History of Zoroastrianism/Chapter 30

by Maneckji Nusservanji Dhalla

 

THE PAHLAVI PERIOD

FROM THE THIRD TO THE NINTH CENTURY

 

 

CHAPTER XXX

 

ZOROASTRIANISM UNDER THE FOREIGN YOKE

 

Alexander consigns the Zoroastrian scriptures to the flames. Cyrus had made Persia the queen of Asia, and it was in Persia that East and West first met. The history of the Achaemenians was a long struggle of wars with nations, and a considerable part of this warfare was a conflict with the West. Alexander crushed the Iranian armies at Arbela, and wrested the sceptre from the hands of Darius III, in 330 b.c., and the structure of the Iranian empire was shattered to pieces. Great as was this national catastrophe, still greater was the spiritual loss involved in the destruction of the holy scriptures of Zoroastrianism, which perished in the conflagration of Persepolis when the great conqueror, in a fit of drunkenness, delivered the palaces of the Achaemenians to the flames.^[1] Fire, the most sacred emblem of Iran, was wantonly utilized in consuming the Word of Ormazd. The ill-fated Darius had ordered the two archetype copies to be preserved in the Dizh-i-Nipisht and Ganj-i Shapigan.^[2] The first, deposited in the archives of Persepolis, perished in the conflagration. The second copy of the sacred writings, in the Ganj-i Shapigan, we are informed, was done into Greek,^[3] though more probably it met with a similar fate. Ahriman had sent Zohak and Afrasiab as the scourges to Iran, but their ravages paled before the irrevocable harm done by this fact of Alexander's wanton vandalism. Literary Iran has known him as her arch-enemy, and the Pahlavi writers have branded him 'accursed,' 'evil-destined,' and an envoy of Ahriman. After a long period of darkness, following his ill-destined invasion of Persia, Iran once more recovered her political autonomy, but she never regained, in their pristine fulness, the holy works of her great prophet.

Zoroastrianism thrives better under the Parthians than under the Seleucids. The premature death of the great conqueror brought the end of his ambition of hellenizing Persia. The philhellenic princes that ruled over the destinies of Persia for the long period of five and a half centuries that intervened between the overthrow of the Achaemenians and the rise of the Sasanians failed to accomplish anything in that imperialistic direction. Disintegration followed almost immediately after Alexander's death, under the Seleucid satrapies, and less than a century had elapsed before Arsaces succeeded in founding a strong empire in Parthia about 250 b.c. We have no means to ascertain the undercurrents of the religious thought among the Zoroastrians during this period. From what little information we get we find that in the Parthians Zoroastrianism found better masters than in the Seleucids. Mithradates, Tiridates, Rhodaspes, and Artabanus are some of the names of the Parthian kings that savour of a partiality for Zoroastrianism. The Magi exercised a considerable influence at the Parthian court. They had their place in the council of the state.^[4] Pliny informs us that Tiridates, the brother of Vologeses I, was initiated in the mysteries of the Magi.^[5] We have on the authority of Tacitus that he was a priest.^[6]

Zoroastrian practices embraced by the Parthians. In the early days of their empire, at least, the Parthians were strongly influenced by Zoroastrianism in their religious beliefs.^[7] They venerated the sacred elements, especially the fire, worshipped the sun under the name of Mithra, and in accordance with the tenets of Zoroastrianism, exposed bodies to the light of the sun and the birds of prey.^[8] The fire altar, emblematic of Iranian influence, is a common feature on the reverse side of the coins of the Parthian rulers. Tiridates betrays an exaggerated notion of the Zoroastrian injunctions for the purity of the elements, when, invited by Nero to receive the crown of Armenia, he avoided the sea route and went to Rome by land. Prompted by the same scruples against defiling water, his royal brother declined to go to Rome, and invited his Roman contemporary to Persia.^[9] One of the five kings of this royal house that bore the name Vologeses, ordered a collection to be made of the scattered fragments of the manuscript material that might have survived the period that for nearly five centuries threatened the utter destruction of the sacred scriptures of Zoroaster's faith and menaced even that which was preserved in oral tradition.^[10] Nevertheless, Dinkart informs us that all that could be recovered of the lost Zoroastrian canon at this time was only as much as could be retained by any one Dastur in his memory.^[11]

Classical references to Zoroastrianism during this period. Our knowledge about the state of Zoroastrianism during this period is very scanty, and the occasional references made by the classical writers of this time to the religious practices of the Zoroastrians help us in gaining some more information of the religious history of the faith. We have often referred in earlier pages to the works of Strabo and Diogenes Laertius, who draw their material from the early Greek writers as well as base their statements on their personal investigation. We gather some more particulars on the subject from the incidental references of other writers. Porphyry (a.d. 233–306) mentions on the authority of Eubulus that the Magi are divided into three classes, the first and the most learned of which neither kill nor eat anything living.^[12] Diogenes Laertius states that vegetables, cheese, and bread form their food, and they content themselves with the plain ground for their bed.^[13] Clement of Alexandria (a.d. third century) mentions a sect of the Magi that observed the life of celibacy.^[14] Speaking about the designation by which the Zoroastrian priests were known in Cappadocia in his days, Strabo relates that in addition to their usual name of the Magi, the priests were called puraithoi, the equivalent of the Avestan designation athravan, or fire-priest.^[15]

Zoroastrianism spreads its influence abroad. The Magi had established themselves during the Parthian period in large numbers in eastern Asia Minor, Galatia, Phrygia, Lydia, and even in Egypt. These colonies of the Zoroastrian priests became an active source of the diffusion of the Zoroastrian beliefs.^[16] The rulers of the dynasties established in Pontus, Cappadocia, Armenia, and Commagene took pride in tracing their dynasties to the kings of the fallen empire. They encouraged Iranian tradition and religion in opposition to the Greek kings of Pergamon and Antioch. They paid homage to Oromazes, Omanos, Artagnes (Verethraghna), Anaitis, and Mithra. Mazdaism flourished in Armenia in a very corrupt form. It was assimilated to local beliefs and Semitic ideas that had penetrated there from Syria. Aramazd (Ahura Mazda) was recognized as the chief divinity. Spandaramet (Spenta Armaiti), Haurotmaurot (Haurvatat, Ameretat), Anahit, Tir, Mithra, Vahram (Verethraghna) among the good heavenly beings, and Arhmn (Ahriman), Azmad (Aeshma daeva), Druzh (Druj) among the evil are included in the theology.^[17] Strabo informs us that the Zoroastrian divinities were worshipped in Armenia, Cappadocia, and throughout Northeastern Asia Minor.^[18] He mentions having seen in Cappadocia the image of Omanus, that is, Vohu Manah carried in a procession.^[19] The people of Pontus remained partially attached to Zoroastrianism up to the first century, when they exchanged the faith of Zoroaster with that of Jesus. Pausanias (second century a.d.), refers to the Magian rites practised in Lydia in the second century.^[20]

The appearance of the Zoroastrian angels Atar, Maongha, Tishtrya, Mithra, Verethraghna, Vata, and others on the coins of the Indo-Scythian kings from the time of Kanishka, in the second century, proves the strong Zoroastrian influence outside Iran.^[21]

Zoroastrianism at the close of the Parthian empire. The fact that some of the Parthian kings were favourably inclined to Zoroastrianism did not succeed in saving the Zoroastrian Church from falling into decay. Heresies and scepticism were rampant, it seems, and the priesthood was steeped in ignorance.^[22] The language of the Avesta had long ceased to be a living tongue, and the knowledge of the holy books written in that language was on its decline. The new language born at this period is Pahlavi, cognate with Parthava or Parthian, meaning heroic. It is an admixture of Aryan and Semitic. The Aryan element belongs to the Avesta, whereas the Semitic element is Aramaic, closely resembling Syriac. The Magi and the Athravans, the priests of Western and Eastern Iran, who were now united undertook the translations of the Avestan works and their explanations in Pahlavi. The explanations or commentaries are called āzainti in Avesta, and Zand in the later tongue.

Mithraism and Judaism were flourishing in Western Iran and Buddhism in Eastern Iran. A new religion of great potentiality entered Iran at this period. It was Christianity, whose propaganda spread in Iran during the Parthian period. We shall deal in brief in separate chapters with the spread of Mithraism outside Iran, and with Christianity, which was destined to grow into a great spiritual force that confronted Zoroastrianism from the middle of the second century to the middle of the seventh century, or the downfall of the last Zoroastrian empire. Five centuries of literary chaos thus elapsed before the dawn of the real Zoroastrian reformation dispelled the darkness and once more illumined the Mazdayasnian world with new light.

 

1. Diodorus, 17. 72; Curtius, 5. 7; Dk., Vol. 9, p. 569.
2. Dk., vol. 9, p. 577.
3. Dk. vol. 9, p. 569.
4. Strabo, p. 515.
5. Nat. Hist. 30. 6.
6. Annales, 15. 24.
7. See Unvala, Observations on the religion of the Parthians, Bombay, 1925; Pettazoni, La Religione di Zarathustra, p. 171.
8. Cf. Rawlinson, The Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy, p. 399, 400, London, 1873.
9. Dio Cassius, 63. 1-7.
10. Dk., SBE., vol. 37, bk. 4. 24, p. 413.
11. SBE., vol. 37, bk. 8. 1. 21, p. 9, 10.
12. De Abstinentia, 4. 16.
13. Proeem. 7.
14. Stromata, 3, p. 191.
15. Strabo, p. 733.
16. Cumont, The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism, p. 139, Chicago, 1911.
17. Ananikian, Armenia (Zoroastrian), in ERE. 1. 794-802.
18. P. 512, 732, 733.
19. P. 732.
20. 5. 27. 5.
21. Cf. Stein, Zoroastrian Deities on Indo-Scythian Coins, in Indian Antiquary, vol. 17, p. 89-98.
22. AV. 1. 13-15.