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Liber XXXVI · Zoroastrianism

Liber XXXVI · Zoroastrianism · Chapter II: The Avesta

The Videvdad (Vendidad): Zoroastrian Law against the Demons

The Videvdad or Vendidad, the Avestan law against the demons: Yima's vara, the sixteen lands, corpse impurity, the dog, the Barashnom and the night liturgy.

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The Videvdad, better known in older English as the Vendidad, is the Avestan book of "law against the demons": twenty-two chapters in which Ahura Mazda answers Zarathustra's questions about the creation of the world, the defence of the good creation against the Evil Spirit, and above all the rules of purity that govern death, disease and the care of the living. It is the only book of the Sasanian Avesta to survive essentially complete, and it is still recited by Zoroastrian priests in a night-time ritual, though its authority is debated within the community.

What Is the Videvdad? Name, Date and Place in the Avesta§

The Avestan title vi-daeva-data means "the law (data) of those who are against the daevas", the false gods whom Zoroastrianism regards as demons; in Middle Persian it became Jud-dew-dad. The book is cast as a dialogue: Zarathustra asks, Ahura Mazda answers. Its twenty-two chapters, called fargards, mix myth, law, ritual instruction and medicine. Middle Persian sources, especially the summary of the lost scripture in the eighth book of the Denkard, show that the Sasanian Avesta contained twenty-one books (nasks); the Videvdad corresponds to one of them, and it is the only one that has come down to us almost entirely, together with its Middle Persian translation and commentary (zand).

The language of the Videvdad is Young Avestan, and of a late and sometimes grammatically uneven kind, which suggests compilation by priests who were working with a sacred language they no longer spoke. Scholars therefore usually place its final form in the Achaemenid or Parthian period, though it incorporates much older material, and some passages may be later still. Its place within the scripture as a whole is described in the Avesta: Zoroastrian scripture.

The Sixteen Lands and the Myth of Yima and the Vara§

The first chapter lists sixteen lands created by Ahura Mazda, each of which Angra Mainyu, the Evil Spirit, afflicted with a counter-creation: severe winter in the first land, the Aryan homeland Airyanem Vaejah; plagues of locusts, sins and unbelief elsewhere. Several names can be identified with regions of eastern Iran and Central Asia — Sogdiana, Merv, Balkh, Herat — and one, Hapta Hindu, "the Seven Rivers", corresponds to the Vedic land of the Punjab. The list does not mention western Iran, which is one reason scholars locate the Avestan world in the east and are cautious about linking it with the Achaemenid empire discussed in the Achaemenid kings and Zoroastrianism.

The second chapter tells of Yima, the radiant king of the golden age. Ahura Mazda first offers him the religion; Yima declines to be its teacher but agrees to rule and make the world prosper. Under his reign there is neither cold nor heat, old age nor death, and the earth grows so crowded with people and animals that Yima three times enlarges it. Then Ahura Mazda warns him of a terrible winter that will destroy the creatures of the world, and instructs him to build a vara, a square enclosure, into which he must bring the seed of the best men and women, of animals, plants and fires, to be preserved until the danger passes. The story has often been compared with the flood narratives of Mesopotamia and Genesis. In later Persian tradition Yima became Jamshid, the great king of the Shahnameh.

Corpses, the Nasu Demon and the Dog's Gaze§

The longest part of the Videvdad, roughly chapters five to twelve, deals with the pollution caused by death. In Zoroastrian thought death is the work of Angra Mainyu, and a corpse is the place where his power is most concentrated. At the moment of death, the text says, the corpse demon Nasu rushes upon the body from the north in the form of a fly, and contamination spreads from it to people, objects, earth, water and fire. Hence the elaborate rules: who may touch or carry a corpse, how far the living must keep away, how clothing and vessels of different materials are to be cleansed or discarded, and why a corpse must never be buried in the earth, thrown into water or burned. Bodies were to be exposed in a high place, a rule that underlies the dakhmas described in towers of silence.

The dog has a unique role. A dog is brought to look upon the body — the rite later called sagdid, "seen by a dog" — because its gaze is held to drive away the corpse demon; the text specifies a "four-eyed" dog, understood by tradition as one with spots above the eyes. Chapters thirteen and fourteen celebrate the dog's virtues, prescribe heavy penalties for killing or starving dogs and for harming the "water dog" (usually taken to be the otter), and require that dogs, including pregnant bitches and strays, be fed and cared for. Few ancient religious texts honour an animal so explicitly.

Other chapters extend the logic of purity to further forms of bodily impurity, including menstruation (chapter sixteen) and cut hair and nail-parings (chapter seventeen), which must be disposed of with prayers so that they cannot serve the demons. The worldview is consistent: the good creation must be protected from everything that bears the mark of decay, and the faithful are its guardians, as explained in Ahura Mazda and Ahriman.

Purification, Penalties and the Barashnom§

The Videvdad prescribes purification by water and by consecrated bull's urine (gomez, which once consecrated is called nirang), together with prayers. Its most demanding rite, set out in chapter nine, is the Barashnom, a purification carried out in a special enclosure in which the polluted person moves along a series of stones and holes while being cleansed by a priest, followed by a period of seclusion; in its developed form it lasts nine nights and is called Barashnom-i no shab. In later practice the Barashnom has been required above all of priests before their initiation and before performing the highest rituals, and it is described among the priestly disciplines in Zoroastrian priests: mobeds and dasturs.

The text also lays down penalties for sins, from breach of contract and assault (chapter four) to burying a corpse or polluting fire and water. The punishments are expressed in hundreds or thousands of strokes with a horse-goad and another instrument whose nature is uncertain. Since such numbers could not have been carried out literally, scholars generally think they served as a scale for converting sins into atonements, fines or ritual works; the Middle Persian commentaries already treat them in monetary terms. A few offences, such as burning or burying a corpse, are declared inexpiable in this life.

Healing, the Earth and Daily Life§

The Videvdad is not only about pollution. Its third chapter asks what makes the earth most joyful, and answers: where a righteous man builds a house with fire, cattle, wife and children, and where grain and fruit are most abundantly grown; to cultivate the earth is itself a work of righteousness. This celebration of farming and family life reflects a theology in which the material world is good and to be made flourishing.

Several chapters concern medicine. Chapter seven distinguishes healing with the knife, with plants and with the holy word, declaring the last the most powerful, and requires a would-be surgeon to prove his skill first on the worshippers of the daevas before treating the faithful. The final chapters tell how Angra Mainyu created countless diseases and how Ahura Mazda sent his messenger to summon the healing divinity Airyaman, together with a list of healing spells. Chapter nineteen narrates the temptation of Zarathustra by Angra Mainyu, who offers the prophet earthly dominion if he will renounce the Good Religion; Zarathustra refuses and drives off the demons with sacred words, and the chapter closes with a description of the soul's fate after death at the Chinvat bridge. Chapter eighteen, among other things, honours the cock as the bird of Sraosha that wakes the faithful for prayer at dawn.

The Night Liturgy and the Modern Debate over the Videvdad§

The Videvdad is a liturgical as well as a legal text. In the ceremony that bears its name, two qualified priests recite it in full, its chapters interleaved with those of the Yasna and the Visperad, during the night watch from midnight to dawn. It is one of the "inner" rituals performed only in a ritually pure precinct by priests who have undergone the Barashnom. Manuscripts that arrange the text for this purpose are called Videvdad Sade, "the plain Videvdad", that is, without the Middle Persian commentary. The ritual is described in context in Zoroastrian fire temples and ritual.

The Videvdad reached Europe through Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron's translation of 1771 and became widely known in English through James Darmesteter's version in the Sacred Books of the East (1880). Its rules on corpses, menstruation and penalties have since been at the centre of internal Zoroastrian debate. Nineteenth-century Parsi reformers, encouraged by Martin Haug's view that only the Gathas were the prophet's own work, argued that the Videvdad was a later priestly code without binding authority. Traditionalist priests and laypeople, and the esoteric movement described in Ilm-e Khshnoom, defended it as revealed scripture whose purity laws protect the good creation. Many Zoroastrians today keep some of its customs, such as the sagdid and care in handling the dead, while setting others aside.

Frequently asked questions§

What does Vendidad mean?§

Vendidad is an older European spelling of Videvdad, from Avestan vi-daeva-data, "the law against the demons" or "the law of those who reject the daevas". It is the Avestan book of purity laws and related myths.

Why is the dog important in the Vendidad?§

The Videvdad teaches that a dog's gaze drives away the corpse demon Nasu, so a dog is brought to view the dead in the rite called sagdid. It also praises the dog's loyalty and prescribes penalties for harming dogs.

Do Zoroastrians still follow the Vendidad?§

Practice varies. Priests still perform the Videvdad ceremony and traditionalists observe many of its purity rules, while reformist Zoroastrians regard much of it as later priestly law and follow it selectively or not at all.

Is the story of Yima's vara a flood story?§

It is a story of survival through a catastrophe, but the danger is a terrible winter rather than a flood. Scholars often compare it with Near Eastern flood narratives, while noting that it reflects an Iranian and Central Asian climate.

Sources and further reading§