Zoroaster

The Person of the Prophet.

As to his birthplace the testi monies are conflicting. According to the Avesta (Yasna, 9, 17), Airyanem Vaeji5, on the river Daitya, the old sacred country of the gods, was the home of Zoroaster. There on the river Dareja, if the passage (Vend., 19, 4) is correctly interpreted, stood the house of his father; and the Bundahish (20, 32 and 24, says expressly that the river Dareja lay in Airan Vej, on its bank was the dwelling of his father, and that there Zoroaster was born.

According to the Bundahish (29, 12), Airan Vej was situated in the direction of Atropatene, and consequently Airyanem Vaejii is generally identified with the district of Arran on the river Aras (Araxes), close by the north-western frontier of Media. Other traditions make him a native of Rai (Ragha, Tayat). Ac cording to Yasna, 19, 18, the zarathushtrotema, or supreme head of the Zoroastrian priesthood lived in Sassanian times, in Ragha. The Arabic writer Shahrastani endeavours to reconcile the two traditions by the theory that his father lived at Atropatene, while the mother was from Rai. In his home he is said to have enjoyed the celestial visions and the conversations with the arch-angels and Ormazd mentioned in the Gathas. There, too, according to Yasht, 5, 105, he prayed that he might convert King Vishtaspa. He then appears to have quitted his native district. On this point the Avesta is wholly silent ; an obscure passage (Varna, 53, 9) intimates that he found an ill reception in Rai. Finally, in the person of Vishtaspa, a prince resident in east Iran, he gained the powerful protector and faithful disciple of the new religion whom he desired—after almost superhuman dangers and diffi culties, which the later books depict in lively colours. In the epic legend, Vishtaspa was king of Bactria ; in the later Avesta he became a half-mythical figure, the last in the series of heroes of east Iranian legend. In the Gathas he appears as a quite his torical personage ; to his power and good example the prophet is indebted for his success. In Yasna, 53, 2, he is spoken of as a pioneer of the doctrine revealed by Ormazd. In the relation be tween Zoroaster and Vishtaspa lies the germ of the state church which afterwards became subservient to the dynasty and sought its protection from it.

Among the grandees of the court of Vishtaspa were two brothers, Frashaoshtra and Jamaspa, both, according to the later legend, vizirs of Vishtaspa. Zoroaster's wife, Hvovi, was the

daughter of Frashaoshtra, and the husband of his daughter, Pou rucista, was Jamaspa. The role of intermediary was played by the pious queen Hutaosa. Apart from this, the new prophet relies especially upon his own kindred (hvaetush). His first disciple, Maidhyoimaongha, was his cou,in : his father was, according to the later Avesta, Pourushaspa, his mother Dughdova, his great grandfather Haecataspa, and the ancestor of the whole family Spitama, for which reason Zarathushtra usually bears this sur name. His sons and daughters are repeatedly spoken of. His death is nowhere mentioned in the Avesta; in the Shah-Ncima he is said to have been murdered at the altar by the Turanians in the storming of Balkh.

As to the date of Zoroaster; King Vishtaspa has no place in any historical chronology, and the Gathas give no hint on the subject. According to the Arda Viraf, 1, 2, Zoroaster taught some 30o years before the invasion of Alexander. Assyrian in scriptions relegate him to a more ancient period. Eduard Meyer (see Ancient Persia), conjecturally puts the date of Zoroaster at moo B.C., with Duncker (Geschichte des Altertums, 4, 78). This may be too high : but, in any case, Zoroaster belongs to a pre historic era. Probably he belonged to the old school of Median Magi, and appeared first in Media as the prophet of a new faith, but met with sacerdotal opposition, and turned his steps eastward. In the east of Iran the novel creed first acquired a solid footing, and subsequently reacted with success upon the West, Zoroastrianism.—Zoroaster taught a new religion rooted in the old Iranian—or Aryan—folk-religion, of which we can form some representation by comparison with the religion of the Veda. The Aryan folk-religion was polytheistic. Worship was paid to popular divinities, such as the war-god and dragon-slayer Indra, to natural forces and elements such as fire, but the Aryans also believed in the ruling of moral powers and of an eternal law in nature. On solemn occasions the inspiring drink soma (haoma) was consumed by the devout. Numerous coin cidences with the Indian religion survive in Zoroastrianism, side by side with astonishing diversities.