History of Zoroastrianism/Chapter 49

Rivayats, or codes of usages and rituals. We have again to pass over a period of about three centuries, or from about the thirteenth century to the latter part of the fifteenth century, before we come across a further record of literary activity. After the convulsions that the small band of fugitives experienced, they had settled down as the tillers of the fields, sellers of liquor and toddy, as minor traders and merchants, or as members of petty professions. By this time, however, the Parsis of Gujarat had begun fairly to prosper. Some of them had even succeeded in building up modest fortunes, and had spread abroad their fame for liberality. This beginning of the economic welfare of the community shows the first signs of the new life, and among these signs was the fact that the community began eagerly to turn its attention to the necessity of gaining authentic information on the religious questions about which they were in doubt. The Parsis of India thought that their co-religionists living in Persia must be better informed on religious matters than themselves, and must have preserved the old-time tradition more faithfully than they themselves did. They therefore drew up certain religious questions on which they needed enlightenment, and in 1478 commissioned a daring Parsi to go to Persia and lay their questions before the learned Dasturs of their fatherland. The news that a band of fugitives lived in India who were one in faith with them, and shared their common traditions, had long since filtered through to the Zoroastrians of Persia. In fact it is possible that the connection between the two bands of the faithful, though imperfect, had never been quite broken. Intercourse through trade, as well as other factors, must have helped to keep up some connection. Great, therefore, was the enthusiasm caused by the fresh opening of a closer communication with them; and for nearly three centuries (1478–1766), a more immediate interchange of views took place between the Zoroastrians of India and Persia. ​No less than twenty-two messengers had left India during this period with questions pertaining to ritual observances, ceremonial ablutions, purificatory rites, forms of worship, rules of adoption and marriage and other miscellaneous subjects. These collections of traditions, customs, and rites, arranged in the form of questions and answers, are composed in Persia, which became the literary language of the Parsi scholars under the influence of the Moslem rule in Gujarat. These compilations are called Rivayats, and provide a wealth of information on liturgical and social matters.^[1] Side by side with a score of important subjects, the disquisitions sometimes fall to the level of barren theological disputations. Among such discussions, for example, were points like these: Whether the Avestan texts could be copied with ink prepared by a non-Zoroastrian, whether the faithful be polluted by conversing with the non-Zoroastrians while they are carrying a dead body, whether a Mobad who has eaten clarified butter prepared by a non-Zoroastrian can ever regain bodily purity by means of ceremonial ablutions.

Theology of the period. Bundahishn and Sad Dar, Jamaspi and Arda Viraf Namah inspired the clergy and laity in their conduct of life at this period rather than did the Gathas and other Avestan works. The formal rather than the spiritual, the concrete rather than the abstract, seem to be the prominent feature of the beliefs that we can glean from the Rivayats. The hope of the joys of a materialized heaven and the fear of the sufferings of a physical hell guide and control man's life upon earth. Man's soul and his Farohar are taken, in the Rivayats, for one and the same. The souls and not the Farohars are believed to come down on earth on their monthly or yearly anniversaries. The souls of the righteous persons descend on the earth and remain here for full ten days of the Farohar festival, but the souls of the wicked ones are given only five days' leave of absence from hell to visit their earthly homes. If the souls are properly propitiated, they rejoice and bless; if not, they complain and curse. It came to be believed that the Yasna sacrifices ​offered in the name of Farohars, or of the angel Hom, or of those of Zartusht, Gushtasp, and other sainted dead persons, could thwart the evil designs of their enemies; could rout the demons and fairies; could oppose the tyrant kings; could withstand famine and plague, retard the evil consequences of bad dreams, gain favour of kings and noblemen, and secure various advantages.

We are informed, moreover, that the reason of consecrating a set of white garments on the fourth day after death is to provide a corresponding heavenly garment to the soul in the next world; because, we are told, the soul is quite naked, when it is liberated from the body at death, and is naturally ashamed to enter the assembly of the heavenly souls who are all clad in fine raiment. The souls are awarded heavenly garments in proportion to what is consecrated to them by their kinsmen in this world. The richer the quality of the garment consecrated here, the finer the raiment bestowed upon the soul in heaven.

Bull's urine, or golden water, as it is now called, has been an indispensable article in the purificatory rites and ceremonial ablutions among the Zoroastrians from the earliest times. From the strong belief in the efficacy of its giving external bodily purification, it was but a step to the idea of attributing to it the power of purifying the internal nature of man. A most extravagant sanctity came to be attached to the drinking of it. Elaborate rituals are now performed over the liquid and the drinking of this consecrated fluid form an indissoluble part of certain Zoroastrian ceremonials. The Rivayats tell us that the drink gives divine glory, and makes man's inner nature as bright and as pure as the sun.

Bull's urine has been, since ancient times, an essential auxiliary of spells or formulas used to exorcise those possessed by evil power; but the original Avestan and Pahlavi word gaomaeza or gomez fell into disuse by the Rivayat time, and the term nirang, which originally meant spell only, now signifies both spell and bull's urine, and henceforth conveys both the meanings. Such in general is the view that we gather from the Rivayats regarding the conditions prevailing in that period.

Other works in Persian. Besides the Rivayats, several works, both in prose and in verse, have reached us. The most important of these is the Zartusht Namah or Book of Zartusht composed in verse by Zartusht Bahram Pazdu in the thirteenth ​century.^[2] The account of the life of the prophet is based upon the Pahlavi works. Several Pahlavi works are rendered into Persian. The Avestan texts are translated into Persian with the help of their Pahlavi version. A considerable devotional literature and treatises on miscellaneous subjects are extant. There are about forty short prayers in verse and gazal form, called Monājāts composed by about a dozen different priests. The earliest in point of time are the four hymns attributed to the authorship of Zartusht Bahram Pazdu, the author of the Zartusht Namah. The latest are composed in the third quarter of the last century.