Yasna XIII. Invocations and Dedications

The Zend Avesta, Part III (SBE31), L.H. Mills, tr. [1886], at sacred-texts.com

YASNA XIII (SP. XIV).

INVOCATIONS AND DEDICATIONS.

1. I address (my invocation to) Ahura Mazda. And I invoke (among guardian beings) the chief ³ of

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the house-lord, and the chief of the Vîs-lord ¹, and the chief of the Zantu-lord ². And I invoke the chief of the province-lord ³. And the chief of women I invoke, the Mazdayasnian Faith, the blessed and good Parendi ⁴, her who is the holy one of human-kind ⁵. And I invoke this (holy) earth which bears us.

2. And I invoke the friendly and most helpful person's ⁶ lord, the Fire of Ahura Mazda, and also the most energetic lords of holy men, those who are most strenuous ⁷ in their care of cattle and the fields, and the chief of the thrifty tiller of the earth. And I invoke the steady settler ⁸ of sanctity, (and) the chief of the charioteer.

3. And I invoke the chief of the fire-priest by means of the most imposing sciences of the Mazdayasnian Faith. And I invoke the chief of the Âtharvan, and his pupils I invoke; yea, the lords of each of them. I invoke these lords, and I summon the Bountiful Immortals here, and the Prophets who shall serve us, the wisest as they are, the most scrupulous

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in their exactness (as) they utter words (of doctrine and of service), the most devoted (to their duties likewise), and the most glorious in their thoughts (?) ¹. And I invoke the most imposing forces of the Mazdayasnian Faith, and the fire-priests I invoke, and the charioteers, the warriors, and the thrifty tillers of the soil.

4. And to You, O Ye Bountiful Immortals! Ye who rule aright, and dispose (of all) aright, I offer the flesh of my very frame, and all the blessings of my life.

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Thus ² the two spirits ³ thought, thus they spoke, and thus they did;

5. And therefore as Thou, O Ahura Mazda! didst think, speak, dispose, and do all things good (for us), so to Thee would we give, so would we assign to Thee our homage; so would we worship Thee with our sacrifices. So would we bow before Thee with these gifts, and so direct our prayers to Thee with confessions of our debt.

6. By the kinship of the good kindred ⁴, by that of Righteousness the good (Thy righteous servant's nature) would we approach Thee, and by that of the good thrift-law, and of Piety the good.

7. And we would worship the Fravashi of the Kine of blessed gift ⁵, and that of the holy Gaya Maretan, and we would worship the holy Fravashi ⁶

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of Zarathustra Spitâma, the saint. Yea, that one of beings do we worship whose better (service) in the sacrifice Ahura Mazda knows; (even those women do we worship) whose ¹ (better service thus is known). Yea, both (holy) men and women (do we worship whom Ahura Mazda knows ²). As the Ahû is excelling, so is our Ratu, one who rules from the Righteous Order, a creator of mental goodness, and of life's actions done for Mazda; and the Kingdom is to Ahura which to the poor (may offer) nurture ².

A blessing is the Right called the best, there is weal, there is weal to this (man), when toward Righteousness Best (he does) right ².

8. We worship the Ahuna-vairya; and we worship Asha Vahista the best(?), the bountiful Immortal. And we sacrifice to the Hâ fraoreti, even to the confession and laudation of the Mazdayasnian Faith!

Footnotes

250:3 This Ratu is the description and representation of the Nmânôpaiti as occupying the attention of the worshippers chiefly at the time of his mention in the course of the ritual. (I vary the expression 'chief' with that of 'lord' here for the sake of change.) Once established as a Ratu in the ritual, he became a guardian genius Nmânya; so of the others. (Y. XIII is in the Gâthic dialect.)

251:1 Vîsya.

251:2 Zantuma.

251:3 Dahvyuma = Dahyuma.

251:4 The goddess of riches.

251:5 Lit. biped; see elsewhere where quadruped means merely beast.

251:6 Or, 'households.'

251:7 Ashethwôzgatemã (several manuscripts have ashe) finds its explanation from the Pahlavi of Dastur Hoshanggi Gâmâspgi's MS. it may be read kabed rang rasisntûm instead of kabed yôm rasisntûm. The ancient error of yôm arose from the fact that the copyist had before him a form which might be read either rôg or rang, the characters being identical for either word. He could not reconcile himself to rang in the sense of effort, and so decided for rôg; but in order to guide his successors aright, he changed it for its synonym yôm, which, as Spiegel well remarks, affords but little sense. But the word is rang, as I believe, and this is at once corroborated by Ner.'s bahuklesa. Read as + thwakhsa + gatemã = kabed + rang + rasisntûm, the most progressing with painful energy.

251:8 Or, 'steadiest forces.'

252:1I should think that the reference was here to khratavŏ, Y. XLVI, 3. See Y. XXXII, 14, as alternatively rendered.

252:2 A portion of the text has here fallen out.

252:3 The recognition of a strong dualism here is imperative. Ahura alone is praised.

252:4 Or, 'of the good kinsman, the lord (?).'

252:5 Elsewhere meaning 'meat,' just as Ameretatât and Haurvatât mean wood and water.

252:6 Or, 'sanctity and the Fravashi.'

253:1 Feminine.

253:2 Elsewhere with verbal difference.