FARGARD XXII.
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The Zend Avesta, Part I (SBE04), James Darmesteter, tr. [1880], at sacred-texts.com
Angra Mainyu creates 99,999 diseases: Ahura Mazda applies for healing to the holy word and to Airyaman.
Airyaman is an old Indo-Iranian god: in the Rig-veda he is an Âditya (Aryaman), who is seldom invoked alone, but nearly always in company with Mitra and Varuna. His name, like Mitra's, means, 'the friend,' and, like Mitra, he is the god of heavenly light, kind, beneficent, and helpful to man.
In the Avesta the word Airyaman has the same meaning as in the Veda; but the character of the god is more fully developed, and whereas he has no distinct personality in the Vedic hymns, he appears here in the character of a healing god, which is derived in a very natural manner from his primitive and general character.
Airyaman abides in a mansion called the mansion of Airyaman (Airyamnô nmânem), which is the same as 'the bright mansion in
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which Mitra, Aryaman, Varuna abide,' according to the Vedas, that is to say, the sky. In later Parsism, Airyaman appears as 'the Ized of Heaven 1.'
This Fargard is unfinished or, more correctly, the end of it is understood. Airyaman, called out from his mansion, comes and digs nine furrows. It is no doubt in order to perform the Barashnûm 2 or some ceremony of that kind, in order to cleanse the unclean, that is to say, the sick man 3, and to restore him to health by virtue of the Nirang and of the holy word. The Fargard ends therefore with spells against sickness and against death.
I.
[1. Ahura Mazda spake unto Spitama Zarathustra, saying: ‘I, Ahura Mazda, the Maker of all good things, when I made this mansion 4, the beautiful, the shining, seen afar (there may I go up, there may I pass!)
2 (5). ‘Then the ruffian looked at me 5; the ruffian Angra Mainyu, the deadly, wrought by his witchcraft nine diseases, and ninety, and nine hundred, and nine thousand, and nine times ten thousand diseases. So mayst thou heal me, O Mãthra Spenta 6, thou most glorious one!
3 (8). ‘Unto thee will I give in return a thousand fleet, swift-running steeds; offer them up 7 as a sacrifice unto the good Saoka 8, made by Mazda and holy.
‘Unto thee will I give in return a thousand fleet,
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high-humped camels; offer them up as a sacrifice unto the good Saoka, made by Mazda and holy.
4 (12). ‘Unto thee will I give in return a thousand brown oxen that do not push 1; offer them up as a sacrifice unto the good Saoka, made by Mazda and holy.
‘Unto thee will I give in return a thousand young of all species of small cattle; offer them up as a sacrifice unto Saoka, made by Mazda and holy.
5 (16). ‘And I will bless thee with the fair, holy blessing-spell, the friendly, holy blessing-spell, that makes the empty swell to fulness and the full to overflowing, that comes to help him who was sickening, and makes the sick man sound again.
6 (20). 'Mãthra Spenta, the all-glorious, replied unto me: "How shall I heal thee? How shall I drive away from thee those nine diseases, and those ninety, those nine hundred, those nine thousand, and those nine times ten thousand diseases?"'
II.
7 (22). The Maker Ahura Mazda called for Nairyô-sangha 2: Go thou, Nairyô-sangha, the herald, and drive towards the mansion of Airyaman, and speak thus unto him:
8 (23). Thus speaks Ahura Mazda, the Holy One, unto thee: ‘I, Ahura Mazda, the Maker of all good things when I made this mansion, the
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beautiful, the shining, seen afar (there may I go up, there may I pass!)
9 (24). ‘Then the ruffian looked at me; the ruffian Angra Mainyu, the deadly, wrought by his witchcraft nine diseases, and ninety, and nine hundred, and nine thousand, and nine times ten thousand diseases. So mayst thou heal me, O Airyaman, the much-desired!
10 (26). ‘Unto thee will I give in return a thousand fleet, swift-running steeds; offer them up as a sacrifice unto the good Saoka, made by Mazda and holy.
‘Unto thee will I give in return a thousand fleet, high-humped camels; offer them up as a sacrifice unto the good Saoka, made by Mazda and holy.
11 (30). ‘Unto thee will I give in return a thousand brown oxen that do not push; offer them up as a sacrifice unto the good Saoka, made by Mazda and holy.
‘Unto thee will I give in return a thousand young of all species of small cattle; offer them up as a sacrifice unto the good Saoka, made by Mazda and holy.
12 (34). 'And I will bless thee with the fair, holy blessing-spell, the friendly, holy blessing-spell, that makes the empty swell to fulness and the full to overflowing, that comes to help him who was sickening, and makes the sick man sound again.'
III.
13 (38). In obedience to Ahura's words he went, Nairyô-sangha, the herald; he drove towards the mansion of Airyaman, he spake unto Airyaman, saying:
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14 (38). Thus speaks Ahura Mazda, the Holy One, unto thee: ‘I, Ahura Mazda, the Maker of all good things, when I made this mansion, the beautiful, the shining, seen afar (there may I go up, there may I pass!)
15 (39). ‘Then the ruffian looked at me; the ruffian Angra Mainyu the deadly, wrought by his witchcraft nine diseases, and ninety, and nine hundred, and nine thousand, and nine times ten thousand diseases. So mayst thou heal me, O Airyaman, the much-desired!
16 (40). ‘Unto thee will I give in return a thousand fleet, swift-running steeds; offer them up as a sacrifice unto the good Saoka, made by Mazda and holy.
‘Unto thee will I give in return a thousand fleet, high-humped camels; offer them up as a sacrifice unto the good Saoka, made by Mazda and holy.
17 (44). ‘Unto thee will I give in return a thousand brown oxen that do not push; offer them up as a sacrifice unto the good Saoka, made by Mazda and holy.
‘Unto thee will I give in return a thousand young of all species of small cattle; offer them up as a sacrifice unto the good Saoka, made by Mazda and holy.
18 (48). 'And I will bless thee with the fair, holy blessing-spell, the friendly, holy blessing-spell, that makes the empty swell to fulness and the full to overflowing, that comes to help him who was sickening, and makes the sick man sound again.'
IV.
19 (52). Quickly was it done, nor was it long, eagerly set off the much-desired Airyaman, towards
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the mountain of the holy questions 1, towards the forest of the holy questions.
20 (54). Nine stallions brought he with him, the much-desired Airyaman 2.
Nine camels brought he with him, the much desired Airyaman.
Nine bulls brought he with him, the much desired Airyaman.
Nine head of small cattle brought he with him, the much-desired Airyaman.
He brought with him the nine twigs 3; he drew along nine furrows 4.
[21 5. ‘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 Sârastya, 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.
22. ‘I drive away all manner of diseases and deaths, all the Yâtus and Pairikas, and all the wicked Gainis.
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23. ‘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 that is won by means of the law, and with that boon for holiness that is vouchsafed by Ahura.
24. ‘May the much-desired Airyaman smite all manner of diseases and deaths, all the Yâtus and Pairikas, and all the wicked Gainis.
25. ‘Yathâ ahû vairyô:--the will of the Lord is the law of holiness; the riches of Vohu-manô shall be given to him who works in this world for Mazda, and wields according to the will of Ahura the power he gave him to relieve the poor.
‘Kem nâ mazdâ:--whom hast thou placed to protect me, O Mazda! while the hate of the fiend is grasping me? Whom but thy Âtar and Vohu-manô, by whose work the holy world goes on? Reveal to me the rules of thy law!
‘Ke verethrem gâ:--who is he who will smite the fiend in order to maintain thy ordinances? Teach me clearly thy rules for this world and for the next, that Sraosha may come with Vohu-manô and help whomsoever thou pleasest.
'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
230:2 See Farg. IX; cf. infra, § 20, n.
230:4 'The Garotman' (Comm.), paradise.
230:5 And cast on me the evil eye; 'it was by casting the evil eye on the good creatures of Ormazd that Ahriman corrupted them' (Eznig, Refutatio Haeresiarum II).
230:7 Possibly, 'I offer them up as a sacrifice.'
230:8 An incarnation of weal; here invoked as procuring health.
231:1 Possibly, 'in which there is no blemish.'
231:2 The messenger of Ahura Mazda. He was originally the same as the Vedic Narâ-sansa, a name of Agni, chiefly as the sacrificial fire, that is, as the messenger that goes from the heavens to the earth, and from the earth to the heavens. Mazdeism still knows that he is a form of Âtar, the Fire (Yasna XVII. 11 [68]).
234:1 The mountain where 'the holy conversations' between Ormazd and Zoroaster took place (cf. Farg. XIX, 11, and Introd. 40).
234:2 According to Aspendiârji, 'He brought with him the strength of nine stallions,' to infuse it into the sick man (cf. Yasht VIII, 2 4).
234:3 That is to say, 'the nine-knotted stick' (Asp.; cf. Farg. IX, 14).
234:4 To perform the Barashnûm, 'the great service of the Nirang-Dîn, through which all evil, moral and natural, including evil passions, disease, and death will be removed' (Wilson, The Parsi Religion, p. 341).
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