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GUJARATI LITERATURE BEARING UPON ZOROASTRIANISM

or of some male member of the family who happened to know the language. Viraf's account of the beatific visions of heaven and the horrors of hell appeared in illustrated lithographed editions. The pictures of the heavenly persons seated on golden thrones, and of the wicked falling headlong into hell to be gnawed by noxious creatures, served vividly to bring the abstract ethical teachings before the mind of young and old. Some devotional literature, both in prose and verse, appeared during this period. In the same connection, it may be added that the episodes of the Persian kings and warriors, handed down from antiquity by tradition, were rendered into Gujarati, and were most enthusiastically read or heard by all. This helped to bring home to them the greatness and glory of their ancestors.

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