. Vd7.10 seq.)

73. Until they are clean. The unclean must have their hands
wrapped in an old piece of linen, lest they should touch and defile
anything clean.

60. 'Ahura Mazda, indeed, does not allow us to waste anything
of value that we may have, not even so much as an Asperena's74
weight of thread, not even so much as a maid lets fall in spinning.

74. See Vd4.48, note 4.

61. 'Whosoever throws any clothing on a dead body75, even so much
as a maid lets fall in spinning, is not a pious man whilst alive,
nor shall he, when dead, have a place in Paradise.

75. Cf. Vd8.23 seq. It appears from those passages that
the dead must lie on the mountain naked, or 'clothed only with
the light of heaven' (Vd6.51). The modern custom is to
clothe them with old clothing (Dadabhai Naoroji, Manners and
Customs of the Parsis, p. 15). 'When a man dies and receives
the order (to depart), the older the shroud they make for him, the
better. It must be old, worn out, but well washed: they must not
lay anything new on the dead. For it is said in the Zand Vendidad,
If they put on the dead even so much as a thread from the distaff
more than is necessary, every thread shall become in the other
world a black snake clinging to the heart of him who made that
shroud, and even the dead shall rise against him and seize him by
the skirt, and say, That shroud which thou madest for me has become
food for worms and vermin'
(Saddar 12). After the fourth
day, when the soul is in heaven, then rich garments are offered up
to it, which it will wear in its celestial life
(Saddar 87).

62. 'He makes himself a viaticum unto the world of the wicked,
into that world76, made of darkness, the offspring
of darkness77,
which is Darkness' self. To that world, to the world of Hell,
you are delivered by your own doings, by your own religion, O
sinners78!'

76. 'Where darkness can be seized with the hand' (Comm.; cf.
Aogemadaeca 28); something more than the
'visible darkness.'

77. The Commentary has, 'the place of those who impregnate
darkness, for the Druj who conceives seed from the sinner comes
from that place' (cf. Vd18.30 seq.)

78. Quotation from the Gathas (Yasna 31.20).

Home

Contents

Prev

vd5sbe

Next

Avestan

Glossary
-- Vendidad — Chapter 5 — L.H. Mills / James Darmesteter (1880-1887) (Public domain (Sacred Books of the East, 1880-1887))