Vendidad

The Vendidad or Videvdat is a collection of texts within the greater compendium of the Avesta. However, unlike the other texts of the Avesta, the "Vendidad" is an ecclesiastical code, not a liturgical manual.

Name

The name of the texts is a contraction of the Avestan language "Vî-Daêvô-Dāta", "Given Against the Demons", and as the name suggests, the "Vendidad" is an enumeration of various manifestations of evil spirits, and ways to confound them. According to the divisions of the Avesta as described in the Denkard , a 9th century text, the "Vendidad" includes all of the 19th "nask", which is then the only "nask" that has survived in its entirety.

Contents

The "Vendidad"'s different parts vary widely in character and in age. Although some portions are relatively recent in origin, the subject matter of the greater part is very old. In 1877, Karl Friedrich Geldner identified the texts as being linguistically distinct from both the Old Avestan language texts and well as from the "Yasht"s of the younger Avesta. Today, the "Vendidad" is classified as an "artificial" Younger Avestan text, that is, its language attempts to mimic Old Avestan. In its extant form, the "Vendidad" is considered to be a Magi (or Magi-influenced) composition.cite book|last=Zaehner|first=Richard Charles|title=The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism|year=1961|location=New York|publisher=Putnam p. 160ff.
Portions of the book are available [http://www.farvardyn.com/magi1.php online] .] It has also been suggested that the Vendidad belongs to a particular liturgical school, but "no linguistic or textual argument allows us to attain any degree of certainty in these matters."cite encyclopedia|last=Kellens|first=Jean|title=Avesta|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Iranica|volume=3|year=1989|location=New York|publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul|pages=35-44 p. 35]

The "Vendidad" consists of 22 "fargard"s or chapters containing fragments arranged as discussions between Ahura Mazda and Zoroaster. In the past, among Zoroastrians themselves, this literary technique caused the "Vendidad" to be mistaken for a composition by one of the prophet's contemporaries.

The first chapter is a dualistic creation myth, followed by the description of a destructive winter comparable with the great floods of various other mythologies. The second chapter recounts the legend of "Yima" (Jamshid). Chapter 19 relates the temptation of Zoroaster, who, when urged by Angra Mainyu to turn from the good religion, turns instead towards Ahura Mazda. The remaining chapters cover diverse rules and regulations, through the adherence of which evil spirits may be confounded. Broken down by subject, these "fargard"s deal with the following topics (chapter(s) where a topic is covered are in brackets):

* hygiene (in particular care of the dead) [3,5,6,7,8,16,17,19] and cleansing [9,10] ;
* disease, its origin, and spells against it [7,10,11,13,20,21,22] ;
* mourning for the dead [12] , the Towers of Silence [6] , and the remuneration of deeds after death [19] ;
* the sanctity of, and invocations to, Atar (fire) [8] , Zam (earth) [3,6] , Apas (water) [6,8,21] and the light of the stars [21] ;
* the dignity of wealth and charity [4] , of marriage [4,15] and of physical effort [4]
* statutes on unacceptable social behaviour [15] such as breach of contract [4] and assault [4] ;
* on the worthiness of priests [18] ;
* praise and care of the bull [21] , the dog [13,15] , the otter [14] , the "Sraosha" bird [18] , and the "Haoma" tree [6] .

There is a degree of moral relativism apparent in the "Vendidad", and the diverse rules and regulations are not always expressed as being absolute, universal and mandatory. In some instances, the description of prescribed behaviour is accompanied by a description of the penances that have to be made to atone for violations thereof. Such penances include:
* payment in cash or kind to the aggrieved;
* corporal punishment such as whipping;
* repeated recitations of certain parts of the liturgy such as the Ahuna Vairya invocation.

Liturgical use

Althouth the "Vendidad" is not a liturgical manual, a section of it may be recited as part of a greater "Yasna" service. Although such extended "Yasna"s appears to have been frequently performed in the mid-1700s (as noted in Anquetil-Duperron's observations), it is very rarely performed at the present-day. In such an extended service, "Visparad" 12 and "Vendidad" 1-4 are inserted between "Yasna" 27 and 28. The "Vendidad" ceremony is always performed between nightfall and dawn, though a normal "Yasna" is performed between dawn and noon.

The "Vendidad" may also be recited on its own, not accompanied by any ritual activity: this ceremony is known as the "Vendidad Sadé".

Because of its length and complexity, the "Vendidad" is read, rather than recalled from memory as is otherwise necessary for the "Yasna" texts. The recitation of the "Vendidad" requires a priest of higher rank (one with a "moti khub") than is normally necessary for the recitation of the "Yasna".

Bibliography

Further reading

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