AvestaZoroastrianismAccepted ScriptureAvestanShareVendidad Fargard 5Darmesteter and Mills / Sacred Books of the East - EnglishMoreVersion - 1 availableDarmesteter and Mills / Sacred Books of the EastLanguageEnglishEspañol‹Vendidad Fargard 1Vendidad Fargard 2Vendidad Fargard 3Vendidad Fargard 4Vendidad Fargard 5Vendidad Fargard 6Vendidad Fargard 7Vendidad Fargard 8Vendidad Fargard 9Vendidad Fargard 10Vendidad Fargard 11Vendidad Fargard 12Vendidad Fargard 13Vendidad Fargard 14Vendidad Fargard 15Vendidad Fargard 16Vendidad Fargard 17Vendidad Fargard 18Vendidad Fargard 19Vendidad Fargard 20Vendidad Fargard 21Vendidad Fargard 22Sirozah Sirozah 1Yashts KhorshedSirozah Sirozah 2Yashts Ormazd YashtYashts ArdibehioT 1 YashtYashts Khordad YashtYashts Aban YashtYashts Khorshed YashtYashts Mah YashtYashts Tlr YashtYashts G oS YashtYashts Mihir / Mithra YashtYashts Sraosha Yasht HadhoKhtYashts Rashn YashtYashts Bahram YashtYashts Ram YashtYashts Ashi YashtYashts Aytad YashtYashts Zamyad YashtYashts Van Ant YashtYashts Yasht FragmentYashts Vtetasp YashtNyayis Khorshed? NyayiyNyayis Mihir / Mithra NyayiyNyayis Aban NyayiyNyayis Atay NyayisYasna Yasna 28Yasna Yasna 34Yasna Yasna 30Yasna Yasna 31Yasna Yasna 32Yasna Yasna 33Yasna Yasna 43Yasna Yasna 44Yasna Yasna 11Yasna Yasna 45Yasna Yasna 46Yasna Yasna 47Yasna Yasna 48Yasna Yasna 49Yasna Yasna 50Yasna Yasna 51Yasna Yasna 60Yasna Yasna 53Yasna Yasna 1Yasna Yasna 2Yasna Yasna 3Yasna Yasna 4Yasna Yasna 5Yasna Yasna 6Yasna Yasna 7Yasna Yasna 8Yasna Yasna 9Yasna Yasna 10Yasna Yasna 12Yasna Yasna 13Yasna Yasna 22Yasna Yasna 14Yasna Yasna 15Yasna Yasna 16Yasna Yasna 17Yasna Yasna 19Yasna Yasna 18Yasna Yasna 20Yasna Yasna 21Yasna Yasna 29Yasna Yasna 23Yasna Yasna 24Yasna Yasna 25Yasna Yasna 26Yasna Yasna 27Yasna Yasna 35Yasna Yasna 36Yasna Yasna 37Yasna Yasna 38Yasna Yasna 39Yasna Yasna 40Yasna Yasna 41Yasna Yasna 42Yasna Yasna 52Yasna Yasna 54Yasna Yasna 55Yasna Yasna 56Yasna Yasna 57Yasna Yasna 58Yasna Yasna 59Yasna Yasna 61Yasna Yasna 62Yasna Yasna 65Yasna Yasna 66Yasna Yasna 68Yasna Yasna 70Yasna Yasna 71Yasna Yasna 72Visparad Visparad 1Visparad Visparad 2Visparad Visparad 11Visparad Visparad 3Visparad Visparad 4Visparad Visparad 5Visparad Visparad 7Visparad Visparad 8Visparad Visparad 9Visparad Visparad 10Visparad Visparad 12Visparad Visparad 13Visparad Visparad 14Visparad Visparad 15Visparad Visparad 16Visparad Visparad 18Visparad Visparad 19Visparad Visparad 20Visparad Visparad 21Visparad Visparad 23Afrinagan AfrinaganGahs Gah 1Gahs Gah 2Gahs Gah 3Gahs Gah 4Gahs Gah 5Miscellaneous Fragments Fragment 1Miscellaneous Fragments Fragment 2Miscellaneous Fragments Fragment 3Miscellaneous Fragments Fragment 4Miscellaneous Fragments Fragment 5Miscellaneous Fragments Miscellaneous FragmentsMiscellaneous Fragments Fragment 9›Vendidad: Fargard 5Vendidad Fargard 5ListenPlay this chapter in spoken English.Save chapterListen to chapter1If a man defile the fire or the earth involuntarily, or unconsciously, it is no sin. II (8-9). Water and fire do not kill. III (10-14). Disposal of the dead during winter. IV (15-20). How the Dakhmas are cleansed by water from the heavens. 5On the excellence of purity and of the law that shows how to recover it, when lost. VI (27-38). On the defiling power of the Nasu being greater or less, according to the greater or less dignity of the being that dies. VII (39-44). On the management of sacrificial implements defiled by the dead. VIII (45-62). On the treatment of a woman who has been delivered of a still-born child; and what is to be done with her clothes. Ia. 1There dies a man in the depths of the vale: a bird takes flight from the top of the mountain down into the depths of the vale, and it eats up the corpse of the dead man there: then, up it flies from the depths of the vale to the top of the mountain: it flies to some one of the trees there, of the hardwooded or the soft-wooded, and upon that tree it vomits, it deposits dung, it drops pieces from the corpse. 2Now, lo! here is a man coming up from the depths of the vale to the top of the mountain; he comes to the tree whereon the bird is sitting; from that tree he wants to take wood for the fire. He fells the tree, he hews the tree, he splits it into logs, and then he lights it in the fire, the son of Ahura Mazda. What is the penalty that he shall pay1? 3(11). Ahura Mazda answered: ‘There is no sin upon a man for any dead matter that has been brought by dogs, by birds, by wolves, by winds, or by flies. 4‘For were there sin upon a man for any dead matter that might have been brought by dogs, by birds, by wolves, by winds, or by flies, how soon this material world of mine would have in it only Peshdtanus2, shut out from the way of holiness, whose souls will cry and wail 1! so numberless are the beings that die upon the face of the earth.’ Ib. 5O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Here is a man watering a corn field. The water streams down the field; it streams again; it streams a third time; and the fourth time, a dog, a fox, or a wolf carries a corpse into the bed of the stream: what is the penalty that the man shall pay 2 3? 6Ahura Mazda answered: ‘ There is no sin upon a man for any dead matter that has been brought by dogs, by birds, by wolves, by winds, or by flies. 7‘ For were there sin upon a man for any dead matter that might have been brought by dogs, by birds, by wolves, by winds, or by flies, how soon this material world of mine would have in it only Peshotanus, shut out from the way of holiness, whose souls will cry and wail! so numberless are the beings that die upon the face of the earth.’ II a. 8O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Does water kill8? there is dead matter in it or not. If the water, unknown to him, comes to a corpse, there is no sin upon him. If he has not looked after the rivulet and the stream, he is unclean ’ (Saddar 7 5; Hyde 85). Ahura Mazda answered: 1 Water kills no man: Ast6-vidh6tu 1 ties the noose around his neck, and, thus tied, Vaya 2 carries him off: then the flood takes him up 3, the flood takes him down 4, the flood throws him ashore; then birds feed upon him, and chance brings him here, or brings him there5.’ II b. 9O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Does fire kill? Ahura Mazda answered: ‘Fire kills no man: Ast6-vidhotu ties the noose around his neck, and, thus tied, Vaya carries him off. The fire burns up life and limb, and then chance brings him here, or brings him there6.’ 10O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! If the summer is past and the winter has come, what shall the worshippers of Mazda do 7? from God: how then is it that they kill? ‘ Let a Gueber light a sacred fire for a hundred years, if he once fall into it, he shall be burnt.’ Even the Mobeds, if we may trust Elisaeus, complained that the fire would burn them without regard for their piety, when to adore it they came too near (Vartan’s War, p. 211 of the French translation by l’Abbd Garabed). The answer was that it is not the fire nor the water that kills, but the demon of Death and Fate. ‘ Nothing whatever that I created in the world, said Ormazd, does harm to man; it is the bad Nfii (lege Vai) that kills the man ’ (Gr. Rav. 124). Ahura Mazda answered: ‘ In every house, in every borough1, they shall raise three small houses for the dead2.’ n (37). O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! How large shall be those houses for the dead? Ahura Mazda answered: ‘ Large enough not to strike the skull, or the feet, or the hands of the man, if he 3 should stand erect, and hold out his feet, and stretch out his hands: such shall be, according to the law, the houses for the dead. 12‘And they shall let the lifeless body lie there, for two nights, or for three nights, or a month long, until the birds begin to fly4, the plants to grow, the floods to flow, and the wind to dry up the waters from off the earth 6. 13‘And as soon as the birds begin to fly, the plants to grow, the floods to flow, and the wind to dry up the waters from off the earth, then the worshippers of Mazda shall lay down the dead (on the Dakhma) his eyes towards the sun. 14‘If the worshippers of Mazda have not, within a year, laid down the dead (on the Dakhma), cult or impossible to take the corpse to the Dakhma, which usually stands far from inhabited places. The same case is treated more clearly and fully in Farg.VIII, 4 seq. his eyes towards the sun, thou shalt prescribe for that trespass the same penalty as for the murder of one of the faithful. [And there shall it lie] until the corpse has been rained on, until the Dakhma has been rained on, until the unclean remains have been rained on, until the birds have eaten up the corpse.’ 15O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Is it true that thou, Ahura Mazda, sendest the waters from the sea Vouru-kasha1 down with the wind and with the clouds? 16That thou, Ahura Mazda, makest them flow down to the corpses2? that thou, Ahura Mazda, makest them flow down to the Dakhmas? that thou, Ahura Mazda, makest them flow down to the un¬ clean remains? that thou, Ahura Mazda, makest them flow down to the bones? and that then thou, Ahura Mazda, makest them flow back unseen? that thou, Ahura Mazda, makest them flow back to the sea Phitika 3? as thou hast said, O righteous Zarathustra! I, Ahura Mazda, send the waters from the sea V ourukasha down with the wind and with the clouds. 19‘The waters stand there boiling, boiling up in the heart of the sea Phitika, and, when cleansed there, they run back again from the sea Phitika to the sea Vouru -kasha, towards the wellwatered tree 2, whereon grow the seeds of my plants of every kind [by hundreds, by thousands, by hundreds of thousands]. 20‘ Those plants, I, Ahura Mazda, rain down upon the earth 2, to bring food to the faithful, and fodder to the beneficent cow; to bring food to my people that they may live on it, and fodder to the beneficent cow.’ 21‘This1 is the best of all things, this is the fairest of all things, even as thou hast said, O righteous Zarathu-stra! ’ With these words the holy Ahura Mazda rejoiced the holy Zarathartra 2: ‘ Purity is for man, next to life, the greatest good 3 4 *, that purity that is procured by the law of Mazda to him who cleanses his own self with good thoughts, words, and deeds V 22O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! This law, this fiend-destroying law of Zarathustra, by what greatness, goodness, and fairness is it great, good, and fair above all other utterances? 23(69). Ahura Mazda answered: ‘As much above all other floods as is the sea Vouru-kasha, so much above all other utterances in greatness, goodness, and fairness is this law, this fienddestroying law of Zarathustra. 24‘As much as a great stream flows swifter than a slender rivulet, so much above all other utterances in greatness, goodness, and fairness is this law, this fiend-destroying law of Zarathartra. ‘ As high as the great tree 6 stands above the small plants it overshadows, so high above all other to the prescriptions of the law.’ utterances in greatness, goodness, and fairness is this law, this fiend-destroying law of Zarathustra. 2526 (73-81). ‘As high as heaven is above the earth that it compasses around, so high above all other utterances is this law, this fiend-destroying law of Mazda. ‘[Therefore], when the Ratu has been applied to 1, when the Sraoshi-varez has been applied to 2; whether for a draona-service3 that has been under¬ taken 4, or for one that has not been undertaken 5; whether for a draona that has been offered up, or for one that has not been offered up; whether for a draona that has been shared, or for one that has not been shared6; the Ratu has power to remit him one-third of the penalty he had to pay1: if he has committed any other evil deed, it is remitted by his repentance; if he has committed no other evil deed, he is absolved by his repentance for ever and ever2.’ 27O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! If there be a number of men resting in the same place, on adjoining carpets, on adjoining pillows, be there two men near one another, or five, or fifty, or a hundred, close by one another; and of those people one happens to die; how many of them does the Dru^f Nasu envelope with infection, pollution, and uncleanness 3? 28Ahura Mazda answered: ‘If the dead one be a priest, the Dru^ Nasu rushes forth 4, O Spitama Zarathustra! she falls on the eleventh and defiles the ten 5. religious customs which are not well known. The Commentary interprets it as amounting to, ‘ Whether he has thought what he ought not to have thought, or has not thought what he ought to have thought; whether he has said what he ought not to have said, or has not said what he ought to have said; whether he has done what he ought not to have done, or has not done what he ought to have done.’ ‘ If the dead one be a warrior, the Dru^ Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama Zarathustra! she falls on the tenth and defiles the nine. ‘ If the dead one be a husbandman, the Dru^' Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama Zarathustra! she falls on the ninth and defiles the eight. 29‘If it be a shepherd’s dog, the Dru^ Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama Zarathortra! she falls on the eighth and defiles the seven. ‘If it be a house dog, the Drug- Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama Zarathortra! she falls on the seventh and defiles the six. 30(96). ‘If it be a Vohunazga dog1, the Drug" Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama Zarathustra! she falls on the sixth and defiles the five. ‘If it be a young dog2, the Drug Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama Zarathustra! she falls on the fifth and defiles the four. 31‘If it be a Sukuruna dog3, the Drug Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama Zarathustra! she falls on the fourth and defiles the three. ‘ If it be a Gazu dog4, the Dru^ Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama Zarathu-stra! she falls on the third and defiles the two. 32‘ If it be an Aiwizu dog, the Drug number of people sleeping in the same place, and if one of them happen to die, all those around him, in any direction, as far as the eleventh, become unclean if they have been in contact with one another’ (Gr. Rav. 470). Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama Zarathustra! she falls on the second and defiles the next. ‘ If it be a Vizu dog, the Dru^ Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama Zarathartra! she falls on the next, she defiles the next.’ 33O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! If it be an Urupi dog1 2, how many of the creatures of the good spirit does it directly defile, how many does it indirectly defile in dying? 34(110). Ahura Mazda answered: ‘An Urupi dog does neither directly nor indirectly defile any of the creatures of the good spirit, but him who smites and kills it; to him the uncleanness clings for ever and ever V 35O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! If the dead one be a wicked, twofooted ruffian, an ungodly Ashemaogha 3, how many of the creatures of the good spirit does he directly defile, how many does he indirectly defile in dying? 36(115). Ahura Mazda answered: ‘No more than a frog does whose venom is dried up, and that has been dead more than a year4. Whilst alive, indeed, O Spitama Zarathiutra! that wicked, two- 6o legged ruffian, that ungodly Ashemaogha, directly defiles the creatures of the good spirit, and indi¬ rectly defiles them. 37(119). ‘Whilst alive he smites the water1; whilst alive he blows out the fire 2; whilst alive he carries off the cow 3; whilst alive he smites the faithful man with a deadly blow, that parts the soul from the body4 *; not so will he do when dead. 38‘Whilst alive, indeed, O Spitama Zarathiutra! that wicked, two-legged ruffian, that un¬ godly Ashemaogha, never ceases depriving the faithful man of his food, of his clothing, of his house, of his bed, of his vessels 6; not so will he do when dead.’ 39O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! When into our houses here below we have brought the fire, the baresma, the cups, the Haoma, and the mortar6, O holy Ahura Mazda! if it come to pass that either a dog or a man dies there, what shall the worshippers of Mazda do? 40Ahura Mazda answered: ‘Out of the house, O Spitama Zarathustra! shall they take the fire, the baresma, the cups, the Haoma, and the mortar; they shall take the dead one out to the proper place7 whereto, according to the law, corpses must be brought, to be devoured there.’ 41O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! When shall they bring back the fire into the house wherein the man has died? 42Ahura Mazda answered: ‘They shall wait for nine nights in winter, for a month in sum¬ mer, and then they shall bring back the fire to the house wherein the man has died.’ 43O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! And if they shall bring back the fire to the house wherein the man has died, within the nine nights, or within the month, what penalty shall they pay? 44Ahura Mazda answered: ‘They shall be Peshbtanus: two hundred stripes with the Aspaheastra, two hundred stripes with the SraoshoT'arana.’ 46Ahura Mazda answered: ‘The place in that Mazdean house whereof the ground is the cleanest and the driest, and the least passed through by flocks and herds, by Fire, the son of Ahura Mazda, by the consecrated bundles of baresma, and by the faithful — 47O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! How far from the fire? How far from the water? How far from the consecrated bundles of baresma? How far from the faithful? 48Ahura Mazda answered: ‘Thirty paces from the fire; thirty paces from the water; thirty paces from the consecrated bundles of baresma; three paces from the faithful; — 49‘ On that place shall the worshippers of Mazda erect an enclosure h and therein shall they establish her with food, therein shall they establish her with clothes.’ 50O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! What is the food that the woman shall first take? 51Ahura Mazda answered: ‘She shall drink gomeiz 1 2 mixed with ashes, three cups of it, or six, or nine, to wash over the grave within her womb. 52(151). ‘Afterwards she may drink boiling3 milk of mares, cows, sheep, or goats, with pap or without pap4; she may take cooked meat without water, bread without water, and wine without water 5.’ 53O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! How long shall she remain so? How long shall she live only on that sort of meat, bread, and wine? 54Ahura Mazda answered: ‘Three nights 55). The ashes work to the same end, as they are taken from the Bahram fire (Comm.), the earthly representative of the fire of lightning, and the most powerful destroyer of fiends (see Introd. 58, and Farg. VIII, 80 seq.) ‘ Three cups, or six, or nine, according to her strength ’ (Asp.) VII, 70 seq. long shall she remain so; three nights long shall she live on that sort of meat, bread, and wine. Then, when three nights have passed, she shall wash her body, she shall wash her clothes, with gomez and water, by the nine holes 1, and thus shall she be clean.’ 56Ahura Mazda answered: ‘ Nine nights long shall she remain so: nine nights long, after the three nights have gone, shall she sit confined, and live separated from the rest of the worshippers of Mazda, as to her seat, her food, and her clothing. Then, when the nine nights have gone, she shall wash her body, and cleanse her clothes with gdm£z and water V 57(1 60) 3. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Can those clothes, when once washed and cleansed, ever be used either by a Zaotar, or by a Havanan, or by an Atare-vakhsha, or by a Frabaretar, or by an Aberet/, or by an Asnatar, or by a VENDfDAD. Rathwiskar, or by a Sraosha-varez 1, or by any priest, warrior, or husbandman 2? 58(162). Ahura Mazda answered: ‘Never can those clothes, even when washed and cleansed, be used either by a Zaotar, or by aH&vanan, or by an Atare-vakhsha, or by a Frabaretar, or by an Abereaf, or by an Asnatar, or by a Rathwhkar, or by a Sraosha-varez, or by any priest, warrior, or husband¬ man. 59‘ But if there be in a Mazdean house a woman who is in her sickness, or a man who has become unfit for work 8, and who must sit in the place of infirmity4, those clothes shall serve for their coverings and for their sheets 6, until they can with¬ draw and move their hands 6. 60‘Ahura Mazda, indeed, does not allow us to waste anything of value that we may have, not even so much as an Asperena’s 1 weight of thread, not even so much as a maid lets fall in spinning. 61‘Whosoever throws any clothing on a dead body2, even so much as a maid lets fall in spinning, is not a pious man whilst alive, nor shall he, when dead, have a place in the happy realm 3. 62‘ He shall go away into the world of the fiends, into that dark world 4, made of darkness, the offspring of darkness5. To that world, to the wrapped in an old piece of linen, lest they should touch and defile anything clean. dismal realm, you are delivered by your own doings, by your own souls, O sinners! ’ ‹Previous chapterVendidad Fargard 4Next chapterVendidad Fargard 6›Similar passagesBy tradition and source labelFind similarCompare selectedCompare with similarAsk Deep ThoughtSelect passages to search for parallels.Tap any verse to select it, then compare selected passages or ask Deep Thought. Public-domain 1880/1883/1887 English translation