FARGARD XXI.
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The Zend Avesta, Part I (SBE04), James Darmesteter, tr. [1880], at sacred-texts.com
Waters and Light.
I (1). Praise of the holy bull.
II (2-3). Invocation addressed to rain as a healing power.
III a (4-7). Joint invocation addressed to the waters and to the light of the sun.
III b (8-11). Joint invocation addressed to the waters and to the light of the moon.
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III c (12-17). Joint invocation addressed to the waters and to the light of the stars.
IV (18-21). Spells against disease.
I.
1. Hail, holy bull 1! Hail to thee, beneficent bull! Hail to thee, who makest increase! Hail to thee, who makest growth! Hail to thee, who dost bestow thy gifts upon the excellent faithful, and who wilt bestow them on the faithful yet unborn! Hail to thee, whom the Gahi kills 2, and the ungodly Ashemaogha, and the wicked tyrant.
II.
2 (3). 'Come, come on, O clouds, along the sky, through the air, down on the earth, by thousands of drops, by myriads of drops:' thus say, O holy Zarathustra! ‘to destroy sickness altogether, to destroy death altogether, to destroy altogether the sickness made by the Gaini 3, to destroy altogether the death made by the Gaini, to destroy altogether Gadha and Apagadha 4.
3 (9). ‘If death come at eve, may healing come at daybreak!
‘If death come at daybreak, may healing come at night!
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‘If death come at night, may healing come at dawn!
‘Let showers shower down new waters, new earth, new trees, new health, and new healing powers.
III a.
4 (15). ‘As the sea Vouru-kasha is the gathering place of waters 1, rise up, go up the aerial way and go down on the earth; go down on the earth and go up the aerial way 2. Rise up and roll along! thou in whose rising and growing Ahura Mazda made the aerial way 3.
5 (20). ‘Up! rise up and roll along! thou swift-horsed sun, above Hara Berezaiti, and produce light for the world (and mayst thou O man! rise up there, if thou art to abide in Garô-nmânem 4) 5, along the path made by Mazda, along the way made by the gods, the watery way they opened.
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6 (23). ‘And thou shalt keep away the evil by this holy spell 1: Of thee O child! I will cleanse the birth and growth; of thee O woman! I will make the body and the strength pure; I make thee a woman rich in children and rich in milk;
7 (27). ‘A woman 2 rich in seed, in milk, in fat, in marrow, and in offspring. I shall make for thee a thousand springs flow and run towards the pastures that will give food to the child.
III b.
8 (30). ‘As the sea Vouru-kasha is the gathering place of waters, rise up, go up the aerial way, and go down on the earth; go down on the earth and go up the aerial way, Rise up and roll along! thou in whose rising and growing Ahura Mazda made the earth 3.
9 (31). ‘Up! rise up, thou moon, that dost keep in thee the seed of the bull 4, rise up above Hara Berezaiti, and produce light for the world (and mayst thou O man! rise up there, if thou art to
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abide in Garô-nmânem), along the path made by Mazda, along the way made by the gods, the watery way they opened.
10 (32). ‘And thou shalt keep away the evil by this holy spell: Of thee O child! I will cleanse the birth and growth; of thee O woman! I will make the body and the strength pure; I make thee a woman rich in children and rich in milk;
11 (32). ‘A woman rich in seed, in milk, in fat, in marrow, and in offspring. I shall make for thee a thousand springs flow and run towards the pastures that will give food to the child.
III c.
12 (32). ‘As the sea Vouru-kasha is the gathering place of waters, rise up, go up the aerial way, and go down on the earth; go down on the earth and go up the aerial way. Rise up and roll along! thou in whose rising and growing Ahura Mazda made everything grow 1.
13 (33). ‘Up! rise up, ye stars, that have in you the seed of waters 2, rise up above Hara Berezaiti, and produce light for the world (and mayst thou O man! rise up there, if thou art to abide in Garô-nmânem), along the path made by Mazda, along the way made by the gods, the watery way they opened.
14 (34). ‘And thou shalt keep away the evil by this holy spell: Of thee O child! I will cleanse the birth and growth; of thee O woman! I will make
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the body and the strength pure; I make thee a woman rich in children and rich in milk;
15 (34). ‘A woman rich in seed, in milk, in fat, in marrow, and in offspring. I shall make for thee a thousand springs flow and run towards the pastures that will give food to the child.
16(34). ‘As the sea Vouru-kasha is the gathering place of waters, rise up and gather together, go up the aerial way and go down on the earth; go down on the earth and go up the aerial way. Rise up and roll along!
17 (35). ‘Up! rise up! away will the Kahvuzi 1 fly and cry, away will Ayêhi 2 fly and cry, away will the Gahi, who is addicted to the Yâtu, fly and cry.
IV.
18. [‘I drive away Ishirê, I drive away Aghûirê, I drive away Aghra, I drive away Ughra; I drive away sickness, I drive away death, I drive away pain and fever; I drive away Sârana, I drive away Sârasti, I drive away Azana, I drive away Azahva, I drive away Kurugha, I drive away Azivâka, I drive away Duruka, I drive away Astairya; I drive away the disease, rottenness, and infection which Angra Mainyu has created by his witchcraft against the bodies of mortals.
19. ‘I drive away all manner of diseases and deaths, all the Yâtus and Pairikas, and all the wicked Gainis.
20. ‘May the much-desired Airyaman come here, for the men and women of Zarathustra to rejoice, for the faithful to rejoice; with the desirable reward
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that is won by means of the law, and with that boon for holiness that is vouchsafed by Ahura!
21. ‘May the much-desired Airyaman smite all manner of diseases and deaths, all the Yâtus and Pairikas, and all the wicked Gainis.
22. ‘Yathâ ahû vairyô:--the will of the Lord . . . 1.
‘Kem nâ mazdâ:--whom hast thou placed to protect me . . . 1?
‘Ke verethrem gâ:--who is he who will smite the fiend . . . 1?
23. 'Keep us from our hater, O Mazda and Ârmaiti Spenta! Perish, O fiendish Drug! Perish, O brood of the fiend! Perish, O world of the fiend! Perish away, O Drug! Perish, away to the regions of the north, never more to give unto death the living world of the holy spirit!']
Footnotes
224:1 The primeval bull who was created by Ormazd and killed by Ahriman with the help of the Gahi. The praise of the holy bull serves as an introduction to the praise of the waters. There were old myths in which a cloud was compared to a bull in the atmosphere, from whom rain was supposed to come. (See Orm. Ahr. § 122 seq.; cf. Introd. V, 5. Clause 1 is to be recited when one meets an ox or any kind of cattle, Gr. Rav. 386.)
224:2 Possibly, 'who dost kill the Gahi' (by means of gômêz).
224:3 The Gahi (see Farg. XX, 10) as bringing sickness (cf. Farg. VII, 59).
225:1 Waters and light are believed to flow from the same spring and in the same bed: 'As light rises up from Hara Berezaiti [Alborz, the mountain by which the earth is surrounded], so waters spring up from it and come back to it' (Bund. XX); every day the sun, moon, and stars rise up from Alborz, and every day all the waters on the earth come back together to the sea Vouru-kasha, and there collected come down again to the earth from the peaks of Alborz (Bund. VII, Gr. Rav. 431; cf. Farg. V, 15 seq.) As light comes from three different sources, the sun, the moon, and the stars, the waters are invoked three times, first in company with the sun, then with the moon, lastly with the stars, as if there should be three different movements of the rain connected with the three movements of light.
225:2 Waters come down from the sky to the earth and come up back from the earth to the sky (see Farg. V, 15 seq.)
225:4 'If thou art a righteous man' (Comm.)
225:5 The translation of this clause is doubtful.
226:1 Doubtful; the text is corrupt. The spell refers to the cleansing and generative power of the waters; cf. the invocation to Ardvî Sûra, Farg. VII, 16: the waters are supposed to make females fertile as they make the earth. This spell was probably pronounced to facilitate childbirth.
226:2 Or better, 'a female;' there are, in the text, two words for 'milk,' the one referring to the milk of women, the other to the milk of cows.
226:4 When the bull died, 'what was bright and strong in his seed was brought to the sphere of the moon, and when it was cleansed there in the light of the astre, two creatures were shaped with it, a male and a female, from which came two hundred and seventy-two kinds of animals' (Bund. IV, X; cf. Orm. Ahr. §§ 125 and 127).
227:2 When Tistrya, the storm god who gives rain, became a star (see Introd. IV, 36), it was thought that there was a relation between the stars and rain.
228:1 'He who diminishes light, Ahriman' (Comm.)
228:2 'Sterility, Ahriman' (Comm.)
229:1 As in preceding Fargard, § 13.
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