COMMENTARY ON THE FORMULAS.
This commentary is written in the Zend language, and is valuable as a specimen of early exegesis. Zarathuśtra is here represented as holding a conversation with Ahūra Mazda, and in reply to his questions Ahūra says: “Whoever in this world of mine shall mentally recall a portion of the Ahuna-vairya (formulas), and having thus recalled it, shall undertone it, and then utter it aloud; whoever shall worship thus, then even with threefold safety and speed I will bring his soul over the bridge of Kinvaḍ (Chinvat). I who am Ahūra Mazda will help him to pass over it to heaven, the best life, and to the lights of heaven.”
“And whoever, O Zarathuśtra, while undertoning the parts of the Ahuna-vairya, takes aught therefrom, I who am Ahūra Mazda will draw his soul off from the better world; yea, so far will I withdraw it as the earth is large and wide.
“And this word is the most emphatic of the words which have ever been pronounced, or which are now spoken, or which shall be spoken in the future, for this utterance is of such a nature that if all the living world should learn it, and learning, hold fast by it, they would be redeemed from their mortality.”[[182]]
THE YASNA HAPTANG-HĀITA.
This Yasna of the “Seven Chapters” appears to rank next in antiquity to the Gāthas, but the tone is considerably changed, although the dialect remains the same. We have here a stronger personification of the Bountiful Immortals, while fire is still worshipped; also the earth and grass. We find here praise to Ahūra and the Immortals, to fire, to the creation, to the earth and to sacred waters. The sacrifice to the “Soul of the Kine” is also given, and the sacrifices to both earth and heaven, to the stormy wind that Mazda made, also to the peaks of the beautiful mountain.
“And we worship the Good Mind and the spirits of the saints. And we sacrifice to the fish of fifty-five fins, and to the Unicorn which stands in Vourūkasha, and to the sea where he stands, and to the Haoma, golden flowered, growing on the heights. We sacrifice to Haoma, that driveth death afar, and to the flood streams of the waters, and to the great flight of the birds, and to the approach of the Fire-priests as they approach us from afar,[[183]] and seek to gain the provinces and spread the ritual law.”[[184]]
The Yasna also includes several Yaśts, or hymns of praise, some of which contain poetry as well as praise. As Sraosha is the only divinity of the later groups mentioned in the first four Gāthas, the Yaśt which is dedicated to him appears to rank in antiquity next to those fragments which are found in the Gāthic dialect. The name of Sraosha appears still to retain its meaning as the abstract quality of obedience although it is personified.
THE SRAŌSHA YAŚT.
“Propitiation be to Sraosha, Obedience the blessed, the Mighty,