# Vendidad — Chapter 2

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> Source: Avesta.org. The Vendidad, Chapter 2, 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 2: Yima (Jamshed) and the deluge.
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> AVESTA: VENDIDAD (English): Fargard 2. Yima (Jamshed) and the deluge.
> 
> 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, Dk Book 8, Chapter 44.
> 
> Also, compare this translation with those given in Malandra,
> Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion (p. 178 ff.),
> and Boyce Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism (pp. 94 ff.)
> 
> For a comparison of the underground enclosure of Yima with the
> the Indic/Sanskrit Yama as ruler of the underground, see Bruce Lincoln
> Death, War, and Sacrifice (Chicago, University of Chicago Press,
> 1991, p. 28).
> 
> Also see Mary Boyce, History of Zoroastrianism I (Leiden, Brill,
> 1975 second impression with corrections, pp. 92 ff.)
> 
> Synopsis:
> 
> This Fargard may be divided into two parts.
> 
> First part (1-20). Ahura Mazda proposes to Yima, the son of
> Vivanghat, to receive the law from him and to bring it to men.
> On his refusal, he bids him keep his creatures and make them
> prosper. Yima accordingly makes them thrive and increase, keeps
> death and disease away from them, and three times enlarges the
> earth, which had become too narrow for its inhabitants.
> 
> Second part (21 to the end). On the approach of a dire winter,
> which is to destroy every living creature, Yima, being advised by
> Ahura, builds a Vara to keep there the finest representatives
> of every kind of animals and plants, and they live there a life of
> perfect happiness.
> 
> It is difficult not to acknowledge in the latter legend a Zoroastrian
> adaptation of the deluge, whether it was borrowed from the Bible
> or from the Chaldaean mythology. The similitude is so striking
> that it did not escape the Moslems, and Macoudi states that
> certain authors place the date of the deluge in the time of Jamshed.
> There are essential and necessary differences between the two
> legends, the chief one being that in the monotheistic narration
> the deluge is sent as a punishment from God, whereas in the dualistic
> version it is a plague from the Daevas: but the core of the two
> legends is the same: the hero in both is a righteous man who,
> forewarned by God, builds a refuge to receive choice specimens
> of mankind) intended some day to replace an imperfect humanity,
> destroyed by a universal calamity.
> 
> FARGARD 2. Myths of Yima [Jamshed]
> 
> I.
> 
> Notes:
> 
> 1. Zarathushtra asked Ahura Mazda:
> 
> O Ahura Mazda, most beneficent Spirit, Maker
> of the material world, thou Holy One!
> 
> Who was the first mortal, before myself, Zarathushtra,
> with whom thou, Ahura Mazda, didst
> converse1, whom thou didst teach the Religion of Ahura,
> the Religion of Zarathushtra?
> 
> 1. 'On the Religion' (Comm.)
> 
> 2. Ahura Mazda answered:
> The fair Yima, the good shepherd2, O holy Zarathushtra!
> he was the first
> mortal, before thee, Zarathushtra, with whom I, Ahura Mazda, did
> converse, whom I taught the Religion of Ahura, the Religion of
> Zarathushtra. 3. Unto him, O Zarathushtra, I, Ahura Mazda, spake,
> saying: 'Well, fair Yima, son of Vivanghat, be thou the preacher
> and the bearer of my Religion!' And the fair Yima, O Zarathushtra,
> replied unto me, saying: 'I was not born, I was not taught to
> be the preacher and the bearer of thy Religion.'
> 
> 2. His being a good shepherd means that he held in good condition
> herds of men and herds of animals' (Comm.)
> 
> 4. Then I, Ahura Mazda, said thus unto him, O Zarathushtra: 'Since
> thou dost not consent to be the preacher and the bearer of my
> Religion, then make thou my world increase, make my world grow:
> consent thou to nourish, to rule, and to watch over my world.'
> 
> 5. And the fair Yima replied unto me, O Zarathushtra, saying:
> 'Yes! I will make thy world increase, I will make thy world grow.
> Yes! I will nourish, and rule, and watch over thy world. There
> shall be, while I am king, neither cold wind not hot wind, neither
> disease nor death.'
> 
> 6.3 Then I, Ahura Mazda, brought two implements unto him: a
> golden seal and a poniard inlaid with gold4. Behold, here Yima
> bears the royal sway!
> 
> 3. Vd2.6 is composed of unconnected Avesta quotations,
> which are no part of the text and are introduced by the commentator
> for the purpose of showing that 'although Yima did not teach the
> law and train pupils, he was nevertheless a faithful and a holy
> man, and rendered men holy too (?).' See Fragments of the Vendidad.
> 
> 4. As the symbol and the instrument of sovereignty. 'He reigned
> supreme by the strength of the ring and of the poniard' (Asp.)
> Thus Faridoon gives royal investiture to Iraj 'with the sword and
> the seal, the ring and the crown' (Firdausi). -- The king is master
> 'of the sword, the throne, and the ring.'
> 
> 7. [Obscure.]
> 
> 8. Thus, under the sway of Yima, three hundred winters passed
> away, and the earth was replenished with flocks and herds, with
> men and dogs and birds and with red blazing fires, and there was
> room no more for flocks, herds, and men.
> 
> 9. Then I warned the fair Yima, saying: 'O fair Yima, son of Vivanghat,
> the earth has become full of flocks and herds, of men and dogs
> and birds and of red blazing fires, and there is room no more
> for flocks, herds, and men.'
> 
> 10. Then Yima stepped forward, in light5, southwards6,
> on the way of the sun7, and (afterwards) he
> pressed the earth with the golden seal, and bored it
> with the poniard, speaking thus: 'O Spenta Armaiti8,
> kindly9 open asunder and stretch thyself afar, to
> bear flocks and herds and men.'
> 
> 5. That is to say, his body being all resplendent with light. See
> Albiruni's Chronology (tr. by Sachau, p. 202): 'Jam rose on that
> day (Noruz) like the sun, the light beaming forth from him, as
> though he shone like the sun.'
> 
> 6. The warm South is the region of Paradise
> (Hadhokht Nask, section 2.7):
> the North is the seat of the cold winds, of the demons and hell
> (Vd19.1; Vd7.2).
> 
> 7. Thence is derived the following tradition recorded by G. du
> Chinon: 'Ils en nomment un qui s'allait tous les jours promener
> dans le Ciel du Soleil d'où il aportait la sciance des Astres,
> aprez les avoir visités de si prez. Ils nomment ce grand personnage
> Gemachid' (Relations nouvelles du Levant, Lyon, 1671, p. 478).
> 
> 8. The Genius of the Earth.
> 
> 9. 'Do this out of kindness to the creatures' (Comm.)
> 
> 11. And Yima made the earth grow larger by one-third than it was
> before, and there came flocks and herds and men, at their will
> and wish, as many as he wished.
> 
> 12. Thus, under the sway of Yima, six hundred winters passed away,
> and the earth was replenished with flocks and herds, with men
> and dogs and birds and with red blazing fires, and there was room
> no more for flocks, herds, and men.
> 
> 13. And I warned the fair Yima, saying: 'O fair Yima, son of Vivanghat,
> the earth has become full of flocks and herds, of men and dogs
> and birds and of red blazing fires, and there is room no more
> for flocks, herds, and men.'
> 
> 14. Then Yima stepped forward, in light,
> 
> southwards, on the way of the sun, and (afterwards) he
> pressed the earth with the golden seal, and bored it
> with the poniard, speaking thus: 'O Spenta Armaiti, kindly)
> open asunder and stretch thyself afar, to bear
> flocks and herds and men.'
> 
> 15. And Yima made the earth grow larger by two-thirds than it
> was before, and there came flocks and herds and men, at their
> will and wish, as many as he wished.
> 
> 16. Thus, under the sway of Yima, nine
> hundred winters passed away10, and the earth was
> replenished with flocks and herds, with men and
> dogs and birds and with red blazing fires, and there was
> room no more for flocks, herds, and men.
> 
> 10. Yima, according to Yt9.10, made immortality reign on the
> earth for a thousand years. The remaining century was spent in
> the Vara ('for a hundred years, Jim was in the Var,' says the
> Gr. Bund.) On Yima's fall, see Yt19.34;
> see Yt5.25-31.
> 
> 17. And I warned the fair Yima, saying: 'O fair Yima, son of Vivanghat,
> the earth has become full of flocks and herds, of men and dogs
> and birds and of red blazing fires, and there is room no more
> for flocks, herds, and men.'
> 
> 18. Then Yima stepped forward, in light, southwards, on the way
> of the sun, and (afterwards) he pressed the earth with the golden
> seal, and bored it with the poniard, speaking thus: 'O Spenta
> Armaiti, kindly) open asunder and stretch thyself afar, to bear
> flocks and herds and men.'
> 
> 19. And Yima made the earth grow larger
> by two-thirds than it was before, and there came
> 
> flocks and herds and men, at their will and wish,
> as many as he wished.
> 
> II.
> 
> 20. The Maker, Ahura Mazda, called together a meeting of the celestial
> Yazatas in the Airyana Vaejo of high renown, by the Vanguhi Daitya11.
> 
> The fair Yima, the good shepherd, called together
> a meeting of the best of the mortals12, in the Airyana
> Vaejo of high renown, by the Vanguhi Daitya.
> 
> 11. See Vd1, notes to verse 2.
> 
> 12. The best types of mankind, chosen to live in the Var during
> the Malkôshân and repeople the earth when the Var opens.
> 
> 21. To that meeting came Ahura Mazda, in the Airyana Vaejo of
> high renown, by the Vanguhi Daitya; he came together with the
> celestial Yazatas.
> 
> To that meeting came the fair Yima, the good shepherd, in the
> Airyana Vaejo of high renown, by the Vanguhi Daitya; he came together
> with the best of the mortals.
> 
> 22. And Ahura Mazda spake unto Yima, saying:
> 'O fair Yima, son of Vivanghat! Upon the material
> world the evil winters are about to fall, that shall
> bring the fierce, deadly frost; upon the material
> world the evil winters13 are about to fall, that shall
> 
> make snow-flakes fall thick, even an aredvi deep on
> the highest tops of mountains14.
> 
> 13. The Commentary has here Malkosan, a word wrongly identified
> with the Hebrew Malqôsh, which designates the beneficent autumn
> rains. Malkosan are the winters let loose by a demon or wizard
> named Malkôsh, in Avestan Mahrkûsha 'the death-causing'
> (see Westergaard's Fragments, VIII).
> 
> 14. 'Even where it (the snow) is least, it will be
> one Vitasti two fingers deep' (Comm.); that is, fourteen fingers
> deep.
> 
> 23. 'And the beasts that live in the wilderness15, and those
> that live on the tops of the mountains16, and those that live
> in the bosom of the dale17 shall take shelter in underground
> abodes.
> 
> 15. The Comm. has, strangely enough, 'for instance,
> Ispahan.'
> 
> 16. 'For instance, Aparsen (the Upairisaena or Hindu-Kush).'
> 
> 17. 'For instance, Khorastan (the plain of Khorasan).'
> 
> 24. 'Before that winter, the country would bear plenty of grass
> for cattle, before the waters had flooded it. Now after the melting
> of the snow, O Yima, a place wherein the footprint of a sheep
> may be seen will be a wonder in the world.
> 
> 25. 'Therefore make thee a Vara, long as a riding-ground on every
> side of the square18, and thither bring the seeds of sheep and
> oxen, of men, of dogs, of birds, and of red blazing fires19. Therefore
> make thee a Vara, long as a riding-ground on every side of the
> square, to be an abode for man; a Vara, long as a riding-ground
> on every side of the square, for oxen and sheep.
> 
> 18 'Two hathras long on every side' (Comm.) A hathra
> is about an English mile.
> 
> 19. That is to say, specimens of each species.
> 
> 26. 'There thou shalt make waters flow in a bed a hathra long;
> there thou shalt settle birds, on the green that never fades,
> with food that never fails. There thou shalt establish dwelling-places,
> consisting of a house with a balcony, a courtyard, and as gallery20.
> 
> 20. The last three words are apax legomena of doubtful meaning.
> 
> 27. 'Thither thou shalt bring the seeds of men and women, of the
> greatest, best, and finest on this earth21; thither thou shalt bring
> the seeds of every kind of cattle, of the greatest, best, and
> finest on this earth.
> 
> 21. The best specimens of mankind, to be the origin of the more
> perfect races of the latter days.
> 
> 28. 'Thither thou shalt bring the seeds of every kind of tree,
> of the highest of size and sweetest of odour on this earth22;
> thither thou shalt bring the seeds of every kind of fruit, the
> best of savour and sweetest of odour23. All those seeds shalt
> thou bring, two of every kind, to be kept inexhaustible there,
> so long as those men shall stay in the Vara.
> 
> 22. 'The highest of size, like the cypress and the
> plane-tree; the sweetest of odour, like the rose and the jessamine'
> (Comm.)
> 
> 23. 'The best of savour, like the date; the sweetest
> of odour, like the citron' (Comm.)
> 
> 29. 'There shall be no humpbacked, none
> bulged forward there; no impotent, no lunatic;
> no malicious, no liar; no one spiteful, none jealous; no one with
> decayed tooth, no leprous to be pent up24, nor any of the brands
> wherewith Angra Mainyu stamps the bodies of mortals25.
> 
> 24. 'A man, afflicted with leprosy, is not allowed to enter a town
> and mix with the other Persians'
> (Herod. I, 139); he was supposed
> to have sinned against the sun). Ctesias has a tale or how Megabyzes
> escaped his enemies by simulating leprosy.
> 
> 25. In order that the new mankind may be exempt from all moral and
> physical deformities.
> 
> 30. 'In the largest part of the place thou
> shalt make nine streets, six in the middle part, three
> in the smallest. To the streets of the largest part
> thou shalt bring a thousand seeds of men and
> women; to the streets of the middle part, six hundred;
> 
> to the streets of the smallest part, three
> hundred26. That Vara thou shalt
> seal up with thy golden seal, and thou shalt make a door, and
> a window self-shining within.'
> 
> 26. This division of the Var into three quarters very likely answers
> the distinction of the three classes.
> 
> 31. Then Yima said within himself: 'How shall I manage to make
> that Vara which Ahura Mazda has commanded me to make?' And Ahura
> Mazda said unto Yima: 'O fair Yima, son of Vivanghat! Crush the
> earth with a stamp of thy heel, and then knead it with thy hands,
> as the potter does when kneading the potter's clay27.'
> 
> 27. In the Shah Namah Jamshid teaches the Divs to make and
> knead clay 'by mixing the earth with water;' and they build palaces
> at his bidding. It was his renown, both as a wise king and a great
> builder, that caused the Moslems to identify him with Solomon.
> 
> 32. [And Yima did as Ahura Mazda wished; he crushed the earth
> with a stamp of his heel, he kneaded it with his hands, as the
> potter does when kneading the potter's clay.28]
> 
> 28. From the Vendidad Sada.
> 
> 33. And Yima made a Vara, long as a riding-ground on every side
> of the square. There he brought the seeds of sheep and oxen, of
> men, of dogs, of birds, and of red blazing fires. He made a Vara,
> long as a riding-ground on every side of the square, to be an
> abode for men; a Vara, long as a riding-ground on every side of
> the square, for oxen and sheep.
> 
> 34. There he made waters flow in a bed
> a hathra long; there he settled birds, on the green
> that never fades, with food that never fails. There
> 
> he established dwelling-places, consisting of a house
> with a balcony, a courtyard, and a gallery.
> 
> 35. There he brought the seeds of men and women, of the greatest,
> best, and finest on this earth; there he brought the seeds of
> every kind of cattle, of the greatest, best, and finest on this
> earth.
> 
> 36. There he brought the seeds of every kind of tree, of the highest
> of size and sweetest of odour on this earth; there he brought
> the seeds of every kind of fruit, the best of savour and sweetest
> of odour. All those seeds he brought, two of every kind, to be
> kept inexhaustible there, so long as those men shall stay in the
> Vara.
> 
> 37. And there were no humpbacked, none bulged forward there; no
> impotent, no lunatic; no one malicious, no liar; no one spiteful,
> none jealous; no one with decayed tooth, no leprous to be pent
> up, nor any of the brands wherewith Angra Mainyu stamps the bodies
> of mortals.
> 
> 38. In the largest part of the place he made nine streets, six
> in the middle part, three in the smallest. To the streets of the
> largest part he brought a thousand seeds of men and women; to
> the streets of the middle part, six hundred; to the streets of
> the smallest part, three hundred. That Vara he sealed up with
> the golden ring, and he made a door, and a window self-shining
> within.
> 
> 39. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! What are the
> lights that give light in the Vara which Yima made?
> 
> 40. Ahura Mazda answered: 'There are
> uncreated lights and created lights29. The one
> 
> thing missed there is the sight of the stars,
> the moon, and the sun30, and a year seems only as a day31.
> 
> 29. The endless light, which is eternal, and artificial lights.
> The Commentary has here the following Avestan
> quotation: 'The uncreated light shines from above; all the created
> lights shine from below.'
> 
> 30. The people in the Var cannot see them, since the Var is underground.
> That is why the Var has lights of its own.
> 
> 31. As there is no daily revolution of the sun.
> 
> 41. 'Every fortieth year, to every couple
> two are born, a male and a female32. And thus it
> is for every sort of cattle. And the men in the
> Vara which Yima made live the happiest life33.'
> 
> 32. See the description of Eranwej according to a later source,
> the Mainyo-i-khard (as translated by West);
> 'Ohrmazd created Eranwej better than the remaining places and
> districts; and its goodness was this, that men's life is three
> hundred years; and cattle and sheep, one hundred and fifty years;
> and their pain and sickness are little, and they do not circulate
> falsehood, and they make no lamentation and weeping; and the
> sovereignty of the demon of Avarice, in their body, is little,
> and in ten men, if they eat one loaf, they are satisfied; and in
> every forty years, from one woman and one man, one child is born;
> and their law is goodness, and religion the primeval religion, and
> when they die, they are righteous (= blessed); and their chief is
> Gopatshah, and the ruler and king is Srosh' (44.24).
> 
> 33. 'They live there for 150 years; some say, they
> never die' (Comm.)
> 
> 42. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Who is he who
> brought the Religion of Mazda into the Vara which Yima made? Ahura
> Mazda answered: 'It was the bird Karshipta34, O holy Zarathushtra!'
> 
> 34. 'The bird Karshipta dwells in the heavens: were he living on
> the earth, he would be the king of birds. He brought the Religion
> into the Var of Vima, and recites the Avesta in the language of
> birds' (Bund. 19 and
> Bund. 24).
> The Comm. identifies the Karshiptan with the Chakhravak, that is the
> Chakravaka of poetical reputation in India.
> 
> 43. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Who are the
> Lord and the Master there? Ahura Mazda answered: 'Urvatat-nara35,
> O Zarathushtra! and thyself, Zarathushtra.'
> 
> 35. Zarathushtra had three sons during his lifetime, Isat-vastra,
> Hvare-chithra, and Urvatat-nara, who were respectively the fathers
> and chiefs of the three classes, priests, warriors, and husbandmen.
> Urvatat-nara, as a husbandman, was chosen to be the ahu or temporal
> Lord of the Var, on account of the Var being underground. Zarathushtra,
> as a heavenly priest, was, by right, the ratu or Spiritual Lord
> in Airyana Vaejah, where he founded the Religion by a sacrifice
> (Bund. 33 and Introd. III, 15).
> 
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> — *Vendidad — Chapter 2 — L.H. Mills / James Darmesteter (1880-1887) (Public domain (Sacred Books of the East, 1880-1887))*