History of Zoroastrianism/Chapter 41

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CHAPTER XLI
FAROHARS

The Farohars have existed long before the world came into being. Farohar, or Fravahar, is the Pahlavi form of the Avestan Fravashi. The Pahlavi works do not speak of the Farohars of Ormazd and his heavenly ministers; in the writings of this period, the Farohars are confined to the earthly creatures. Every single good creature of this world has its own Farohar.[1] Ormazd created them long before he brought the universe into existence; and they actively worked by the creator's side, when he fortified the sky against the attacks of Ahriman. Mounted on horses and with spears in hands they patrolled the boundaries of the rampart of heaven.[2] At the beginning of the world Zaratusht's Farohar was shown to Goshorun to console her that in the fulness of time the prophet would be sent to the world to remove the inequity that was rampant on earth.[3]

They volunteer to descend to earth and stand by men to the end of their lives. From the beginning of time the Farohars lived in supreme felicity in the empyrean realm, along with Ormazd and his heavenly host.[4] When Ormazd created man, as the climax and crown of his earthly creation, the deity asked these spiritual intelligences whether they would wish to stay in heaven under his constant protection, or migrate to earth in human bodies and encounter the foe, fight with him valiantly, vanquish him in the flesh and return triumphant to God for the eternal reward. The Farohars accepted the latter alternative, and prepared themselves to face the attack of Ahriman.[5] Thus the Farohars, who were seated in heaven and were conscious of the beatific vision of Ormazd, prefer the voluntary exile for a time in the world of joy and sorrow, of good and evil, in order to win forever the uninterrupted bliss of heaven. Thus it is, ​that they tenant human bodies and temporarily adopt the material vehicles for the express purpose of routing evil and redeeming the world from its imperfection.

In the Pahlavi period their influence is less prominent. In the Pahlavi texts the Farohars are represented as intrusted with the work of guarding the soul of Sam,[6] and the Hom tree of immortality,[7] as well as the passage of hell.[8] Ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine of them watch over Zaratusht's seed, which will give birth to the three saviour renovators of the world in the last three millenniums.[9] As a part of their office also they help and keep pure the elements and the sun, moon, and stars;[10] and they preserve the breath of life and energy of the body in men,[11] and keep the bodily organs in unison.[12]

The zeal with which they were approached by the living in the Avestan period has considerably abated by this time. The faithful no longer invoke them for various boons as zealously as their forebears did. The fighting armies do not call upon them for help in the thick of battles. Men do not look to them for riches and plenty; and women do not turn their eager eyes to them for easy childbirth. Their hold on humanity is weakened, and they are less in touch with the daily lives of men than before.

One of the later Pahlavi works divests the Farohars of their spirituality, and identifies them with the stars.[13] The Farohars of the renovators are spoken of as created from the body of the first man.[14]

It is for the welfare of the living that the Farohars solicit sacrifices. It is the sacred duty of the faithful to commemorate the Farohars of the dead, especially on the days set apart for that purpose.[15] The Farvardigan festival was a national institution, and the kings and people zealously observed it. A Byzantine ambassador on his way to Persia in 565 was prevented ​from entering the city of Nisibis for ten days while this festival was celebrated there.[16] On the fourth day after death the Farohar of the departed one in a family is to be invoked along with the Farohars of all righteous persons that have lived in this world from the time of the first man on earth, and also of those that will live up to the advent of the renovator of the world.[17] When thus invoked in prayer the Farohars come down to attend the ceremonies;[18] but if they are not properly propitiated, they wander disconsolate about their former abodes for a time and finally depart leaving their curse. Such a curse is irrevocable, if once given, unless nullified by the Farohars who uttered it.

Besides, it is not for their own good that the Farohars seek invocation, because they do not need any ceremony for their own sake; their coming, rather, is to remind the householder of the life after death, to warn him that he also will one day have to leave this world, and that when trouble comes upon him they could not help him, if he neglected them.[19] Yet, if well propitiated by the survivors of the deceased, they escort the souls of these persons, when their turn of death comes. They intercede on their behalf, give a good report to Ormazd, and entreat him to give them due reward.[20] But if the living have neglected them, and have failed to sacrifice unto them, they depart cursing, and bide their time, until the day when death brings the survivors to the Bridge of Judgment. To such souls, stepping on the threshold of the next world, they utter reproaches and refuse help.[21]

The line of distinction between the souls and the Farohars of the dead is gradually obliterated in the Pahlavi texts. By the end of the Pahlavi period both of these spiritual faculties, namely, the soul and the Farohar, are invoked to come down upon earth. The Pahlavi texts, accordingly, speak of the souls or of the Farohars, as the case may be, as coming to this world on the days originally dedicated to the latter. The Avestan texts, on the other hand, always spoke of the advent of the Farohars (not of the souls) to this world on the festival days consecrated ​to them at the end of every year, but the Pahlavi works expressly speak of the souls descending to the earth on these days, as well as on the anniversaries of their bodily death.[22] A passage speaks of the souls as coming on their anniversaries, accompanied by nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine Farohars from heaven as their guests, just as men do on earth.[23]

  1. ↑ Mkh. 49. 23.
  2. ↑ Bd. 6. 3; Zsp. 5. 2.
  3. ↑ Bd. 4. 4.
  4. ↑ Dk., vol. 2, p. 80.
  5. ↑ Bd. 2. 10, 11.
  6. ↑ Bd. 29 8; Mkh 62 23, 24.
  7. ↑ Mkh. 62. 28, 29.
  8. ↑ Mkh. 49 15, 16.
  9. ↑ Bd. 32. 8, 9.
  10. ↑ Dk., vol. 8, p. 446
  11. ↑ Dk., vol. 6, p. 353.
  12. ↑ Dk., vol. 6, p. 409.
  13. ↑ Mkh. 49. 22.
  14. ↑ Mkh. 27. 17.
  15. ↑ SLS. 10. 2; 12. 31.
  16. ↑ Menander Protector, ed Niebuhr, p. 374, Bonn, 1829.
  17. ↑ SLS. 17 5; Dd 28. 7; 81. 15.
  18. ↑ SLS. 9. 11, 12.
  19. ↑ SLS. 9 13; Sd 13 6–9.
  20. ↑ Sd. 37. 6–8.
  21. ↑ Sd. 37. 10–12.
  22. ↑ Phl. Vd. 8 22; Sd. 37. 1–12.
  23. ↑ Sd. 13. 3.
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