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Text and translation are often spoken of together in Pahlavi books as Avistak va Zand (" Avesta and Zend "), whence—through a misunderstanding—our word Zend-Avesta.

The origin and meaning of the word " Avesta " (or in its older See also:

FORM (Lat. forma)

form, Avistak) are alike obscure; it cannot be traced further back than the Sasanian See also:

period. The See also:

LANGUAGE (adapted from the Fr. langage, from langue, tongue, Lat. lingua)

language of the Avesta is still frequently called Zend; but, as already implied, this is a See also:

MISTAKE (i.e. take amiss)

mistake. We possess no other document written in it, and on this See also:

account See also:

MODERN

modern Parsee scholars, as well as the older Pahlavi, books, speak of the language and See also:

writing indifferently as Avesta. As the original home of the language can only be very doubtfully conjectured, we shall do well to follow the usage sanctioned by old See also:

CUSTOM (from O. Fr. costume, costume or coustume; Low Lat. costuma, a shortened form of consuetudo)

custom and apply the word to both. Although the Avesta is a See also:

WORK

work of but moderate See also:

COMPASS (Fr. corn pas, ultimately from Lat. cum, with, and passus, step)

compass (comparable, say, to the Iliad and Odyssey taken together), there nevertheless exists no single MS, which gives it in entirety. This circumstance alone is enough to reveal the true nature of the book: it is a composite whole, a collection of writings, as the Old Testament is. It consists, as we shall afterwards see, of the last remains of the extensive sacred literature in which the Zoroastrian faith was formerly set forth. Contents.—As we now have it, the Avesta consists of five parts—the Yasna, the Vispered, the Vendidad, the Yashts, and the Khordah Avesta. 1. The Yasna, the See also:

PRINCIPAL

principal liturgical book of the Parsecs, in 72 chapters (See also:

HAITI [HAITI, HAYTI, SAN DOMINGO, Or HISPANIOLA]

haiti, ha), contains the texts that are read by the priests at the See also:

SOLEMN (Lat. sollemnis, sollemnis, less correctly solennis, yearly, annual; from sollus = totus, whole, entire, Gr. Mos., and annus, year)

solemn yasna (Izeshne) ceremony, or the See also:

general See also:

SACRIFICE (from Lat. sacrificium; sacer, holy, and facere, to make)

sacrifice in See also:

HONOUR (Lat. honos or lwnor, honoris; in English the word was spelled with or without the u indifferently until the 17th century, but during the 18th century it became fashion-able to spell the word " honor "; Johnson's and Webster's Dictionaries stereoty

honour of all the deities. The arrangement of the chapters is purely liturgical, although their See also:

MATTER

matter in part has nothing to do with the liturgical See also:

ACTION

action. The See also:

KERNEL (O.E. cyrnel, a diminutive of " corn," seed, grain)

kernel of the whole book, around which the remaining portions are grouped, consists of the Gathers or " See also:

HYMNS

hymns " of Zoroaster (q.v.), the See also:

OLDEST

oldest and most sacred portion of the entire See also:

CANON

canon.

The Yasna accordingly falls into three sections of about equal length: (a) The introduction (chaps. 1-27) is, for the most part, made up of See also:

long-winded, monotonous, reiterated invocations. Yet even this See also:

section includes some interesting texts, e.g. the Hama (See also:

Horn) Yasht (9, 11) and the See also:

ancient See also:

CONFESSION (Lat. confessio, from confiteor, acknowledge, confess)

confession of faith (12), which is of value as a document for the history of See also:

CIVILIZATION

civilization. (b) The Gathers (chaps. 28-54) contain the discourses, exhortations and revelations of the See also:

PROPHET (Irpo4i ri7s)

prophet, written in a metrical See also:

style and an archaic language, different in many respects from that ordinarily used in the Avesta. As to the authenticity of these hymns, see ZOROASTER. The Gathas proper, arranged according to the metres in which they are written, fall into five subdivisions (28-34, 43-46 47-50, 51, 53). Between See also:

CHAP

chap. 37 and chap. 43 is inserted the so-called Seven-See also:

CHAPTER (a shortened form of chapiter, a word still used in architecture for a capital; derived from O. Fr. chapitre, Lat. capitellum, diminutive of caput, head)

Chapter Yasna (haptanghaiti), a number of small See also:

PROSE

prose pieces not far behind the Gathers in antiquity. (c) The so-called Later Yasna (Aparo Yasno) (chaps. 54-72) has contents of considerable variety, but consists mainly of invocations.

See also:

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 See also:

SAGA (literally a story committed to writing)

saga in great broad lines, together with a prophetic presentment of the end of this See also:

WORLD

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 See also:

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

ordinary See also:

LIFE

life. In part, these brief petitions serve as convenient substitutes for the more lengthy Yashts—especially the so-called Nyaishes. Over and above the five books just enumerated, there are a considerable number of fragments from other books, e.g. the Nirangistan, as well as quotations, glosses and glossaries. The Larger Avesta and the Twenty-one Nasks.—In its See also:

PRESENT

present form, however, the Avesta is only a fragmentary remnant of the old priestly literature of Zoroastrianism, a fact confessed by the learned tradition of the Parsees themselves, according to which the number of Yashts was originally See also:

THIRTY

thirty. The truth is that we possess but a trifling portion of a very much larger Avesta, if we are to believe native tradition, carrying us back to the See also:

SASSANIAN

Sassanian period, which tells of a larger Avesta in twenty-one books called nasks or nosks, as to the names of which we have several more or less detailed accounts, particularly in the Pahlavi Dinkard (gth See also:

CENTURY (from Lat. centuria, a division of a hundred men)

century A.D.) and in the Rivayats. From the same See also:

SOURCES

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 See also:

Alexander. We are told that of a number of nasks only a small portion was found to be extant " after Alexander." For example, of the seventh nask, which " bef"*e Alexander " had as many as fifty chapters, there then remained only thirteen; and similar allegations are made with regard to the eighth, ninth, tenth and other nasks. The Rivayats See also:

state that, when after the calamity of Alexander they sought for the books again, they found a portion of each nask, but found no nask in completeness except the Vendidad. But even of the remains of the Avesta, as these See also:

lay before the author of the gth century, only a small See also:

RESIDUE (through the French, from the Lat. residuum, a remainder, from residere, to remain)

residue has survived to our time.

Of all the nasks one only, the nineteenth, has come down on us intact—the Vendidad. All else, considered as wholes, have vanished in the course of the centuries. It would be rash summarily to dismiss this old tradition of the twenty-one nasks as pure invention. The number twenty-one points, indeed, to an artificial arrangement of the material; for twenty-one is a sacred number, and the most sacred prayer of the Parsees, the so-called Ahuno Vairyo (Honovar) contains twenty-one words; and it is also true that in the enumeration of the nasks we See also:

MISS

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 seventeenth or Bakan Yasht; or, it may be that other books, especially the Yasna, are a compilation extracted for liturgical purposes from various nasks. Further, the statements of the Dinkard lcaveon us a very distinct impression that the author actually had before him the text of the nasks, or at all events of a large part of them: for he expressly states that the See also:

ELEVENTH

eleventh 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. In the Khordah Avesta, as we now have it, we find two SrOsh Yashts; with regard to the first, it is expressly stated in old See also:

MSS. that it was taken from the Hadokht nask (the twentieth, according to the Dinkard). From the same nask also a considerable fragment (Yts. 21 and 22 in Westergaard) has been taken. So, also, the Nirangistan is a portion of the seventeenth (or Hasparani) nask. Lastly, the numerous other fragments, the quotations in the Pahlavi transiation, the many references in the Bundahish 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 See also:

mere prayer-book now in our hands.

The existence of a larger Avesta, even as See also:

LATE

late as the 9th century A.D., is far from being a mere myth. But, even granting that a certain obscurity still hangs undispelled over the problem of the old Avesta, with its twenty-one nasks, we may well believe the Parsees themselves, when they affirm that their sacred literature has passed through successive stages of decay, the last of which is represented by the present Avesta. In fact we can clearly trace this See also:

GRADUAL (Med. Lat. gradualis, of or belonging to steps or degrees; gradus, step)

gradual See also:

PROCESS

process of decay in certain portions of the Avesta during the last few centuries. The great Yashts are not of veryfrequent occurrence in the See also:

MANUSCRIPTS

manuscripts: some of them, indeed, are already met with but seldom, and MSS. containing all the Yashts are of extreme rarity. Of the fifteenth, seventeenth and nineteenth Yashts the few useful copies that we possess are derived from a single MS. of the See also:

YEAR

year 1591 A.D. Origin and History.—While all that See also:

HERODOTUS (c. 484-425 B.C.)

Herodotus (i.132) has to say is that the Magi sang "the theogony " at their sacrifices, See also:

PAUSANIAS

Pausanias is able to add (v. 27. 3) that they read from a book. See also:

HERMIPPUS

Hermippus, in the 3rd century B.C., affirmed that Zoroaster, the founder of the See also:

DOCTRINE

doctrine of the Magi, was the author of twenty books, each containing roo,000 verses. According to the Arab historian, See also:

TABARI [Abu Ja'far Mahommed ibn Jarir ut-Tabari] (838-923)

Tabari, these were written on 12,000 COW-hides, a statement confirmed by Masudi, who writes: "Zartusht gave to the Persians the book called Avesta. It consisted of twenty-one parts, each containing 200 leaves. This book, in the writing which Zartusht invented and which the Magi called the writing of religion, was written on 12,000 cowhides, See also:

BOUND, or BOUNDARY (from O. Fr. bonde, Med. Lat. bodena or butina, a frontier line)

bound together by golden bands.

Its language was the Old See also:

Persian, which now no one understands." 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 Arda-Viraf-Narna the religion revealed through Zoroaster has subsisted in its purity for 300 years, when Iskander See also:

RUMI, (1207-1273)

Rumi (Alexander the Great) invaded and devastated See also:

IRAN

Iran, and burned the Avesta which, written on cowhides with golden See also:

INK (from Late Lat. encaustum, Gr. gysavorov, the purple ink used by Greek and Roman emperors, from iyKaiew, to burn in)

ink, was preserved in the archives at See also:

PERSEPOLIS

Persepolis. 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 Rivayato relates further: " After the villainy of Alexander, an assemblage of several high-priests brought together the Avesta from various places, and made a collection which included the sacred Yasna, Vispered, Vendidad arid other scraps of the Avesta." As to this re-collection and redaction of the Avesta the Dinkard gives various details. One of the Arsacid See also:

KINGS, FIRST AND SECOND BOOKS OF

kings, . Vologeses (I. or III.?), ordered the scattered remnants of the Avesta to be carefully preserved and recorded. The first of the Sassanian kings, See also:

ARDASHIR

Ardashir Babagan (226-240), caused his high-priest, Tanvasar, to bring together the dispersed portions of the See also:

HOLY

holy book, and to compile from these a new Avesta, which, as far as possible, should be a faithful See also:

REPRODUCTION

reproduction of the original. See also:

King Shaper I. (241-272) enlarged this re-edited Avesta by See also:

COLLECTING

collecting and incorporating with it the non-religious tractates on medicine, See also:

ASTRONOMY (from Gr. &arpov, a star, and v ,usiv, to classify or arrange)

astronomy, See also:

GEOGRAPHY (Gr. yil, earth, and ypiickty, to write)

geography and See also:

PHILOSOPHY (Gr. gthos, fond of, and vo4 (a, wisdom)

philosophy. Under Shaper II. (309-380) the nasks were brought into See also:

COMPLETE

complete order, and the new redaction of the Avesta reached its definitive conclusion.

See also:

HISTORICAL

Historical See also:

criticism may regard this tradition, in many of its features, as mere fiction, or as a perversion of facts made for the purpose of transferring the blame for the loss of a sacred literature to other persons than those actually responsible for it. We may, if we choose, absolve Alexander from the See also:

charge of vandalism of which he is accused, but the fact nevertheless remains, that he ordered the See also:

PALACE (Lat. Palatium, the name given by Augustus to his residence on the Palatine Hill)

palace at Persepolis to be burned (Diod., xvii. 72; Curt., v. 7). Even the statement as to the one or two complete copies of the Avesta may be given up as the invention of a later See also:

day. Nevertheless the essential elements of the tradition remain unshaken, viz. that the original Avesta, or old sacred literature, divided on account of its great bulk and heterogeneous contents into many portions and a variety of separate See also:

WORKS

works, had an actual existence in numerous copies and also in the memories of priests, that, although gradually diminishing in bulk, it remained extant during the period of See also:

FOREIGN

foreign domination and ecclesiastical decay after the time of Alexander, and that it served as a basis for the redaction subsequently made. The kernel of this native tradition—the fact of a late collection of older fragments—appears indisputable. The See also:

CHARACTER (Gr. xapareri7p, from xap&crew, to scratch)

character of the book is entirely that of a compilation. In its outward form the Avesta, as we now have it, belongs to the Sassanian period—the last survival of the compilers' work already alluded to. But this Sassanian origin of the Avesta must not be misunderstood: from the remnants and heterogenepus fragments at their disposal, the diasceuast or diasceuasts composed a new canon—erected a new edifice from the materials of the old. In point of detail, it is now impossible to draw a See also:

sharp distinction between that which they found surviving ready to their See also:

hand and that which they themselves added, or to define how far they reproduced the traditional fragments with verbal fidelity or indulged in revision and remoulding. It may reasonably be supposed, not only that they constructed the See also:

EXTERNAL

external framework of many chapters, and also made some additions of their own—a necessary process in order to weld their See also:

motley collection of fragments into a new and coherent book—but also that they fabricated anew many formulae and imitative passages on the See also:

MODEL (0. Fr. modelle, mod. modele; It. modello, pattern, mould; from Lat. modus, measure, standard)

model of the materials at their disposal.

In this consisted the " completion " of Tanvasar, expressly mentioned in the account of the Dinkard. All those texts in which the See also:

GRAMMAR (from Lat. grammatica, sc. ars; Gr. ypaµ)

grammar is handled, now with laxness and want of skill, and again with See also:

ABSOLUTE (Lat. absolvere, to loose, set free)

absolute barbarism, may probably be placed to the account of the .Sassanian redactors. All the grammatically ccrrect texts, together with those portions of the Avesta which have See also:

INTRINSIC (through Fr. intrinsique, from Lat. intrinsecus, inwardly; inter, within, secus, following, from root of sequi, to follow)

intrinsic See also:

worth, especially the metrical passages, are indubitably See also:

AUTHENTIC (from Gr. aOO 'rns, one who does a thing himself)

authentic and taken ad verbum from the original Avesta. To this class, above all, belong the Gathas and the See also:

NUCLEUS (Lat. for the kernal of a nut, nux, the stone of fruit)

nucleus of the greater Yashts. Opinions differ greatly as to the precise age of the original texts brought together by subsequent redactors: according to some, they are pre-Achaemenian; according to See also:

DARMESTETER, JAMES (1849-1894)

Darmesteter's former See also:

OPINION (Lat. opinio, from opinari, to think)

opinion, they were written in See also:

MEDIA

Media under the Achaemenian See also:

DYNASTY (Gr. &vvaareta, sovereignty, the position of a hevnori7r, lord, ruler, from SuvaaBay to be able, Suvaµas, power)

dynasty; according to some, their source must be sought in the See also:

east, according to others, in the See also:

west of Iran. But to See also:

SEARCH, or VISIT AND SEARCH

search for a precise time or an exact locality is to See also:

DEAL

deal with the question too narrowly; it is more correct to say that the Avesta was worked at from the time of Zoroaster down to the Sassanian period. Its oldest portions, the Gathas, proceed from the prophet himself. This conclusion is inevitable for every one to whom Zoroaster is an historical See also:

PERSONALITY (from Lat. persona, originally an actor's mask, from personare,1 to sound through)

personality, and who does not shun the labour of an unprejudiced See also:

RESEARCH (O. Fr. recerche, from recercher, re- and cercer, mod. chercher, to search; Late Lat. circare, to go round in a circle, to explore)

research into the meaning of those difficult texts (cf. ZOROASTER). The See also:

REST (O. Eng. rest, reste, bed, cognate with other Teutonic forms, e.g. Ger. Rast, Riiste, rest, and probably Gothic Rasta, league, i.e. resting or stopping place)

rest of the Avesta, in spite of the opposite opinion of orthodox Parsees, does not even claim to come from Zoroaster. As the Gathas now constitute the kernel of the most sacred prayer-book, viz. the Yasna, so they ultimately proved to be the first nucleus of a religious literature in general. The language in which Zoroaster taught, especially a later development of it, remained as the See also:

standard with his followers, and became the sacred language of the priesthood of that faith which he had founded; as such it became, so to speak, absolved from the ordinary conditions of time and space.

Taught and acquired as an ecclesiastical language, it was enabled to live an artificial life long after it had become See also:

EXTINCT

extinct as a See also:

VERNACULAR (Lat. verna, dim. vernaculus, a slave horn in his master's house)

vernacular—in this respect comparable to the Latin of the See also:

MIDDLE

middle ages or the See also:

HEBREW

Hebrew of the rabbinical See also:

SCHOOLS

schools. The priests, who were the composers and repositories of these texts, succeeded in giving them a perfectly general form. They refrained from practically every allusion to ephemeral or See also:

LOCAL

local circumstances. Thus we search vainly in the Avesta itself for any precise data to determine the period of its See also:

composition or the See also:

PLACE (through Fr. from Lat. platea, street; Gr. IrAar6s, wide)

place where it arose. The original See also:

COUNTRY (from the Mid. Eng. contre or contrie, and O. Fr. cuntree; Late Lat. contrata, showing the derivation from contra, opposite, over against, thus the tract of land which fronts the sight, cf. Ger. Gegend, neighbourhood)

country of the religion, and the seat of the Avesta language, ought perhaps to be sought rather in the east of Iran (See also:

SEISTAN, or SISTAN (SEJISTAN)

Seistan and the neighbouring districts). But neither the spiritual literature nor the sacred See also:

TONGUE (O. Eng. lunge)

tongue remained limited to the east. The geography of the Avesta points both to the east and the west, particularly the See also:

north-west of Iran, but with a decided tendency to gravitate towards the east. The vivid description of the See also:

basin of the Hilment (Yasht 19, 65–60 is peculiarly instructive. The language of the Avesta travelled with the Zoroastrian religion and with the See also:

main body of the priesthood, in all See also:

PROBABILITY (Lat. probabilis, probable or credible)

probability, that is to say, from east to west; within the limits of Iran it became See also:

INTERNATIONAL, THE

international. As has been already stated, the Avesta now in our hands is but a small portion of the book as restored and edited under the Sassanians. The larger part perished under the See also:

MAHOMMEDAN

Mahommedan See also:

RULE

rule and under the more barbarous tyranny of the See also:

TATARS (the common form Tartars is less correct)

Tatars, when throughconversion and extermination the Zoroastrians became a mere remnant that concealed its religion and neglected the necessary copying of manuscripts. A most meagre proportion only of the real religious and See also:

RITUAL (from Lat. ritus, a custom, especially a religious rite or custom)

ritual writings, the sacerdotal law and the liturgy, has been preserved to our time.

The great bulk—over three-fourths of the Sassanian contents—especially the more See also:

SECULAR (Lat. saecularis, of or belonging to an age or generation, saeculum)

secular literature collected, has fallen a See also:

PREY (0. Fr. preie, mod. proie, Lat. praeda, booty, from prae and the root hed—seen in prehendere, prendere, to grasp)

prey to oblivion. The under-See also:

STANDING

standing of the older Avesta texts began to See also:

die away at an early period. The need for a translation and interpretation became evident; and under the Later Sassanians the See also:

MAJORITY (Fr. majorite; Med. Lat. majoritas; Lat. major, greater)

majority of the books, if not the whole of them, were rendered into the current Pahlavi. A thorough use of this translation will not be possible until we have it in See also:

GOOD, JOHN MASON (1764-1827)

good See also:

CRITICAL (in alphabetical order of authors)

critical See also:

EDITIONS

editions, and acquaintance with its language ceases to be the See also:

MONOPOLY (Gr. govomeXla or govoircaXwv, exclusive sale, from govds, alone, and irwXeiv, to sell)

monopoly of a few privileged individuals. For the interpretation of the older texts it is of great value where they are concerned with the fixed, formal statutes of the See also:

church. But when they pass beyond this narrow See also:

SPHERE (Gr. vclsa?pa, a ball or globe)

sphere, as particularly in the Gathas, the Pahlavi translator becomes a defective and unreliable interpreter. The Parsee priest, Neryosangh, subsequently translated a portion of the Pahlavi version into See also:

SANSKRIT

Sanskrit. The MSS. of the Avesta are, comparatively speaking, of See also:

RECENT

recent date. The oldest is the Pahlavi Vispered in See also:

COPENHAGEN (Danish Kjobenhavn)

Copenhagen, dated 1258. Next come the four MSS. of the Herbad Mihirapan Kai Khusro at See also:

Cambay (1323 and 1324), two Vendidads with Pahlavi in See also:

LONDON

London and Copenhagen, and two Yasnas with Pahlavi in Copenhagen and formerly in Bombay (now See also:

Oxford). Generally speaking, the MSS. fall off in quality and carefulness in proportion to their lateness; though an See also:

HONOURABLE (Fr. honorable, from Lat. honorabilis, worthy of honour)

honourable exception must be made in favour of those proceeding from Kirman and Yazd in See also:

PERSIA

Persia, mostly dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. The first See also:

EUROPEAN

European See also:

SCHOLAR, SCHOLARSHIP

scholar to See also:

DIRECT

direct See also:

ATTENTION (from Lat. ad-tendo, await, expect; the condition of being " stretched " or " tense ")

attention to the Avesta was See also:

Hyde of Oxford, in his Historia Religionis Veterum Persarum eoramque Magorum (1700), which, however, failed to awake any lasting See also:

INTEREST

interest in the sacred writings of the Parsees.

The merit of achieving this belongs to the enthusiastic orientalist Anquetil Duperron, the See also:

FRUIT (through the French from the Lat. fructus; frui, to enjoy)

fruit of whose prolonged stay in See also:

India (1755–1761) and his acquaintance with the Parsee priests was a translation (certainly very defective) of the Zend-Avesta. The See also:

FOUNDATION (Lat. fundatio, from fundare, to found)

foundation of a scientific exegesis was laid by See also:

BURNOUF, EUGENE (1801—1852)

Burnouf. The interpretation of the Avesta is one of the most difficult problems of See also:

ORIENTAL

oriental See also:

PHILOLOGY

philology. To this very day no kind of agreement has been reached by conflicting schools, even upon some of the most important points. The value of the Pahlavi interpretation was overrated by Spiegel, Darmesteter, but wholly denied by See also:

ROTH, JUSTUS LUDWIG ADOLF (1818-1892)

Roth. The truth lies between these two extremes. Opinion is divided also as to the significance of the Avesta in the literature of the world. The exaggerated See also:

ENTHUSIASM

enthusiasm of Anquetil Duperron has been followed, especially since Spiegel's translation, by an excessive reaction. Upon the whole, the Avesta is a monotonous book. The Yasna and many Yashts in great part consist of formulae of prayer which are as poor in contents as they are rich in verbiage. The book of See also:

LAWS

laws (Vendidad) is characterized by an arid didactic See also:

TONE, THEOBALD WOLFE (1763-1798)

tone ; only here and there the legislator clothes his dicta in the See also:

guise of graceful dialogues and tales, or of poetic descriptions and similitudes; and then the book of laws is transformed into a didactic poem. Nor can we deny to the Yashts, in their depiction of the Zoroastrian angels and their presentment of the old sagas, a certain poetic feeling, at times, and a pleasant diction.

The Gathas are quite unique in their kind. As a whole, the Avesta, for profundity of thought and beauty, stands on a See also:

LOWER

lower level than the Old Testament. But as a religious book—the most important document of the Zoroastrian faith, and the See also:

SOLE (Solea)

sole See also:

LITERARY

literary See also:

MONUMENT (Lat. monumentum or monumentum; from monere, to advise, bring to mind, remind; the German equivalent is Denkmal)

monument of ancient Iran—the Avesta occupies a prominent position in the literature of the world. At the present day its significance is decidedly underrated. The future will doubtless be more just with regard to the importance of the book for the history of religion in general and even of See also:

CHRISTIANITY

Christianity. EmTIoNs.--Zend-Avesta, ed. by N. L. Westergaard (Copenhagen 1852–54), complete; F. Spiegel, Avesta (See also:

Vienna, 1853-58), only Vendidad, Vispered and Yasna, but with the Pahlavi translation; K. Geldner (See also:

STUTTGART

Stuttgart, 1886–96). See also:

TRANSLATIONS

Translations.—Anquetil Duperron, Zend-Avesta, Ouvrage de Zoroastre (See also:

Paris, 1771); Fr. Spiegel, 3 vols.

(See also:

LEIPZIG

Leipzig, 1852-63), both completely antiquated. Avesta traduit See also:

PAR (Lat. par, equal)

par C. de Harlez, ed. 2 (Paris, 1881); The Zend-Avesta, Part I. Vendidad, Part II. Sirozahs, Yashts and Nyayish, tr. by J. Darmesteter, Part III. Yasna, Visparad, &c:, by L. H. See also:

Mills (Oxford, 1880--87), in the Sacred Books of the East; Le Zend-Avesta, traduction nouvelle par J. Darmesteter, 3 vols. (Paris, 1892–93) (Annales du Musee Gutmet)—a most important work.

End of Article: ZENATA, or ZANATA

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