Sacred Books of the East/Volume 4/Fargard I

VENDÎDÂD.

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Fargard I.

This chapter is an enumeration of sixteen perfect lands created by Ahura Mazda, and of as many plagues created in opposition by Angra Mainyu.

Many attempts have been made, not only to identify these sixteen lands, but also to draw historical conclusions from their order of succession, as representing the actual order of the migrations and setdements of the old Iranian tribes^[1]. But there is nothing in the text to support such wide inferences. We have here nothing more than a geographical description of Iran, seen from the religious point of view.

Of these sixteen lands there are nine, as follows:—

Zend Name.	Old Persian.	Greek.	Modern Name.
Sughdha (2)	Suguda	Σογδιανή	Soghd سغد‎ (Samarkand)
Môuru (3)	Margu	Μαργιανή	Marv مرو
Bâkhdhi (4)	Bâkhtri	Βάκτρα	Balkh بلخ
Harôyu (6)	Haraiva	Ἀρεία	Harê(rud) هری
Vehrkâna (9)	Varkâna	Ὑρκανία	Gurgân, Gorgân گرگانجرجان
Harahvaiti (10)	Harauvati	Ἀραχωσία	Ar-rokhag ارّخج
			Arghand-(âb) ارغندآب‎
Haêtumant		Ἐτύμαυδρος	Helmend هلمند
Ragha (12)	Ragâ[2]	Ῥαγαί	Raï ری
Hapta hindu (15)	Hindava	Ἰυδοί	Hind هند (Pañgâb)

which can be identified with certainty, as we are able to follow their names from the records of the Achaemenian kings or the works of classical writers down to the map of modern Iran.

For the other lands we are confined for information to the Pahlavi Commentary, from which we get:

Zend Name.	Pahlavi Name.	Modern Name.
Vaêkereta (7)	Kâpûl	کابل‎ Kâbul
Urva (8)	Mêshan	Mesene
Varena (14)	Patashkvârgar or Dailam	Tabaristân or Gîlân
Rangha (16)	Arvastâni Rûm	Eastern Mesopotamia

The identification of Nisâya (5) and Kakhra {13) remains an open question, as there were several cities of that name. We know, however, that Nisâya lay between Balkh and Marv. The first province Airyanem Vaêgô, or Irân-Vêg, we identify with the mediaeval Arrân (nowadays known as Karabagh).

There must have been some systematical idea in the order followed, though it is not apparent, except in the succession of Sughdha, Môuru, Bakhdhi, Nisâya, Harôyu, Vaêkereta (numbers 2-7), which form one compact group of north-eastern provinces; the last two provinces, Hindu and Rangha (numbers 15-16), are the two limitroph provinces, east and west (Indus and Tigris); and the Rangha brings us back to the first province, Irân-Vêg, whose chief river, the Vanguhi Dâitya, or Aras, springs from the same mountains as the Rangha-Tigris.

The several plagues created by Angra Mainyu to mar the native perfection of Ahura's creations give instructive information on the religious condition of several of the Iranian countries at the time when this Fargard was written. Harât seems to have been the seat of puritan sects that pushed rigorism to the extreme in the law of purification. Sorcery was prevalent in the basin of the Helmend river, and the Paris were powerful in Cabul, which is a Zoroastrian way of saying that the Hindu civilisation prevailed in those parts, which in fact in the two centuries before and after Christ were known as White India, and remained more Indian than Iranian till the Musulman conquest.

1. Ahura Mazda spake unto Spitama^[3] Zarathustra, saying:

I have made every land dear (to its people), even though it had no charms whatever in it^[4]: had I not made every land dear (to its people), even though it had no charms whatever in it, then the whole living world would have invaded the Airyana Vaêgô^[5].

3 (5). The first of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the Airyana Vaêgô^[6], by the Vanguhi Dâitya^[7]. Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created the serpent in the river^[8] and Winter, a work of the Daêvas^[9].

4 (9). There are ten winter months there, two summer months^[10]; and those are cold for the waters^[11], cold for the earth, cold for the trees^[12]. Winter falls there, the worst of all plagues.

5 (13). The second of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the plain^[13] which the Sughdhas inhabit^[14].

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created the locust^[15], which brings death unto cattle and plants.

6 (17). The third of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created; was the strong, holy Môuru^[16].

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created plunder and sin^[17].

7 (21). The fourth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the beautiful Bâkhdhi^[18] with high-lifted banners.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created the ants and the anthills^[19].

8 (25). The fifth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Nisâya^[20], that lies between Môuru and Bâkhtri.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created the sin of unbelief.^[21]

9 (29). The sixth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the house- deserting Harôyu^[22].

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created tears and wailing^[23].

10 (33). The seventh of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Vaêkereta^[24], of the evil shadows.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created the Pairika Knãthaiti, who clave unto Keresâspa^[25].

11 (37). The eighth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Urva of the rich pastures^[26].

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created the sin of pride^[27].

12 (41). The ninth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Khnenta which the Vehrkânas^[28] inhabit.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created a sin for which there is no atonement, the unnatural sin^[29].

13 (45). The tenth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the beautiful Harahvaiti^[30].

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created a sin for which there is no atonement, the burying of the dead^[31].

14 (49). The eleventh of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the bright, glorious Haêtumant^[32].

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created the evil work of witchcraft.

15 (53). And this is the sign by which it is known, this is that by which it is seen at once: wheresoever they may go and raise a cry of sorcery, there^[33] the worst works of witchcraft go forth. From there they come to kill and strike at heart, and they bring locusts as many as they want^[34].

16 (59). The twelfth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Ragha^[35] of the three races^[36].

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created the sin of utter unbelief^[37].

17 (63). The thirteenth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the strong, holy Kakhra^[38].

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created a sin for which there is no atonement, the cooking of corpses^[39].

18 (67). The fourteenth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the four-cornered Varena^[40], for which was born Thraêtaona, who smote Azi Dahâka.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created abnormal issues in women^[41] and barbarian oppression^[42].

19 (72). The fifteenth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the Seven Rivers^[43].

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created abnormal issues in women and excessive heat.

20 (76). The sixteenth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the land by the sources (?) of the Rangha^[44], where people live who have no chiefs^[45]. Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created Winter^[46], a work of the Daêvas^[47].

21 (81). There are still other lands and countries^[48], beautiful and deep, longing and asking for the good, and bright.

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Footnotes

1. Rhode, Die heilige Sage des Zendvolks, p. 61; Heeren, Ideen zur Geschichte, I, p. 498; Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde I, p. 526; Haug in Bunsen's work, Aegypten's Stellung, V, and part, p. 104; Kiepert, Monatsberichte der Berliner Akademie, 1856, p. 621. Cf. the mythological interpretation by M. Bréal, 'De la géographie de l'Avesta' (in the Mélanges de mythologie et de linguistique, p. 187 seq.)
2. See however § 16, note 3.
3. Or Spitamide. Zarathurtra was descended from Spitama at the fifth generation.
4. 'Every one fancies that the land where he was born and has been brought up is the best and fairest land that I have created' (Comm.)
5. Greater Bundahish: 'It is said in the Sacred Book: had I not created the Genius of the native place, all mankind would have gone to Erân-Vêg, on account of its pleasantness.'—On Airyanem Vaêgô or Erân-Vêg, see following note.— Clause 2 in the Vendîdâd Sâda is composed of Zend quotations in the Commentary that illustrate the alternative process of the creation: 'First, Ahura Mazda would create a land of such kind that its dwellers might like it, and there could be nothing more delightful. Then he who is all death would bring against it a counter-creation.'
6. Airyanem Vaêgô, Irân-Vêg, is the holy land of Zoroastrianism: Zoroaster was born and founded his religion there (Bund. XX, 32; XXXII, 3): the first animal couple appeared there (Bund. XIV, 4; Zâd Sparam, IX, 8). From its name, 'the Iranian seed,' it seems to have been considered as the original seat of the Iranian race. It has been generally supposed to belong to Eastern Iran, like the provinces which are enumerated after it, chiefly on account of the name of its river, the Vanguhi Dâitya, which was in the Sassanian times (as Vêh) the name of the Oxus. But the Bundahish distinctly states that Irân-Vêg is 'bordering upon Adarbaigân' (XXIX, 12); now, Adarbaigân is bordered by the Caspian Sea on the east, by the Rangha provinces on the west, by Media proper on the south, and by Arrân on the north. The Rangha provinces are out of question, since they are mentioned at the end of the Fargard (§ 20), and the climatic conditions of Irân-Vêg with its long winter likewise exclude Media and suit Arrân, where the summer lasts hardly two months (cf. § 4, note 6). The very name agrees, as the country known as Arrân seems to have been known to the Greeks as Ἀριανία (Stephanus Byz.), which brings it close to our Airyanem. On the Vanguhi Dâitya, see following note.
7. For this note see next page. The Vanguhi Dâitya, belonging to Arrân, must be the modern Aras (the classic Araxes). The Aras was named Vanguhi, like the Oxus, but distinguished from it by the addition Dâitya, which made it 'the Vanguhi of the Law' (the Vanguhi by which Zoroaster received the Law).
8. 'There are many Khrafstras in the Dâitîk, as it is said, The Dâitîk full of Khrafstras' (Bund. XX, 13). Snakes abound on the banks of the Araxes (Morier, A Second Journey, p. 250) nowadays as much as in the time of Pompeius, to whom they barred the way from Albania to Hyrcania (Plut.)
9. Arrân (Karabagh) is celebrated for its cold winter as well as for its beauty. At the Naurôz (first day of spring) the fields still lie under the snow. The temperature does not become milder before the second fortnight of April; no flower is seen before May. Summer, which is marked by the migration of the nomads from the plain to the mountains, begins about the 20th of June and ends in the middle of August.
10. Vendîdâd Sâda: 'It is known that [in the ordinary course of nature] there are seven months of summer and five of winter' (see Bund. XXV).
11. Some say: 'Even those two months of summer are cold for the waters…' (Comm.; cf. Mainyô-i-khard XLIV, 20).
12. Vend. Sâda: 'There reigns the core and heart of winter.'
13. Doubtful.
14. Old P. Suguda; Sogdiana.
15. 'The plague that fell to that country was the bad locust: it devours the plants and death comes to the cattle' (Gr. Bund.)
16. Margu; Μαργιανή; Marv.
17. Doubtful.—The Gr. Bd. has: 'The plague that fell to that country was the coming and going of troops: for there is always there an evil concourse of horsemen, thieves, robbers, and heretics, who speak untruth and oppress the righteous.'—Marv continued to be the resort of Turanian plunderers till the recent Russian annexation.
18. Bâkhtri; Βάκτρα; Balkh.
19. 'The corn-carrying ants' (Asp.; cf. Farg. XIV, 5).
20. By contradistinction to other places of the same name. There was a Nisâya, in Media, where Darius put to death the Mage Gaumâta (Bahistûn I, 58). There was also a Nisâ in Fârs, another in Kirmân, a third again on the way from Amol to Marv (Tabari, tr. Noeldeke, p. 101, 2), which may be the same as Νισαία, the capital of Parthia (Παρθαύνισα ap. Isid. of Charax 12) ; cf. Pliny VI, 25 (29). One may therefore be tempted to translate, 'Nisâya between which and Bâkhdhi Môuru lies;' but the text hardly admits of that construction, and we must suppose the existence of another Nisâya on the way from Balkh to Marv.
21. There are people there 'who doubt the existence of God' (Comm.)
22. Harôyu, Old P. Haraiva (transcribed in Greek and Latin Ἀρεία Aria instead of Ἁρεία Haria, by a confusion with the name of the Aryans); P. Harê (in Firdausi and in Harê-rûd; Harât is an Arabicised form.—'The house-deserting Harê: because there, when a man dies in a house, the people of the house leave it and go. We keep the ordinances for nine days or a month: they leave the house and absent themselves from it for nine days or a month' (Gr. Bd.) Cf. Vd. V, 42.
23. 'The tears and wailing for the dead,' the voceros. The tears shed over a dead man grow to a river that prevents his crossing the Kinvat bridge (Saddar 96; Ardâ Vîrâf XVI, 7, 10).
24. Vaêkereta, an older name of Kâbul (Kâpûl: Comm. and Gr. Bd.) ; perhaps the Ptolemeian Βαγάρδα in Paropanisus (Ptol. VI, 18).
25. The Pairika, in Zoroastrian mythology, symbolises idolatry (uzdês-parastîh). The land of Kâbul, till the Musulman invasion, belonged to the Indian civilisation and was mostly of Brahmanical and Buddhistic religion. The Pairika Knãthaiti will be destroyed at the end of the world by Saoshyañt, the unborn son of Zarathustra (when all false religions vanish before the true one; Vd. XIX, 5).—Sâma Keresâspa, the Garshâsp of later tradition, is the type of impious heroism: he let himself be seduced to the Daêva-worship, and Zoroaster saw him punished in hell for his contempt of Zoroastrian observances.
26. Urva, according to Gr. Bd. Mêshan, that is to say Mesene (Μεσήυη), the region of lower Euphrates, famous for its fertility (Herodotos I, 193): it was for four centuries (from about 150 B.C. to 225 A.D.) the seat of a flourishing commercial state.
27. 'The people of Mêshan are proud: there are no people worse than they' (Gr. Bd.)
28. 'Khnenta is a river in Vehrkâna (Hyrcania)' (Comm.); consequently the river Gorgân.
29. See Farg. VIII, 31-32.
30. Harauvati; Ἀραχωσίά; corrupted into Ar-rokhag (name of the country in the Arabic literature) and Arghand (in the modern name of the river Arghand-âb).
31. See Farg. Ill, 36 seq.
32. The basin of the Ἐτύμπυδρος or Erymanthus, now Hermend, Helmend, that is to say, the region of Saistân.
33. In Haêtumant.—'The plague created against Saistân is abundance of witchcraft: and that character appears from this, that all people from that place practise astrology: those wizards produce… snow, hail, spiders, and locusts' (Gr. Bd.) Saistân, like Kâbul, was half Indian (Maçoudi, II, 79-82), and Brahmans and Buddhists have the credit of being proficient in the darker sciences.
34. This clause seems to be a quotation in the Pahlavi Commentary.
35. Ragha, transcribed Râk and identified by the Commentary with Adarbaigân and 'according to some' with Rai (the Greek Ῥαγαί in Media). There were apparently two Raghas, one in Atropatene; another in Media.
36. 'That means that the three classes, priests, warriors, and husbandmen, were well organised there' (Comm. and Gr. Bd.)
37. 'They doubt themselves and cause other people to doubt' (Comm.)
38. There were two towns of that name (Karkh), one in Khorasan, and the other in Ghaznin.
39. 'Cooking a corpse and eating it. They cook foxes and weasels and eat them' (Gr. Bd.) See Farg. VIII, 73-74
40. Varn, identified by the Comm. either with Patashkhvârgar or with Dailam (that is to say Tabaristân or Gîlân). The Gr. Bd. identifies it with Mount Damâvand (which belongs to Patashkhvârgar): this is the mountain where Azi Dahâka was bound with iron bonds by Thraêtaona.—'Four-cornered:' Tabaristân has rudely the shape of a quadrilateral.
41. Farg. XVI, 11 seq.
42. The aborigines of the Caspian littoral were Anarian savages, the so-called 'Demons of Mâzana.'
43. Hapta hindava, the basin of the affluents of the Indus, the modern Pañgâb (= the Five Rivers), formerly called Hind, by contradistinction to Sindh, the basin of the lower river.
44. 'Arvastân-i-Rûm (Roman Mesopotamia)' (Comm.), that is to say, the basin of the upper Tigris (Rangha = Arvand = Tigris).
45. People who do not hold the chief for a chief' (Comm.), which is the translation for asraosha (Comm. ad XVI, 18), 'rebel against the law,' and would well apply to the non-Mazdean people of Arvastân-i-Rǔm.
46. The severe winters in the upper valleys of the Tigris.
47. The Vendîdâd Sâda has here: taosyâka daṅheus aiwistâra, which the Gr. Bd. understands as: 'and the Tâjîk (the Arabs) are oppressive there.'
48. 'Some say: Persis' (Comm.)