San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-05-14
Che DaiIY Eight.
THURSDAY, MAY IA, 1891.
The Zend-Avesta.

Aue Lenu-dVesta.
From the Chicago Inter Ocean.
The Zend-Avesta constitutes the
scripture of the ancient Persian
religion, as taught by Zoroaster.
Concerning the history of this teacher,
very little trustworthy record exists.
He was Bactrian by birth, all
legends seem agreed as to that, but
the time when he lived is very uncer-
tain. Some authorities assign him to q
period 5000 years before the Trojan
war, others give his date COG before
that event. Aristotle places him 5000
years before Plato. A Babylonian
historian makes him a Babylonian
Kink, and the founder of a dynasty
which began to reign about 1000 B. Z.
over Babylon. The Parsees place
him in the time of Hystaspes, the ia
ther of Darius, who lived about $50 B.
G. There is scarcely doubt, how
ever, that he should properly be as
signed to a much earlier date, and
that this Hystaspes, or Vistaspa, has
been confounded with king who
lived some time before. Legend says
that the parents of Zorcaster were
in lowly circumstances, though OF
princely origin, and that the future
greatness OF Zoroaster was foretold to
his mother before his birth. When
he grew to mans estate he spent
many years in retirement, and at
last the good spirit, Ormuzd, appear
ed to him with the command: "Teach
the nations that my light is hidden
under all that shines. Whenever
you turn your face toward the light
nd untp A ri
man 1.-THE evil spirit will be seen to
fiy. In this world there is nothing
superior to light" The spirit of
light then gave to the young man the
sacred book, Avesta, and babe him
take it to the king, Vistaspa;
he did so, and this ruler be.
came q strong believer in
and propagation of the new faith.
Zoroaster was no doubt one of the
Soshyantos, or fire priests, among
the religious reform began, which he
carried out so boldly. The religion of
Iran had become mixed with that of
the Hindoos and Chaldeans, and the
object of Zoroaster was to free it from
these innovations. This ancient re- |
ligion is not only professed by the
Parsees, q sect not aggregating more |
than los, 900 individuals, of whom |
nearly two-thirds live in India. The
Persian religion of modern times is |
Accommodation. The Bible of the |
the Equestrian creed is the Avesta, |
signifying the claw and revelation |
The prefix Zend refers to the common
~ on the work, Both are written
in q dialect form of the old Iranic |
speech. The work is divided into the |
Yashs, which includes five gathas or |
hymns, written in dialect resem bling |
Vedic, and probably more ancient |
than the time of Zoroaster; the Ven |
didad, which means "given against
the demons" and contains the laws,
the Visparad, meaning "chiefs," q
collection of prayers, and other Sec
tions with special prayers. The
Avesta teaches the existence of two
principles always at war with each
other-light and darkness, good and
evil-under the names of Ormuzd and
Ahriman. These two beings existed
from the earliest times, each creating
spirits to aid him against the other. |
Ormuzd made the earth and placed it |
between hims elf and the evil one, but
the latter bored hole in the earth and
put some of his evil spirits i'm it, then
the earth became the arena of the
struggle between good and evil, and
Ormuzd then created Zoroaster to
aid him in fighting Ahriman. The
struggle is to last 1000 years, after
which comes the new life, the resur-
rection of the dead, and the final
triumph of the good power upon
earth. The opinion of critics is that
the Zend-Avesta is made up from
fragments of a more extended litera-
ture, much of which far ante-dated
the time of Zoroaster, but was by
him or some one gathered into the
form in which it has since been
known. The German oriental Spie-
gel made a very complete transla-
ton of the Avesta into German,
which was published about 1850, and
a few yesrs later was translated into
English.