Zenata or Zanata

4. The Yashts, i.e., "songs of praise," except those inserted in the Yasna, form a collection by themselves. They contain invo cations of separate Izads, or angels, number 21 in all, and are of widely divergent extent and antiquity. The great Yashts—some nine or ten—are impressed with a higher stamp, and represent the religious poetry of the ancient Iranians. They resemble the Rig Veda hymns, and are a rich source of mythology and legendary history. Side by side with full, vividly coloured descriptions of the Zoroastrian deities, they frequently interweave, as episodes, stories from the old heroic fables. The most important of all, the 19th Yasht, gives a consecutive account of the Iranian heroic saga in great broad lines, together with a prophetic presentment of the end of this world.

5. The Khordah Avesta, i.e., the Little Avesta, comprises a collection of shorter prayers designed for all believers—the laity included—and adapted for the various occurrences of ordinary life.

There are also a considerable number of fragments from lost books, e.g., the Nirangistdn, as well as quotations, glosses and glossaries.

The Larger Avesta and the Twenty-one Nasks.

In its present form, however, the Avesta is only a fragmentary remnant of the old priestly literature of Zoroastrianism. Native tradition, carrying us back to the Sassanian period, tells of a larger Avesta in 21 books called nasks or nosks, as to the names of which we have several more or less detailed accounts, particularly in the Pahlavi Dinkard (9th century A.D.) and in the Rivayats. From the same sources we learn that this larger Avesta was only a part of a yet more extensive original Avesta, which is said to have existed before Alexander. But even of the remains of the Avesta, as these lay before the author of the 9th century, only a small residue has survived to our time. Of all the nasks one only, the i9th, has come down on us intact—the Vendidad.

It would be rash summarily to dismiss this old tradition of the 21 nasks as pure invention. The number 21, being a sacred number, points, indeed, to an artificial arrangement of the ma terial. In the enumeration of the nasks we miss the names of the books we know, like the Yasna and the Yashts. But we must assume that these were included in such or such a nask, as the Yashts in the I7th or Bakein Yasht ; or, it may be that other books, especially the Yasna, are a compilation extracted for liturgical purposes from various nasks. Further, the author of the

Dinkard appears to have had before him the text of the nasks, or at all events of a large part of them : for he expressly states that the fIth nask was entirely lost, so that he is unable to give the slightest account of its contents. And, besides, in other directions there are numerous indications that such books once really existed. The numerous other fragments, the quotations in the Pahlavi translation, the many references in the Bundakish to passages of this Avesta not now known to us, all presuppose the existence in the Sassanian period of a much more extensive Avesta literature than the mere prayer-book now in our hands. The existence of a larger Avesta, even as late as the 9th century A.D., is far from being a mere myth, and we may well believe the Parsees them selves, when they affirm that their sacred literature has passed through successive stages of decay, the last of which is represented by the present Avesta.

Origin and History.

While all that Herodotus (i. 132) has to say is that the Magi sang "the theogony" at their sacrifices, Pausanias is able to add (v. 27. 6) that they read from a book.

Hermippus, in the 3rd century B.C., is said by Pliny to have ex plained the doctrine which Zoroaster had composed in 20 times oo,000 verses. According to the Arab historian, Tabari, these were written on 12,000 cow-hides, a statement confirmed by Mastadi, who further says that the book consisted of 21 parts, and that Zartusht, who invented "the writing of religion," wrote it in Old Persian. These assertions sufficiently establish the existence and great bulk of the sacred writings. Parsee tradition adds a number of interesting statements as to their history. According to the Dinkard, there were two copies, of which one was burned, while the second came into the hands of the Greeks. One of the Riviyats relates how after the villainy of Alexander, several high priests collected all the fragments that could be found. As to this re-collection and redaction of the Avesta the Dinkard gives vari ous details. One of the Arsacid kings, Vologeses (I. or III.?), ordered the scattered remnants of the Avesta to be carefully pre served and recorded, and under several of the Sassanian kings in the 3rd and 4th centuries the new redaction was completed.