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Pahlavi Texts, Part II (SBE18), E.W. West, tr. [1882], at sacred-texts.com
1. As to the thirty-second question and reply, that which you ask is thus: In which direction and which land is hell, and how is it?
2. The reply is this, that the place of a soul of the wicked, after the dying off 2 of the body, is in three districts (vîmand): one of them is called that of the ever-stationary 3 of the wicked, and it is a
chaos (gûmêzakŏ), but the evil is abundantly and considerably more than the good; and the place is terrible, dark, stinking, and grievous with evil. 3. And one is that which is called the worst existence, and it is there the first tormentors (vîkhrunîgânŏ) and demons have their abode; it is full of evil and punishment, and there is no comfort and pleasure whatever. 4. And one is called Drûgâskân 1, and is at the bottom of the gloomy existence, where the head (kamârâkŏ) of the demons rushes; there is the populous abode of all darkness and all evil.
5. These three places, collectively, are called hell, which is northerly, descending, and underneath this earth, even unto the utmost declivity of the sky; and its gate is in the earth, a place of the northern quarter, and is called the Arezûr ridge 2, a mountain which, among its fellow mountains of the name of Arezûr 3 that are amid the rugged (kôfîk) mountains, is said in revelation 4 to have a great fame with the demons, and the rushing together and assembly of the demons in the world are on the summit of that mountain, or as it is called 'the head of Arezûr.'
74:2 Literally 'dying down.'
74:3 Assuming that ham-hastakân, 'co-existences, associates,' is meant for hamîstakân (see the hamîstânîkŏ of Chap. XX, 3). From this it would appear that the place of the Hamîstakân, intermediate between heaven and hell, was itself supposed by the author to be divided into two widely separated regions, one for the slightly righteous (see Chap. XXIV, 6), and one for the slightly wicked, as here described. No such separation is mentioned in AV. and Mkh., and the passage is omitted in M14.
75:1 The Av. drugaskanãm of Vend. XIX. 139, which is translated 'the slothful ones of the Drug' by Darmesteter, 'the servants of the Drug' by Harlez, and 'wizards' in Haug's Essays, p. 336. Drûgâskân is said to be a son of the evil spirit in Bd. XXXI, 6.
75:2 See Bd. XII, 8.
75:3 Bd. XII, I6 mentions another Arezûr 'in the direction of Arûm.'
75:4 Vend. XIX, 142 (trans. D.) says 'they run away casting the evil eye, the wicked, evil-doing Daêvas: "Let us gather together at the head of Arezûra!"'