Zend-Avesta I: Vendīdād
- Language:
- English
- Translation:
- James Darmesteter
- Status:
- Selection or partial work
- Authorship:
- Anonymous or composite
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text · 1 illegible passages, excluded from answers
- Extent:
- ~120,000 words · 574 passages
Cite this work
- APAAvesta. (n.d.). Zend-Avesta I: Vendīdād. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/avesta/the-zend-avesta-part-i-the-vendidad-sbe-vol-iv
- MLAAvesta. "Zend-Avesta I: Vendīdād." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/avesta/the-zend-avesta-part-i-the-vendidad-sbe-vol-iv.
- ChicagoAvesta. Zend-Avesta I: Vendīdād. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/avesta/the-zend-avesta-part-i-the-vendidad-sbe-vol-iv.
What it is about
The first part of the Avesta in the 'Sacred Books of the East': the Vendidad, the Zoroastrian code of purity and purification.
Context and history
It is the part of the Avesta that least resembles a religious book as a modern reader imagines one, and that is worth saying. The Vendidad — 'law against the demons' — is above all a legal and ritual treatise: which contacts defile, how a corpse is to be handled, what penalty attaches to each fault, how earth, water and fire are purified, how a dog is to be cared for. Its interest is twofold: it is a legal and social document of ancient Iran of extraordinary detail, and it explains Zoroastrian practices that still exist. The ancient and religiously central core of the Avesta is the Gathas, which are in part three. The translation is Darmesteter's, of 1880.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
Farcard I. An enumeration of sixteen lands created by Ahura Mazda, and of as many plagues CREATED IN OPPOSITION HV ANGRA MaINYU . I Fargaud II. Myths ok Yima 10 Fargard III. The Earth 21 I (i~6). The five places where the Earth fools most joy . 22 II (7"ii). The five places where the Earth feels most sorrow 24 III (12-35). The five things which most rejoice the Earth 25 IV (36-42). Corpses ought not to be buried in the Earth 31 Fargard IV. Contracts and Outrages .... 33 II a (2). Classification of contracts 34 1 1 b (3—4). Damages for breach of contract *35 lie (5-10). Kinsmen responsible 36 II d (11-16). Penalties for breach of contract ... 37 (18). Definitions 39 (22-25). Assaults 4(J (34-36). Wounds causing blood to flow ... 42 (37-39). Broken bones 43 (40-43). Manslaughter 44 (44-45). Contracts 45 (47—49). Praise of physical weal 4r> CULL viii CONTENTS. I1 Mil? Fargard V 48 I ( r— 7). If a man defile the fire or the earth involuntarily, or unconsciously, it is no sin 49 II (8-9). Water and fire do not kill 50 III f 10—14). Disposal of the dead during winter . . 51 IV (15-20). How the Dakhmas are cleansed by water from the heavens • .53 V (21-26). On the excellence ofjmrity and of the law that shows how to recover it, when lost 55 VI (27-38). On the defiling power of