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Pahlavi Texts, Part V: Marvels of Zoroastrianism (SBE47), E.W. West, tr. [1897], at sacred-texts.com


CHAPTER XI.

1. About the marvellousness which is after the end of the millennium of Aûshêdar-mâh and the arrival of the Triumphant Benefiter, until the end of the fifty-seventh year of Sôshâns and the production of the renovation among the existences.

2. Concerning the marvellousness of Sôshâns as to splendour and glory of person, it says that 'when the coming of the last rotation of those rotations of the seasons of Aûshêdar-mâh occurs, the man Sôshâns is born 1 whose food is spiritual and body sunny (that is, his body is as radiant as the sun);' also this, that 'he looks on all sides with six-eyed power (6-dôîsarîh), and sees the remedy for persecution by the fiend.'

3. This, too, that with him is the triumphant Kayân glory 'which the mighty Frêdûn 2 bore when Az-4 Dahâk 3 was smitten by him; also Kai-Khûsrôî 4 was bearing it when the Tûr Frangrâsîyâk 5 was smitten by him; also Frangrâsîyâk bore it when the Drvê Zênîgâk 6 was smitten by him; and

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[paragraph continues] Kai-Vistâsp 1 shall bear it when you fully attract him to righteousness, and through it he shall carry off the fiend from the concerns of the world of righteousness 2.'

4. And this, too, that in fifty-seven of his years there occur the annihilation of the fiendishness of the two-legged race and others, and the subjugation of disease and decrepitude, of death and persecution, and of the original evil of tyranny, apostasy, and depravity; there arise a perpetual verdant growth of vegetation and the primitive gift of joyfulness; and there are seventeen years of vegetable-eating, thirty years of water-drinking, and ten years of spiritual food.

5. And all the splendour, glory, and power, which have arisen in all those possessing splendour, glory, and power, are in him on whom they arrive together and for those who are his, when many inferior human beings are aroused splendid and powerful; and through their power and glory all the troops of the fiend are smitten. 6. And all mankind remain of one accord in the religion of Aûharmazd, owing to the will of the creator, the command of that apostle, and the resources of his companions.

7. At the end of the fifty-seven years the fiend and Aharman are annihilated, the renovation for the future existence occurs, and the whole of the good creation is provided with purity, and perfect

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splendour. 8. Just as revelation states thus: 'When that millennium has fully elapsed, which is the third of the religion of the Mazda-worshippers, that Mazda-worshipper whose name is so Triumphant 1 then marches forward from the water Kanyisâ 2 with a thousand companions and also maidens of restrained disposition and blindly-striving behaviour 3; and he smites the wicked people who are tyrannical, and annihilates them.'

9. Then those Mazda-worshippers smite, and none are smiting them. 0. Then those Mazda-worshippers produce a longing for a renovation among the existences, one ever-living, ever-beneficial, and ever desiring a Lord. 11. 'Then I, who am Aûharmazd, produce the renovation according to the longing among the existences, one ever-living, ever-beneficial, and ever desiring a Lord.'


Footnotes

116:1 The date here indicated seems to be about twenty-eight years later than that intended in Chap. X, 15-19.

116:2 See Chap. I, 25.

116:3 See Chap. I, 26.

116:4 See Chap. I, 39.

116:5 See Chap. I, 31, 39.

116:6 Av. Drvau Zainigâus, an Arab chieftain who invaded Irân p. 117 in early times and killed many with his evil eye, till the Irânians invited Frangrâsîyâk to destroy him (see Darmesteter's French translation of part of Chap. XLI of Irânian Bundahis in Annales du Musée Guimet, vol. xxii, p. 401).

117:1 See Chap. I, 41.

117:2 From a Pahlavi version of Yt. XIX, 92, 93, with the second and third clauses transposed.

118:1 See Chap. X, 17.

118:2 Reading the name as Pâzand; if it were Pahlavi it would have to be read Kânmâsâî, because Irânian Pâz. yi is very like Pahl. mâ. It is Kyânsih in Bd. XIII, 16; XX, 34; XXI, 6, 7, and represents Av. Kãsava, the brackish lake or sea of Sagastân.

118:3 Reading 'va-bigar-îk-i vand khîm va-kûr-kakhŏ râs,' and assuming that bigar is Ar. bikr, as an Arabic word is occasionally used in the Dînkard (see Chap. II, 2 n) though very rarely. Bd. XXX, 17, mentions 'fifteen men and fifteen damsels' as assisting Sôshâns at the time of the renovation of the universe.


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