Translation of the Record. THE FIRST FARGARD OF THE VENDIDÂD.215 1. AHURA MAZDA said to the hallowed Zarathustra: "I created, most holy Zarathustra, into a delicious spot what was hitherto wholly uninhabitable. For had not I, most holy Zarathustra, converted into a delicious. spot what was hitherto wholly uninhabitable, all earthly life would have been poured forth after Airyana-Vaêgô. 2. ["Into a charming region (I converted) one which did not enjoy prosperity, the second (region) into the first ; in opposition to it is great destruction of the existing cultivation.] 3. "As the first best of regions and countries, I, who am Ahura Mazda, created Airyana-Vaêgô of good capability; thereupon, in opposition to him, Angrô Mainyus, the Death-dealing, created a mighty serpent and snow, the work of the Daêvas. 4. "Ten months of winter are there-two months of summer. ["Seven months of summer are there; five months winter there were; the latter are cold as to water, cold as to earth, cold as to trees; there (is) mid-winter, the heart of winter; there all around falls deep snow; there is the direst of plagues.] 5. "As the second best of regions and countries, I, I Ahura Mazda, created Gâu, in which Sughdha is situated. Thereupon, in opposition to it, Angrô Mainyus, the Death-dealing, created pestilence, which is fatal to cattle, small and great. 6. "As the third best of regions and lands, I, I Ahura Mazda, created the strong, the pious Môuru. 215 In the transcript AE is equivalent to Ê, and AO to ô. The passages in brackets are the additions of the Zendic editor. Thereupon Angrô Mainyus, the Death-dealing, created in opposition to it war and pillage. 7. "As the fourth best of regions and countries, I, I Ahura Mazda, created the happy Bâkhdhî with the tall banner. Thereupon Angrô Mainyus, the Death-dealing, created in opposition to it buzzing insects and poisonous plants. 8. "As the fifth best of regions and countries, I, Ahura, I, Mazda, created Nisâi [between Môuru and Bâkhdhi]. Thereupon Angrô Mainyus created in opposition to it the curse of unbelief. 9. "As the sixth best of regions and countries, I, Ahura Mazda, I created Harôyu, the dispenser of water. Thereupon Angrô Mainyus, the Death-dealing, created in opposition to it hail and poverty. 10. "As the seventh best of regions and countries, I, Ahura Mazda, I created Vaêkereta, in which Duzhaka is situated. Thereupon Angrô Mainyus, the Deathdealing, created in opposition to it the Pairika Khnathaiti, who attached herself to Keresâspa. 11. "As the eighth best of regions and countries, I, Ahura Mazda, created Urvâ, abounding in rivers. Thereupon Angrô Mainyus created, in opposition to it, the curse of devastation. 12. "As the ninth best of regions and countries, I, Ahura Mazda, created Khnenta, in which Vehrkâna is situated. Thereupon Angrô Mainyus created, in opposition to it, the evil of inexpiable sins, pæderastism. 13. "As the tenth best of regions and countries, I, Ahura Mazda, created the happy Haraqaiti. Thereupon Angrô Mainyus, the Death-dealing, created the evil of inexpiable acts, the burial of the dead. 14. "As the eleventh best of regions and countries, I, Ahura Mazda, created Haêtumat, the wealthy and brilliant. Thereupon Angrô Mainyus, the Death-dealing, created in opposition to it Jâtu sins. 15. [" And he (Angrô Mainyus) is endowed with various powers and various forms. Wherever these come, on being invoked by one devoted to Jâtu, there the most horrible Jâtu sins arise; then spring up those which tend to murder and the deadening of the heart; powerful are they by dint of concealing their hideousness and by their enchanted potions.] 16. "As the twelfth best of regions and countries, I, Ahura Mazda, created Raghâ with the three races. Thereupon Angrô Mainyus, the Death-dealing, created in opposition to it the evil of unbelief in the Supreme. 17. "As the thirteenth best of regions and countries, I, Ahura Mazda, created Kakhra the strong, the pious. Thereupon Angrô Mainyus, the Death-dealing, created the curse of inexpiable acts, the burning of the dead. 18. "As the fourteenth best of regions and countries, I, Ahura Mazda, created Varena with the four corners, —to him was born Thraêtaona, the slayer of the destructive serpent. Thereupon Angrô Mainyus, the Deathdealing, created in opposition to him irregularly recurring evils (sicknesses) and un-Arian plagues of the country. 19. "As the fifteenth best of regions and countries, I, Ahura Mazda, created Hapta Hindu, from the eastern Hindu to the western. Thereupon Angrô Mainyus, the Death-dealing, created in opposition to it untimely evils and irregular fevers. (20. "As the sixteenth best of regions and countries, I, Ahura Mazda, created those who dwell without ramparts on the sea-coast. Thereupon Angrô Mainyus, the Death-dealing, created in opposition snow, the work of the Daêvas, and earthquakes which make the earth to tremble.) (21. "There are also other regions and countries, happy, renowned, high, prosperous, and brilliant.") NOTES. Verse 1. [2.] 3. 4. Shâitim.-Airyana Vaêgô. 1. Shaitîm. This word has given the commentators a great deal of trouble. Westergaard writes it joined with Kudat; Spiegel and the MSS. write it separately. I can find no authority for uniting them. We have in the Jeshts, some parallel passages. At 17, 6., shâiti (vocative) is a predicate of Ashi; at 22, 2., upa aêtam khshapanem avavat shâtôis urva ishaiti yatha vîspem imat yat guyô anhus: "in this night comes the soul (of the pious deceased) to the precise degree of happiness which it experienced in life." In It. 22, 20., avavat ashâtôis is used in the same connexion as here respecting the impious soul, in the sense of unhappiness. The superlative shâistem, which occurs so often in the third Fargard, has the same derivation as shâiti; there its meaning is clearly the most agreeably. They are both derived from a root, shi, of frequent occurrence in the Zendavesta, corresponding exactly to Sanskrit kshi, to inhabit. Hence shâiti is an abstract substantive of the causal form shây. The abstract derivative from the simple stem is pronounced shiti. Hence the strict meaning of shâiti is inhabitancy, housekeeping, or even hospitality. Shâistem is a superlative formed directly from the causative (direct comparative and superlative formations of this kind are found in the Veda), and literally means most habitable, a sense which agrees perfectly with the context of the similar passage in the third Fargard. The Huzûresh translation reads here âsân, easy, comfortable, and in the margin it gives as a synonyme, niyûk, good; in Fargard 3., the superlative âsântûm, most easily, most comfortably. The general sense is not incorrect, though somewhat vague, as is not an unusual thing with the Huzûresh translators, and in consequence of which they are very apt to mislead. Shâiti, however, is preserved in the Modern Persian shâd, joyous. The following is the gloss to the passage in the Huzûresh translation:-" Had this happened (had the people been drawn after Airyana Vaêgô), the world would have been unable to go on; for it could not have continued in its proper condition from one zone to the other (from kishver to kishver)." In the sequel this translation offers a short introduction to the repertory of the countries which now commences. They are placed in their regular order. The word ginak216, by which asô (region) is rendered, signifies a place where men are not stationary; rústak, by which shôithra (country) is rendered, on the contrary, signifies a place where they are stationary (hence the former implies the open plain in which men roam about, the latter fixed habitations, which when combined form villages and cities); it is, in fact, whole regions which are enumerated, and after some of them also the river Hêtômend (Haêtumat). The meaning of the verse is this: In the earliest time, Airyana Vaêgo was the only cultivated country; all the rest was a desert. But as there was a danger of Airyana Vaêgô being overflown by every living thing that existed in this desert, habitable regions were created in other parts of the earth. Asô râmôdâitîm cannot, as has hitherto been supposed, be airyanem-vaĉgô, as in that case the hypothetical expression vispô anhus-frâshnvât would have no meaning, because it would be in direct contradiction to its premiss; but we must necessarily understand a country which offers a contrast to the paradise. The expression asô, from the same root as astvão, existing, earthly, astis, being, bodies, derived from as, to be, and therefore having no connexion with the Vedish âsâ, country, clime, with which it has been compared, signifies something existing, in short, a specific part of all earthly existence in which there is life. The sense of "country" is in the first place derivative. An objection might be raised to this derivation, that the s in the root as generally becomes h in Zend; but there are instances of s becoming s, for instance as (he was), the imperfect of as, to be. 2. There is no Huzûresh translation at all of this verse. In the glosses which precede the translation of the third, no reference is made to it whatever. Spiegel does not think that they formed part of the original text; Westergaard, on the other hand, seems to think them genuine; at all events he does not put them within brackets. They are notices of the Zendic editor himself, as remarked in our Introduction. Instead of mashimârava (Spiegel), or mas mâ rava (Westergaard), readings which convey no satisfactory meaning, I propose to read mas mârava. Mas is the same as maz (comp. mash, Jas. 34, 9. 32, 3., and my note upon it). Mârava is referrible to a root 216 The characters are perhaps more correctly read, gawak. |