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Pahlavi Texts, Part I (SBE05), E.W. West, tr. [1880], at sacred-texts.com
1. On the nature of the resurrection and future existence it says in revelation, that, whereas Mâshya and Mâshyôî, who grew up from the earth 7, first fed upon water, then plants, then milk, and then meat, men also, when their time of death has come, first desist from eating meat, then milk, then from
bread, till when 1 they shall die they always feed upon water. 2. So, likewise, in the millennium of Hûshêdar-mâh 2, the strength of appetite (âz) will thus diminish, when men will remain three days and nights in superabundance (sîrîh) through one taste of consecrated food. 3. Then they will desist from meat food, and eat vegetables and milk; afterwards, they abstain from milk food and abstain from vegetable food, and are feeding on water; and for ten years before Sôshyans 3 comes they remain without food, and do not die.
4. After Sôshyans comes they prepare the raising of the dead, as it says, that Zaratûst asked of Aûharmazd thus: 'Whence does a body form again, which the wind has carried and the water conveyed (vazîd) 4? and how does the resurrection occur?' 5. Aûharmazd answered thus: 'When through me the sky arose from the substance of the ruby 5, without columns, on the spiritual support of far-compassed light; when through me the earth arose, which 6 bore the material life, and there is no
maintainer of the worldly creation but it; when by me the sun and moon and stars are conducted in the firmament (andarvaî) of luminous bodies; when by me corn was created so that, scattered about in the earth, it grew again and returned with increase; when by me colour 1 of various kinds was created in plants; when by me fire was created in plants and other things 2 without combustion; when by me a son was created and fashioned 3 in the womb of a mother, and the structure (pîsak) severally of the skin, nails, blood, feet, eyes, ears, and other things was produced; when by me legs were created for the water, so that it flows away, and the cloud was created which carries the water of the world and rains there where it has a purpose; when by me the air was created which conveys in one's eyesight, through the strength of the wind, the lowermost upwards according to its will, and one is not able to grasp it with the hand out-stretched; each one of them, when created by me, was herein more difficult than causing the resurrection, for 4 it is an assistance to me in the resurrection that they exist, but when they were formed it was not forming the future out of the past 5. 6. Observe that when that which was not was then produced, why is it not possible to
produce again that which was? for at that time one will demand the bone from the spirit of earth, the blood from the water, the hair from the plants, and the life from fire, since they were delivered to them in the original creation.'
7. First, the bones of Gâyômard are roused up then those of Mâshya and Mâshyôî, then those of the rest of mankind; in the fifty-seven years of Sôshyans 1 they prepare all the dead, and all men stand up; whoever is righteous and whoever is wicked, every human creature, they rouse up from the spot where its life departs. 8. Afterwards, when all material living beings assume again their bodies and forms, then they assign (barâ yehabûnd) them a single class 2. 9. Of the light accompanying (levatman) the sun, one half will be for Gâyômard, and one half will give enlightenment among the rest of men, so that the soul and body will know that this is my father, and this is my mother, and this is my brother, and this is my wife, and these are some other of my nearest relations.
10. Then is the assembly of the, Sadvâstarân 3 where all mankind will stand at this time; in that assembly every one sees his own good deeds and his own evil deeds; and then, in that assembly, a wicked man becomes as conspicuous as a white sheep among those which are black. 11. In that
assembly whatever righteous man was friend of a wicked one in the world, and the wicked man complains of him who is righteous, thus: 'Why did he not make me acquainted, when in the world, with the good deeds which he practised himself?' if he who is righteous did not inform him, then it is necessary for him to suffer shame accordingly in that assembly 1.
12. Afterwards they set the righteous man apart from the wicked; and then the righteous is for heaven (garôdmân), and they cast the wicked back to hell. 13. Three days and nights they inflict punishment bodily in hell, and then he beholds bodily those three days' happiness in heaven 2. 14. As it says that, on the day when the righteous man is parted from the wicked, the tears of every one, thereupon, run down unto his legs. 15. When, after they set apart a father from his consort (hambâz), a brother from his brother, and a friend from
his friend, they suffer, every one for his own deeds, and weep, the righteous for the wicked, and the wicked about himself; for there may be a father who is righteous and a son wicked, and there may be one brother who is righteous and one wicked. 16. Those for whose peculiar deeds it is appointed, such as Dahâk and Frâsîyâv of Tûr, and others of this sort, as those deserving death (marg-argânân), undergo a punishment no other men undergo; they call it 'the punishment of the three nights 1.'
17. Among his producers of the renovation of the universe, those righteous men of whom it is written 2 that they are living, fifteen men and fifteen damsels, will come to the assistance of Sôshyans. 18. As Gôkîhar 3 falls in the celestial sphere from a moonbeam on to the earth, the distress of the earth becomes such-like as that of a sheep when a wolf falls upon it. 19. Afterwards, the fire and halo 4 melt the metal of Shatvaîrô, in the hills and mountains, and it remains on this earth like a river.
20. Then all men will pass into that melted metal and will become pure; when one is righteous, then it seems to him just as though he walks continually in warm milk; but when wicked, then it seems to him in such manner as though, in the world, he walks continually in melted metal.
21. Afterwards, with the greatest affection, all men come together, father and son and brother and friend ask one another thus: 'Where has it 1 been these many years, and what was the judgment upon thy soul? hast thou been righteous or wicked?' 22. The first soul the body sees, it enquires of it with those words (gûft). 23. All men become of one voice and administer loud praise to Aûharmazd and the archangels.
24. Aûharmazd completes his work at that time, and the creatures become so that it is not necessary to make any effort about them; and among those by whom the dead are prepared, it is not necessary that any effort be made. 25. Sôshyans, with his assistants, performs a Yazisn ceremony in preparing the dead, and they slaughter the ox Hadhayôs 2 in that Yazisn; from the fat of that ox and the white Hôm 3 they prepare Hûsh, and give it to all men, and all men become immortal for ever and everlasting. 26. This, too, it says, that whoever has been the size of a man, they restore him then with an age of forty years; they who have been little when not dead, they restore then with an age of fifteen years; and they give every one his wife, and
show him his children with the wife; so they act as now in the world, but there is no begetting of children.
27. Afterwards, Sôshyans and his assistants, by order of the creator Aûharmazd, give every man the reward and recompense suitable to his deeds; this is even the righteous existence (aît) where it is said that they convey him to paradise (vahist), and the heaven (garôdmân) of Aûharmazd takes up the body (kerp) as itself requires; with that assistance he continually advances for ever and everlasting. 28. This, too, it says, that whoever has performed no worship (yast), and has ordered no Gêtî-kharîd 1, and has bestowed no clothes as a righteous gift, is naked there; and he performs the worship (yast) of Aûharmazd, and the heavenly angels 2 provide him the use of his clothing.
29. Afterwards, Aûharmazd seizes on 1 the evil spirit, Vohûman on Akôman 2, Ashavahist on Andar 3, Shatvaîrô on Sâvar, Spendarmad on Tarômat who is Nâûnghas 4, Horvadad and Amerôdad on Tâîrêv and Zâîrîk 5, true-speaking on what is evil-speaking, Srôsh 6 on Aeshm 7 30. Then two fiends remain at large, Aharman 8 and Âz 9; Aûharmazd comes to the world, himself the Zôta and Srôsh the Râspî 10, and holds the Kûstî in his hand;
defeated by the Kûstî 1 formula the resources of the evil spirit and Âz act most impotently, and by the passage through which he rushed into the sky 2 he runs back to gloom and darkness. 31. Gôkîhar 3 burns the serpent (mâr) 4 in the melted metal, and the stench and pollution which were in hell are burned in that metal, and it (hell) becomes quite pure. 32. He (Aûharmazd) sets the vault 5 into which the evil spirit fled, in that metal; he brings the land of hell back for the enlargement of the world 6; the renovation arises in the universe by his will, and the world is immortal for ever and everlasting.
33. This, too, it says, that this earth becomes an iceless 7, slopeless plain 8; even the mountain 9,
whose summit is the support of the Kînvar bridge, they keep down, and it will not exist.
120:6 This chapter is found in all MSS., and has been numbered XXXI by former translators.
120:7 See Chaps. XV, 2-16, XXXIV, 3.
121:1 Reading amat, 'when,' instead of mûn, 'which' (see the note on Chap. 1, 7).
121:2 Written Khûrshêdar-mâh, or Khûrshêd-mâh, in the Bundahis; see Chap. XXXII, 8, and Bahman Yt. III, 52, 53.
121:3 See Chaps. XI, 6, X XXII, 8, Bahman Yt. III, 62.
121:4 Compare (Vend. V, 26) 'the water carries him up, the water carries him down, the water casts him away.'
121:5 Compare Mkh. IX, 7.
121:6 All MSS. have min, 'out of,' but translators generally suppose it should be mûn, 'which,' as the meaning of 'brought out of material life' is by no means clear. Perhaps the two phrases might be construed together, thus: 'there is no other maintainer of the worldly creation, brought from the material life, than it.' Windischmann refers to Fravardîn Yt. 9.
122:1 Former translators all read rag, 'vein, pore;' but it probably stands for rang, 'colour, dye,' as in Chap. XXVII, 5, 18.
122:2 See Chap. XVII, 1, 2.
122:3 Pâz. srahtîd is evidently a misreading of Pahl. srîstîd, 'formed, shaped.' Windischmann compares Fravardîn Yt. 11, 22, 28.
122:4 Here kîm is the Pâzand of Huz. mamanam, 'for to me;' being a different word from the interrogative kîm, 'why?' of the next §.
122:5 Literally, 'what becomes out of what was.'
123:1 K20 omits 'Sôshyans.'
123:2 The phrase is obscure, and K20 omits the numeral 'one' (the idhâfat of unity); but the meaning is probably that all former distinctions of class, or caste, are abolished.
123:3 Windischmann suggests that it may be 'the assembly of Isadvâstar,' the eldest son of Zaratûst (see Chap. XXXII, 5); perhaps supposed to be presided over by him as the first supreme high-priest after Zaratûst's death.
124:1 In the Ardâ-Vîrâf-namak (Chap. LXVIII) it is related that Ardâ-Vîrâf saw the souls of a husband and wife, that of the husband destined for heaven, and that of the wife for hell; but the wife clung to her husband and asked why they should be separated, and he told her it was on account of her neglect of religious duties; whereupon she reproached him for not teaching and chastising her. 'And, afterwards, the man went to heaven and the woman to hell. And owing to the repentance of that woman she was in no other affliction in hell but darkness and stench. And that man sat in the midst of the righteous of heaven in shame, from not converting and not teaching the woman, who might have become virtuous in his keeping.'
124:2 As an aggravation of his punishment in hell. It has generally been supposed that this last phrase refers to the reward of the righteous man, but this cannot be the case unless akhar be taken in the sense of 'other,' which is unlikely; besides, beholding the happiness of others would be no reward to an Oriental mind.
125:1 According to the Pahlavi Vend. VII, 136 (p. 96, Sp.) it appears that a person who has committed a marg-argân or mortal sin, without performing patît or renunciation of sin thereafter, remains in hell till the future existence, when he is brought out, beheaded three times for each mortal sin unrepented of, and then cast back into hell to undergo the punishment tishrãm khshafnãm ('of the three nights') before he becomes righteous; some say, however, that this punishment is not inflicted for a single mortal sin. This period of three nights’ punishment is quite a different matter from the three nights’ hovering of the soul about the body after death.
125:2 See Chap. XXIX, 5, 6. As the text stands in the MSS. it is uncertain whether the fifteen men and fifteen damsels are a portion of these righteous immortals, or an addition to them.
125:3 Probably a meteor (see Chap. V, 1).
125:4 Reading khîrman; M6 has 'the fire and angel Aîrman (Av. Airyaman) melt the metal in the hills,' &c.
126:1 K20 has 'have I;' probably hômanîh, 'hast thou,' was the original reading.
126:2 See Chap. XIX, 13.
126:3 See Chap. XXVII, 4.
127:1 The Sad-dar Bundahis says that by Gêtî-kharîd 'heaven is purchased in the world, and one's own place brought to hand in heaven.' The Rivâyat of Dastûr Barzû (as quoted in MS. 29 of Bombay University Parsi Collection) gives the following details in Persian: 'To celebrate Gêtî-kharîd it is necessary that two hêrbads (priests) perform the Nâbar, and with each khshnûman which they pray it is fit and necessary that both hêrbads have had the Nâbar; and the first day they recite the Nônâbar yast, and consecrate the Nônâbar drôn and the Nônâbar âfrîngân which they recite in each Gâh; in the Hâvan Gâh it is necessary to recite fravarânê (as in Yas. III, 24 W. to end), ahurahê mazdau raêvatô (as in Aûharmazd Yt. 0, to) frasastayaêka, then Yas. III, 25 W., XVII. 1-55 Sp., ashem vohû thrice, âfrînâmi khshathryãn (as in Âfrîngân I, 14, to end). The second day the Srôsh yast and Srôsh drôn and âfrîngân are to be recited; and the third day it is necessary to recite the Sîrôzah yast, the Sîrôzah drôn and âfrîngân dahmân; and it is needful to recite the second and third âfrîngâns in each Gâh, and each day to consecrate the barsom and drôn afresh with seven twigs, so that it may not be ineffective.'
127:2 Pâz. gehân is probably a misreading of Pahl. yazdân, as p. 128 neither 'the spirit of the world,' nor 'the spirit of the Gâhs' is a likely phrase. It is possible, however, that maînôk gehân is a misreading of min aîvyahân, 'from the girdle,' and we should translate as follows: 'and out of its girdle (that is, the kûstî of the barsom used in the ceremony) he produces the effect of his clothing.'
128:1 Instead of vakhdûnd, 'seize on,' we should probably read vânend, 'smite,' as in the parallel passages mentioned below.
128:2 Compare Zamyâd Yt. 96. Each archangel (see Chap. I, 25, 26) here seizes the arch-fiend (see Chaps. I, 27, XXVIII, 7-12) who is his special opponent.
128:3 Here written Pâz. Inder. Compare Pahlavi Yas. XLVII, 1: 'When among the creation, in the future existence, righteousness smites the fiend, Ashavahist smites Indar.'
128:4 Written Nâkahêd in Chap. I, 27, and Nâîkîyas in Chap. XXVIII, 20, where he is described as a distinct demon from Tarômat in XXVIII, 14.
128:5 Here written Târêv and Zârîk.
128:6 Av. Sraosha, a personification of attentive hearing and obedience, who is said to watch over the world and defend it from the demons, especially at night; see Vend. XVIII, 48, 51, 70, &c., Yas. LVI, Srôsh Yt. Hâdôkht, &c.
128:7 See Chap. XXVIII, 15-17.
128:8 Comparing § 29 with § 30 it is not very clear whether the author of the Bundahis considered Aharman and the evil spirit as the same or different demons; compare also Chap. XXVIII, 1-6 with 40, 41.
128:9 See Chap. XXVIII, 27.
128:10 The Zôta is the chief officiating priest in all ceremonies, and the Râspî is the assistant priest.
129:1 The words zak g,hâni, for ân gehâni, are probably a misreading of aîvyahân, 'the kûstî or sacred thread-girdle,' which is tied round the waist in a peculiar manner, during the recital of a particular formula, in which Aûharmazd is blessed and Aharman and the demons are cursed.
129:2 See Chap. III, 10-12.
129:3 See § 18 and Chap. V, 1.
129:4 Probably referring to Âz, which means both 'greediness' and 'serpent.' It is, however, possible to read 'Gôkîhar the serpent burns in' &c., and there can be no doubt that Gôkîhar is represented as a malevolent being.
129:5 Or, perhaps, 'hiding-place.' Comparing K20 and M6 together the word seems to be alôm, which may be compared with Heb. אוּלָם 'a vault,' or Chald. אוּלָמָא 'a porch;' it may, however, be vâlôm, which may be traced to עלם 'to conceal.' In the old MSS. it is certainly not shôlman, 'hell,' which is an emendation due to the modern copy in Paris.
129:6 Or, 'to the prosperity of the world.'
129:7 Former translators read anhîkhar, 'undefiled,' but this does not suit the Pahlavi orthography so well as anhasâr, 'iceless' (compare Pers. hasar, khâsar, or khasâr, 'ice'); cold and ice, being produced by the evil spirit, will disappear with him.
129:8 Pâz. âmâvan is a misreading of Pahl. hâmûn, so the reading is ansîp (compare Pers. sîb) hâmûn. Mountains, being the work of the evil spirit, disappear with him.
129:9 Kakâd-i-Dâîtîk, see Chap. XII, 17.