# Vendidad — Chapter 14

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-18 — 1 clipping.*

---

> Source: Avesta.org. The Vendidad, Chapter 14, translation: L.H. Mills / J. Darmesteter (Sacred Books of the East, 1880-1887), Avesta.org. License: Public domain (translation predates 1928).
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> AVESTA: VENDIDAD (English): Fargard 14.
> 
> Home
> 
> Contents
> 
> Prev
> 
> vd14sbe
> 
> Next
> 
> Avestan
> 
> Glossary
> 
> AVESTA: VENDIDAD (English): Fargard 14. Atoning for the murder of a water-dog.
> 
> This digital edition prepared by Joseph H. Peterson, 1995.
> 
> Translated by James Darmesteter (From Sacred Books of the East,
> American Edition, 1898.)
> 
> This Fargard is nothing more than an appendix to the last clauses
> in the preceding Fargard (§ 50 seq.)
> How the murder of a water-dog (an otter) may be atoned for is
> described in it at full length.
> The extravagance of the penalties prescribed may well make it
> doubtful whether the legislation of the Vendidad had ever any
> substantial existence in practice. These exorbitant prescriptions
> seem to be intended only to impress on the mind of the faithful
> the heinousness of the offense to be avoided.
> 
> FARGARD 14. Atoning for the murder of a water-dog
> 
> 1. Zarathushtra asked Ahura Mazda: 'O Ahura Mazda, most
> beneficent Spirit, Maker of the material world, thou Holy One!
> He who smites one of those water-dogs that are born one from a
> thousand dogs and a thousand she-dogs1, so that he gives up the
> ghost and the soul parts from the body, what is the penalty that
> he shall pay?'
> 
> Notes:
> 
> 1. See preceding Fargard § 51.
> 
> 2. Ahura Mazda answered: 'He shall pay ten thousand stripes
> with the Aspahe-astra, ten thousand stripes with the
> Sraosho-charana2.
> 
> 'He shall godly and piously bring unto the fire of Ahura
> Mazda3 ten thousand loads of hard, well dried, well examined4
> wood, to redeem his own soul.
> 
> 2. He shall pay 50 tanapuhrs (= 15,000 istirs = 60,000 dirhems).
> If he can afford it, he will alone in the manner stated in the
> Avesta; if he cannot afford it, it will be sufficient to perform
> a complete Izashne [Yasna -JHP] (sacrifice),' (Comm.)
> 
> 3. To the altar of the Warharan fire.
> 
> 4. It is forbidden to take any ill-smelling thing to the fire and
> to kindle it thereon; it is forbidden to kindle green wood, and
> even though the wood were hard and dry, one must examine it three
> times, lest there may be any hair or any unclean matter upon it,
> (Gr. Riv.) Although the pious Arda Viraf had always taken the utmost
> care never to put on the fire any wood but such as was seven years
> old, yet, when he entered Paradise, Atar, the genius of fire,
> showed him reproachfully a large tank full of the water which
> that wood had exuded (see Arda Viraf 10).
> 
> 3. 'He shall godly and piously, bring unto the fire of Ahura
> Mazda ten thousand loads of soft wood, of Urvasna, Vohu-gaona,
> Vohu-kereti, Hadha-naepata5, or any sweet-scented plant, to
> redeem his own soul.
> 
> 5. See above, Vd8.2, note 4.
> 
> 4. 'He shall godly and piously tie ten thousand bundles of
> Baresma, to redeem his own soul.
> 
> 'He shall offer up to the Good Waters ten thousand Zaothra
> libations with the Haoma and the milk, cleanly prepared and well
> strained, cleanly prepared and well strained by a pious man, and
> mixed with the roots of the tree known as Hadha-naepata, to
> redeem his own soul.
> 
> 5. 'He shall kill ten thousand snakes of those that go upon the
> belly. He shall kill ten thousand Kahrpus, who are snakes with
> the shape of a dog6. He shall hill ten thousand tortoises7. He
> shall kill ten thousand land-frogs8; he shall kill ten thousand
> water-frogs. He shall kill ten thousand corn-carrying ants9; he
> shall kill ten thousand ants of the small, venomous mischievous
> kind10.
> 
> 6. 'Mâr bânak snakes: they are dog-like, because they sit on
> their hindparts' (Comm.) The cat (gurba = Kahrpu) seems to be the
> animal intended. In a paraphrase of this passage in a Parsi Rivayat,
> the cat is numbered amongst the Khrafstras which it is enjoined
> to kill to redeem a sin (India Office Library, VIII, 13); cf.
> G. du Chinozi, p. 462: 'Les animaux que les Gaures ont en horreur
> sont les serpents, les couleuvres, les lezars, et autres de cette
> espece, les crapaux, lea grenouilles, lea écrevisses, les rats
> et souris, et sur tout le chat.'
> 
> 7. See Vd8.6-7.
> 
> 8. 'Those that can go out of water and live on the dry ground'
> (Comm.) 'Pour les grenouilles et crapaux, ils disent que ce sont
> ceux (eux?) qui sont cause de ce que les hommes meurent, gâtans
> les eaus où ils habitent continuellement, et que d'autant plus
> qu'il y en a dans le païs, d'autant plus lea caus causent-elles
> des maladies et enfin la mort,' G. du Chinon, p.465.
> 
> 9. Herodotus already mentions the war waged by the Magi against snakes
> and ants (I, 140).-- 'Un jour que j'étois surpris de la guerre qu'ils
> font aux fourmis, ils me dirent que ces animaux ne faisaient que
> voler par des amas des grains plus qu'il n'étoit nécessaire pour
> leur nourriture,' G. du Chinon, p.464. Firdausi protested against
> the proscription: 'Do no harm to the corn-carrying ant; a living
> thing it is, and its life is dear to it.' The celebrated high-priest
> of the Parsis, the late Moola Firooz, entered those lines into
> his Pand Nâmah, which may betoken better days for
> the wise little creature.
> 
> 10. Perhaps: 'of the small, venomous kind, with a mischievous track'
> (Bund. 19.28: when the
> grain-carrier travels over the earth, it produces a hollow track:
> when the hedgehog travels over it, the track goes away from it
> and it becomes level:' cf. Vd13.2, note).
> 
> 6. 'He shall kill ten thousand worms of those that live on
> dirt; he shall kill ten thousand raging flies11.
> 
> 'He shall fill up ten thousand holes for the unclean12.
> 
> 'He shall godly and piously give to godly men13 twice the set
> of seven implements for the fire14, to redeem his own soul,
> namely:-
> 
> 11. Corpse-flies; see Vd7.2.
> 
> 12. 'The holes at which the unclean are washed' (Comm.;
> see Vd9.6 seq.)
> 
> 13. To priests.
> 
> 14. For the sacred fire.
> 
> 7. 'The two answering implements for fire15; a broom16; a pair of
> tongs; a pair of round bellows extended at the bottom, contracted
> at the top; a sharp-edged sharp-pointed17 adze; a sharp-toothed
> sharp-pointed saw; by means of which the worshippers of Mazda
> procure wood for the fire of Ahura Mazda.
> 
> 15. Two receptacles, one for the wood, another for the incense.
> 
> 16. To cleanse the Atash-dân or fire-vessel
> (Yasna 9.1).
> 
> 17. Literally, 'sharp-kneed.'
> 
> 8. 'He shall godly and piously give to godly men a set of the
> priestly instruments of which the priests make use, to redeem his
> own soul, namely: The Astra18; the meat-vessel; the Paitidana19;
> the Khrafstraghna20; the Sraosho-charana21; the cup for the
> Myazda22; the cups for mixing and dividing23;
> the regular mortar24; the Haoma cups25; and the Baresma.
> 
> 18. The Aspahê-ashtra.
> 
> 19. As everything that goes out of man is unclean, his breath defiles
> all that it touches; priests, therefore, while on duty, and even
> laymen, while praying or eating, must wear a mouth-veil, the
> Paitidâna (Parsi Penom), consisting 'of two pieces of white cotton
> cloth, hanging loosely from the bridge of the nose to, at least,
> two inches below the mouth, and tied with two strings at the back
> of the head' (Haug, Essays, 2nd ed. P.243, n. 1; cf. Comm. ad
> Vd18.1, and Anquetil II, 530).
> 
> 20. The 'Khrafstra-killer;' an instrument for killing snakes, &c.
> It is a stick with a leather thong at its end, something like
> the Indian fly-flap.
> 
> 21. See General Introduction.
> 
> 22. Doubtful.
> 
> 23. The cup in which the juice of the hom and or the urvarâm
> (the twigs of hadha-naepata which are pounded together with the
> hom) is received from the mortar (Comm.)
> 
> 24. The mortar with its pestle.
> 
> 25. The cup on which twigs of Haoma are laid before being pounded,
> the so-called tashtah (Anquetil II, 533); 'some say, the hom-strainer'
> [a saucer with nine holes], Comm.
> 
> [See descriptions of the Alat or
> ritual implements. -JHP]
> 
> 9. 'He shall godly and piously give to godly
> men a set of all the war implements of which the
> warriors make use, to redeem his own soul;
> 
> 'The first being a javelin, the second a sword, the
> third a club, the fourth a bow, the fifth a saddle with
> a quiver and thirty iron25b-headed arrows, the sixth a
> sling with arm-string and with thirty sling stones26;
> 
> 'The seventh a cuirass, the eighth a hauberk27, the
> ninth a tunic28, the tenth a helmet, the eleventh a
> girdle, the twelfth a pair of greaves.
> 
> 25b. Dar: brass. -JHP
> 
> 26. These are six offensive arms: the next six are defensive arms. --
> Cf. W. Jackson: Herodotus VII, 61, or The Arms of the
> Ancient Persians illustrated from Iranian Sources; New York, 1894.
> 
> 27. 'Going from the helm to the cuirass' (Comm.)
> 
> 28. 'Under the cuirass' (Comm.)
> 
> 10. 'He shall godly and piously give to godly men a set of all
> the implements of which the husbandmen make use, to redeem his
> own soul, namely: A plough with yoke and ...29; a goad for ox; a
> mortar of stone; a round-headed hand-mill for grinding corn;
> 
> 29. Yuyô-semi ayazhâna pairi-darezâna.
> 
> 11. 'A spade for digging and tilling; one measure of silver and
> one measure of gold.'
> O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! How much
> silver?
> Ahura Mazda answered: 'The price of a stallion.'
> O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! How much gold?
> Ahura Mazda answered: 'The price of a he-camel.
> 
> 12. 'He shall godly and piously procure a rill of running water30
> for godly husbandmen, to redeem his own soul.'
> 
> O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! How large is
> the rill?
> 
> Ahura Mazda answered: 'The depth of a dog, and the breadth
> of a dog31.
> 
> 30. The most precious of all gifts in such a dry place as Iran.
> Water is obtained either through canals of derivation or through
> underground canals (kârêz, kanât).
> 
> 31. Which is estimated 'a foot deep, a foot broad' (Comm.)
> 
> 13. 'He shall godly and piously give a piece of arable land to
> godly men, to redeem his own soul.'
> 
> O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! How large is
> the piece of land?
> 
> Ahura Mazda answered: 'As much as can be watered with such a
> rill divided into two canals32.
> 
> 32. Doubtful.
> 
> 14. 'He shall godly and piously procure for godly men a stable
> for oxen, with nine hathras and nine nematas33, to
> redeem his own soul.'
> 
> O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! How large is
> the stable?
> 
> Ahura Mazda answered: 'It shall have twelve alleys34 in the
> largest part of the house, nine alleys in the middle part, six
> alleys in the smallest part.
> 
> 'He shall godly and piously give to godly men goodly beds
> with Sheets and cushions, to redeem his own soul.
> 
> 33. Meaning unknown.
> 
> 34. Twelve ranks of stalls (?).
> 
> 15. 'He shall godly and piously give in marriage to a godly man
> a virgin maid, whom no man has known35, to redeem his own soul.'
> 
> O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! What sort of
> maid?
> Ahura Mazda answered: 'A sister or a daughter of his, at the
> age of puberty, with ear-rings in her ears and past her fifteenth
> year.
> 
> 35. Match-making is a good work (Vd4.44).
> 
> 16. 'He shall godly and piously give to holy men twice seven
> head of small cattle, to redeem his own soul.'
> 'He shall bring up twice seven whelps.
> 'He shall throw twice seven bridges over canal.
> 
> 17. 'He shall put into repair twice nine stables that are out
> of repair.
> 'He shall cleanse twice nine dogs from stipti, anairiti, and
> vyangura36, and all the diseases that are produced on the body of
> a dog.
> 'He shall treat twice nine godly men to their fill of meat,
> bread, strong drink, and wine.
> 
> 36. Meaning unknown.
> 
> 18. 'This is the penalty, this is the atonement which saves the
> faithful man who submits to it not him who does not submit to it.
> Such a one shall surely be an inhabitant in the mansion of the
> Druj37.'
> 
> 37. See Vd8.107.
> 
> Home
> 
> Contents
> 
> Prev
> 
> vd14sbe
> 
> Next
> 
> Avestan
> 
> Glossary
>
> — *Vendidad — Chapter 14 — L.H. Mills / James Darmesteter (1880-1887) (Public domain (Sacred Books of the East, 1880-1887))*