Vendidad — Chapter 3
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Source: Avesta.org. The Vendidad, Chapter 3, translation: L.H. Mills / J. Darmesteter (Sacred Books of the East, 1880-1887), Avesta.org. License: Public domain (translation predates 1928).
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AVESTA: VENDIDAD (English): Fargard 3: The Earth

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AVESTA: VENDIDAD (English): Fargard 3. the Earth

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

Translated by James Darmesteter (From Sacred Books of the
East, American Edition, 1898.)

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

"Les Gu&egrave;bres," says Chardin (ed. Langl&ecirc;s, VIII, 358), "regardent
l'agriculture,non seulement comme une profession belle et innocente,
mais aussi comme m&eacute;ritoire et noble, et ils croient que c'est la
premi&egrave;re de toutes les vocations, celle pour quoi le Dieu souverain
et les dieux inf&eacute;rieurs, comme ils parlent, ont le plus de complaisance
et qu'ils recompensent le plus largement. Cette opinion, tourn&eacute;e
en cr&eacute;ance parmi eux, fait qu'ils se portent naturellement &agrave; travailler
&agrave; la terre et qu'ils s'y exercent le plus: leurs pr&ecirc;tres leur enseignent
que la plus vertueuse activit&eacute; est d'engendrer des enfants
(cf. Farg. IV, 47) et apr&eacute;s de cultiver
une terre qui serait en friche (cf. infra,
§ 4), de planter un arbre soit fruitier, soit autre."

The classical writers (Xenophon, Oeconomica, IV, 4 seq.; Polybius,
X, 28, quoted § 4, note) express themselves to the same effect,
and their testimony has been lately corroborated, in a most unexpected
way, by a Greek inscription
(discovered at Deremendjik, near Magnesia, on the Maeander:
by Cousin and Deschamps, Bullein de Correspondance hell&eacute;nique,
XIII: 529), emanating from no less an authority
than King Darius himself, who congratulates his satrap in Asia
Minor, Gadates, "for working well the King's earth and transplanting
in lower Asia the fruits of the country beyond

Euphrates.

The third Fargard may serve as a Commentary to those texts. The
principal subject is, as the Denkard
has it:

What comforts most the Genius of the Earth (§§ 1-6)?

What discomforts most the Genius of the Earth (§§ 7-11)?

What rejoices the Earth most (§§ 12-35)?

In each of these three developments a series of five objects is
considered. Series I and II, though expressed in symmetrical
terms, do not answer one another: there is greater symmetry,
as to the ideas, between the second series and the third. Series
I and II are a dry enumeration. The third series contains two
interesting digressions, one on the funeral laws (§§ 14-21),
and the other on the sanctity of husbandry (§§ 24-33).

The Fargard ends with a development forbidding the burial of the
dead (§§ 36-42); it is a sort of commentary to §
8.

The subject of this chapter has become a commonplace topic with
the Parsis, who have treated it more or less antithetically in
the Mainyai-khard (chaps. 5 and 6) and in
the Rivayats [ch. 98] (Gr. Riv. pp. 434-437).

FARGARD 3. The Earth

I.

1. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy
one! Which is the first place where the Earth 1
feels most happy?

Ahura Mazda answered: 'It is the place whereon
one of the faithful steps forward, O Spitama Zarathushtra!
with the log in his hand 2, the Baresma 3 in
his hand, the milk 4 in his hand, the mortar 5 in his

hand, lifting up his voice in good accord with religion,
and beseeching Mithra 6, the lord of the rolling
country-side, and Rama Hvastra 7.'

Notes:

1. 'The Genius of the Earth' (Comm.)

2. The wood for the fire altar.

3. The Baresma (now called barsom) is a bundle of sacred
twigs which the priest holds in his hand while reciting the
prayers. (See Vd19.18 seq. and notes.)

4. The so-called j&icirc;v or j&icirc;v&acirc;m, one of the elements of the
Haoma sacrifice.

5. The Havana [hawan] or mortar used in crushing the Haoma or
Hom.

6. Mithra, the Persian Apollo, sometimes like him identified with
the Sun, is invoked here as making the earth fertile. 'Why do not
you worship the Sun? King Yazdgard asked the Christians. Is he
not the god who lights up with his rays all the world, and through
whose warmth the food of men and cattle grows ripe?' (Elisaeus.)

7. The god that gives food its savour: he is an acolyte to
Mithra.

2,3. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy one! Which is the
second place where the Earth feels most happy? Ahura Mazda answered:
'It is the place whereon one of the faithful erects a house with
a priest within8, with cattle, with a wife, with children, and
good herds within; and wherein afterwards the cattle continue
to thrive, virtue to thrive9, fodder to thrive, the dog to thrive,
the wife to thrive, the child to thrive, the fire to thrive, and
every blessing of life to thrive.'

8. With the domestic chaplain (the Panthaki).

9. By the performance of worship.

4. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy one! Which is the
third place where the Earth feels most happy? Ahura Mazda answered:
'It is the place where one of the faithful sows most corn, grass,
and fruit, O Spitama Zarathushtra! where he waters ground that
is dry, or drains ground that is too wet10.'

10. Under the Achaemanian kings countrymen who brought water to
places naturally dry received the usufruct of the ground for five
generations (Polybius, X, 28). But for those underground canals
(called qanats), which bring water from the mountains all through
the Iranian desert, Persia would starve.

5. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy one! Which is the
fourth place where the Earth feels most happy? Ahura Mazda answered:
'It is the place where there is most increase of flocks and herds.'

6. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy one! Which is the
fifth place where the Earth feels most happy? Ahura Mazda answered:
'It is the place where flocks and herds yield most dung.'

II.

7. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy one! Which is the
first place where the Earth feels sorest grief? Ahura Mazda answered:
'It is the neck of Arezura11, whereon the hosts of fiends rush forth
from the burrow of the Druj12.'

11. The neck of Arezura (Arezurahe griva) is "a mount at the gate
of hell, whence the demons rush forth"
(Bund. 12.8
Dadistan 33.5); it is also
called "the head of Arezura" (Vd19.45),
or 'the back of Arezura' (Bund. 12.2).
Arezura was a fiend, son of Ahriman, who was killed by the first
man, Gayomard (Menog-i Khrad 27.15). The
mount named from him hes in the North (which is the seat of the demons):
it seems to belong to the Alborz chain, like the Damavand
(Bund. 12.8), where
Azi Dahaka [Zohak] was bound (Vd1.18, notes).

12. Hell, the Druj being assimilated to a burrowing Khrafstra.
See Vd7.24.

8. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy one! Which is the
second place where the Earth feels sorest grief? Ahura Mazda answered:
'It is the place wherein most corpses of dogs and of men lie buried13.'

13. 'It is declared in the good religion, that, when they conceal
a corpse beneath the ground, Spendarmad, the archangel, shudders;
it is just as severe as a serpent or scorpion would be to any
one in a sleeping-garment, and it is also just like that to the
ground. When thou makest a corpse beneath the ground as it were
apparent, thou makest the ground liberated ftom that affliction'
(Saddar 33, tr. by West, in
the Sacred Books of the East, XXIV).
See Vd. 6.51;
Vd7.45.

9. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy one! Which is the
third place where the Earth feels sorest grief? Ahura Mazda answered:
'It is the place whereon stand most of those Dakhmas on which
the corpses of men are deposited14.'

14. With regard to Dakhmas, see Vd6.45.
'Nor is the Earth happy at that place whereon stands a Dakhma with corpses upon
it; for that patch of ground will never be clean again till the
day of resurrection' (Gr. Riv. 435, 437). Although the erection of
Dakhmas is enjoined by the law, yet the Dakhma in itself is as
unclean as any spot on the earth can be, since it is always in
contact with the dead see (Vd7.55).
The impurity which would otherwise be scattered over the whole world,
is thus brought together to one and the same spot. Yet even that spot, in spite
of the Rivayat, is not to lie defiled for ever, as every fifty
years the Dakhmas ought to be pulled down, so that their sites
may be restored to their natural purity (see
Vd7.49 ff. and this Farg. verse 13).

10. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy one! Which is the
fourth place where the Earth feels sorest grief? Ahura Mazda answered:
'It is the place wherein are most burrows of the creatures of
Angra Mainyu15.

15. 'Where there are most Khrafstras' (noxious animals).

11. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy one! Which is the
fifth place where the Earth feels sorest grief? Ahura Mazda answered:
'It is the place whereon

the wife and children of one of the faithful16,
O Spitama Zarathushtra! are driven along the way of captivity,
the dry, the dusty way, and lift up a voice of wailing.'

16. Killed by an enemy.

III.

12. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy one! Who is the first
that rejoices the Earth with greatest joy? Ahura Mazda answered:
'It is he who digs out of it most corpses of dogs and men 17.'

17. This joy answers the second grief of the earth (§ 8; cf.
note). There is no counterpart given to the first grief (§
7), because, as the Commentary naively expresses it, "it is not
possible now so to dig out hell," which will be done at the end
of the world (Bund. 30.32).

13. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy one! Who is the second
that rejoices the Earth with greatest joy? Ahura Mazda answered:
'It is he who pulls down most of those Dakhmas on which the corpses
of men are deposited18.'

18. This answers the third grief (§ 9; cf. note).

14. Let no man alone by himself19 carry a corpse20.
If a man alone by himself carry a corpse,

the Nasu21 rushes upon him, to defile
him, from the nose of the dead, from the eye, from the tongue,
from the jaws, from the sexual organs, from the hinder parts.
This Druj Nasu falls upon him, [stains him] even to the end of
the nails, and he is unclean, thenceforth, for ever and ever.

19. No ceremony in general can be performed by one man alone. Two
Mobeds are wanted to perform the Vendidad service, two priests
for the Barashnum, two persons for the Sag-did (Anquetil, II,
584 n.) It is never good that the faithful should be alone, as
the fiend is always lurking about, ready to take advantage of
any moment of inattention. If the faithful be alone, there is
no one to make up for any negligence and to prevent mischief arising
from it. Never is the danger greater than in the present case,
when the fiend is close at hand, and in direct contact with the
faithful.

20. A corpse from which the Nasu has not been expelled by the Sag-did
ceremony (described Vd8.14-22).

21. The word Nasu has two meanings: it means either the corpse (nasai),
or the corpse-demon (the Druj Nasu, that is to say the demon who
takes possession of the dead body and makes his presence felt
by the decomposition of the body and infection).

15. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy one! What shall be
the place of that man who has carried a corpse [alone]22? Ahura
Mazda answered: 'It shall be the place on this earth wherein is
least water and fewest plants, whereof the ground is the cleanest
and the dryest and the least passed through by flocks and herds,
by the fire of Ahura Mazda, by the consecrated bundles of Baresma,
and by the faithful23.'

22. He cannot purify himself like the Nasa-salar
(Vd8.13).
'He who carries a man, knowing that the man is dead and that the
Sag-did has not been performed, commits a sin worthy of death
(margarzan).' As the absence of Sag-did makes the infection
worse, it is the same crime as if a man were to introduce a plague
into the country.

23. To avoid any contact of that man with pure beings.

16. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy one! How far from
the fire? How far from the water? How far from the consecrated
bundles of Baresma? How far from the faithful?

17. Ahura Mazda answered: 'Thirty paces24 from the fire, thirty
paces from the water, thirty paces from the consecrated bundles
of Baresma, three paces from the faithful.

24. A pace (g&acirc;ma) is as much as three feet (p&acirc;dha;
Vd9.8).

18,19. 'There, on that place, shall the worshippers of Mazda erect
an enclosure25, and therein shall they establish him with food,
therein shall they establish him with clothes, with the coarsest
food and with the most worn-out clothes. That food he shall live
on, those clothes he shall wear, and thus shall they let him live,
until he has grown to the age of a Hana, or of a Zaurura, or of
a Pairishta-khshudra26.

25. The Armesht-g&acirc;h, the place for the unclean; see Introd. V, 15.

26. Hana means, literally, 'an old man;' Zaurura, 'a man broken
down by age;' Pairishta-khshudra, 'one whose seed is dried up.'
These words have acquired the technical meanings of 'fifty, sixty,
and seventy years old.'

20,21. 'And when he has grown to the age of a Hana, or of a Zaurura27,
or of a Pairishta-khshudra, then the worshippers of Mazda shall
order a man strong, vigorous, and skilful28, to cut the head
off his neck29, in his enclosure on the top of the mountain: and
they shall deliver his corpse unto the greediest of the corpse-eating
creatures made by the beneficent Spirit, unto the vultures, with
these words: "The man here has repented of all his evil thoughts,
words, and deeds. If he has committed any other evil deed, it
is remitted by his repentance30: if he has committed no other evil
deed, he is absolved by his repentance, for ever and ever."'

27. When he is near his death. The carrier alone (&ecirc;vak-bar), being
margarz&acirc;n (see note 22 above), ought to have been put to death
at once. The rigour of theory was abated in practice and delayed
to the moment when the guilty man was to have paid to nature the
debt due to religion.

28. 'Trained to operations of that sort' (Comm.); a headsman.

29. Perhaps: 'to flay him alive and cut off his head.'
See Vd9.49, text and note.

30. By the performance or the Patet.

22. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy one! Who is the third
that rejoices the Earth with greatest joy? Ahura Mazda answered:
'It is he who fills up most burrows of the creatures of Angra
Mainyu31.'

31. This joy answers the fourth grief or the earth (§ 10).

23. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy one! Who is the fourth
that rejoices the Earth with greatest joy? Ahura Mazda answered:
'It is he who sows most corn, grass, and fruit, O Spitama Zarathushtra!
who waters ground that is dry, or drains ground that is too wet32.

32. This is identical with § 4, which is developed in the
following clauses (§§ 24-34).

24. 'Unhappy is the land that has long lain unsown with the seed
of the sower and wants a good husbandman, like a well-shapen maiden
who has long gone childless and wants a good husband.

25. 'He who would till the earth, O Spitama Zarathushtra! with
the left arm and the right, with the right arm and the left, unto
him will she bring forth plenty of fruit: even as it were a lover
sleeping with his bride on her bed; the bride will bring forth
children, (the earth will bring forth) plenty of fruit33.

33. The text has: 'she brings either a son or plenty of fruit,' she
being either the woman or the earth.

26,27. 'He who would till the earth, O Spitama Zarathushtra! with
the left arm and the right, with the right arm and the left, unto
him thus says the Earth: "O thou man! who dost till me with
the left arm and the right, with the right arm and the left, here
shall I ever go on bearing, bringing

forth all manner of food, bringing corn first to thee34."

34. 'When something good grows up, it will grow up
for thee first' (Comm.) Perhaps: 'bringing to thee profusion of
corn' ('some say, she will bring to thee 15 for 10;' Comm.)

28,29. 'He who does not till the earth, O Spitama Zarathushtra!
with the left arm and the right, with the right arm and the left,
unto him thus says the Earth: "O thou man! who dost not till
me with the left arm and the right, with the right arm and the
left, ever shalt thou stand at the door of the stranger, among
those who beg for bread; the refuse and the crumbs of the bread
are brought unto thee35, brought by those who have profusion
of wealth."'

35. 'They take for themselves what is good and send
to thee what is bad' (Comm.)

30. O Maker of the material world, thou
Holy one! What is the food that fills the Religion
of Mazda36? Ahura Mazda answered: 'It is sowing corn again
and again, O Spitama Zarathushtra!

36. Literally, 'what is the stomach of the law?'

31. 'He who sows corn, sows righteousness: he makes the Religion
of Mazda walk, he suckles the Religion of Mazda; as well as he
could do with a hundred man's feet, with a thousand woman's breasts37,
with ten thousand sacrificial formulas38.

37. 'He makes the Religion of Mazda as fat as a child
could be made by means of a hundred feet, that is to say, of fifty
servants walking to rock him; of a thousand breasts, that is,
of five hundred nurses' (Comm.)

38. With the recitation of 10,000 Yenghe hatam,
that is to say, as if one had performed for his weal as many sacrifices as contain
10,000 Yenghe hatam.

32. 'When barley was created, the Daevas

started up39; when it grew40, then fainted the Daevas'
hearts; when the knots came41, the Daevas groaned;
when the ear came, the Daevas flew away42. In that
house the Daevas stay, wherein wheat perishes43. It is
as though red hot iron were turned about in their throats, when
there is plenty of corn44.

39. John Barleycorn got up again / And sore surpris'd them all.

40. Doubtful.

41. Doubtful.

42. The general meaning of the sentence is how the Devs are broken
down 'by the growing, the increasing, and the ripening of the
corn' (Denkard, 1.1. § 10
[Dk8 44.10]).

43. Doubtful.

44. Doubtful. Wolff: "When the grain is rightly placed (for threshing),
then the Daevas perspire (with fear);. when the mill is rightly placed (to grind the
grain), then lose the Daevas lose their composure, if the flour is rightly placed (for
making dough), then the Daevas cry, if the dough is rightly placed (for baking), then
the Daevas perish (Av. paredhen; Wolff follows AirWb 869 in reading farzen) (with fear); kept
permanently in the house, flour dough is effectual for striking down the
Daevas, in the mouth, it is very hot (to them) ? you see them turn to
flee. Thus grain grows abundantly, so one should recite the M&atilde;thra..."

33. 'Then let people learn by heart this holy
saying [manthra -JHP]: "No one who does not eat, has strength to
do heavy works of holiness45, strength to
do works of husbandry, strength to beget children.
By eating every material creature lives, by not eating it dies
away."'

45. 'Like the performance of the dv&acirc;zda h&ocirc;m&acirc;st'
(the longest and most cumbersome of all Zoroastrian ceremonies).

34. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy one! Who is the fifth
that rejoices the Earth with greatest joy?

Ahura Mazda answered: '[It is he who kindly and piously gives46
to one of the faithful who tills the earth,] O Spitama Zarathushtra!

46. The Asho-dad or alms. The bracketed clause is from the Vendidad Sada.

35. 'He who would not kindly and piously
give to one of the faithful who tills the earth, O
Spitama Zarathushtra! Spenta Armaiti47 will
throw him down into darkness, down into the world of woe, the
world of hell, down into the deep abyss48.'

47. The Genius of the Earth offended.

48. Conjectural translation.

IV.

36. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy one! If a man shall
bury in the earth either the corpse of a dog or the corpse of
a man, and if he shall not disinter it within half a year, what
is the penalty that he shall pay?

Ahura Mazda answered: 'Five hundred stripes with the Aspahe-ashtra49,
five hundred stripes with the Sraosho-charana49.'

49. See Introduction.

37. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy one! If a man shall
bury in the earth either the corpse of a dog or the corpse of
a man, and if he shall not disinter it within a year, what is
the penalty that he shall pay?

Ahura Mazda answered: 'A thousand stripes with the Aspahe-ashtra,
a thousand stripes with the Sraosho-charana.'

38. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy one! If a man shall
bury in the earth either the corpse of a dog or the corpse of
a man, and if he shall not disinter it within the second year,
what is the penalty for it? What is the atonement for it? What
is the cleansing from it?

39. Ahura Mazda answered: 'For that deed there is nothing that
can pay, nothing that can atone, nothing that can cleanse from
it; it is a trespass for which there is no atonement, for ever
and ever.'

40. When is it so?

'It is so, if the sinner be a professor of the

Religion of Mazda, or one who has been taught
in it50.

'But if he be not a professor of the Religion of Mazda, nor one
who has been taught in it51, then his sin is taken from him, if
he makes confession of the Religion of Mazda and resolves never
to commit again such forbidden deeds52.

50. A born Zoroastrian or a catechist: in both cases, he must have
known that he was committing sin.

51. He did not know that he was committing sin.

52. He makes Patet and says to himself; 'I will never henceforth
sin again' (Comm.)

41. 'The Religion of Mazda indeed, O
Spitama Zarathushtra! takes away from him who
makes confession of it the bonds of his sin53; it takes
away (the sin of) breach of trust54; it takes away (the
sin of) murdering one of the faithful55; it takes away
(the sin of) burying a corpse56; it takes away (the
sin of) deeds for which there is no atonement; it
takes away the worst sin of usury56; it takes away
any sin that may be sinned.

53. If not knowingly committed; see § 40 and the following notes.

54. Doubtful. From the commentary it appears that
draosha must have meant a different sort of robbery: 'He knows
that it is forbidden to steal, but he fancies that robbing the
rich to give to the poor is a pious deed' (Comm.)

55. Or better, 'a Mazdean,' but one who has committed a capital crime;
'he knows that it is allowed to kill the margarz&acirc;n, but he
does not know that it is not allowed to do so without an order
from the judge.' See Vd8.74 note.

56. 'He knows that it is forbidden to bury a corpse; but he fancies
that if one manages so that dogs or foxes may not take it to the
fire and to the water, he behaves piously (Comm.) -- He fancies that
the prohibition of burying the dead is meant only for the protection
of the fire and the water, not of the earth herself.

57. Or, possibly, 'the sin of usury.' 'He knows that it is lawful
to take high interest, but he does not know that it is not lawful
to do so from the faithful' (Comm.)

42. 'In the same way the Religion of Mazda, O Spitama Zarathushtra!
cleanses the faithful from every evil thought, word, and deed,
as a swift-rushing mighty wind cleanses the plain58.

'So let all the deeds he doeth be henceforth good, O Zarathushtra!
a full atonement for his sin is effected by means of the Religion
of Mazda.'

58. 'From chaff' (Comm.)

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-- Vendidad — Chapter 3 — L.H. Mills / James Darmesteter (1880-1887) (Public domain (Sacred Books of the East, 1880-1887))