ZOROASTRIANISM
IN
SASSANIAN TIMES
f
S. H. JHABVALA
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ZOROASTRIANISM
IN
SASSANIAN TIMES
Presented to the
LIBRARIES of the
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
by
VVillard G. Oxtoby S. H. JHABVALA
-' ■ •*" - .w •
OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR
Beads of Amber A Poem
Poems Written in Prison "
Prince of Peace "
Prince of Light "
Malini
Kabir „
Catechism on Zoroastrianism
Biographical Sketches of
Eminent Parsis )- in Gujarati
etc., etc.
Printed by A. P. Sata at the States People Press, Fort, Bombay, and
published by S. H. Jhabvala at loth Road, Khar, Bombay.
PREFACE
In presenting this Booklet to the readers I have an object viz., of
showing how, dominated by historical conditions, Parsis — followers
of Zoroastrianism — sustained themselves against all political
exigencies of life and steered themselves clear of dangers to their
national existence. I also want to show that the main oar that
guided the barque of their career was their national virtues inspired
by their faith which leapt forward once again to life and activity.
Placed as Parsis are to-day amidst diverse races and religions
of mankind, the barque of Zoroastrians practically anywhere in the
world cannot sink if they maintain the same arduous genesis of
their inherent way of life. The Parsis sank after the Achoemenides,
but survived somehow during the Parthian rule; and then revived
during the days of the Sassanians. The same evolution is mercilessly
repeating itself here in India and elsewhere. I feel sure we shall
survive and perhaps once again rise to ancient glory.
Often the merciless question is asked to the soul of this race
long enduring suffering, whether it can survive the tempests of
adverse time. Who will prophesy? But History abundantly proves
that a race once organised under the aeges of its original faith never
perifhed. Changes have endured the fulness of life; and they have
given unending sustenance to the Parsi back-bone which though at
times bent, has never yielded to ruin and consequent end. The
Parsis are a valued part of the great human race, and with their
assertive virtues just as to-day they are contributing towards
the strengthening of universal life and faith, for all time to come,
they will prove a source of inspiration for all that is best and greatest
in mankind.
AUTHOR
Khar, Bombay,
ist June 1932.
The sacred truths world's Master-Soul propounded to
humanity a thousand years before the founder of the creed
whose followers to-day number over a fourth of the civilised
globe, (Christianity), were immortal in their virtue. If they ore
alive upto to-day surviving perilous revolutions of a stupendous
time, how could they not survive the tortuous tempests of post-
Achoemenian days — days when the whole Iranian plateau
was shaking from bottom upwards in a ferment of political
upheavals, territorial aggrandisements and racial ascendan-
cies? How should a Zoroastrian live? — and the Minoi Khirad
has a guiding answer — "He should make wisdom his
protector, should don the weapons and armoiir of contentment
over the body, should hove Truth for his shield, and thankful-
ness for his mace, should make devotion his bow, and
liberality his arrow, should make moderation his spear,
perseverance his gauntlet, and fortune his shelter. Religion =
taking care. of the soul, (religion comes not from "religare" =
to bind together; but from "relegere" = to take care of: oppo-
site of "neglegere"=to neglect, is to be life itself lived.
The follower of Zarathushtra lived Zoroastrianism as put in a
nut-shell by the above quotation from the Minoi Khirad in
pre-Sassanian times, though the revolutionary times displaced
it by the varying conquests of Assyrians, Chaldeans, and
Babylonians, culminating in the none-too-pseudo-Zoroastrians-
the Parthians.
If the un-changing revelation of a changeful history of
human civilisation divulges but one mystery of the human
mind, it is that the essence underlying every concept of
religion endures either as a feeling of absolute dependence,
as Schleirmacher would put it, or as intuition of Union with
the world, as Hccvelock Ellis would soy, or as Murray
announces, as that which brings us into relation with the great
world-forces, or as Reinach says, sum of scruples which
impede the free exercise of our faculties, though the forms,
the vestments change, change eternally subject to change.
This happened to Zcfrathushtra's exposition of his creed — •
"lived and experienced metaphysics, un-thinkable as a
certainty, supernatural as a fact, life as existence in a world
that is non-actual but true", to quote Oswald Spengler. The
light did not dim; the shadow shifted according to the curve
of the horizon: the deer carried the perfume in its abdomen;
only it smelt in the woods abroad and the deer wandered in
search of what it actually had.
THE MAGI
125 years before the fall of the Achoemenians, Herodotus
speaks inspiringly about the Magi as the most scientific
exponents of the philosophy of the Deity, and Zarathushtra
was the foremost of them all. His theism could not fall with
the fall of Darius Codomanus, but the monotheism of his
preaching wore a many-coloured garb during five centuries
and a half of non-Zoroastrian regime largely covered by the
Parthian empire which ultimately fell at the conquering feet
of Artakhshir-e- Popakon.
The many-curved graph of theism had passed its
inveterate line through Animism, Magic, Taboo and Totem,
Ancestor-worship, and even Paganism, before the deep centre
contemplated by Zarathushtra on the Mount of Ushidarena,
resulting in monotheism could be located to draw mankind
towards it, from which since then it has not swerved, though
later both the Aryans and the Semitic races gave to humanity
newer forms of faith and religion. Zarathushtra taught what
the Dinkard summarily puts — that "The humian body is a
tenement with senses as its windows, and soul as its owner."
In the architecture of his monotheistic concept Zarathushtra
placed Ahura Mazda at the top of the hierarchy, a Spirit,
and yet the Lord of Wisdom, with Vohu Mono = the Best Mind,
Asha = Purity, Sraosha = religious obedience, Atar = fire,
Ashi = sanctity, Armaiti = devotion, Haurvatat and Ameretat =
fulfilment in this world and the next, as instruments of His
power to create and fulfil Good on one hand and destroy Evil
on the other. He proclaimed through 17 Gathas divided into 5
groups, that, "The ox turns to dust, silver and gold turn dust,
the valiant hero turns to dust, all mortals turn to dust. That
one thing which does not turn to dust is the Righteousness
which a man practises upon the earth". He imparted to
mankind the knowledge of Time being the veritable Ahura
Himself, — Delay and Afterwards being the two demons that
Onnazd denounces, as being members in the camp oi
Ahriman.
In his theology, as Minoi Khirad would translate, "The
sky and the earth and the water and all else that there is,
are like unto an egg of a bird. The sky is arranged by the skill
of Ormazd like an egg over the earth. And the earth is
stationed in the midst of the sky like the yolk in an egg."
Though fear was the cradle in which the gods were born, yet
Zarathustra relegated Fear to the domain of Ahriman; and
Ormazd was to him but cm emblem of Love and Joy. What
Dinkard says about Religion may be said about Ormazd in
the vocabulary of Zarathushtra — "If you advance but one
step towards religion, religion will advance 10 steps towards
you."
As for social organisation, Zarathushtra corresponds to
the exposition of philosophy of Manu-Minos the Great of the
Greeks, for in the Dinkard four classes divide the human race
into vocational groups — Heads, Hands, Belly, and Legs
— ^Athravans and Ratheshtors from the higher guard ot
mankind in their growth, yet the agriculturists of the Belly are
noteworthily dear to the Prophet, — vide the Gathas — "Happy
is the land on which an agriculturist walks; happy the wind
that blows over him; happy the horse which he rides;' happy
the cattle on whose products he subsists; and happy indeed,
are the sun and the moon and the stars that shine upon him."
THRESHOLD OF SASSAN
That in very brief analysis, was the social polity, and
the theology that Zarathushtra left behind him, and the
all-comprehensive eminence of his intelligence continued
down till the threshold of the Sassonide citadel. The
Bactrians, the Medes, and the Persians had distributed
themselves in the North-east, North-west, and South-west,
respectively, and the above theological code, while making
Zoroastrianism the pristine character of the different races,
marred its essential purity with affectations from them, e.g., the
first monotheistic dualism of the Gathas was followed by the
pure dualism of the later Avesta — a Sassanide growth out of
the original pastoral Pehelcrvi. Mithraism was one anothei
silvern shadow over the golden soul of Zoroastrianism. The
fate of every evolution of Reason has been entrusted by
history to remnants of change — change brought about
by inter-relations of groups of mankind as in the above case.
Arbella wrested the Zoroastrian sceptre from the hands of
Darius III (330 B.C.) Arsaces founded the Parthian empire,
(250 B. C). The Seleucid satrapies failed after Alexander's
death; and the rapid stages of political confusion ushered in
a Zoroastrian chaos in the forms of belief. The wandering
nomads during the Seleucid regime^ — ^what higher Zoroastrian
wealth of thought they could pursue! — the abundance of the
Achcemenian granary—. Parthia at the summit and her inter-
course with rival aggressive powers, (120-88 B. C.) could only
produce a Parthian religion — ancestor-worship, magic,
invocations to the varied gods for earthly gifts, such as grain,
freedom from disease and aversion from nature's calamities.
Zoroastrianism during the 550 years of its abolition of rule had
not become a vacuum, dark though the surface, and chaotic
the corners wherever the Asha spirit turned its bewildering
eye; but surely, that was not the province Zarathushtra had
left when he fell at the hand of Tur-bara-tursh at Nush-Adar
in Balkh. Since the days of Gaye Maretan, the primal man,
faith has had a human curve of varying growth — though
everything is on the decadent, yet in the scheme of Ahura
nothing perishes — everything seeks its shoots in a variety of
shapes and diversity of forms. The spiritual doctrine of pre-
Sassanian days covered in its shell the notion of the
Frovashis, hardly to be conceived in the Gathas of Zara-
thushtra. Says the Yasna, "We adore the sunny abodes oi
Asha, wherein the souls (Urwan) of the dead rest, which ore
the Frovashis of the righteous." And in still another verse,
the same sacred scripture emphasises Daena (self) the living
embodiment of the spirit, saying, "Whoso makes his thought
now better, now worse, and likewise his self (Daena) by
action and by word, and follows his own inclinations, wishes
and choices, he shall in thy purpose be in a separate place
at the last."
The lower, corrupt forms of Zoroastrianism dished out to
the Persian race a Hinduistic pantheon narrated in the 11th
chapter of the Geeta where Krishna the God emboldens
himself with absorption of the whole variegated universe in
himself, for the phil-hellenism of the . then all-ruling Magis
exhibited Zoroastrianism in multi-numerous images, such as
Mithrae, Airyaman, Haoma, Verethraghana, Perendi, Nair-
yosanga, Vayu, Usha, Anahit (female divinity), Yezata (Vedic
Yajata) = one fit to be adored. The thought of man grows from
stage to stage, assisted by nature's un-alterable laws; and
just as from Primary or Palaeozoic age civilisation developed
to Post-Tertiary or Pleistocene age and yet God's essence re-
mained in tact, the slow evolution of Zoroastrianism bulged out
into a Partho-Roman cult influenced by Hellenic deism, and
still none-the-less Ahura, Good and Evil, and Devotion and
Asha that Zarathushtra had expounded in the days of
Gushtasp remained the central kernel of the philosophy of
life of all those who breathed in the territory of Iran that was
in those days.
Parthia, the unclaimed theology of Zarathushtra, fell
before the vast-weilding arms of Rome— that Volagases the
last of the Parthian chaos— and when Artabanus fell in 226
A.D. the soul of Parthia suspired, and with it, all that was
inglorious in the Dharma of the region, allowing ingress to
the hidden rhythm of Zarathushtra of the Achoemenian epoch.
6
MITHRAISM
It was Mithraism that had engrossed the captive mind of
mc\a of the western division of Asia of the pre-Artekhshotra
days; and it had spread all over Europe with the idolistic
passions of the Hellenic priests so well depicted by Bulwor
Lytton in one of his famous novels (Last Days of Pompeii),
Mithra, however, still a visible link between the Un-manifested
and the pining soul of man. In the Geeta (11th Adhycrya)
Krishna determines devotion to the Highest as the "Nirvana"
of the devotees, though he does not condemn that to
the Manifest Daeva; and so, the Mithraic cult still preserved
Ahura as the central governor and controller of the whole
creation, though He was unobtainable even by the most
impassioned of devotees.
The Battle of Hormuz (226) A.D. installed Ardashir-e-
Popakan the founder of the Sasscmian empire on the Persian
throne whose wings had now spread over territories vaster
than where the last Darius of the Achoemenians had left.
Ardashir set afoot immediately in the midst of his rambling
preoccupations, a true and sound system of Zoroastrian faith
erstwhile weakened on all sides by corrupt influences. With
the help of the privileged centres, such as the Aristocracy
and the Priestly community he opened a campaign of
diffusing and diluting habits based on Zoroastrian theism,
and as Santayana remarks, "Civilisation has hitherto
consisted in the diffusion and dilution of habits arising in
privileged classes," Ardashir gave an impetus to the birth
of a new thinking both religiously and socially, — a new
civilisation as if out of the old shattered crags of a broken
time. With new culture through facilities for the growth and
transmission of knowledge, manners and arts the first of the
Sassanians collected together a number of "Teachers of Good
Religion". The Magi figured prominently in this convocation,
for they were in the leading strings of the whole religious move-
ment, good, bad and indifferent. Ardashir wanted to excavate
the Good underlying Magi-ism, avoiding the ugly protube-
ranees that had eaten into the very vitals of the noblest, heal-
thy spirit of the Master. They knew Democracy in those days
better than what we are following out in these days of Black-
Market and Hunt-For-P'ower; and so Ardashir called a Council
of the Nation out of which to elect a College of chosen Magi.
The first Assembly of the Magi was thus so scientifically
convoked that a full confidence was inspired in the action
of Ardashir towards revival of the deadened sanities of
Zarothushtra's original creed. "By his holy spirit and by
Best Thought, Deed, and Word, in accordance with Right,
Mazda Ahura with Dominion and Piety, shall give us Welfare
and Immortality." — Yasna. And Best Thought the' prime
genesis of mankind began first to be ventilated after 1500
years of separation of Iranians from their great Prophet. The
results of the convocation were remarkably fertile in as much
as a redivivus of Zoroastrianism through the State became a
settled fact. Mithra the protector of the Roman Empire had
seriously damaged the linguistic scheme of things as prevailing
then, and Avasta was disastrously crippled. Ardashir gave
an impetus to the revival of the language, and lurid lights of
the birth-pangs of Pahalovi-Parthava, began to be first visible
in the comers of the Convocation of the Magis. No prelimi-
nary conferences of the type under mention here, have
evolved final plans of belief and so, Ardashir's first Assembly
could hardly achieve a finality in the direction of his ambi-
tions; but the most salient feature was the unalterable
direction given to the people that henceforward Zoroastrianism
was to be restored to its original pristine purity.
ARDAVIRAF
Ardoviraf, the first product of the new revival — ^the saint-
liest of saints of those renovated times, became God-dedicated,
and he fell in a divine trance for full one week when he
dreamt the dream of the immortals. He bore the spiritual
burdens of Yagna for the revival of Zoroaster in the land now
redeemed from the hands of deteriorated time. His rational
soul wandered around the whole world, and through the
8
encompassing void, it gazed into infinity, and considered the
periodic destructions, and rebirths of the hidden Universe. On
his awaking, the text he dictated to the priestly scribes became
the authorized version of neo-Zoroastrianism. Ardavirof lit the
iire long since dead, and Ardashir began religious persecution
of the Christians— the sword of Righteousness offering peace
to whomsoever sought through a pure monotheism revealed
by Ardoviraf.
Ardashir' s dictum— "Consider the altar and the throne as
inseparable; they must always sustain one another. A sove-
reign without religion is a tyrant.", greatly influenced the
policies of relationship between the State and the Church, in
the days of his valiant successor and son, Shahpoor the First.
Rome was the seat then of a multi-phased Christianity —
a Catholicism ridden rough-shod by all infusion of a Hellenic
star-worship. In order to wrench away the people on the west
from their crude forms of belief to the only Righteous Path of
Zarathushtra, wars must be fought with the Romans; and
though Shahpoor did not declare Jehhad upon Rome yet with-
out territorial aggrandisement, the Romans, made vigorous by
arduous physical conditions of life, yet brutalised by the power
of a low form of religious belief, could not be weaned over to
the divine Asha of the revived creed. History is a process of
re-barbarisotion; and the Romans driven by increasing exigen-
cies of survival, "had left their native habitat, and had moved
down upon the less vigorous people in their neighbourhood,
had conquered, displaced, and even absorbed them."
SHAHPOOR I
Why should not Shahpoor then, conquer the illegitimate
conquerors but for the establishment of the kingdom of Good
Thought? He opened three campaigns against the Romans A.D.
241 to 263 — ended with Odenathus of Palmyra, and carried
home to the region of the Mithrais the awe-inspiring verdict
embodied in the following Pahalavi inscription at Naksha-e-
Rajab: — "This is the image of the Ormaz- worshipper, the God,
Shahpoor, king of kings Aryan and non-Aryan, of the race of
the Gods, son of the Ormazd-worshipper, the God Ardashir,
King of Kings Aryan, of the race of the Gods, the off-spring of
the God Popcik, the King."
While the Assembly of the Magis, arduously assisted by
bands of devoted Mobeds, was successfully cleansing the
Augean stables, the sacred Temples of Fire lifted their spires
into the lofty flame of the Eternal, and the indestructible spirit of
Nush-Adar began to ascend the golden steps of Zoroastrianism.
It is not as much the numbers of temples of worship as the
sphere of physical conquest of vast lands towards the west that
will approve the spread of Zoroastrian light during and imme-
diately after the reign of Shahpoor. Christianity began to totter,
though it did not fall; Mithraism began to be disfigured, though
it did not cease its power anciently established. In the complex
of political revolutions that were being rapidly caused, no
harmonious history of a religious revival could naturally be
read. But that large masses of subject races were embracing
the holy creed of Zarothushtra could be verified from the widen-
ing of geographical sphere under Shahpoor. It was the Christ
of the "barbarian" that had held in his clutches the inter-regnum
of the Aryan society after the snap of the chain at Issus, but
w;hen the Sassanians stepped on the threshold the natural
thought of man adventured in a labyrinth of analysis, and
discovered, behind the prevailing forms of society, the real
individual. Divested of its normal function the thought turned
inward and discovered the self. The original individual mani-
fested through the dust and ashes of the un-Zoroastrian forces,
and the torrent was unchecked.
MANICHEISM
Christianity and Mithraism were open foes to contest
against but there was a new peril — Monicheism that raised its
dangerous head against the infant effort of Zoroastrianism, —
not a creed but a phantasy, not a belief but a cant, more tutored
out of the soul of poverty than cultivated as a principle of faith.
Mani (Manes), Al-baruni puts down his birth in 215 A. D., a
limping scholar of no mean repute formulated a formula of
divine life. Briefly put, Manicheism was on "admixture of the
light and the darkness, which give rise to the material universe",
was essentially evil and a result of the activity of the powers
of evil. The whole universe would collapse and the final
conflagration would mark the redemption of the light and its
final dissociation from the irredeemable and indestructible
darkness. The philosophical interpretation of the esoteric in
every religious creed has, history proves, captured the soul of
the rude untrained, and the herd among mankind, for it cap-
tures the imagination of the masses and the ball is rapidly set
rolling. Mani had laid down a broad basis for the interpreta-
tion of his ideas; and cherished Zctrathushtra, Christ, and
Buddha, — he had visited China, Tibet, and India during his
peregrinations — as great messengers. Mani became acknow-
ledged as a pioneer of a new faith as far as Tibet and China
on th'^ east, to Europe on the west. Samarcand and Babylonia
turned out to be the sheltering house for the new messiah, at
the last place of which the Manichean Pope held suzerainty for
many centuries. Shahpoor, too, was captured by his enamour-
ing interpretations of the theory of Good and Evil, Chastity and
Poverty as virtues for self-renunciation. In the general reli-
gious revival, when Shahpoor was motivated by higher ideals
and purpose, he welcomed Mani in his court. But he resented
it later, Zarathushtra being denied Prophethood, and relegated
only to a corner of a messenger ccrtegorying with Christ and
Buddha. He hardly dismissed him from his presence ere he
died, leaving the uncertain task of accepting h'im as a
messiah to his more impetuous successor Hormazd, who
venerated him and gave him cordial reception at his court.
Mani soon gained advantage therefrom and he leapt forward
to founding a sect named after him later on.
But while Christianity the toddling babe of time, became
irremediably fascinated by Mani and Mani's undaunted
preachings so that the whole of Mesopotamia — the glory of
the east of those times, accepted him as the Saviour of
u
humanity after Christ, — Zoroastrianism in its essence remained
unaffected though seriously mauled, and prejudicially sunk in
turmoil.
Why did the scanty paths of the human mind sweep
their dross before Mani, so that he could enter without any
special fecrture of an inroad upon the intellect of the times?
Because a long pervading Mithraism had cleansed the mind
of the people towards a reception of such doctrinaire prin-
ciples as Manicheism sought to impart to mankind. The
idolatry inherent in Mithraism secured the passage of Mani-
cheism into the intellectual realms of man. The super-potent
Mithras (vide the Bull-slaying Mithra in the Vatican at Rome),
imparted to the worshippers not only bodily strength, but also
gave spiritual wisdom; and Mithraism with its mystic cere-
m.onies assured to the devotees a higher life beyond the grave,
which excited .unconquerable hope in man. Bom of Iranian
cult and having dealings with Christianity born of Judaism,
Manicheism swept the people off their feet. Christ's vows of
poverty, and help to the weak and fallen, are indeed
monastic charms, which have fascinated humanity. Edward
Carpenter exclaims, "If I am not level with the lowest I am
nothing; and if I did not know for a certainty that the craziest
sot in the village is my equal, and were not proud to have
him walk with me as my friend, I would not write another
word". Even the Dinkard supports the sanity of Christian
virtues, such as Poverty. Dastoor Tansar who flourished
later was attracted by the eclecticism of Manicheism, born
as he was and soaked in the philosophy of the greatest of the
Greek philosophers, Plato. Just as Mani carried away
disciples among Persian Iranians, he had deeper percolation
of his spirit in the saints of Persian Christians, St. Augustine
having his whole life and being soaked in Manicheism. In
the collections of spiritual texts of Iran made by Ardashir and
Shahpoor, afterwards stored cmd preserved in the Jund-e-
Shahpoor, an academy built by Shah Naoshirwan, Maniche-
ism also found a reverent place. Excitement of human hope in
after-life has been the civilising energy in Hinduism; neo-
12
Pythagoreanism, and neo-Plalonism are preachers of Mani-
chean philosophy of life. The 45th Yasna says, "Whoso,
therefore, in the future lightly esteemeth the Daevas and those
mortals who lightly esteem him — even all others save that
one who highly esteemeth him — -unto him shall the holy
self of the future Saoshyant, (Deliverer), as Lord of the house,
be friend, or brother or father, O Mazda Ahura." Mani became
a part of Zoroastrian polity even after its total banishment
'With force even upto the days of Naoshirwan. Extract good
from the world — to put Mani in a nushell — that smacks of
eclectic communism of the 20th century; says Zarathushtra,
"banish evil from the world". This polarity of ethics must
create a feud in less scientific thinking of the times, but
Hormasdis during one year of his reign fully encouraged the
growth of Manicheism — he joined the ends of the poles in the
circle of his authority. Apollonius was similarly treated in
Greece, and the accepted agnosticism underlying his thought
came to be realised as golden gnosticism, for he said, "redemp-
tion was to be sought from falsehood and ignorance", and
no Prophet earth has given birth to, has deepened falsehood
and clouded light. Though Manicheism was progressive
thought, the Zoroastrian monarchs, the aristocracy and the
feudal basis of the monarchic system could ill afford to cherish
this sort of Stoicism except at the peril of the whole empire in
the act of slow but steady development. Again, the Sassanians
had a virtuous obligation to discharge to the growing conquests
of the west — Porthia, Babylonia, Chaldea, Assyria, Mesopo-
tamia, Iran, and even parts of the great Roman Empire, and
therefore, a monastic Manicheism ill compared with acquisi-
tion of material power — the just ambition of a fresh conqueror.
""Our progress is but the surface turbulence of a sea which
in its depths is changeless and still. Utopias are the ethereal
poems with which our sensitive souls anaesthetize themselves
against the caustic operations which life and death perform
upon us. But a strong power will take its wounds without
anodyne; or if it needs forgetfulness, it will immerse itself in
the present and its routine details, taking no thought of
humanity's to-morrows. What is has been and will be. Only
13
fashions change." Manicheism was an utopia, it lent but a
surface turbulence to the progress of Zorathus'.ra's faith that
was slowly being ushered in under the sons of Sassan.
BEHRAM'S RIGIDITY
Behram the imperialist successor — 4th in the dynasty-
realised that a profession like that of his predecessor Hormas-
dis in serious Manicheism would reverse the ascending destiny
of his glorious forebears. Ardashir must keep back Alexander
Severus, Shahpoor must bring Valerian to his knee, and still
many realms were to be made parts of the Persian Empire — ,
and that could be done only with steadying the mind of
Iran on the pure doctrine of Zarathushtra, and so by banish-
ing Mani and all his obnoxious paraphernalia. "It is Chris-
tianised "Zoroastrianism", exclaimed Behram. "Zoroastrianism
is equivalent to Good. Ahura is entirely Good; Ahriman has
his province under the shade of Evil". Mani was found by
the Magis in the fulness of their counsel and wisdom to be
essentially an admixture of Light and Darkness. This gives
rise to a material universe. Light and Dakrness cannot
co-exist. Light must free itself from Darkness. And Mani
must therefore, pay by his very life, the sins he taught to
mankind strikinig at the roots of a sacred Zoroastrtanism.
And Mani was put to a most excruciating death by imperial
orders. Mani preached the necessity of fasting, and of
birth-control as food and marriage were to him the propa-
gators of vice in man. Zarathushtra out of whose doctrine
vj^-r^ born empire-builders like Gushtasp, and Lohrasp, like
Cyrus and Darius the First, like Ardashir and Shahpoor could
not accept Mani even on the material plane. Browne justly
remarks in his famous History of Persia, The whole universe
would collapse and the final conflagration would mark the
Redemption of the Light and its final dissociation from the
irremediable and indestructible Darkness", if Mani came into
power.
Mazda is the prime inaugurator and father of the ethical
order of creation, the creator of Vohu Mano, the fashioner of
u
the lovely Armaiti and Khshathra (Gathas). In another song
of the Gathas, with Armaiti = true belief, is united Asha =
righteousness. Plutarch calls Armaiti creator of wisdom.
She is according to tradition, the guardian spirit or deity of
the earth, the "solicitous, good Mother Earth". How could
Manicheism on "admixture of Light with Darkness" match
the serene purity of original science of Zarathushtra as he
taught in the Gathas?
A Mani dead should not expect to shoot up the lightful
stress of Zoroastrianism. in the swirling curls of popular thought.
Behram died the same year as his Roman opponent Aurelian
who had planned an invasion upon Persia through Byzan-
tium, which if successful, as likely it might have been due to
the- crippled military resources of Persia, would have
imperilled the revival of Zoroastrianism at the hand of
another foe like Manicheism, in the form of neo-Roman cult.
Behram II found in the Romans and Armenians a combined
enemy who must be baffled ere the standard of Zarathushtra
could be hurled flying in the face of an opposing world, the
Sassanians having universally decried the national religion
of Arm.enia, based as it was upon image-worship such as of
the Sun and the Moon. So long ago as 200 B.C. Valarsaces
the Armenian chieftain had erected this sort of devotion to
the earthly gods and goddesses; and when Tiridates was
supported by the Romans in his claim for Armenian throne,
he succeded in his effort, until at last Narses the successor of
Behram III, and a descendant of Shahpoor I, lost a goodly
part of acquisitions of the previous heroic Sassanian princes
at the hand of the Roman Galerius.
WARS AGAIN
Again, Persia fell, and the Roman prince Diocletian had the
supreme hand in the complex conflict between Persia and
Rome. The stars of Iran's destiny were swayed by the
changing gloom of Chance, and Bismarck has written wisely
to Voltaire, — "The older one becomes, the more one is
15
persuaded that His Sacred Majesty Chance does 3/4 of the
•work of this miserable universe". Chance raises the stars of
Iran once again and after Shahpoor I comes the second
Shahpoor 309-380 — and again wars if not of reUgion, yet those
inspired by a spiritual cause are waged against the Romans,
the Mesopotamians and now against the rising race of Arabs.
During his long reign he battled against Christianity so vigo-
rously propagated under the powerful patronage of Cons-an-
tine and Julian, and against Islam among whose devotees he
had earned the honorific title of Zul-Aktaf, the Lord of the
Shoulders, for he tied the Arabs by the neck by boring holes
through their shoulders through which a long rope could pass.
Ptimus est vive meaning life comes first, says a Latin pro-
verb, and every nation as every individual, maintains itself
in healthy life before anything else.
SHAHPOOR II
How did the nation re-build under Shahpoor II? — It
Zoroastrianism were to be regenerated in its original purity it
must get state aid, just as Constantine had adopted Christianity
as State religion, and he was boldly carrying out the political
behests so far as the Church was concerned. Uniting the Church
with the State, Shahpoor followed out his illustrious prede-
cessor Ardashir's admonition to his son. The Royal Court,
according to the Shah-Nameh, was to consist of Mubadon
Mubad the High Priest, Buzurg J'armatar, Chief Minister, Iran
Sipahpat, Commander-in-Chief, Iran Dapirat, Secretary of
State, Vastryosanpat, Minister of Agriculture. Law was rec-
koned to be an integral part of religion. The presiding Judge
Sraoshvarez was a religious upholder of justice. V/hen oaths
were taken in the court, both Royal and Judicial, they were
taken in the ncrnies of Hormazd, Vohuman, Ardebehesht, Za-
rathushtra, Sarosh, Rashna, etc. Even Ardashir I was always
guided by the advice given by his trusted High Priest Das-
toor Tansar. Adarbad Maharespand attained to the Prime
Ministership of the State in the days of Shahpoor II. His
holiness was miraculously proved by the burning molten
16
metal poured on. his breast to prove that the Zoroastrian
creed he adhered to and he preached was Ahura-inspired.
Froba, Goshasp, Burzin Meher (according to Minoi Khirad>
were burnt as the three patron Fires for the Priestly community
— none could pretend the virtues he taught, everyone had to
prove them by his deed — so great was the discipline of the
soul and of the mind. Ahura through Fire was the unalterable
creed not the Mithraic fire that was the god itself. Firdausi
warned humanity, therefore, that "they (Persians), were not
worshippers of fire, but they were worshippers of the one-
true Yazdan. The court of the Sassanians was not priest-
dominated as the Hindu court with the Brahmanas installed
as the pantheon of class-worship; but it was guided by
religious concepts on every State matter, so that the highest
and best decision could be arrived at. Read Ardaviraf, Adar-
bad Marespand, Buzarj — Meher, and you find honeyed gold
dropping out of their lips — wisdom, and truth. The Munis, the
Geeta sings of, were the guides and directors of the States.
So were the wise men of the courts of Sassan princes. ■
'In the end only personality counts", says Goethe, and
the classes were also equally influenced by the spirituality of
the wise men of the court of Shahpoor, so that there were
three classes — Buzargan = elders, Azatan = grandees, Vash-
puhrgan = feudal lords. Freedom was ensured lo all these
and even Woman was free*— Shireen, the wife of Khusrao
Parviz played polo; and then, marriage was a compulsion in
the social laws of the Sassanians. With a broad-based and
such a highly laid out society what could not be done by the
people for their monarchs? Shahpoor was accordingly,
applauded as "the companion of the stars", "brother of the
sun and the moon". Khusrao Parviz was extolled as "the
immortal man among the gods". "Yatha raja, totha praja",
is an old adage among the political shastris of the Aryans,
and the Sassanians after their conquests upon their opponents
made the whole country one unity based upon the science of
God.
17
With Shahpoor the chief Yazatas were Mithra, Anohita,
and Sraosha. Asha and Druj ruled the two continents ol
man's soul. "Whatever open or secret things" says the Yasna
31, "may be visited with judgment or what man for a Uttle sin
demands the heaviest penalty of all this through the right
thou art observing them with flashing eye." That being the
doctrine in depth of value, Shahpoor became the veritable
enemy of Christianity. Constantine, the founder of the im-
mortal Constantinople of many a political quarrel between
nations of this earth, was the leading light of Christianity then
contemporaneous with Shahpoor; and unless Shahpoor defeat-
ed him Zarathushtra would not be the suzerain in the empire he
was strenuously reviving. But the great Roman died a na-
tural death. Tiridates the Armenian convert to Christianity
too had died in 314 A.D. Shahpoor invaded the territories of
the successors of both the above and after varying successes of
eight years of long wars he returned to his native land, when
he laid down rigid laws for Christians — in fact, it was a policy
of persecution that he laid out in order to give a quick-paced
impetus to all that had so far been revived by his predeces-
sors in the direction of Zoroastrionism, as well as to develop
it now tha+ some of the most obnoxious impediments in the way
had been slowly and steadily melting away, Christianity was
fast becoming the central congregation of all anti-forces, politi-
cally speaking, in the east, and if a builder of new civilisation,
like Shahpoor, indicated any slackness his very empire would
be in a prejudicial position. Therefore, he must fight his
political battles on one hand, but as well he must terrorise his
enemies on the other, even by going the length of persecution
of Christianity. The Romans were passing through a crisis
of decoy. Oswald Spengler has at one place foreseen the
vision of the Decline and Fall of the West, and he soys, "You
are dead. I see in you all the typical stigmata of decay.
Your institutions, your democracy, your corruption, your
gigantic cities, your science, your art, your socialism, your
atheism, your philosophy, even your mathematics, are pre-
cisely those that characterized the dying stages of ancient
18
states. Another century and civilisation will have found her
seat far from you. This is your Alexandrian age."
How adaptibly true about Rome of Shahpoor's days ! What
Akib in his celebrated Acts quotes, Shahpoor exclaimel: —
"The Christians destroy our holy teaching, and teach men to
serve one God, and not to honour the sun or fire. They teach
them too, to defile water by their ablutions; to refrain from mar-
riage and the procreation of children; and to refuse to go out to
war with the King of Kings. They have no scruples about the
slaughter and eating of animals; they bury the corpses of men
in the earth; and attribute the origin of snakes and creeping
things to a good God. They despise many servants of the King
and teach witchcraft." The philosophy of Zoroastrianism differ-
ed from the above in as much as the latter considered Ahura
and the universe as separate, the whole administration of the
living substance vesting in the Amesha Spentas, opposed to
Ahriman's group; Sraosha = obedience mastering Asha = Des-
tiny, ruling as powerful Yazatas. The personality of man lay
not in Feeling, Reason, and Will as Christianity dictated, but it
abided in Ahu = vitality, Daena = ego, Baodha = perception. As
for the spirit and its doctrine Shahpoor supported the system
of Urwan=soul, so that there was also the Geush Urwan=
the ox-soul. Haurvatat meaning salvation and Ameretat
meaning immortality were two other entities the Sassanians
condescended to adhere to as scientific powers enabling the
Zoroastrian mind to pursue the higher paths of virtue. While
Christianity taught dependence upon the Son, the Father, and
the Holy Ghost as the trio of salvation, Zoroastrianism in its
days of revival, emphasised the necessity of "One can make
or mar his own life," — a dependence upon one's self for either
a way upward or the reverse. It corresponds closely to the
doctrine of Karma Yoga so highly expounded in the Hindu
Books of religion principally, the Geeta.
A direct combat between the two parallel creeds could
not but result in violent acts of suppression as a policy of
-the States themselves. Shahpoor inscribes the virtue of his.
country as follows : — ^
19
"This is the edict of me, the Mazda-worshipper —
Shahpoor, the divine, King of Kings of Iran and
non-Iran, of celestial descent from God, son
of the Mazda worshipper, Artakhshir, the divine,
King of Kings of Iran and non-Iran, of celestial
descent from God, grandson of Papak, the divine,
the King."
That was when the First Shahpoor raised the standard
of sevolt. None-the-less, the spirit of the second Shahpoor
was the same.
Payment of a differential rate of payment of tax from the
ordinary Iranian was required of the Christians. It was though
not a just imposition yet a necessary one — not a persecution —
for the Christians received all the benefits accuring from the
Iranian rule, but refused to turn out for war when one arose
against the Romans, and, if they did they could not be relied
upon for they lacked in their trust and faith in the
State that gave them protection. Even here, Shahpoor
was merciful, and appointed the Catholic Head priest
of the times. Mar — Lord Shimun to easily collect the
impost that was quite legitimate, so as to avoid all
and any sense of persecution with which his name has
been thoughtlessly tainted. But the Mar refused to obey and
he along with others was imprisoned which any lawfully-
running state could do. European historians well-famed for
their partiahty to both their country and their faith have
portrayed Shahpoor as the Gatherer of Poll-Tax from the Chris-
tians. But justice mingled with love and care for his sub-
jects was the main policy of Shahpoor and he should be
the last to fall a worthy prey to the malignant onslaughts of
foreign writers.
EASTERN FRONT
Having subdued the west Shahpoor' s mind was directed
towards the east where he met with political friends but
religious enemies. The great Roman hero Julian, was baf-
20
fled in all his territorial ambitions by the Huns aiding Shah-
poor; but the latter had equally to carry fire and sword into
the heart of the Hun countries, till at last the five provinces
beyond the Tigris and Nisibis fell to Shahpoor and a success-
ful peace was signed with Rome (A.D.376) three years before
Shahpoor died. Ammianus Marcellinus, the Roman historian
commenting on the great Persian monarch has the following
remarkable reference: —
"The fortune of the East sounded the terrible trumpet
of danger. For the King of Persia, being strengthen-
ed by the aid of the fierce nations whom he had
lately subdued, and being above all men ambitious
of extending his territories, began to prepare men
and arms and supplies, mingling hellish wisdom with
his human counsels, and consulting all kinds of sooth-
sayers about futurity."
Far from it — Zoroastrianism never permitted such supersti-
tions; it disallowed "hellish wisdom"; and Shahpoor was the
foremost Zoroastrian of the time. On the other hand such
beliefs were admitted the other way round; anybody who
has read the masterful Roman ploys of Shakespeare, e.g.
Julius Ceasor, will verify for himself whether the above his-
torian is not propagating an untruth about one of the greatest
successors of the founder of the Sassanion dynasty.
Great v/as the power Shahpoor delegated as legacy to
his successors — Ardashir II, Shahpoor III (A. D. 379-388); but
"Power like a desolating pestilence poisons whatever it
touches. We scratch to itch and we itch to scratch!" So
said the wise Socrates, and, verily, it was true of the successors
of the great conqueror. If Persia did not make further progress,
Rome, too, had been rendered equally weak as a result of
new foes in the person of Arabs and the Goths, the latter of
whom dealt the Romans a great blow at Adrianople in 384
A. D. The White Huns also crossed the river Oxus, and with
the Sakaes Chinese and others the Romans were weakened
21
greatly, so that with pre-vision had the successors of Shahpoor
intended a total development of Zoroastrianism on the field
left open by Christianity they would have well-nigh succeeded.
YEZDEZARD I & CHRISTIANITY
After Behram IV (388-399.) came Yezdezard I who fell a
prey to the fall in the curve of impermanent evolution, so thai
instead of promoting the advancing cause of Zoroastrianism,
he softened the attitude of the State towards Christianity.
Though not a Christian either by birth or by inheritance, he
imbibed a natural mercy towards Christ, and allowed that
freedom to his followers for which the Sassanians in general
were noted. There were other personal reasons such as,
Marutha the Mesopotamian Catholic having cured him of a
virulent malady. Yezdezard first issued a Royal Firman throw-
ing open the bars hitherto closed against Christianity, the first
being open worship, another, building new churches and
renovating the ruined ones.
Yezdezard in his zeal for promotion of the religious in man
forgot that religion ought to mean only the Path of Zarathushtra,
and not what was alien to the spirit of Zoroastianism. "All
things are endued with an appetite to two kinds of good — the
one as this thing is a whole in itself; the other as it is part
of some greater whole. And this latter is more worthy and
more powerful than the other, as it tends to the conservation
of a more ample form." Through Zoroastrianism alone,
not through any other agency could salvation be found
—was too hard a dictate Yezdezard could follow out. But the
realisation was soon to dawn, for the Christians immediately
assumed the right of recognition through their church by the
State All matters pertaining to the Christians were directly
negotiated by Yezdezard with the supreme church. That the
Christians were roused to self-consciousness could be
evidenced from the fact that the new freedom set them think-
ing about putting their house in order as since the days ct
the Council of Nichaea, (325 A. D.) there had arisen among
22
the Christians ecclesiastical differences giving rise to splits in
their ranks. They convened what is known in Christian history
as the Council of Seleucia 410 A. D. only a year after Yezde-
zard's recognising the Church as the official representative of
the Christians. When the Gorgon raised its head in peril
against his ancestral creed, Yezdezard's eyes were opened to
the reality of the situation, and he went over to the other
extreme — harrassment first and perseution then. He despoiled
his connections with the Christians now as he had done those
with the Persians by countering the progress of Zoroastriccnism
already set afoot by his predecessors. Death saved him how-
ever, from further ignominy. Firdausi has some very chastising
remarks about the concluding period of his rule. "Perhaps
truth is only the common denominator of our delusions, and
certainty is an error in which all men agree.", says a
celebrated American philosopher; Yezdezard wavered
between the uncertainties of beliefs so that once it is stated
he thought of being baptised; but at last the belief born of
his blood supervened and he paid back when it was too
late to forgive him. How repentant must be thus, the hearts
of converts from one faith into another!
BEHRAM GOOR AND THE ROMANS
His successor Behrcrm Goor had to start a war with the
Romans which had temporarily closed in the previous reign,
only because the legacy left by Yezdezard compelled Behrcrm
to be more vigilant if not actually tyrranous towards Chris-
tians. When some of the Christians crossed over to the
territories of Rome as religious refugees the Romans found
a justifiable reason to declare war upon Persia, also with the
ulterior object of re-gaining their lost possessions when the
great Shahpoor ruled and fought. In the fight that ensued
the Christians began to gain an ascendancy, so that a
balanced equity was brought about between the rival creeds
by a peace that allowed freedom to both on the side of their
opposite.
23
Immediately thereafter, the Eastern and the Western
Church, that had fallen foul of each other so far resolved
to close up their ranks, and accordingly in A. D. 424 a
Council of Dad-Ishu was held to dissolve the ecclesistical
differences. The object of such conferences was always at
bottom to disenchain the Christians from the loyalty and
obedience they owed to the Persians, in which the Romans
very well utilised the Christians for their political ends.
It was a war of ideas that was raging between Persia
and Rome; and in the fulness of God's wisdom, human society
has been so organised that sensation at one or the
other stage of our life, refuses to be the test of truth. All
that we know is ideas of our own. We cannot test these by
an external world, for the world too, is made by our own
sensations. "How can we", asks a philosopher, "ever
discover the "object" would look like had it not been forced
to disguise itself into those visual, auditory, tactuory,
olfactory, and gustatory sensations through which alone we
know it?" Everything we suppose is the judge of thought,
and are constructs of thought itself. It is the idea which we
form after combining into an arbitrary and confused mosaic,
the multiple sensations that have come to us so diversely
through our nerves. We put together all our senses and
name the resulting construct this or that. The Zoroastrianism
or the Christianity the two warring parties created, was the
theological substance of their mutual perceptions. Verily,
the only world that exists is the world of Mind, of Ideas:
everything else is a supposition.
CONFLICT OF SUPPOSITIONS
Half the Sassanian period vacated itself in this conflict
of suppositions; idea has a changefulness of nature, and so,
at times some Iranian princes inclined towards Christianity,
and some Roman Christians accepted the Zoroastrian shapes
and forms, which they conceived as in the nature of
Christianity. Peace, therefore, was made between the
24
Persians and the Romans and Mesopotomians to give o
breathing time to both the rival creeds to assess the values
of the two rejuvinated theories of life and belief.
What could Asia not provide by way of diversities of
faiths resolved into a unity? This has been an age-long
persuasion in history. With Persia unified into one imperial
stock under the cementing power of the holy ideology of
Zarathushtra, such opposing unities began to show their
heads against the Sassonions, whom one after the other they
had the clear duty to subdue. Christians, Romans, subdued
or removed from the field of direct opposition, the White
Huns as they were called, — the Haytals, according to the
Sassanians, — crossed the Oxus in 425 A. D. and Behram Goor
armed himself to fight the new peril. They were a combi-
nation of Mongols, Romans, Chinese, with a loose form of
Christ as their basic guide, and general Confucianism as the
theory of life and belief. Behram drove' them away from
across the borders of Oxus, so that at the time of his death,
(A. D. 440) he left the Sassanian empire free from the danger of
the White Huns. He was immortal: Omar-e-Khayyam
properly sings him down to eternity as follows: —
"And Behram, the great Hunter — the Wild Ass., (Goor)
Stamps o'er his head, but cannot break his sleep." With the
accession of Yezdezard II Zoroastrianism definitely turned a
comer towards assumption of complete power over the
bewildering soul of the Sassanian kingdom; it was the stage
of development of Zoroastrianism in the heart of Asia. Ideas
had grown and rendered more solid and ripe in the direction
of Time, Fate governed by the Planets; Zarvane Akome the
eternal Time Yuga of the Aryan concept was concentrating on
the strength of man in the common form of Fatalism — however
passing the phase was. The Mobeds were not free of this
compelling doctrine. So late as the days of Nosherwon,
Buzorjameher used to preach that Fate and man's efforts were
closely linked together and their relations were inalienable.
This ought to rouse the ire of religious opponents like the
Armenians whose leader Eznik, picked up the so-called doc-
25
trine of the Persians — Fatalism — as the degrading force in the
concept of Zoroastrianism. The Mobeds did not found Zoro-
■Qstrianism on the soil of Fatalism, and so an out-cry was
raised that war must be declared upon the Armenians and
their territory must be won back.
DEVOTION TO PEACE
Praise is due to the Sassanian princes for their devotion
to the cause of peace they always emphasised upon. So,
Yezdezard sent Meher Narsi on a mission of peaceful win-
over of the Armenians towards Persia. "Zerwan" said,
Narsi, "is the prime originator of Ahura and Ahrimctn." Even
Tansar said to Jasnaf, king of Tabaristan, almost the same
thing and gave to Time and Fate the power of God= Ahura.
Tansar to Jasnaf: — " A wise man balances between Fate
and Free Will, "and the King of Tabaristan rewarded him for
the truth he uttered. But persuasion failed and battles had to
be fought as a result of which the Christians once again
suffered losses.
The White Huns on one side and the Zoroastrians on the
•other was a situation Phiruz the successor of Yezdezard had to
face on his accession to the throne, A. D. 459. It was not pure
heresy the Persians had to contend against, but rather it was
a cumbrous mixture of Christianity with the Mithraic forms of
Zoroastrianism and even Manicheism. Monasteries flourished
and the vows of poverty were esteemed high. Even the Dinkard
soys, "Wealth is given to assuage the wrongs of suffering
humanity." The Assyrian church was dominated by the
churchmen who devoted themselves to the degradations of
life, such as non-acquisition of material gains lawfully earned,
which is never encouraged by Zoroastrianism. Andarz-e-
Atarpat-e-Maraspand records, "Wealth changes its masters
like a bird that flies from one tree to another, only to leave
that in turn for still another." This will explain how Zoroas-
trion saints and writers and even priests were influenced by
the doctrines which saturated the philosophy of Zoroastrian
life.
26
Phiruz attacked the Huns from Saad-e-Sikondar but he did
not succeed in his plans as well as he did not in his attempt
at propagating Zoroastrianism among the Armenians, and he
died on the battle-plain a martyr to the cause of the faith he
endeared so much, A. D. 483. Volagases his brother could
not hold his own against the Armenians, for the religious
policies themselves were weakening and the orthodox type
of belief had been considerably shaken on the anvil of
combination and agreement between Christianity and Zoroa-
strianism.
Just the same clash of controversies arose between the
sections of Christians as it always happens in the case of
every growing movement — ^political, religious, social. What
is the nature of God? — was the question that demanded
solution from the Church, and while hitherto Zoroastrians had
scrupulously avoided interference with such foreign controver-
sies, the Persia of Phiruz ventured into the sacred precincts
and offered to Christians a solution which was all Zoroastrian.
It was at the last and Fourth Council of the Church held at
Chalcedon, A. D. 451 that Rome was fixed to be the Primate
and God was annointed with two natures. Though the
doctrines at different places such as Persia and Armenia
differed yet all were tinged with increasing influences of
Zoroastrianism. The belief propounded in the sacred scriptures
of the Persians laid down Ahura Mazda as the creator of
Ameshaspandas, His colleagues, such as the Bundahishna.
Zarothushtra received the highest Knowledge by the force of
which neither fire, nor molten metal, nor knife could harm him.
Ormazd was the father of Vohu Mono, who is also the protector
of cattle. Pahalovi Izads, Avestan Yazatas, were the guardian
angels; Farohar Pahalavi, Avestan Fravashi, — These formed
the hieararchy of Zoroastrian theology. They did not offer an
invincible opposition to Christianity, but they presented a
pantheon from whose concept the prevailing Christianity was
not free. Farvardigan observances were cherished with a
religious zest, so that once in 565 when these celebrations
were held in Nisibus in the possession of the Persians, the
'11
Byzantine ambassador was not allowed to enter the town.
Where there are two loosenesses in the two creeds they
become easy bed-fellows.
PROSYLETISATION
Prosyletisation comes on our records as early as
the days of Shahpoor II who with the help of Adar-
bad v/ent in for proselytism, and Dadastane-Hazar-Madigan
provides valuable proof thereof: — " If a Christian slave
embraces the faith of his Zoroastrian master he should be set
free." Meher Narsi on his peace mission to the Armenians
asked Christians to embrace Zoroastrianism : "If you do not
you would be the followers of Ahriman". Albania, Armenia,
Georgia, were full of Judaism and its followers as well as
Christianity — two of the greatest anti-concepts of Zoroastrian-
ism, and yet Zoroastrianism out of the abundance of charity
it had, converted so many of the foes into friends both of the
state and of the religion. Tolerance was the key-note of
Sassanian Zoroastrianism.
This admixture had started so early as the days of the
Achem.enians. Cyrus and Darius are remembered in the
historical accounts of the Jews down till the' present day as
the saviours of their faith, for they allov;-ed them freedom of
worship and even restored Jerusalem to them. How cannot
the traditions of their fore-fathers be followed by the Sassa-
nians? — so that Yezdezard I married a Jewish princess.
Hormazd IV, Naoshirwan and Khusrao Parviz openly supported
and protected the Christians. Nush-Zad the son of Naoshirwan
was actually brought up as a Christian. The diverse sects
of Christianity flourished as time lapsed and Zoroastrians and
Christians became more and more allied together instead of
being alienated. The Dinkard denounced such combinations;
but that is a great ethnological, and racial discussion, which
offers problems of deep thought, and deeper study.
At times the Zoroastrian monarchs entered the religious
disputes of the Chris'icns and helped in enlarging the gulfs of
28
difiesent thinkings amongst the Christians though not inten-
tionally, but in line with the fostered political enmity with the
Romans, e.g., Phiruz helped Bor-Soma the Archbishop of
Nisibus in establishing the doctrine of "two natijres in God",
corresponding with the Zoroastrian faith in Ormazd being the
Creator of both Good and Evil. Phiruz desired a separation
from the Monophysitic Church by the Christians, and so aided
Bor-Soma' s fight against antagonistic theorists. Later, Christian
priests were allowed to marry unlike before, due purely to
the influences of Zoroastrian association, by the Christians.
The eastern half of Rome was monophysitic, from Christian
point of view. Under Justin the Roman monarch, there was a
return to dyophysitic belief. The Persians assisted in the
solutions of the problems facing the Christians. Mar Aba the
great was a Christian convert to Zoroastrianism and he served
as Patriarch. Missions to India and China were led by
Christian Zoroastrians.
ORIGIN OF ST. IVES
History also says that during the 6th century, a Persian
Bishop named Ivon visited England, from whom the term St.
Ives has come. He preached a mixed doctrine of Zoroastrian
Christianity. Just as mendicancy was discouraged according
to Zoroastrianism, idleness was legally punished, under the
Christian code. The Khudai Namak remarks that the
philosophy of justice was adopted as the main political
vocabulary for the guidance of the rulers of the State. The
Shah Nameh bears evidence to the fact that Buzarja Meher
believed in Christianity. He was put to death only for holding
such belief by Naoshirwan's son, Khursrao Parviz to save the
rot that some time had set in due to the influences of the power-
ful antagonist in the State. Yet Khusrao Parviz marries a Chris-
tian wife whom he prosyletised into Zoroastrianism. Even Yez-
dezard who fell at the hand of the Arabs and wandered his last
•days of life and was cruelly murdered by a treacherous foe
was given an honourable burial by Christians at Merv.
29
AFFILIATION BETWEEN THE TWO
The affiliation of Christianity to Zoroastrianism was due-
to the unalterable low of associative influences from which
no religion has escaped during the cycles of human race.
The kernel has remained; the forms hove had an eternal
change — " What? Shall the dateless world in dust be blown?
Back to the un-remembered and un-known,
And this frail Thou — this flame of yesterday —
Burn on forlorn, immortal and alone?"
That was what Mallock sang only half a century ago, and
that has been true of generations since man began to write
the history of man.
Kobad the successor of Phiruz had bitterly Christian
experience at the hand of a communist saint — a complex
of Christ and Plato — not a communism of the Leninist type
revolutionising the Russias of the world, but a sound philo-
sophy of life that, if followed, would certainly, overthrow even
Kobad' s empire; but doctrinally so adaptible io the Christian
necessities of the time, that if Zoroastrianism did not compel
itself to it, it might either have to fight throi^gh to live and
survive or perish. That was Mazdak.
All men are equal in birth and in life. All private
property should be enjoyed by the State to be in possession of
all — even women could not escape common possession of alL
Mazdak added to this his basic principles, the ideas of
abstemiousness and devotion to God; and he held animal
life as sacred investment of God to man. Mazdak captured
the youthful fancy of Kobad, so that he became his disciple-
Mazdak resorted to the practising of magic which he termed to
the ignorant as miracles. A sudden flash of fanaticism
captured the soul of Perski and Mazdak got an ascendancy
which reused fear in the minds of the Zoroastrians who
suspected that again the wroth of Mani had overcome the
senea of Persians, and there would be another convulsion
30
in the State unless immediately handled and Mazdak totally
suppressed. So, Kobad was compelled to give up his official
support to communism newly being preached. The White
Huns having proved a dangerous impediment to the growth
of Zoroastrianism, Kobad lost himself in his handling of the
communist peril.
ENTER— THE ARABS
Meanwhile, the Arabs entered the scene of history, and
■the Christian revival was dangerously jeopardised. That
was so much to the gain of Persia, however costly it ultimately
proved to be. The Saracenes sacrificed 400 nuns to the god-
dess Venus out of rage against idolatry and it sent a thrill of
horror in the universal heart of Christianity. It is note-worthy
in the history of the times that while Zoroastrianism co-
operated at times with Christianity, the Persians under
Sassanian guidance not only opposed but also, fought against
the rising forces of Islam under the leadership of the Arabs.
The Chinese also appear on the theological stage, and there is
Po-sz= Persia, and there are references to Mo-hu-tan =
Mobeds, and to the Towers of Silence where exposure of the
dead is not favoured by the Chinese writers. Kobad = Kavad =
Kcrwat Ku-hwo-tu is held in deep respect.
Zoroastrianism at this time of its radical development
though now no longer attacked, was entering into a phase of
commixed progress. This has happened to all national
developments. But that was the purification of the religion,
and a firmness towards what was recorded to be the m.odern
character of the faith. Naoshirwcm extirpated the creed of
Mazdak, and he realised that any further freedom given to
the new morality of mankind would irretrievably lead to the
down-fall of the empire itself, by withdrawing from the soul
of Persia much that was simple Zoroastrianism on whose
pillars was raised the new fabric of Sassanian comm.on-
wealth.
II
31
With the rapid fall of Rome, Naoshirwan had to face the
crisis of an equally rapid advance of Turkey and Islam.
Mohammed bom in 570 A. D. established a violent doctrine to
change the face of the world. Islam was bom in the deserts
of Arabia with Arab Sabeanism and Judaism as its lawful
parents. Edwin Arnold says that Islam's foster-nurse was
Eastern Christianity. Zoroastrionism was its single dread in
those early days of its birth. There was mutual hatred inbred
in both against each other. Yezdezard II would call the
Moslems "eaters of lizards", out of contempt for their way of
living. Naoshirwan led virulent campaigns of death and
destruction against the Moslems (A.D. 576) and carried fire
and sword into regions as far as Abyssinia. But the new
spirit could hardly be subdued. Persia a riverless desert 10"
in the north, and 5" in the south offered to the Turks a florid
ground for conquest, and as time advanced Islam became as
great a peril to the Zoroastrian Sassanian dynasty as to Roman
Christianity. Just as Sassanian princes have been noted to
have allowed themselves the indulgence of mingling them-
selves with Christianity, there have been also instances in
which some prince or two accorded credence to Islam as
well, for instance, Hormazan a successor of Naoshirwan
is recorded to have embraced Islam. It was
life itself that Islam demanded in the event of
battle, and the decadent period of Sassanian dynasty furnished
instances in which weakness declared itself to be the friend of
the Prince rather than valour of the state as of yore. It was
thus that at the battle of Ram Hormaz, Khaleef Omar the
greatest protagonist of Islam offered to save the Sassanian
Prince's life if only he espoused the doctrine of Mohammed.
When the Prince trembled lest he might be poisoned when
given water, the Khaleef said, "Fear nothing; your life is safe
until you have drunk the water." Kadeseya and then
Nehavand sealed the doom of Iran, and though Islam
supervened the imperial forces of the land yet, with the fall
.•^f Yezdezard, the prosperity of Zoroastrionism did not dim its
lustre.
32
SUBTLE DIFFERENCES
Just as among Christianity there were debates as to the
origin of godhood and about the birth of Christ, there arose
similar subtle differences even among the Zoroastrians of the
later Sassanian existence on the soil of Iran. For example
the Zarvanitism, from Zarvan = time which later migrated to
the west rose higher than the Mithraic cult. It preached Zarvan
to be the prime originator of Ormazd and Ahriman. Also
another example; a sort of mysticism was developed around
the Zoroastrian creed, which is the pinnacle of a faith's esoteric
settlement in the soul of a race. Ardaviraf says, "When
Viraf is taken to Ormazd' s court he hears his voice but sees
him not — eternal, invisible, intangible, omniscient, omnipotent,
creator of good, and merciful." Then there arose classes of
propagators of the doctrine of Avestan Spena Mainyu, and
Pahalccvi Spena Menu as opposed to Gana Menu. Some gave
Evil an independent birth and death, and asserted that Ahri-
man was not created by God. Others did not favour such a
belief. This indicates the full ripeness of development of the
religion of Zorathushtra in the times of the Sassanions. Reli-
gions are born among the poor and die among the rich. The
Persians after Nehavand preserved the faith, in whatever dis-
putatious form you may choose to put it down as.
After the great period of Shahpoor and Naoshirwan, we the
remnants brought the flame here in India and first sowed the
seeds and then developed the tree. We had our lookers at the
back, lookers to the fore, but all the same we maintained the
Sassanian revival. Eckermann says, "The development of hu-
manity seems to be a matter of thousands of years." Goethe
goes one better and unfolds, "Who knows? Perhaps, millions."
There have, been hindrances in our way — these and all kinds of "
distress hove made Zoroastrianism develop its powers. Have
we not seen that in the above historical narration? We are
now effecting a rejuvenated creation — with this Zoroastrianism.
/
The Ethical Conceptions of the Gatha
By
Jatindra Mohon Chatteiji, M.A.
Contents.
(1) Vohu Manah; (2) Vahistem Manah; (3) Haurvtat;
(4) Spenta Manyu; (5) Khshathrem or The Law of
Self Control; (6) Armaiti; (7) Asha— The Path of
Rectitude; (8) Seraoshem — Path of Theology; (9) Ame-
retat; (10) Importance of Gatha as a Scripture of
National India. Also two additional chapters,
(1) Avasta or The Fifth Veda and (2) Suphism— The
Path of Sabas.
2nd Revised Edition. 597 Pages Rs. 2-4-0
CULTS AND LEGENDS
OF
Ancient Iran and Cliina
By Late Sir J. C. COYAJEE Kt.
"We have to be extremely thankful to Sir J. C.
Coyajee for this fine publication, because he undoub-
tedly pushes the research of the Iranian myth and
legends a great step forward" Prof. J. Rypka.
Demi Octavo. 308 Pages Rs. 3-8-0
JEHANGIR B. KARANl'S SONS
Booksellers, Publishers, Printers,
12B, Sir P. Mehta Road, Fort, Bombay.
ESTD. 1898
n
