Zend Avesta Part 02

SR No.: 007672
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Darmesteter
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1883
Total Pages: 2221
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 41 MB

Page 1926

xxxvi
PAHLAVI TEXTS.
and, after he had proved his orthodoxy by ordeal (Sg. X, 70, 71), the king proclaimed his intention of not allowing any more heterodoxy (Dk. IV, 27 ?). In his old age he obtained a son, after devout prayer, and named him Zaratūst (Pandnâmak, 1); but this son also bore the Avesta title of Avarethrabau (Dk. VII, vii, 20, 21; VIII, xiii, 18), who is called the son of Rästare-vaghent in Yt. XIII, 106, showing that this latter Avesta title was adopted by Åtûrpâd himself. Finally, we meet with another âtûrpád, son of Zaratust, described in Peshotan's Dk. III, cxxxvii, 2, as high-priest in the reign of Yazdakard I (A. D. 399-420), son of Shahpuhar, and also mentioned in Pahl. Yas. p. 120, 11. 14, 15 Sp. (translated in Dk. VIII, i, 7 n).
65. We have here, evidently, three successive high-priests, father, son, and grandson, and all celebrated men. The father had been employed in collecting and revising, or probably translating, some of the sacred books, and then, after a religious discussion, submitted himself to the ordeal of melted metal, as a test of his orthodoxy. The king was convinced, and his proclamation meant persecution of the heterodox, such as was commenced about A. D. 339, as regards the Christians. So that we may safely assume that Âtûrpad's ordeal took place shortly before this date, and probably shortly after 337, when the Roman war commenced. As we must also certainly assume that the original chronology could not have come into existence at a much later date than 341, when so remarkable an event as the birth of a new apostle was fixed by it to occur, we have to consider who this apostle could have been; and whether it may not have been intended to identify him with Aturpâd's own son.
66. In the first place, is such a suspicion consistent with known dates ? To represent Allshedar, according to the original chronology, the son must have been born A.D. 341 ($ 63); and we may suppose that the time of Aushedar's conference (371) would represent the time of Åturpâd's
See S. B. E., vol. xxxvii, p. 415.
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