Page:History of Zoroastrianism.djvu/412

Pazend prayers. When the Sasanians came to power, the Avesta, the sacred language of Zoroastrianism, has ceased to be a living tongue. The daily prayers continued to be recited in the dead language. The need was evidently felt to supplement the Avestan prayers by some additional prayers in the vernacular. Dastur Adarbad Mahraspand, the learned high-priest and premier of King Shapur II, composed such supplementary prayers in Pazend, and his example was followed by other Dasturs. Several benedictory, thanksgiving, and expiatory prayers composed during this period have come down to us and are recited as supplementary prayers to the Avestan prayers to the present day. The composers take the original Avestan prayers as the source of their inspiration. Short Avestan formulas or sentences are often rendered word for word in Pazend. The Pazend version of the Avestan confessional prayer frastuye,^[1] for example, forms the opening part of the Patit. Besides thus reproducing the Avestan passages in Pazend, independent prayers, preserving the spirit and sentiment of the Avesta, are composed in praise of Ormazd, Amshaspands, and Izads, presiding over the thirty days of the month. The original Avestan wedding hymn has not come down to us. What has reached us is a Pazend hymn, composed during the Sasanian period, embodying three Avestan passages.^[2] The important Pazend prayers that are extant consist of the Afrins, Sitayishes, Patits, Nirangs, the introductory and closing parts of the Avestan Nyaishes and Yashts, and several devotional pieces of considerable beauty.

Supplicatory prayers. The worshipper extols Ormazd as the eternal, omnipotent, and beneficent lord and asks him to exalt his thoughts and lead him to goodness and happiness in accordance with his divine will. The devotee sees none besides