Author Information

The author of this book, Maganlal A. Buch, was a fellow of the Seminar for Comparative Study of Religions in Baroda (a former independent state of modern India during British control of India). This book was completed in the year 1919.

General Thoughts

I felt that this book gave a very good overview of the philosophy and mentality of the Zoroastrian religion and how it has evolved to the present day. This book is part of a series that seeks to compare and contrast different religions and their effects on society and civilization as a whole. I was very pleased with the detail of information as well the concise nature of the work. However I do feel that the Iranian Zoroastrian community was not involved in this work as all references to modern day Zoroastrians were to the Parsi community in India.

Zoroastrian Texts discussed in the Book

Old Persian Period

Avestan (i.e. Yasna, Gathas, Visperad, Yashta, Vendidad)

Although major sections of this text were destroyed during Alexander's conquest of the Acheamenid Persian Empire it still partially survives in the partitioned sections of the Yasna, Gathas, Visperad, Yashta, and the Vendidad. These writings belong to the Old Persian period and the Gathas may even predate the expansion of Aryan tribes to much of modern day Iran.

Middle Persian Period(i.e. Pahlavi, Parthian)

Andarz-i Atrepat-i Maraspandan

Written during the time of Hormazd Shapur, the grandson of the founder of the Sassanid Dynasty.

Arda-Viraf

Written in the 5th or 6th century A.D. This book gives a description of Heaven and Hell.

Ganj-i-Shayigan

Written during the rule of Noshirwan around 505 A.D., by his minister Vizorg-Meher. It distinguishes between permanent and temporary wealth and the path towards happiness.

Dinai-Menuki-i-Khrat

Written in the 6th century A.D. this text contains questions and answers on religion.

Shayast-la-Shayast

This text contains miscellaneous laws and customs regarding sin, impurities and religious ceremonies. It was probably written before the Muslim conquest (A.D. 636-651).

Shikand-Gumanik Vijar

Written towards the end of the 9th century A.D., this work attempts to prove that good and evil do not come from the same source and criticizes Christianity, Judaism, and Manichaenism.

Dinkard

Translating into “Acts of Religion”, this text is perhaps the greatest work on the Zoroastrian religion during the Middle Persian period. It was compiled by a high-priest during the 9th century and is a large collection of information regarding doctrines, costumes, traditions, and literature of the religion.

Dadistan-i-Dinik

Written some years before 881 A.D., this text contains 92 questions on religious subjects answered by a high priest.

Epistles of Manushchihar

Written around 881 A.D., this work gives some information about worshippers at the time.

Bundahishin

This text deals with the theory of an origin to existence, mythology, eschatology of the Zoroastrian faith and was written around 886 A.D.

Aiyadgari-i-Zariran

Translating in to “The memoir of Zarir” this text is referred in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh as a book that was created by a man from the Dehkan family who was fond of history who called upon old Mobeds from all over Iran to recite all their historical knowledge and this book is the collection of all those stories.

Bahman Yasht

Written after the Arab invasion of Iran, this book professes to be a conversation between Ahura Mazda and Zoroaster (Zartosht) about the future of the Iranian nation.

Desutir

A collection of different Persian prophets who flourished from the time of Mahabad to the 5th Sassan. Written in a language different from Avestan or Pahlavi.

Modern Persian

Sad-dar

Written in modern Persian during the 1st part of the 16th century this book deals with various religious duties and customs. It could potentially be derived from works much earlier than the 16th century.

Claims Made in the Book

• During the Gathic Age (around 1000 B.C.) Zoroastrianism was not fully integrated into Iranian(Aryan) society until the Avestan Period, beginning around 800 B.C. During the Gathic Age Cattle-breeding was very important and mentioned often in religious texts as it appears to have been the main occupation of most people. Later during the Avestan period agriculture became more important in religious writings, which seems to indicate the evolution of the Iranian civilization.
• The dog was highly regarded, perhaps more so than any other religion on the planet, most likely because of its important role in protecting cattle and flocks. Severe punishment was applied to people who hurt or killed dogs, even death in some cases.
• During the Avestan period society was divided into five sections: the family, the village, the town, the district, and the province. The family was the unit of society, not the individual.
• The rise and growth of Zoroastrianism was not entirely peaceful. From the beginning a constant warfare waged between the Zoroastrians and the non-Zoroastrians.
• After the height of the Acheamenid Empire the Persians began to deteriorate under the influences of luxurious life. (I definitely agree, just look at the shahs of sunset)
• There is much evidence in favor of the view that the Zoroastrians believed in the pre-existence of the soul.
• There is a distinction between Zoroastrianism and other religions, particularly jewish ones such as Christianity. This distinction is that in Zoroastrianism love is not the central principle of ethics, but rather wisdom, which inevitably leads to good judgements and good morality.
• Zoroastrianism preaches that “Life itself is a good thing and the longer it is the better.”
• Zoroastrianism promoted marriage and the birth of many children.“..a life of poverty and celibacy and renunciation is very remote from the Zoroastrian ideal.” Zoroastrianism emphasis life and activity, upon worldly goods, upon agriculture and economic goods, upon marriage and the possession of wife and children.
• The Vendidad mentions that girls could marry from the age of 15. Yet it is also clear that “very often the parents or guardians arranged the marriage affair. Women sometimes took the initiative in the matter”.
• In Zoroastrianism women are entitled both to receive the highest education and impart it.
• Interestingly enough in the Vendidad, the book which describes many of the laws of Ancient Iran, the punishment for the murder of a water-dog was far more sever than that of the murder of a man. The homicide was punished with 90 strikes of the whip while the water-dog murder was punished with 10,000 strikes. Most likely there is some detail that was lost in translation or not recorded.
• “The utilitarian genius of the Iranians instinctively avoided all attempts to adumbrate pure abstractions and thus evolved a view which is essentially practical. There is no mysticism, no attempt to fathom the deeper and darker shadows of life, no flight to clutch at the transcendental. Dr. Dhalla says 'Religion should be such that its ideals can be applied to our work-a-day world. Its teachings should be applicable to the exigencies of daily life.....This is the characteristic of Zoroastrianism through its very simplicity'.”

Fascinating Quotes

• “Man has the power of governing himself, the power denied to other creatures. This capacity, vouchsafed as a distinctive gift to all human beings, of initiating either good or evil actions, at one's own will, creates in man a sense of moral responsibility. In our view thus alone ethics becomes possible.”
• “Every Zoroastrian necessarily believes in the ultimate triumph of the good.....The system is the outcome of the robust irrepressible optimism of the Iranian mind. It can be broadly distinguished from the views of certain thinkers, chiefly Easter, who have considered life as radically and unalterably evil......The Iranian life is filled with bright hopes both for life here and hereafter, and salvation...”
• “The first footstep is the good though, the second is good word, and the third is good deed.”
• “The eightfold path which Gautama Buddha preached as a way to the extinction of suffering is more or less an expansion of the Zoroastrian formula: Right Faith, Right Resolve, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Living, Right Effort, Right Thought, Right Self-concentration.”
• “According to Herodotus to speak the truth and bend the bow constituted the most essential parts of the Iranian education”
• “Herodotus says the ancient Persians had no markets, because these would lead to the practice of deceit.”
• From the Ganji-Shayigan, “A man should 'spend a third portion (of a day) in eating his food, indulging in sports and enjoying rest'”.
• Here is a an interesting passage from the Sad-dar, “An endeavor should be made to kill noxious creatures and reptiles from the earth. Among these especially the frog in the water, the snake and the scorpion, the ant and the mouse should be destroyed”
• The Vendidad describes the importance of the dog, “But the animal which required particularly good treatment was the dog, because he afforded a very valuable protection to one's property against thieves....Very heavy punishments are inflicted on those who killed or injured a dog.”
• From the Dinkard, “...one should not be idle....From diligence arises skillfulness and ultimately prosperity and power...Idleness should be swept out of the world.”
• From the Dinkard, “If an any place holy men find it very injurious and hurtful (to speak the truth), still it (the truth) must be spoken. And, if at any place, holy men should find untruth very convenient and beneficial, still it must never, at any time, be spoken....One's own tongue should not be trained to be polite to (serve) falsehood.”
• From the Sad-dar, “One truthful man is better than the whole world speaking false-hood.”
• This quote from the Vendidad gives a sense of the importance of cleanliness, “Further, such sacred elements as fire and water should not be polluted through contact with impure things such as a dead body. The earth must not be rendered unclean and for this reason dead bodies should not be buried nor burnt....The bodies of the dead should be set down on a place, where they know there are always corpse-eating dogs, and corpse-eating birds”
• The Dinkard also describes the importance of house and village cleanliness, “People should be admonished to remove to a distance from the house, dirt arising from keeping birds, sheep and goats...”
• Written in the Vendidad, “Sometimes it is not love or sentiment but practical necessity which dictates marriage by way of atoning for certain transgressions.”
• “...a husband should posses beauty, strength, virility, energy, swiftness, tallness, bright clear eyes, long arms and small heels....The quality most essential in a bridge was...chaste before marriage,..purity, good birth, a strong body, a beautiful form, a tall stature, a well-shaped breast, a slender waist....”
• “Choose a wife who is of character; because that one is good who in the end is more respected.”
• The Sad-dar gives a submissive tone to the character of woman, “She should ford her arms and say to her husband, 'What are thy thoughts so that I may think them; what is necessary for thee, so that I may speak it; and what is necessary for thee so that I may do it?'”
• The Vendidad writes against the act of sex on a menstruating woman, “Sexual intercourse with a woman in her menses is much condemned. When a man has intercourse with a woman who has the whites or sees the blood, he becomes a Peshotanu.”
• In the Sad-dar, the act of homosexual sex is considered the greatest of all sins, “...it is proper to call those who commit it worthy of death in reality.”
• There are some contradictory views on the practice of marrying first cousins, “Louis H. Gray thus summarizes the situation,-- 'Pure Zoroastrians never advocated it; it was practiced by non-Zoroastrian Persians; it was advocated by at least during the Sassanian and early Arab periods by a Magianized priesthood.'”
• There are some contradictions with Christian teachings as far as giving to all the needy. In the Sad-dar Zoroastrianism advocates giving to the worthy, but does not approve of any help to the unworthy, “I have created the heaven of heavens for the sake of any of the liberal who provide for the worthy and give them something; and gloomy hell is for all those persons who give anything to the unworthy.”
• From the Dinkard, “To make an enemy a friend; to make a wicked man holy; to make an ill-formed man wise are amongst the greatest functions of men.”
• The Dadistan-i-Dinik has the reverse version of the famous Christian saying 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you.', “That nature only is good when it shall not do unto another whatever is not good for its own self.”
• A teaching against keeping too much wealth for oneself in the Avestan, “The soul of a man was stretched upon a rock, because he had 'collected much wealth and he consumed it not himself, and neither gave it, nor allowed a share to the good; but kept it in store'.”
• From the Dinkard, “From greediness arises corruption perplexity and evil heart...That man has the worst desires, who thinks it right to amass the riches of this world.”
• From the Andarz-i Atrepat-i Maraspandan early child education is encourage, “If you have a son send him to school from his early years, for education is the life-giving eye of man”
• From the Dinkard, “From good knowledge arises good wisdom, and from good wisdom arises good disposition, and from good disposition arises good nature, and from good nature arises righteous action and by righteous action the druj (evil) will be dispelled from the world......The source of all morality is wise knowledge and of wise knowledge divine wisdom; and God is the originator of divine wisdom in Creation...Education is the life of mankind.”
• “He who is a good-tempered man, when he drinks wine, is such like as a gold or silver cup which, however much more they burn it, becomes purer and brighter....And he who is a bad-tempered man, when he drinks wine, thinks and considers himself more than ordinary.”
• This quote from the Gathas emphasis the importance of self-control, “A man should not submit to bodily desires”.
• The Dinkard also describes the qualities of a good King, “A king should posses certain good qualities. He must be of good religion; he must be a man of good conscience; he must posses forbearance, love of his subjects, cheerfulness of heart, simplicity. He should look to the prosperity of his subjects, promote the worthy and punish the wicked, do justice to people in open courts and above all follow the will of God.”
• From the Sad-dar, “If a person willfully carries dead matter to water and fire, he is worthy of death.”
• In the Vendidad, “The man who has eaten of the carcase of a dog or a man is unclean for ever.”
• The supremacy of Ahura Mazda (translates to 'Wise Lord') is seen in the Yasna, “He has no beginning and no end...He is the discerning arbiter.....He is the same now and for ever.”
• The comparison between destiny and the choices in the life and described in the Dadistani-dinik, “There are some things through action...that life, wife and child, authority and wealth are through destiny and the righteousness and the wickedness of priesthood, warfare, and husbandry are through action.”
• The Dinkard also describes the ultimate cleansing of evil souls, “It is true that the evil souls will be tried at the time of final collective judgement and required to go through blazing fire. But this is the cleansing process for them and it will lead to their purification. Then Ahura Mazda will at last take back to Himself all the creatures that are created by Him”.

Final Thoughts

This book was a surprise to me. I did not expect such detailed information from such a small book. But in the end I found it a pleasure to read and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning about the Zoroastrian religion. I do think however more could have been written about the comparisons of Zoroastrian philosophy with that of other religions, and furthermore the effects of the religion on the Persian population throughout various time periods. It seems to me that the Avestan period was the height of the religion, which also corresponded with the height of the Acheamenid Persian Empire. However it is important to note that even with the fall of the Acheamenid empire by Alexander and the fall of the Sassanid Empire by the Arabs Zoroastrianism never quite disappeared, although there were plenty of converts after both collapses. But perhaps more importantly this book reveals the quite ancient origin of the religion with its focus on the importance of shepherd dogs, cattle, and sanitization. I am not sure what the original motivation of this book was. It was part of a series to understand the social effects of religion, but why was this done? I can only assume it was to possibly come up with a foundation for a new better religion, or perhaps to question the need for one in an industrializing India. I personally believe that religions cannot survive in the modern era because modern complexities cannot be simplified into basic laws for people to follow, but if you happen to live in a rural area with plenty of farmland I can see doctrines like this being able to manage a civilization for some time. That being said, the Zoroastrian motive of "Good Thoughts, Good Deeds, Good Words" will always be applicable to civilized life.