| He that knows not and knows not that he knows not, He is a fool; shun him. He that knows not and knows that he knows not, He is ignorant; teach him. He that knows and knows not that he knows, He is blind; lead him. He that knows and knows that he knows, He is wise; follow him. - Old Arabian proverb Chapter 6: Three Magi The next area of importance to look at would be Persia due to its close proximity with India and what appears to be the best direct descent of both ritual and myth, handed down from India. The Avesta is the primary religious text of the Persian Zoroastrian religion and its author Zarathustra. It contains the Yasna, which makes up the ceremony of Haoma. Within the Yasnas are the five Gathas. Some of the materials of the extended Yasna are from the Yashts, which are hymns to the individual yazatas (deities). (1) The surviving texts of the Avesta, as they exist today, derive from a single master copy produced by a Sasanian Empire-era (224–651 AD) collation and recension which is now lost to history. The Zend Avesta, as it’s sometimes called, are divided into four segments. The Yasna (including the Gathas), the Yashts, the Visparad, and the Vendidad. The text deals with cosmology and legends, how to live a religious life, how to live by moral and civil laws, the prescription for rituals etc. The Vendidad (or Venderdat, “Law Against Demons”) deals specifically with the treatment of diseases while chapters 20-22 are only medical literature. (2) It is understood that the Avesta was written in a language called Avesta but that language has been lost for the most part. The oldest surviving manuscript (K1) of an Avestan language text is dated 1323 AD. Researchers and scholars estimate that about three-fourths of the original Avesta has been lost however, the remaining one-fourth contains the oldest and most important parts of the Avesta. It’s believed that the reason for this is because the earliest parts were memorized by the priesthood and therefore the written word was not relied upon. Therefore, when later parts were lost, the earlier parts could still be transmitted orally or in writing. This is important to remember and consider because the olaves and bards among the Druids had also committed hundreds of books to memory and studied and practiced for twelve years before attaining “graduation.” Dr. Haug, a German Orientalist, comments on the tribes that made up the background of the Indian and Persian languages and myths: “The relationship of the Avesta language to the most ancient Sanskrit, the so-called Vedic dialect, is as close as that of the different dialects of the Greek language (Aeolic, Ionic, Doric, or Attic) to each other. The languages of the sacred hymns of the Brahmas and of those of the Parsis are only the two dialects of the separate tribes of one and the same nation. As the Ionians, Dorians, Aeolians, etc. were different tribes of the Greek nation, whose general name was Hellenes, so the ancient Brahmins and Parsis were two tribes of the nation which is called Aryas, both in the Veda and Zend Avesta.” (3) |
If we are to take the Bible at its face (which I do not suggest we do), Moses, author of the Pentateuch, was born in 1571 BC and received his divine mission in 1491 BC, and according to Max Muller, if this is incorrect, we are looking at a date of approximately 1450 BC as it would have been if compiled by Ezra. The Zend Avesta though is older than that. Muller brings up a couple of competing theories for the age of Zoroaster, one of them cited by Dr. Spiegal, as being 1900 BC, about 400 years before Moses, but he then cites Dr. Haug, who cites Pliny in Natural History which I quote here, in which Pliny is talking about the history of the arts of magic and the Persian Magi: “There is no doubt that this art originated in Persia, under Zoroaster, this being a point upon which authors are generally agreed; but whether there was only one Zoroaster, or whether in later times there was a second person of that name, is a matter which still remains undecided. Eudoxus, who has endeavored to show that of all branches of philosophy the magic art is the most illustrious and the most beneficial, informs us that this Zoroaster existed six thousand years before the death of Plato, an assertion in which he is supported by Aristotle. Hermippus, again, an author who has written with the greatest exactness on all particulars connected with this art, and has commented upon the two millions of verses left by Zoroaster, besides completing indexes to his several works, has left a statement, that Agonaces was the name of the master from whom Zoroaster derived his doctrines, and that he lived five thousand years before the time of the Trojan War. The first thing, however, that must strike us with surprise, is the fact that this art, and the traditions connected with it, should have survived for so many ages, all written commentaries thereon having perished in the meanwhile; and this, too, when there was no continuous succession of adepts, no professors of note, to ensure their transmission.” Professor Darmesteter sums up the world of Zoroastrianism and its central concept of duality by stating: “The world such as it is now, is twofold, being the work of two hostile beings, Ahura Mazda, the good and Angra Mainyu, the evil principle. The history of the world is the history of their conflict, how Angra Mainyu invaded the world of Ahura Mazda and marred it, and how he shall be expelled from it at last.” (4) It sounds to me like this is where we get the first ideas of some kind of “Promised Land” or the return of a Messiah. (1) Boyce, Mary (1984), Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism, Manchester UP. (2) Healing Gods, p. 181 (3) The Fountainhead of Religion, p. 84; Haug's Essays, p. 69 (4) The Fountainhead of Religion, p. 55; Zend Avesta, Part I, Introduction, p. lvi |