The Board of Trustees and Members of the Governing Body of
THE K R CAMA ORIENTAL INSTITUTE invite you to attend the release of the book “Jāmāspīg” A revised edition of the Pārsīg version of The Memorial of Jāmāspa Translated with notes by Dr Raham Asha Research Scholar at the hands of Ervad Dr Rooyintan P PeerResearch Scholar and Followed by a Talk on the subject of JAMASPI by Ervad Dr Rooyintan P Peer at 6 pm on Monday 14th July 2014 in the Dr Sir J J Modi Memorial Hall of the Institute 136 Bombay Samachar Marg, Opposite Lion Gate, Fort, Mumbai – 400 023 Do join us for tea at 5.30 pm For more details log on to our website: www.krcamaorientalinstitute.org RSVP 22843893 / 22876593 E-mail krcamaoi123@gmail.com Right of Admission Reserved 
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The book of Jāmāspa is a collection of different materials from different sources, in Pārsīg. Some chapters are in prose and some in verse. It is titled the Jāmāspīg and also the Jāmāsp-nāmag, belonging to Jāmāspa , who was, according to the Pārsīs a member of the distinguished family of Hvōva (G hvō.gva) from the land of Ādurbāyagān , a wise minister at the court of Vištāspa, a sage diviner , and the successor of Zaraθuštra. A dome in Persis is believed to be the burial mound of Jāmāspa.
The Jāmāspīg professes to give the answers of Jāmāspa the bidaxš to certain questions asked by Vištāspa the king. In its present form it is a product of post-Sasanian times; but some chapters have simply been copied from the Sasanian version of the work, and some others go back to much older times and possibly to the original treatise of Jāmāspa (i.e., the common source of the Oracles of Hystaspes), but the compiler(s) has (have) adapted them to the new data as a result of the Arab onslaught. This text is preserved in a fragmentary and spoiled form, only part of it being known in a few Pārsīg manuscripts, the rest surviving in the Pāzand version (i.e., Pārsīg written in Avesta script) and Persian-Pāzand version (i.e., Pārsīg written in Persian script), the end of this latter version is however missing, and also in the Persian and Gujarati versions. Jivanji Jamshedji Modi tried to collect all the fragments available to him. He gave the text of the Pārsīg Jāmāspīg, its transliteration in Gujarati characters and translation into Gujarati and English with notes, the text of the Pāzand Jāmāspīg with translation into English, the text of the Persian Jāmāspīg with translation into Gujarati. Modi was right when he said that: “The fragments, which I have produced from other manuscripts, present sufficient internal evidence to assert that much of the original book is lost.” He referred to this statement of Edward William West about the old codex DP: “The only Pahlavi copy, that is known, consists of two fragments in an imperfect codex belonging to Dastūr Peshotan in Bombay, which is probably five centuries old. In this codex (Pt.) the Jāmāsp-nāmag occupied the first 32 folios, but of these only fols. 17-19 and 27-31 are now existing.” And he concluded that: “So the Pahlavi Jāmāspīg, extant is only one-fifth of what it once was , about more than six hundred years ago. It is possible that at one time it may be still larger.” West found a more complete text of Jāmāspīg but in Persian-Pāzand version in Haug’s MS. N° 7, and he published the Pārsīg fragments of the Jāmāspīg so far as it was extant in 1876 in the DP manuscript, and he supplied the text, thus lost, from the Persian-Pāzand version. Giuseppe Messina used the text as published by West, and published it together with transcription and Italian translation and notes. However, the two (three) manuscripts of the Persian-Pāzand version known to us are not complete, and the existence of some other fragments of the Jāmāspīg shows that the book of Jāmāspa was much larger than the text which we have at present. An examination of the text itself shows that the compiler had in his hands two or more books, in prose and in verse, attributed to Jāmāspa, and he arranged them in this way, that is, as an anthology (or āyādgār ‘memorial’) of Jāmāspa. The Jāmāspīg has been exclusively found in India; there is no trace of it in Persia. There are different reasons for this: One reason is the destiny of the Perso-Aryans in their homeland after the fall of the Persian kingship. After the onslaught of Arabs and Muslims, the death of Yazdegird caused the learned tradition of the first teachers to be broken. The priestly schools were closed, and the text corpus of the religion was reduced in volume. The Muslim conquest of India – nearly four centuries after that of Persia–, just as Bērōnī has related, was to be less crushing than that of Persia, and yet he said: “Maḥmūd utterly ruined the prosperity of the country, and performed there wonderful exploits, by which [the Indo-Aryans] became like atoms of dust scattered in all directions, and like a tale of old in the mouth of the people. Their scattered remains cherish, of course, the most inveterate aversion towards all Muslims. This is the reason, too, why [the Indian] sciences have retired far away from those parts of the country conquered by us, and have fled to places which our hand cannot get reach.” The Muslims were not able to subject the whole India; while, although some Perso-Aryan princes tried to assume royal power in the eastern parts of the Aryan land, but the attack of Qutaiba b. Muslim (between A.D. 705 and 715) to Sogdiana and Chorasmia put an end to this hope –there was no place in Persia which their hand could not reach. In the days of the same Maḥmūd, as Nizām al-Mulk has said, “No Mazdayasnian (gabr) … would dare appear in an open ground [in Persia] nor even go in the presence of a Turk.” Bērōnī who was from Chorasmia, the land on the lower course of the Oxus, has described the onset of Islam to his land (A.D. 712) thus: « Qutaiba b. Muslim had extinguished those who knew elegantly the Chorasmian writing (that is, the scribes), who knew the history of the country, and who taught their sciences to others, and he scattered the whole (culture of ancient Chorasmia, including the neglect of irrigation works and the decline of urban life). In consequence, these things are involved in so much obscurity, that it is impossible to obtain an accurate knowledge of the ancient history of the country before the time of Islam.” Again: “Once Qutaiba b. Muslim of Bāhil [conquered Chorasmia], he caused to perish the scribes (کاتب), killed the scholar-priests (هربذ), and burnt their books and papers.” The Royal Library transferred by the last Persian king Yazdegird to his last refuge, Marv, fell into the hands of the Muslims. Aḥmad b. Abi Ṭāhir (about 819-893), a man of Persian origin, says that: ‘Attābī, a secretary and poet from Syria (who died 835) related that he had consulted thrice Persian (Pārsīg) books in that library in ruin. Soon after his visits, not only the library of Marv disappeared, but also nobody would dare hold any Pārsīg manuscript. Daulatšāh says that one day, in Nēšābuhr, some Persian man offered a copy of the Persian romance of Vāmiq u ʿAδrā to ʿAbd-Allāh b. Ṭāhir (who ruled in central and eastern Persia during 830-45). The Muslim ruler ordered this copy to be destroyed, and all other Persian and Mazdayasnian (Magian) books in his territories to be burnt. The Perso-Aryans, lacked royal power, threatened with extinction, were faced to migrate: Some left Persia, settled in Gujarat, founding the Parsi Community in India; some others sought refuge in the remote oases of Yazd and Kirmān. In this way, they preserved in part the sacred literature of the ancients. Dosabhai F. Karaka has resumed the history of Persia in the evil period thus: “Persia once fallen never revived, but sank gradually into its present insignificance. Perhaps no country in the world has witnessed so many revolutions as that unhappy land. The tyrants who have filled the throne owed their elevation to treachery and bloodshed.” The other reason is the pathological aversion of the Muslim and Turk ruler, Šāh ʿAbbās, to the book of Jāmāspa. He ordered to gather and destroy all the manuscripts which could contain it. Many Avesta and Pārsīg codices were destroyed, and even two Pārsīg priests were killed by his order. A letter from Persia to Dastōr Burzō Kāmdēn of the Sanjāna family brought by Šahriyār Rustam Sandal in A.Y. 1019/ A.D. 1649 has given an account of this event of the year 997 A.Y./ 1627 A.D. The destruction of the Pārsīg books went beyond the Zoroastrian suburb of Spāhān (/ Isfahān). A few years after this event the Zoroastrians of Persia definitely lost, among others, all the copies of the book of Jāmāspa, as is attested in a letter of Spendyād son of Rustam sent to the Pārsīs of Gujarat in A.Y. 1005/ A.D. 1635. Edward G. Browne who, in his stay at Kirmān (June 1887), met a number of Zoroastrians, has some words about that famous book: “I next visited the one fire-temple which suffices for the spiritual needs of the Kirmān Zoroastrians, and was there received by the courteous and intelligent old Dastūr and my friend Ferīdūn… I found that the Dastūr was much interested in the occult science of geomancy (ʿilm-i ramal), which, he informed me, required the assiduous study of a life- time ere one could hope to attain proficiency. He was also very full of a rare old book called the Jāmāsp-nāma, of which he said only one copy, stolen by a Musulmān named Ḥuseyn from the house of a Zoroastrian in Yezd, existed in Kirmān, though he had information of another copy in the library of the Mosque at Mashhad. This book he described as containing a continuous series of prophecies, amongst which was included the announcement of the return of Šāh Bahrām, the Zoroastrian Messiah, to re-establish »the Good Religion«. This Šāh Bahrām, … is believed to be a descendant of Hurmuz the son of Yezdigird (the last Sāsānian king), who fled from before the Arab invaders, with the Pešūtan and other fire-priests to China; whence he will return to Fārs by way of India in the fullness of time. Amongst the signs heralding his coming will be a great famine, and the destruction of the city of Šuštar.” Here is a concise survey of the contents of the extant Jāmāspīg which consists of nineteen chapters (A: Pārsīg; B: Pāzand; C: Persian-Pāzand): 1: C1, B1 Preface. The Jāmāspīg is a memorial (āyādgār). The framework consists of a conversation between Vištāspa the king and Jāmāspa the bidaxš. Jāmāspa is believed to be from Ātṛpātakāna (actual Āzarbāyjān) –the compiler has added this remark: “It is the district of the wicked.” Modi thinks that it refers to the fact of the attempts of annoyance made against Zaraθuštra by evil-minded persons of the country. However, this remark more probably pertains to the Arab and Turk invaders of the land of the Magi. Jāmāspa is believed to be versed in the science of prophecy. It has some apparent connections with the Āyādgār ī Zerīrān. 2: C2, B2 The infinite principle. Here begins the series of questions of Vištāspa and Jāmāspa’s answers. The Jāmāspīg uses the phrases pursīd vištāsp šāh kū and guft-iš jāmāsp ī bidaxš (ō vištāsp šāh) kū. This chapter is about two principles, Ahura Mazdā and Aṇgra Mainyu. It describes the divine tetrad Ahura Mazdā-Light-Religion-Time. We can adduce the evidence of the opening chapter of the Bundahišn, 2-3. The Time of Ahura Mazdā is infinite; But Aṇgra Mainyu will not be forever. The period of the world of life is 9 000 years. Those of different substances, of light and of darkness, are in contrariness and discord with each other. Similar explanation of the hostility of the Evil Spirit is found in the book of Mardānfarrox (ŠGV 2. 4-18). 3: C3, B3 Primeval creations in the world of thought and in the world of life About the primeval creatures in the world of thought, i.e., the six holy Immortals: Their creation is like lamp being lit one from the other, without being diminished thereby. This idea has been re-taken by the school of Suhravardī. The best and central among the divine entities is Aṣa ‘truth, order’. In the light of this should be understood and translated the Avesta formula Aṣǝm Vohū. The central idea of Avesta aṣa is transfered to peymān ‘measure’ by the philosophical school of the Pārsīs. About the primeval creatures in the world of life, i.e., Sky, Water, Earth, Plant, holy Cow, and Man: They are created in the six periods of one year; Ahura Mazdā performed the offering ritual (Av. myazda-) after each creation; the ceremony of the sacrificial repast of each period (season) bears the Pārsīg name of gāhāmbār. A brief account of the creation of the living beings. 4: C4, B4 The first heroes and rulers and their laws and policies A record of the early heroes and rulers from Gaya Marǝtān to Vištāspa. Gaya Marǝtān (Pers. gayōmard), the primal man, is called garšāh ‘mountain-king’. According to MU 29, 63, referring to the Religion (Avesta-Zand), Ahura Mazdā put the body of Gaya Marətān on the celestial mountain of Harā Bərəzaitī. The title of gil-šāh ‘clay-king’ for Gayōmard in some copies of the Pārsīg texts only shows the shift in meaning, and is absurd. According to the Perso-Aryan tradition Gayōmard was a “metal-man” (Bd 69-70 tan ī gayōmard az ayōxšust kird ēsted), and metal comes from mountains (as it is said in the chapter 19) and not from clay. Gaya Marǝtān, representing Ahura Mazdā in the world of life, was killed by Aŋra Mainyu during his attack upon the primeval creations –Av. marǝtan- means ‘mortal’. He became the first nar aṣavan ‘truthful man’. The earth (/ Spǝṇtā Ārmaiti) accepted the semen of Gayōmard. Then, in the form of the plant rhubarb was born a twin, a man and a woman, and grew up from the earth: Maṣya and Maṣyānī. (Cf. Bd 100-101) The birth of a twin, Syāmaka and his sister . (Cf. Bd 106) The birth of a twin, Haośyaŋha and his sister. He was called paraδāta (Pers. pēšdād) , i.e., he first promulgated the law of kingship (Vd 20.1). He ruled over “all the lands” (Yt 5.22), and smashed a large number of the giants who were trained by Aēšma ‘wrath’. The birth of a (solar) twin, Vīvaŋvhaṇt and his sister. The birth of Urupi, Rašnu.cinah, and Spityura who were three brothers. (Cf. Bd 228) Urupi was called taxma ‘strong, valiant’ (Pers. tahmurap), and zaēnaŋvhaṇt ‘watchful’ (Pers. zēnāvand). But in the older tradition he was known as taxma- urupi-azinavaṇt- ‘strong Urupi with the fox-hide’ (Yt 15.11, 19.28). He ruled over the seven parts of the earth. For thirty years he kept Aŋra Mainyu as his steed, and separated the Daēva from mankind (Aog. 91-2). The birth of the solar twin, Yima and Yimī of Vīvaŋvhaṇt . Yima is described as xšaēta ‘king’, hvąθβa ‘with good herds’ (Y 9.5), pouru.xvarǝnah ‘with much Fortune’ (RP 46.21), varǝcaŋvhaṇt ‘with miraculous power’, taxma ‘valiant’, xvarǝnaŋvhaṇt ‘fortunate’ (Af.Z 3), and vǝrǝθrajan ‘victorious’. He ruled over the seven parts of the world, over the Daēva and men, and expanded the earth, and made prosper the world (Vd 2). He made men and animals immortal, and the Daēva were in the service of men (Dk iii M 252). He captured the seven star-form Pairikā (i.e., the “planets”), and made Saturn blind with one eye. Under his rule there was neither cold nor heat, neither old age nor death, nor envy created by the Daēva (Y 9.5, Yt 19.33). He restored everything according to the Measure (Dk iii M 296). When “he became ungrateful towards his creator”, the (miraculous) Power and (royal) Fortune left him. According to the Avesta (Yt 19.34) his particular sin was “to pronounce the false word, the untrue one”. The giant dragon, Aži Dahāka, Spityura and a huge troop of the Daēva surrounded Yima and sawed him. The millennium of Yima came to an end. Aži Dahāka is described as three-jawed, six-eyed, and with a thousand seekers (Y 9.8). He was also called Baēvarǝ.spasan ‘with ten thousand spies’ (Pers. Bēvarasp). Av. baēvarǝ.spasan is an epithet of Miθra (Yt 10.24). Dahāka ruled over the seven parts of the earth, and over the Daēva and men, for a thousand years. He caught every day two young persons and killed them, and satiated with the brains of these persons the two serpents which he had on his neck. The exercise of power, tyrannically, by Dahāka lasted a thousand years less a half day when Ɵraētaona captured him and with the most terrible fetters bound him in the mount Dumbāvand (Dk ix M 810-12). Ɵraētaona, the son of the clanic domain of Āθβya, was a relative of Yima. He is described as ‘with miraculous power’ (varǝcaŋvhaṇt-) and ‘valiant’ (taxma-). He ruled over the central part of the earth, Xvaniraθa, and over the Daēva and men, for five hundred years. He was the first healer (according to the Vd 20.2 Ɵrita of the Sāma was the first among men who applied much of health and healing). The battle with the Giants in the Jāmāspīg is a slightly different version of the story narrated in the Avesta Stūdgar, ch. 20. From Ɵraētaona were born three sons: Sairima, Tūraca, and Airyaēca. Ɵraētaona asked them: “Every one of you may ask what appears best to you, so that I may give it to you.” Sairima asked for much wealth; Tūraca for valiance; and Airyaēca, on account of having the Fortune of the Kavi with him, for Law and Religion. Ɵraētaona, then, gave to Sairima the Sariman lands, to Tūraca the Tūryan lands, and to Airyaēca the Aryan lands . The later tradition has transposed them to Hrōm (Byzantium), Turkestān, Ērānšahr (Persia) and India. Sairima and Tūraca killed Airyaēca, and did not let alive his children and descendants, except a little girl, named Vīžyaka. Ɵraētaona kept the girl and his descendants (for ten generations) hidden, until Manuš.ciθra was born (Bd 229-30). Under the leadership of Manuš.ciθra, and at the command of Nairyō.saŋha, the young warriors of the house of Manušciθra came to the Aryan land, and sought vengeance for Airyaēca, and thus killed Sairima and Tūraca. Manuš.ciθra became the ruler of the Aryan land. In the midst of the reign of Manuš.ciθra, the Turyan bad man Fraŋrasyan usurped the throne of the kingship for twelve years (Bd 239). Manuš.ciθra went to the highland of Patišxvara. Spǝṇtā Ārmaiti helped him to take back the lands of the Aryans from Fraŋrasyan (VZ 4.4, ŠĒŠ 38). Then Uzava of Tumāspa took the seat of the reign of the Aryan land. Then the Kavi ruled over the lands of the Aryans: Kavi Kavāta; Kavi Usan; Kavi Haosravah of Syāvaršan; Kavi Aurva.aspa; and Kavi Vištāspa (Bd 239). 5: C5 The six other parts of the earth, their inhabitants and rulers, their laws and customs Sraoša is lord in Arǝzahī and Savahī (Y 57.1Z, Bd 170). In these regions, people follow the teaching of the first doctors (Av. paoiryō.kaēša-). A few words about other regions: Fradaδafšū, Vīdaδafšū, Vouru.barǝštī, and Vouru.jarǝštī. 6: C6 Harā (Haraitī) the high and its people The lordship of the region on Harā the high and on the other side of Harā (Pers. harburz) is also attributed to Sraoša. The people of this region are of the good religion. 7: C7 The fortress of Kaŋha, the enclosure made by Yima, and the Aryan expanse The fortress of Kaŋha (Pers. kangdiz) was erected by Kavi Syāvaršan upon the heads of the Daēva. He is known as bāmya ‘luminous, splendid’. [According to the RP 49.4-6, by the order of his son, Kavi Haosravah, Kaŋha came to earth; and Haosravah settled noble people therein.] The people of the fortress are of the good religion. Their religious authority (ratu) is Pǝṣō.tanū, Vištāspa’s son, and their royal lord (ahu) Haosravah, Syāvaršan’s son. Yima made a covered shelter in order to keep all creatures of Ahura Mazdā alive during the winter of Mahrkūša. Airyana Vaējah (Pers. ērānvēz) is the traditional homeland of the Aryans. Burzō’s version gives more details: Sraoša rules over this land, and the immortal king Gao.paiti (Pers. gōbed-šāh) resides there. 8: C8, C12, B7, ADP3 India, China, Arabia, Turkic-land, and Berberia This chapter deals with the Indians, Chinese, Arabs, Turks, and Berbers, and their lands: Hindūgān, Cīnestān, Tāzīgān, Turkestān, and Barbarestān. 9: C10, ADP1 The people of Ceylon and those who live in the sea This chapter deals with the people of the island Silān (Skt. सिंहल्ं), and also those who dwell in the seas, i.e., the watermen. 10: C9 The lands of the chest-eyed, the chest-eared, the thong-footed, the span-sized, and the dog-headed . This chapter speaks of a number of strange races (Cf. Bd 107). We find some similar legendary folks and lands in the Chinese literature, for example, 僬侥 Jiāo Yáo (legendary pygmy race). The land of the chest-eyed people (Pers. varcašmān; Gr. ἀκέφαλοι). The land of the chest-eared people (Pers. vargōšān; Skt. karṇaprāvaraṇa). The land of the span-long people (Pers. vidastīgān, vidastīzagān; Gr. δάκτυλοι. See also Chin. 矮人 ăi rén). The land of the thong-footed people (Pers. davālpāyān; Gr. ἱμαντόποδες, Syr. ܥܪ̈ܩܝ ܪܓܠܐ). The land of the dog-headed people (Pers. sagsarān, سگسار; Gr. κυνοκέφολαι). The Draxt ī āsūrīg 90-92 speaks of the “humans of different species”: videstīg, varcašm, sagsar. 11: C12, ADP3 The lands of Giants. This chapter depicts the land of the giants (Pers. māzandarān). The twentieth chapter of the Avesta Stūdgar relates the battle of Ɵraētaona with the giants: The giant Daēva (Av. māzańya- daēva-) constantly burst with their hordes of invaders into the settlements of the human beings of Xvaniraθa, menacing their properties, devastating their fields, and carrying away their flocks, until Ɵraētaona smites two-thirds of the giants, and one-third come back smashed and sick to their own land. According to the Jāmāspīg they are human beings (māzandarān hamāg mardōm hend). 12: C11, ADP2 The reason of the creation of mankind by Ahura Mazdā 13: C13, AMU4 II The occult knowledge of Jāmāspa, his soul after death, and his truthfulness The magic (Pers. kundāgīh) of Jāmāspa comes from the religion (Av. daēnā-) of Ahura Mazdā and Zaraθuštra. 14: C14, AMU4 III Vištāspa’s grief Jāmāspa announces to Vištāspa that the king will die in a few months. The original text seems to have been a lamentation-text in verse. 15: C15, B5 Chronology of Persian rulers after Vištāspa This chapter gives the periods of the rules of the different future rulers of Ērān Šahr (Persia) till the Arab onslaught. (Cf. also Bd 238-40) About the Arsacian period it is said that: “Then the kingship will go to the truthful family and law, till to Ardavān. They will reign for 282 years. Under these kings, calamity will come to an end little by little, good things will be then complete, the country shall be in prosperity and security, and people shall be kept in freedom.” We see that the meaning ‘truthful’ for the name of the founder of the Arsacian dynasty, Aršak/ Ašk, is based on an imagined etymology connecting it to Av. aṣavan- ‘truthful’ (Pers. ašō-k). Mary Boyce thinks that “this is at odds with the usual late Sasanian propaganda about the evils of Arsacid rule, and suggests a Parthian transmission of some of the material.” However, the “truthful kingship” (OPers. arta-xšaça-) was closely associated with the Arsacian dynasty in the Sasanian “propaganda” as we can see in another chronology: “The Arsacians who bear the title of ‘truthful rule’ …” The chapter concludes that the Persian dynasty “by itself” will fall, and the descendants of Wrath/ Hāšim will go into the fierce attack against the Aryans (Pers. hēšm ‘wrath, the demon Wrath’/ Av. aēšma-, and Arab. Hāšim a proper name and name of a clan in the Qurayš tribe, Muḥammad was a member of Banū Hāshim) . The Persian version gives a different reason for the decline of the Persian kingship: The oppression and tyranny and injustice of king Xusrō son of Ohrmazd, styled the Victorious, were the signs of evil times to come and bore evidence of evil laws (i.e., Islam) to become prevalent. This may be the impression of a Pārsī priest centuries after the coming of evil times, and cannot give evidence about the rule of the unlucky king Xusrō who was a victim of the plot of the Christian band of his own court. However, Zaehner uses, not the older (Pāzand) version of the Jāmāspīg, but its Persian version, to sentence “that flashy and deplorable monarch” who “was thoroughly disliked by the Zoroastrian clergy”, and at the same time he says that: “It would therefore seem probable that the statement of Eutychius that he embraced Christianity was true.” 16: C16, A1, ADP4 Apocalypse of Jāmāspa This chapter merits to be called “the apocalyptic discourse of Jāmāspa”. It is about the last century of the millennium of Zaraθuštra, that Jāmāspa foretells the events up to the appearance of Uxšya.ǝrǝta in response to Vištāspa. 1. The religion, Daēnā Māzdayasni, will be current for a thousand years. Then those who are false to “contract” (miθra ‘Mithra, contract’) will prevail. The land of the Aryans (Airyanąm xšaθra, Pers. Ērān-šahr), will be delivered to the evil ones (the Mairya, and in the latest version: the Arabs) who will by force convert the Aryans to the evil religion, and will mix themselves with them. The text describes events relative to the end of Zaraθuštra’s millennium; many calamities and atrocities which will happen are depicted. This part can be compared with the fourth chapter of the Zand ī Vahman Yasn. 2. In the land of the East (Xvarāsān) will arise a pretender (“a little man”), who will conquer the Aryan land with triumph and will become sovereign; but in the middle of his reign, he will disappear, and the sovereignty will pass to non-Aryans, who will cause much distress, misery and death; there will be a lot of sects and doctrines. A victorious king, after usurping the Aryan kingdom, will seize the Roman land (Bysantium). The Arabs will be mixed with Romans and Turks , and they will put in chaos the world. Spǝṇtā Ārmaiti, the deity of the earth, will complain to Ahura Mazdā. Then Miθra, the deity of contract, will come; he will carry on a conflict with Aēšma, the demon of wrath. Miθra will defeat a devil (Vadjōgān) that causes the period of bad crops. 3. From the quarter of the South (Nēmrōz) will arise another pretender. The “civil war” will extend so that the people who live in Ērānšahr will be driven to despair. 4. Miθra will send a messenger to the king of a northern district, Pedišxvārgar (possibly the mountain-range Παραχοάθρας mentioned by Strabo, XI.8), and will exhort him to restore the royal power as exercised by his ancestors, and will deliver the great treasure of the legendary mairya, Fraŋrasyan, to him. The Arabs, Romans and Turks will attack that king, and will wage an impetuous war (Cf. ZVY 6.10). And, finally, the king of Pedišxvārgar will defeat them. In the Persian version this king is called Varjāvand (Av. varǝcaŋvhaṇt-, Pers. varzāvand ‘who has miraculous power’); thus he is the same Kay Vahrām (Varzāvand, Amāvand) , the Aryan hero who will come in a future period and will restore the Aryan kingdom (Cf. Bd 217; ZVY 7). Then the divine messengers, Sraoša and Nairyō.saŋha, will arouse the ratu of the Kaŋha fortress, Pǝṣō.tanū, the immortal son of Vištāspa, who will come with 150 disciples, whose sable raiment is white, who with upraised banner will go to Persis, and there will perform the Yasna liturgy. Those who follow Druj (lie) and worship the Daēva will perish (Cf. Bd 218, ZVY 7.18-26). The millennium of Zaraθuštra will end, and the millennium of Uxšya.ǝrǝta will begin. In his analysis of the Jāmāsp-nāmag, Émile Benveniste established two things : One. The critical analysis of this text depends on the primary and fundamental observation: The Jāmāsp-nāmag was a verse-text. It is relatively easy to delimit, in some of the best preserved passages, a series of eight-syllable verses. The (written) tradition has often obscured the metre by interpolating a word, or even a sentence. “The verse lines are characterized by four stresses with a caesura in the middle and quite rhymes of the same somewhat uncertain verbal type as in AZ (āyādgār ī zerīrān). This holds true also for the occasional lines of chapter 16 left out as interpolations by Benveniste.” Even if the general metre has four stresses, the standing formulae introducing direct discourse are in a metre characterized by three stresses to the line . Two. The Jāmāsp-nāmag has certain significant features in common with the excerpts of the Oracles of Hystaspes (Χρήσεις Ὑστάσπου) as preserved by Lactantius in the seventh book of the Divinae Institutiones; these same features are absent in the Zand ī Vahman Yasn. In the Oracles, Hystaspes (Vištāspa) hands down to the memory of posterity a dream; the interpreter is a prophesying boy (Lat. vaticinans puer). In the Book of Jāmāspa king Vištāspa asks: “How many years will the Holy Religion endure, and afterwards what times and periods will come?” The answer of his grand minister Jāmāspa consists of prophecy about the end of the millennium of Zaraθuštra. The question of an original Apocalypse of Jāmāspa as the source or essential inspiration of both Greek and Persian texts has been shelved. It is possible that the compiler of the Revelationes sancti Methodii was familiar with the Jāmāspīg. The book is written in Syriac, and is attributed to Methodius (ܡܗܬܕܐܘܣ), bishop of Patara (ܦܛܪܝܐ) who died about 311. It depicts the calamities caused by the “sons of Hagar” (Arabs), and the destruction of the Orient (Ērānšahr) by a multitude of wars and attacks. Example: Methodius: ܘܢܒܨܪܘܢ ܡܛܪ̈ܐ ܘܢܚܣܪ̈ܢ ܡܝ̈ܐ ܕܥܝ̈ܢܬܐ ܘܦܐܪ̈ܐ ܕܐܝ̈ܠܢܐ. ܘܟܠܗ̇ ܛܒܬܐ ܕܐܪܥܐ ܬܒܨܪ ܒܗܘ̇ ܤܒܢܐ. ܡܢ ܟܦܘܪܝܐ ܘܒܢ̈ܝ ܐܝܫܡܐܝܠ. ‘Rainfall will diminish, the water of springs and the fruit of trees will decrease. At that time, everything that is good on earth will decrease because of the impiety of the sons of Ismael (i.e., Arabs).’ Jāmāspīg 16: ud andarvāy āšuftag ; ud sard vād ud garm vād vazed ; ud bar ī urvarān kem bē baved ; ud zamīg az bar bē šaved. ud būmcannag vasyār bē baved, ud vas avīrānīh bē kuned. ud vārān abēhangām vāred ; ud hān kē vāred abēsūd ud vad baved, ud abr abar asmān garded. ‘The atmosphere will be disordered; cold wind and hot wind will blow. The fruit of the plants will become less; and earth will become without fruit. There will be many earthquakes, and they will cause much desolation. It will rain out of season, and that which falls will be vain and bad; clouds will turn about in the sky (without raining).’ 17: A2 Calamities in the course of Zaraθuštra’s millennium: grave perils, drought, heavy quakes, black snow and red hailstones, and great battles In the paper in which Modi has given an English translation of this chapter, he said: “During the last three years, when plague and famine are prevalent in India, I have heard at times the statement that: Jāmāspī had predicted all that.” 18: AMU4 I, B9 The signs and prognostications of the coming of Uxšyat.ǝrǝta 19: B6 The millennia of Uxšyat.ǝrǝta and Uxšyat.nǝmah and Saošyaṇt This chapter gives the impression of having been based upon a Pārsīg verse composition. The texts found in the Bundahišn 218-220 and the RP 48 also come from one and the same source; one gives a shorter version and the other a more detailed version of the same subject. |
"Belonging to Jamaspi”Mehroo Kotval
"The reading, writing and translating of Pahlavi is difficult and thus the interpretation of the Pahalvi Jamaspig remains challenging,” Ervad (Dr) Rooyintan Peer informed the audience at the launch of Raham Asha’s translation of Jamaspig at The K. R. Cama Oriental Institute (KRCOI) on July 14, 2014. Based in France, Asha was unable to attend the unveiling of his English translation of the Pahlavi Jamaspig. The book, which has not been pinned to a specific date, means ‘the memorial of Jamaspa or belonging to Jamaspi.’ It is also termed Jamaspik, Jamaspi or Jamasp Namak. Subsequently, Asha also translated the book into Pazend and Persian.
"It is said that a consecrated flower was given to Jamasp — the wise person,” explained Peer. On receiving this he could see the past, present and future. In the Shahnameh King Gushtasp asked Jamasp what will happen in war between his Iranian army and that of Arjasp of Turan. Jamasp reportedly replied, "Better not ask me as great tragedy is to befall your entire family.” However, history records that ultimately Aspandiar (son of Gushtasp) triumphed.
See Parsiana, 21-Jan-2015
"The reading, writing and translating of Pahlavi is difficult and thus the interpretation of the Pahalvi Jamaspig remains challenging,” Ervad (Dr) Rooyintan Peer informed the audience at the launch of Raham Asha’s translation of Jamaspig at The K. R. Cama Oriental Institute (KRCOI) on July 14, 2014. Based in France, Asha was unable to attend the unveiling of his English translation of the Pahlavi Jamaspig. The book, which has not been pinned to a specific date, means ‘the memorial of Jamaspa or belonging to Jamaspi.’ It is also termed Jamaspik, Jamaspi or Jamasp Namak. Subsequently, Asha also translated the book into Pazend and Persian.
"It is said that a consecrated flower was given to Jamasp — the wise person,” explained Peer. On receiving this he could see the past, present and future. In the Shahnameh King Gushtasp asked Jamasp what will happen in war between his Iranian army and that of Arjasp of Turan. Jamasp reportedly replied, "Better not ask me as great tragedy is to befall your entire family.” However, history records that ultimately Aspandiar (son of Gushtasp) triumphed.
See Parsiana, 21-Jan-2015