The Arsacian period
Around 247 B.C., Aršaka (Arsaces) established a fire temple at his coronation. This regnal fire marked the beginning of the Arsacian era. He was allegedly descendant of the Persian Artaxšaçā (Artaxerxes) or Dārayavahuš (Darius), and «having at once acquainted and established a kingship, he became no less memorable among the Parthians than Cyrus among the Persians … The Parthians paid this honour to his memory, that they called all their kings thenceforward by the name of Arsace.» The Aršaka-kings felt themselves to be the heirs of the “ancient” Aryan kingdom; they tried to re-conquer all the lands that had once belonged to the Achaemenians (veterus Persarum terminus). The Aršaka-dynasty was in conjunction with the daēnā māzdayasni. The Aršaka not only developed the cult of temple fires but also they took measures to re-open the aθauruna-schools (= hērbedestān) in different lands and reassemble the scattered Avesta texts and other books on the basis of oral traditions and surviving manuscripts.
One Aršaka by name of Valaγš (Vologases) is honoured in the fourth book of the Dēnkird thus: «Valaγš descendant of Aršaka, ordered that: Of the Avesta and Zand as assembled in a state of purity, and also of the teaching as derived therefrom, everything that had survived the damage and turmoil of Alexander and the pillage and robbery of the Greeks, in a scattered state all over the Aryan Land; whether written or in oral transmission, as canon, be preserved as it had reached (them), and be made memoranda (books) for the provinces of the kingdom.»
The Avesta texts were transliterated into an unambiguous alphabet, called dēn-diβīrīft.
After a period of disturbance, some priests found it necessary to refresh their memories by looking up manuscripts in the aθauruna-schools or fire temples. The ceremony of re-kindling a (lesser) sacred fire from the ashes through the offerings of wood and frankincense with recital of an Avesta liturgy is recorded by a native of Lydia, Pausanias in his Description of Greece, written in the second century A.D.:
«Those of the Lydians who are surnamed Persian (Λυδοῖς ἐπίκλσις Περσικοῖς) have a temple at the city called Hierocaesarea and at Hypaipa. In each of these temples there is an inner chamber, and in this an altar upon which are some ashes of a colour unlike that of ordinary ashes. A magus enters the chamber, bringing dry wood which he places on the altar. After this he first puts a tiara upon his head and next intones an invocation to some god (yazata) or other. The invocation is in a barbarian tongue, and utterly unintelligible to a Greek. While intoning he peruses a book (ἐπίκλησιν ὅτου δὴ θεῶν ἐπᾴδει βάρβαρα καὶ οὐδαμῶς συνετὰ ῞Ελλησιν ἐπᾴδει δέ ἐπιλεγόμενος ἐκ βιβλίου). This, without the application of a light, inevitably causes the wood to catch fire and break out into a bright flame.»
—Pausanias, V, 27.3.
The Sasanian period
The Sasanian kingdom started as early as 209 A.D. from the heartland of the Achaemenian kingdom around Staxr with the establishment of the sacred fire of Ardašēr son of Pābag in the temple of Anāhitā at Staxr. Ardašēr drew on both kingdom (Pers. xvadāyīh) and religion (Pers. dēn):
He projected himself as heir of the (Kavi-)Achaemenian kingdom, thereby implying that he could restore the Aryan land (Pers. Ērān-šahr). Sāsān, eponym of the Sasanian dynasty, was reputed to have descended from a certain Sāsān son of Artaxšaçā «who is called Vohu-manah son of Spəṇtōδāta.»
He entrusted Tōsar with the task of collecting and revising sacred texts, and reducing them to some sort of canon of scripture.
Tōsar
The priestly teacher Tōsar (third century A.D.) was himself of the royal-Parthian house who became Ardašēr’s counsellor and helped him to overthrow many local rulers and re-establish the Aryan kingdom in the Aryan land with undivided rule by a monarch. He collected many Avesta manuscripts and prepared a standard edition of the Avesta comprising 21 books as an authoritative text of the Daēnā. He also wrote treatises about both political and religious affairs. Rōzveh (Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ) translated (with some interpolations) some of them into Arabic: Letter to Māhgušnasp king of Pedišxvārgar, Letter to the king of India, etc. Masʿūdī and Bērōnī cited short passages of the Arabic version of the Letter to Māhgušnasp. A certain scribe, Ibn Isfandiār, when residing in Xvārazm (around 1215 A.D.), came on, in the book-market, a codex containing the Arabic versions of some Sanskrit texts and the Arabic version of the letter to (Māh-)gušnasp by Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ. He translated this letter into Persian and embodied in his History of Tabarestān.
Kirdēr
Following soon after Tōsar, Kirdēr (third century A.D.) had no special contribution to fix on the sacred texts necessary in the performance of the religious ceremonies, but he promoted the daēnā māzdayasni in the Aryan and non-Aryan lands:
«At that time (when Varhrān son of Ohrmazd ascended the throne), too, from land to land, from place to place, many services to the Yazata were increased, and many Victorious Fire(-temples) were set up, many Magian men were rendered happy and prosperous, and many Fires and Magians received official letters of recognition.»
Under Varhrān son of Šābuhr «from land to land, from place to place, throughout the entire kingdom, the services to Ahura Mazdā and the Yazata became excellent; the daēnā māzdayasni and the Magian men were greatly honoured in the land; and to the Yazata, the water, the fire, and the cattle came great satisfaction in the land.»
Ādurbād
«The heretics and those who destroy who, in the priestly estate, did not live truly by the daēnā māzdayasni and the services to the Yazata» are mentioned in the inscriptions of Kirdēr. Under Šābuhr son of Ohrmazd (4th century) an assembly of the notables of the Aryan land and the representatives of the priestly estate (moγestān/ mostān) was convened and Ādurbād son of Mahrspend was required to vindicate the daēnā (religion and canon) by submitting to the ordeal with metal pouring upon the chest. After he was acquitted apropos of the daēnā, a royal edict ensured that: «Now that we have seen the truth of the daēnā, we shall not let anyone (become a convert to) the evil religion.» The evil religion (agdēnīh) refers to alien sects, whereas the heresy (ahlemōγīh) and heterodoxy (judristagīh) refer to sects and doctrines in the Aryan clergy. We are told that the head of one “heretic” school was a certain Sēn, and besides some “heretics” were called peccībāst(ag) ‘hypocrite’.
After Ādurbād had proved his “orthodoxy” by ordeal, some of his texts were inserted into the Anthology of the Avesta or the Short Liturgy (Xvardag abestāg), for example, Nām stāyišn ‘Praise to the name(s)’, Petit ī pašīmānīh ‘the petit (text of atonement) of repentance’ (also called Petit ī Ādurbād).
Sēn
Šāyist nē-šāyist 6.7
abēzag-dād ud veh-dēn amā hem ud pōryōdkēš hem. gumēzag-dād Sēn ud hašāgird-iš hend. ud vattar-dād zandīg ud tarsāg ud jahūd ud abārīg ī az ēn šōn hend.
‘Of a pure law are we of the good religion, (followers) of the first teachers (/ orthodox); of a mixed law are Sēn and his disciples; of an evil law are the Gnostic (Manichaean), the (God-) fearing (Christian), the Jew, and others of this sort.’
Dēnkird vi M 567
ahlemōγ sē [ēvēnag]: frēftār ud frēftag ud xvaddōšag. xvaddōšag hān baved ī gōbed kū Sēn veh az Ādurbād, ud xvaddōšagīhā hān ī Sēn gīred. ud frēftag hān baved cōn hāvištān ī Sēn. frēftār cōn xvad Sēn kē tis hān ī cōn pōryōdkēšān ī pēšēnīgān cāšīd ped nigerišn be vardēnīd.
‘There are three kinds of heretics: a deceiver, a deceived one, and a self-loving one. A self-loving one is that (person) who says “Sēn is better than Ādurbād”, and he embraces that of Sēn self-lovingly. A deceived one is like the disciples of Sēn. A deceiver is like Sēn himself, who deliberately altered the teachings of the ancient first teachers.’
Hypocrites
The Peccībāstagīh is mentioned in the Dēnkird and, possibly, in the Mēnōg Xrad, as a distinct “heresy” within the Magians. It would seem that this “heresy” was the doctrine of Sēn.
Šak-ud-gumānīgīh vizār 10-69-74
[dēn] az <hān> frāz ped peyvann ō bayān xvadāyān ī kay-tōhmagān ī burzāvandān mad, dā-z pesāxt ped vidāxt rōy ī abar-var-rēzišnīh ī ōy hufravard Ādurbād ī Mahrspendān andar xvdāyīh ī ōy bay Šābuhr ī šāhān šāh ī Ohrmazd<ān> ped pehikār ī abāg vas sardag jud-sardagān ahlemōγān az avēšān mazandum ahlemōγān ī-šān Peccībāstagān xvand hend bōxt.
‘Then [the daēnā] was passed on, by succession (= continuity in the religious tradition), to the lords and kings of the Kavi race, the exalted ones, until the ordeal with melted metal (lit. zinc) pouring upon the breast of the blessed (lit. of good fravaṣi) Ādurbād son of Mahrspend in the reign of that lord (/his late Majesty) Šābuhr son of Ohrmazd, the king of kings, in a controversy with heretics of different species of many kinds and especially with the greatest heretics among them, who were also known as the Peccībāstagān (‘hypocrites’), he (Ādurbād) acquitted himself well.’
Xusrō (Χοσρόης)
After the success of Xusrō (sixth century) to re-establish the authority of state, the Aryan councillors assembled by him, re-affirmed the views advocated by Ādurbād.
Dk iii M 218
abar dah handarz ī Anōšag-ruvān Husrō šāhān šāh ī Kavādān ō ērān hanzamanīgān ped dastvarīh ī Ohrmazd dēn.
‘About the ten injunctions of Xusrō, of Immortal Soul, king of kings, son of Kavād, to the Aryan audience of the Assembly, on the authority of the daēnā of Ahura Mazdā.’
Dk iii M 219
ēk, cāšišn ī dēn mahr, ud īzišn ud kirdagān ī yazdān, hāmis dād ud ēvēn, ped cāštag ud kirdag ī hāvištān ī Ādurbād ī Mahrspendān, ī az Kurān deh būd, kirdan.
‘One (of his injunctions) was to practice the teachings of the formulas of the religion (/the Avesta texts), the liturgies and (other) ritual acts (for) the Yazata, together with the laws and traditions in accordance with the teachings and works of the disciples of Ādurbād, son of Mahrspend, who came from the land of Makran.’
The pact of the high-priests with Xusrō
Xusrō, son of Kavād, had to cope with a “heresy” within the clergy preached by a certain Mazdak, son of Bāmdād, who exercised a certain fascination on the laity (vehān lit. ‘the good’), and appeared to cause disturbance among the priests (āsrōnān). Xusrō rejected Mazdak’s teaching and works, because he was afraid of his force of propaganda among the “populace” (xvardagān), and his power of subjugating the kingdom by a band of clergymen. His doctrine was a new interpretation (zand) of the daēnā, a kind of mazdaica superstitio, detached progressively from the Moγestān, and implicated the laymen in religious controversies. An assembly was summoned by Xusrō to which seven high priests of the Moγestān were invited to put it in order. He urged the priests to teach the collection of Avesta liturgies (yasnīhā) to the good; at the same time, he demanded of the priests that, the Zand was to be strictly kept from laymen. In this way, he freed his Aryan subjects from the religious quarrels that could divide them into hostile sects.
The pact preserved in the Zand ī Vahman Yasn 2 bears witness to this act:
ped zand ī vahman yasn, hurdad yasn, aštād yasn pēdāg kū:
ē bār guzastag Mazdak ī Bāmdādān dēn-pedyārag ō pēdāgīh āmad, u-šān pedyārag ped dēn ī yazdān kird, hān <bay> anōšag-ruvān Husrav <ī Kavādān> +Māhvindād (/+Māhdād), +Vehšābuhr, Dādohrmazd ī Adurbāyagān dastvar, Ādurfarrōbay ī a-drō, ud Ādurbād, ud Ādurmihr, ud Baxtāfrīd ō pēš xvāst. u-š peymān aziš xvāst kū: ēn yasnīhā ped nihān mā dāred, bē ped peyvann ī ašmā zand mā cāšed!
avēšān andar Husrav peymān kird.
‘In the commentary of the Vahman Yasn, and of the Hurdad Yasn and of the Arštād Yasn, it is revealed that:
Once the Accursed Mazdak, son of Bāmdād, the adversary of the religion, appeared, and brought detriment to the religion of the Yazata, then Xusrō of Immortal Soul, son of Kavād, summoned before him Māhvindād (or, Māhdād), Vehšābuhr, Dādohrmazd the high-priest of Ādarbāyagān, Ādarfarrōbay the free-from falsehood, Ādarbād, Ādarmihr and Baxtāfrīd; and he demanded from them a pact, [saying]: “Do not keep these (Avesta) liturgies in concealment, but do not teach the commentaries outside your lineage!”
They made the pact with Xusrō.’
The “pact” put forward in the assembly was accepted and, sealed on the authority of the daēnā (Hurdad Yasn):
Yt 4.9
zaraθuštra aētǝm mąθrǝm mē fradaxšayō (Yt 14.46 fradaēsayōiš) ańyāt̰ piθre vā puθrāi brārei vā haδō.zātāi āθravanāi vā θrāyaone.
‘O Zaraθuštra, do not teach this Formula except either to the father for (transmission to) the son, or to the brother for (transmission to) the uterine brother, or to the priest for (transmission to) the θrāyavan!’
The Avesta texts in practical use were the liturgical ones: the Yasnīhā. The canonical texts of the Avesta were only studied in the learned circle of the Magi. The word yasnīhā refers to any collection of (Avesta) texts required for the liturgical services: the Yasna of the 72 chapters, the Visprad (a haδaoxta ‘complement’ of the Yasna), the Vidēvdād (a variant of the collection used Vīštāsp Yašt in place of the Vidēvdād), the five Gāh (for the performance of the ceremony in the five periods of the day: hāvani, rapiθβina, uzayeirina, aiβisruθrima, ušahina), the Āfrīnagān, the Sihrōzag, the 21 hymns addressed to the deities, and some other small formulas known as Vāz.
What Masʿūdī tells us about the state of religious tradition at the Sasanian period confirms the existence of this collection: «When the kingship passed from the petty kings (the Aršaka) to Ardašēr son of Pābag, he made the Aryans in accord about the reciting of one “naska” (of the book of Zaraθuštra) called +Yasnīhā, and until nowadays the Aryans and Magians only recite that –the first book is called Avesta.»
The Zand is comprised of the literal translation of the Avesta texts, glosses and commentaries interpolated in the translated texts, quoting the different opinions of the teaching priests.
According to the “pact” (peymān) it is expedient for priestly teachers, that they teach the Avesta texts –collected in the Yasnīhā – to all those of the good religion; but, it is proper for priests, that they teach the different commentaries of the Formulas, and the doctrinal schools –the whole “literature” about the daēnā māzdayasni is called Zand –only to one who is of priestly family, who is an intelligent priest.
In the Husrav son of Kavād and a page (HKR), the hero of the story is a young man of a princely family, who relates to the king Xusrō that:
HKR 8-9
ped hangām ō frahangestān [kirdan] dād hum. u-m ped frahang kirdan saxt avištāft hum.
u-m yašt ud hādōxt ud … ud jud-dēvdād hērbedīhā varm, gyāg gyāg zand niyūšīd ēstād.
‘At the proper time I was given to the School, and I was very diligent during school education. I learnt by heart the Yašt (of the 72 chapters), and the Hadōxt, and the … (bayān yasn), and the Vidēvdād like a teaching priest, and studied their Zand passage by passage.’
It seems that the story takes place before the “ban” on the study of the Zand in the (princely) schools (frahangestān).
We find an echo of the “pact” of Xusrō, after the Sasanian period, in the prose Sad-dar (‘A hundred chapters’), 98, 99.
See also: