Sacred Texts Zoroastrianism Index Previous Next
Buy this Book at Amazon.com
Pahlavi Texts, Part III (SBE24), E.W. West, tr. [1885], at sacred-texts.com
1. The fifty-second subject is this, that it is incumbent on every one that, every year when the month Fravardîn comes on, he is to provide a sacred cake on the day Khurdâd 1, and whatever they are able to bring to hand, a little of everything, they are to place by that sacred cake, and to consecrate it with the dedicatory formula Ayaranãmka 2, so that
the affairs of that year may be better through that day's provision and the entry and coming in of guests.
2. For it is declared in revelation 1, that, every year, when the day Khurdâd of the month Fravardîn comes on, they allot a daily provision for mankind, and whatever one wishes to pass to the lot of mankind in that year they write down that day. 3. Therefore, when they shall consecrate this sacred cake, the archangel Khurdâd 2 is making intercession for that person.
314:1 That is, on the sixth day of the first month of the Parsi year, a day which is called Khurdâd-sâl and kept sacred, because it is said to be the anniversary of many remarkable events, of which the following are mentioned in a Pahlavi tract that is also translated in the Persian Rivâyats (B29, fol. 401):—On that day worldly life was created, Gâyômard came into the world and slew Arezûr, Mashya and Mashyôî grew up from the ground, Hôshâng appeared, Takhmôrup made Aharman his steed, Yim made the world free from death and decay, brought on a truce (? padmânak) with hell, and established depositories for the dead and new year's day, Frêdûn divided the world between his three sons, Mânûskîhar slew two of them, and rescued the world from Frâsyâk, Sâm the Narîmânian slew the demon Gandarêpak (?); Kaî-Khûsrôî slew Frâsyâk and went to heaven, leaving the sovereignty to Lôrâsp, Zaratûst came to converse with Aûharmazd and received the religion from him, Kaî-Vistâsp accepted the religion, eighteen things come in eighteen years to Khûsrô son of Aûharmazd, Vâhrâm the Vargâvand comes from the Hindûs, Pêshyôtanû, son of Vistâsp, comes from Kangdez, Hûshêdar comes to converse with Aûharmazd, Sâm slays Az-î Dahâk and rules till Kai-Khûsrôî reappears to reign for fifty-seven years, with Sôshâns as supreme high-priest, after which Kaî-Vistâsp resumes the sovereignty, and Zaratûst the priestship, and the resurrection takes place on the same day of the year.
314:2 Corrected from airyanãmka in all MSS. See Af. I, 1 as far as saredhanãmka, then gâthâbyô, &c. (Âf. II, 1).
315:1 B29 has 'in the good religion.'
315:2 See Horvadad (Mkh. II, 34).