# Vendidad — Chapter 1

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> Source: Avesta.org. The Vendidad, Chapter 1, translation: L.H. Mills / J. Darmesteter (Sacred Books of the East, 1880-1887), Avesta.org. License: Public domain (translation predates 1928).
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> AVESTA: VENDIDAD (English): Fargard 1.
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> AVESTA: VENDIDAD (English): Fargard 1.
> 
> This digital edition prepared by Joseph H. Peterson, 1995.
> 
> Translated by James Darmesteter (From Sacred Books of the
> East, American Edition, 1898.)
> 
> Compare this chapter with the ancient description given of it in
> the Denkard, Book 8, Chapter 44.
> 
> For an analysis see
> Mary Boyce, Zoroastrianism : Its Antiquity and Constant Vigour (Columbia Lectures on Iranian Studies, No 7)
> (Costa Mesa, Mazda Pub, 1992, pp. 3 ff.)
> and A. Christensen, Le premier chapitre du Vendidad (Copenhagen, 1943).
> 
> Synopsis:
> 
> This chapter is an enumeration of sixteen perfect
> lands created by Ahura Mazda, and of as many plagues created in
> opposition by Angra Mainyu.
> 
> Many attempts have been made, not only to identify
> these sixteen lands, but also to draw historical conclusions from
> their order of succession, as representing the actual order of
> the migrations and settlements of the old Iranian tribes.
> But there is nothing in the text to support such wide inferences
> We have here nothing more than a geographical description of Iran,
> seen from the religious point of view.
> 
> Of these sixteen lands there are nine, as follows:--
> 
> AVESTAN NAME.OLD PERSIAN.GREEKMODERN NAME.
> Sughdha (2) Suguda
> SogdianhSoghd (Samarkand)
> Mouru (3) Margu
> MargianhMarv
> Bakhdhi (4) Bâkhtri
> BaktraBalkh
> Haroyu (6) Haraiva
> `AreiaHarê(rud)
> Vehrkana (9) Varkâna
> 'UrkaniaGurgân, Jorgân
> Harahvaiti (10)Harauvati
> `AracwsiaAv-rokhaj, Arghand-(âb)
> Haetumant (11)
> `EtumandoVHelmend
> Ragha (12) Ragâ
> 'RagaiRaî
> Hapta hindu (15)Hindava
> `IndoiHind (Punjab)
> 
> which can be identified with certainty, as we are
> able to follow their
> 
> names from the records of the Achaemenian kings or the works of
> classical writers down to the map of modern Iran.
> 
> For the other lands we are confined for information
> to the Pahlavi Commentary, from which we get:
> 
> AVESTAN NAME. PAHLAVI NAME. MODERN NAME.
> Vaekereta (7) Kâpûl Kabul
> Urva (8) Mêshan Mesene
> Varena (14) Patashkhvârgar or DailamTabaristân or Gîlân
> Rangha (16) Arvastâni RûmEastern Mesopotamia
> 
> The identification of Nisaya (5) and Chakhra (13) remains an
> open question, as there were several cities of that
> name. We know, however, that Nisaya lay between Balkh and Marv.
> The first province Airyanem Vaeja, or Eranwej, we identify with
> the medieval Arrân (nowadays known as Karabagh).
> 
> There must have been some systematical idea in the
> order followed, though it is not apparent, except in the succession
> of Sughdha, Mouru, Bakhdhi, Nisaya, Haroyu, Vaekereta (numbers
> 2-7), which form one compact group of north-eastern provinces;
> the last two provinces, Hindu and Rangha (numbers 15-16), are
> the two limitroph provinces, east and west (Indus and Tigris);
> and the Rangha brings us back to the first province, Eranwej,
> whose chief river, the Vanguhi Daitya, or Aras, springs from
> the same mountains as the Rangha-Tigris.
> 
> The several plagues created by Angra Mainyu to mar
> the native perfection of Ahura's creations give instructive information
> on the religious condition of several of the Iranian countries
> at the time when this Fargard was written. Harat seems to have
> been the seat of puritan sects that pushed rigorism to the extreme
> in the law of purification. Sorcery was prevalent in the basin
> of the Helmend river, and the Paris were powerful in Cabul, which
> is a Zoroastrian way of saying that the Hindu civilisation prevailed
> in those parts, which in fact in the two centuries before and
> after Christ were known as White India, and remained more Indian
> than Iranian till the Moslem conquest.
> 
> FARGARD 1. Sixteen perfect lands created by Ahura Mazda, and
> as many plagues created by Angra Mainyu.
> 
> 1. Ahura Mazda spake unto Spitama1 Zarathushtra,
> saying:
> 
> I have made every land dear (to its people),
> even though it had no charms whatever in it2: had
> I not made every land dear (to its people), even
> though it had no charms whatever in it, then the
> whole living world would have invaded the Airyana
> Vaeja3.
> 
> Notes:
> 
> 1. Or Spitamide. Zarathushtra was descended from Spitama at the
> fifth generation.
> 
> 2. 'Everyone fancies that the land where he was born and has been
> brought up is the best and fairest land that I have created' (Comm.)
> 
> 3. Greater Bundahish: 'It is said in the Sacred Book: had I not
> created the Genius of the native place, all mankind would have
> gone to Eran-Vej, on account of its pleasantness.' — On Airyanem
> Vaeja or Eran-Vej, see following note.
> 
> 2.4 The first of the good lands and countries
> which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the Airyana
> Vaeja5, by the Vanguhi Daitya6.
> 
> Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
> and he counter-created the serpent in the river7 and
> Winter, a work of the Daevas8.
> 
> 4. Clause 2 in the Vendidad Sada is composed of
> Zend quotations in the Commentary that illustrate the alternative
> process of creation: 'First, Ahura Mazda would create a land of
> such kind that its dwellers might like it, and there could be
> nothing more delightful. Then he who is all death would bring
> against it a counter-creation.'
> 
> 5. Airyanem Vaeja, Iran-Vej, is the holy land of Zoroastrianism:
> Zarathushtra was born and founded his religion there
> (Bund. 20.32;
> 32.3):
> the first animal couple appeared there
> (Bund. 14.4;
> Zadspram, 9.8).
> From its name, 'the Iranian seed,' it seems to
> have been considered as the original seat of the Iranian race. It has
> been generally supposed to belong to Eastern Iran, like the provinces
> which are enumerated after it, chiefly on account of the name
> of its river, the Vanguhi Daitya, which was in the Sassanian
> times (as Veh) the name of the Oxus. But the Bundahish distinctly
> states that Iran-Vej is 'bordering upon Adarbajan'
> (29.12);
> now, Adarbaijan is bordered by the Caspian Sea on the east, by
> the Rangha provinces on the west, by Media proper on the south,
> and by Arran on the north. The Rangha provinces are out of question,
> since they are mentioned at the end of the Fargard (verse 20), and
> the climatic conditions of Iran-Vej with its long winter likewise
> exclude Media and suit Arran, where the summer lasts hardly two
> months (cf. § 4, note 6). The very name agrees, as the country
> known as Arran seems to have been known to the Greeks as
> `Ariania (Stephanus Byz.), which
> brings it close to our Airyanem. On the Vanguhi Daitya, see following
> note.
> 
> 6. The Vanguhi Daitya, belonging to Arran, must be the modern
> Aras (the classic Araxes). The Aras was named Vanguhi, like the
> Oxus, but distinguished from it by the addition Daitya, which made
> it 'the Vanguhi of the Law' (the Vanguhi by which Zarathushtra
> received the Law).
> 
> 7. 'There are many Khrafstras in the Daitik, as it is said, The
> Daitik full of Khrafstras' (Bund. 20.13). Snakes abound on
> the banks of the Araxes (Morier, A Second Journey, p. 250)
> nowadays as much as in the time of Pompeius, to whom they
> barred the way from Albania to Hyrcania (Plut.)
> 
> 8. Arran (Karabagh) is celebrated for its cold winter as well as
> for its beauty. At the Naoroz (first day of spring) the fields still lie
> under the snow. The temperature does not become milder before
> the second fortnight of April; no flower is seen before May.
> Summer, which is marked by the migration of the nomads from
> the plain to the mountains, begins about the 20th of June and
> ends in the middle of August.
> 
> 3. There are ten winter months there, two
> summer months9; and those are cold for the waters10,
> cold for the earth, cold for the trees11. Winter falls
> there, the worst of all plagues. [Hum 35: "Ten are there the winter
> months, two the summer months, and even then [in summer] the waters are
> freezing, the earth is freezing, the plants are freezing; there is the
> center of winter, there is the heart of winter, there winter rushes
> around, there (occur) most damages caused by storm."]
> 
> 9. Vendidad Sada: 'It is known that [in the ordinary course
> of nature] there are seven months of summer and five of winter'
> (see Bund. 25).
> 
> 10. Some say: 'Even those two months of summer are cold for
> the waters...' (Comm.; see Mainyo-i-khard 44.20).
> 
> 11. Vend. Sada: 'There reigns the core and heart of winter.'
> 
> 4. The second of the good lands and
> countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the
> plain12 which the Sughdhas inhabit13.
> 
> Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
> 
> and he counter-created the locust14, which brings
> death unto cattle and plants.
> 
> 12. Doubtful.
> 
> 13. Old P. Suguda; Sogdiana.
> 
> 14. The plague that fell to that country was the bad locust: it
> devours the plants and death comes to the cattle' (Gr. Bund.)
> 
> 5. The third of the good lands and countries
> which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the strong, holy
> Mouru15.
> 
> Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
> and he counter-created plunder and sin16.
> 
> 15. Margu; Margianh; Marv.
> 
> 16. Doubtful. The Gr. Bd. has: 'The plague that fell
> to that country was the coming and going of troops: for there
> is always there an evil concourse of horsemen, thieves, robbers,
> and heretics, who speak untruth and oppress the righteous.' — Marv
> continued to be the resort of Turanian plunderers till the recent
> Russian annexation.
> 
> 6. The fourth of the good lands and countries
> which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the beautiful
> Bakhdhi17 with high-lifted banner.
> 
> Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created
> the ants and the ant-hills18.
> 
> 17. Bakhtri; Baktra; Balkh.
> 
> 18. 'The corn-carrying ants' (Asp.; cf. Farg. 14.5).
> 
> 7. The fifth of the good lands and countries
> which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Nisaya19, that
> lies between the Mouru and Bakhdhi.
> 
> Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
> and he counter-created the sin of unbelief20.
> 
> 19. By contradistinction to other places of the same name. There
> was a Nisaya, in Media, where Darius put to death the Mage
> Gaumata (Behishtun I, 58). There was also a Nisâ
> in Fars, another in Kirman, a third again on the way from Amol
> to Marv (Tabari, tr. Noeldeke, p.101, 2), which may be the same
> as Nisaia, the capital of Parthia
> (Parqaunisa ap. Isid. of Charax 12); cf. Pliny
> VI, 25 (29). One may therefore he tempted to translate, 'Nisaya
> between which and Bakhdhi Mouru lies;' but the text hardly admits of that
> construction, and we must suppose the existence of another Nisaya
> on the way from Balkh to Marv.
> 
> 20. There are people there 'who doubt the existence of God (Comm.)
> 
> 8. The sixth of the good lands and countries
> which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the house-deserting
> Haroyu21.
> 
> Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
> and he counter-created tears and wailing22.
> 
> 21. Harôyu, Old P. Haraiva (transcribed in Greek and Latin
> 'Areia Aria instead of `Areia
> Haria, by a confusion with the name of the Aryans); P. Harê
> (in Firdausi and in Harê-rûd; Harât is an Arabicised
> form. — 'The house-deserting Harê: because there, when a
> man dies in a house, the people of the house leave it and go.
> We keep the ordinances for nine days or a month: they leave
> the house and absent themselves from it for nine days or a month'
> (Gr. Bd.) See Vd5.42.
> 
> 22. 'The tears and wailing for the dead,' the voceros. The
> tears shed over a dead man grow to a river that prevents his
> crossing the Chinwad bridge
> (Saddar 96;
> Arda Viraf 16.7, 10).
> 
> 9. The seventh of the good lands and
> countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was
> Vaekereta23, of the evil shadows.
> 
> Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
> and he counter-created the Pairika Knathaiti24, who
> claves unto Keresaspa.
> 
> 23. Vaêkereta, an older name of Kabul (Kâpûl: Comm.
> and Gr. Bd.); perhaps the Ptolemeian Bagarda
> in Paropanisus (Ptol. VI, 18).
> 
> 24. The Pairika, in Zoroastrian mythology, symbolises
> idolatry (uzdes-parastih). The land of Kubul, till the Moslem
> invasion, belonged to the Indian civilisation and was mostly of
> Brahmanical and Buddhist religion. The Pairika Khnathaiti will
> be destroyed at the end of the world by Saoshyant, the unborn
> son of Zarathushtra (when all false religions vanish before the
> true one; Vd19.5). — Sama Keresaspa,
> the Garshasp of later tradition, is the type of impious heroism:
> he let himself be seduced to the Daeva-worship, and Zarathushtra
> saw him punished in hell for his contempt of Zoroastrian observances.
> 
> 10. The eighth of the good lands and
> countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Urva
> of the rich pastures25.
> 
> Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
> and he counter-created the sin of pride26.
> 
> 25. Urva, according to Gr. Bd. Mêshan, that is to say
> Mesene (Meshnh) the region of lower
> Euphrates, famous for its fertility
> (Herod. I, 193 [?]): it was for four centuries (from about 150 B.C. to 225 A.D.) the
> seat of a flourishing commercial state.
> 
> 26. 'The people of Meshan are proud: there are no people worse
> than they' (Gr. Bd.)
> 
> 11. The ninth of the good lands and countries
> which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Khnenta which
> the Vehrkanas27 inhabit.
> 
> Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
> and he counter-created a sin for which there is no
> atonement, the unnatural sin28.
> 
> 27. 'Khnenta is a river in Vehrkâna (Hyrcania)'
> (Comm.); consequently the river Jorjan.
> 
> 28. See Vd8.31-2.
> [Hum2 228 (shyaothna yânaô-vaeipya): "pederasty"]
> 
> 12. The tenth of the good lands and
> countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the
> beautiful Harahvaiti29.
> 
> Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
> and he counter-created a sin for which there is no
> atonement, the burying of the dead30.
> 
> 29. Harauvati; `Aracwsia;
> corrupted into Ar-rokhag (name of the country in the
> Arabic literature) and Arghand (in the modern name
> of the river Arghand-âb).
> 
> 30. See Vd3.36 ff.
> 
> 13. The eleventh of the good lands and
> countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the
> bright, glorious Haetumant31.
> 
> Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all
> death, and he counter-created the evil work of witchcraft.
> 
> 31. The basin of the EtumandroV or Erymanthus,
> now Hermend, Helmend, that is to say, the region of Saistân.
> 
> 14. And this is the sign by which it is known,
> this is that by which it is seen at once: wheresoever
> they may go and raise a cry of sorcery, there32 the
> worst works of witchcraft go forth. From there they
> come to kill and strike at heart, and they bring
> locusts as many as they want33.
> 
> 32. In Haetumant. — 'The plague created against Saistan is
> abundance of witchcraft: and that character appears from this,
> that all people from that place practise astrology: those
> wizards produce ... snow, hail, spiders, and locusts ' (Gr Bd.)
> Saistan, like Kabul, was half Indian (Maçoudi, II, 79-82),
> and Brahmans and Buddhists have the credit of being proficient in
> the darker sciences.
> 
> 33. This clause seems to be a quotation in the Pahlavi
> Commentary.
> 
> 15. The twelfth of the good lands and
> countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was
> Ragha34 of the three races35.
> 
> Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created
> the sin of utter unbelief36.
> 
> 34. Ragha, transcribed Râk and identified by the
> Commentary with Adarbaijan and 'according to some' with Rai (the
> Greek 'Ragai in Media). There were
> apparently two Raghas, one in Atropatene, another in Media.
> 
> 35. 'That means that the three classes, priests, warriors,
> and husbandmen, were well organised there' (Comm. and Gr. Bd.)
> 
> 36. 'They doubt themselves and cause other people to
> doubt' (Comm.)
> 
> 16. The thirteenth of the good lands and
> countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the
> strong, holy Chakhra37.
> 
> Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
> 
> and he counter-created a sin for which there is no
> atonement, the cooking of corpses38.
> 
> 37. There were two towns of that name (Charkh), one in
> Khorasan, and the other in Ghaznin.
> 
> 38. 'Cooking a corpse and eating it. They cook foxes
> and weasels and eat them' (Gr. Bd.) See Vd8.73-4.
> 
> 17. The fourteenth of the good lands and
> countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the
> four-cornered Varena39, for which was born
> Thraetaona, who smote Azi Dahaka [Zohak].
> 
> Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
> and he counter-created abnormal issues in women40,
> and barbarian oppression41.
> 
> 39. Varn, identified by the Comm. either with Patashkhvârgar
> or with Dailam (that is to say Tabaristan or Gilan). The Gr.
> Bd. identifies it with Mount Damavand (which belongs to
> Patashkhvargar): this is the mountain where Azi Dahaka [Zohak] was bound
> with iron bonds by Thraetaona [Faridoon]. — 'Four-cornered:'
> Tabaristan has rudely the shape of a quadrilateral.
> 
> 40. Vd16.11 ff.
> 
> 41. The aborigines of the Caspian littoral were Anarian
> savages, the so-called 'Demons of Mazana [Mazendaran].'
> 
> 18. The fifteenth of the good lands and
> countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the
> Seven Rivers42.
> 
> Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
> and he counter-created abnormal issues in women,
> and excessive heat.
> 
> 42. Hapta hindava, the basin of the affluents of the
> Indus, the modern Panjab (= the Five Rivers), formerly called Hind,
> by contradistinction to Sindh, the basin of the lower river.
> [Hum34: "the PhlT of V1.18 quotes the fragment
> haca ushastara hinduua auui daosha<s>tarem hindum
> 'from the eastern river to the western river'.]
> 
> 19. The sixteenth of the good lands and
> countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the
> land by the sources (?) of the Rangha43, where people
> live who have no chiefs44.
> 
> Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
> and he counter-created Winter45, a work of the
> Daevas46.
> 
> 43. 'Arvastin-i-Rum (Roman Mesopotamia)' (Comm.), that is to
> say, the basin of the upper Tigris (Rangha = Arvand = Tigris).
> 
> 44. 'People who do not hold the chief for a chief' (Comm.), which
> is the translation for asraosha (Comm. ad XVI, 18), 'rebel
> against the law,' and would well apply to the non-Mazdean people
> of Arvast&acirc;n-i-R&ucirc;m.
> 
> 45. The severe winters in the upper valleys of the Tigris.
> 
> 46. The Vendidad Sada has here: taozy&acirc;ka danheush
> aiwisht&acirc;ra, which the Gr. Bd. understands as:
> 'and the Tajik (the Arabs) are oppressive there.'
> 
> 20. There are still other lands and countries47,
> beautiful and deep, longing and asking for the good,
> and bright. [Hum2 54: lands and regions, beautiful,­deep, esteemed, brilliant and bright.]
> 
> 47. 'Some say: Persis' (Comm.)
> 
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> — *Vendidad — Chapter 1 — L.H. Mills / James Darmesteter (1880-1887) (Public domain (Sacred Books of the East, 1880-1887))*