# Vendidad — Chapter 5

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-19 — 1 clipping.*

---

> Source: Avesta.org. The Vendidad, Chapter 5, 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 5. Purity Laws
> 
> Home
> 
> Contents
> 
> Prev
> 
> vd5sbe
> 
> Next
> 
> Avestan
> 
> Glossary
> 
> AVESTA: VENDIDAD (English): Fargard 5. Purity Laws.
> 
> This digital edition prepared by Joseph H. Peterson, 1995.
> 
> Translated by James Darmesteter (From Sacred Books of the East,
> American Edition, New York, The Christian Literature Company, 1898.)
> 
> Compare this chapter with the ancient description given of it in
> the Denkard, Book 8, Chapter 44.
> 
> This chapter and the following ones, to the end of the twelfth,
> deal chiefly with uncleanness arising from the dead, and with
> the means of removing it from men and things.
> 
> The subjects treated in this Fargard are as follows:--
> 
> I (1-7). If a man defile the fire or the earth with dead matter
> (Nasu), involuntarily or unconsciously, it is no sin.
> 
> II (8-9). Water and fire do not kill.
> 
> III (10-14). Disposal of the dead during winter when it is not
> possible to take them to the Dakhma.
> 
> IV (15-20). Why Ahura, while forbidding man to defile water, sends
> water ftom the heavens down to the Dakhmas, covered with corpses.
> How he purifies that water.
> 
> V (21-26). On the excellence of purity and of the law that shows
> how to recover purity, when lost.
> 
> VI (27-38). On the defiling power of the Nasu being greater or
> less, according to the greater or less dignity of the being that
> dies.
> 
> VII (39-44). On the management of sacrificial implements [alat] defiled
> with Nasu.
> 
> VIII (45-62). On the treatment of a woman who has been delivered
> of a still-born child; and what is to be done with her clothes.
> 
> FARGARD 5. Purity laws
> 
> I.
> 
> Notes:
> 
> 1. There dies a man in the depths of the vale: a bird takes flight
> from the top of the mountain down into the depths of the vale,
> and it feeds on the corpse of the dead man there: then, up it
> flies from the depths of the vale to the top of the mountain:
> it flies to some one of the trees there, of the hard-wooded or
> the soft-wooded, and upon that tree it vomits and deposits dung.
> 
> 2. Now, lo! here is a man coming up from the depths of the vale
> to the top of the mountain; he comes to the tree whereon the bird
> is sitting; from that tree he intends to take wood for the fire.
> He fells the tree, he hews the tree, he splits it into logs, and
> then he lights it in the fire, the son of Ahura Mazda. What is
> the penalty he shall pay 1?
> 
> 1. For defiling the fire by bringing dead matter into it
> (see Vd7.25 seq.) contrarily to
> the rule, 'Put ye only proper and well-examined fuel (in
> the fire).' For the purification of unclean
> wood, see Vd7.28 seq.
> 
> 3. Ahura Mazda answered: 'There is no sin upon a man for any Nasu
> that has been brought by dogs, by birds, by wolves, by winds,
> or by flies.
> 
> 4. 'For were there sin upon a man for any Nasu that might have
> been brought by dogs, by
> 
> birds, by wolves, by winds, or by flies, how soon all
> this material world of mine would be only one
> Peshotanu2, bent on the destruction of righteousness,
> and whose soul will cry and wail3! so
> numberless are the beings that die upon the face
> of the earth.'
> 
> 2. 'People guilty of death [i.e. a mortal sin -JHP]' (Comm.)
> Cf. Yasna 53.9 b.
> 
> 3. After their death, 'When the soul, crying and beaten off, is
> driven far away from Paradise' (Comm.) This is imitated from
> the Gathas (Yasna 46.11c;
> 51.13b;
> cf. Vd13.8-9).
> 
> 5. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Here is a man
> watering a corn-field. The water streams down the field; it streams
> again; it streams a third time; and the fourth time, a dog, a
> fox, or a wolf carries some Nasu into the bed of the stream: what
> is the penalty that the man shall pay4?
> 
> 4. For defiling the earth and the water: 'If a man wants to irrigate a
> field, he must first look after the water-channel, whether there is dead
> matter in it or not ..... If the water, unknown to him, comes upon a corpse,
> there is no sin upon him. If he has not looked after the rivulet and the
> stream, he is unclean' (Saddar 75).
> 
> 6. [Repeat st. 3.]
> 
> 7. [Repeat st. 4.]
> 
> IIa.
> 
> 8. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy
> One! Does water kill5?
> 
> Ahura Mazda answered: 'Water kills no man:
> Asto-vidhotu binds him, and, thus bound6, Vayu7
> carries him off; and the flood takes him up8, the
> flood takes him down9, the flood throws him ashore;
> then birds feed upon him. When he goes away10, it
> is by the will of Fate he goes.'
> 
> 5. Water and fire belong to the holy part of the world, and come
> from God; how then is it that they kill? 'Let a Gueber light
> a sacred fire for a hundred years, if he once fall into it, he shall be
> burnt.' Even the Mobeds, if we may trust Elisaeus, complained
> that the fire would burn them without regard for their piety, when
> to adore it they came too near (Vartan's War, p. 211 of the French
> translation by l'Abbé Garabed). The answer was that it is not
> the fire nor the water that kills, but the demon of Death and Fate.
> 'Nothing whatever that I created in the world, said Ohrmazd, does
> harm to man; it is the bad Nâi (read Vâi) that kills the man'
> (Gr. Riv. 124).
> 
> 6. 'Asti-vahat is the bad Vai who seizes the life (of man): when
> his hand strokes him, it is lethargy; when he casts his shadow
> upon him, it is fever; when he looks in his eyes, he destroys life
> and it is called Death' (Bund. 28.35).
> Cf. Vd4.49; Vd19.29.
> 
> 7. 'The bad Vai' (Comm.) Vai (Vayu) is the Genius of Destiny, good or evil.
> 
> 8. To the surface.
> 
> 9. To the bottom.
> 
> 10. When he departs.
> 
> IIb.
> 
> 9. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Does fire kill?
> Ahura Mazda answered: 'Fire kills no man: Asto-vidhotu binds him,
> and, thus bound, Vayu carries him off; and the fire burns up life
> and limb. When he goes away, it is by the will of Fate he goes.'
> 
> III.
> 
> 10. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! If the summer
> is past and the winter has come, what shall the worshippers of
> Mazda do 11? Ahura Mazda answered: 'In every house, in every borough,
> they shall raise three rooms for the dead 12.'
> 
> 11. 'In case a man dies during the snowy seasdon, while it is
> difficult or impossible to take the corpse to the Dakhma, which
> usually stands far from inhabited places. The same case is treated
> again in Vd8.4 seq.
> 
> 12. One for men, another for women, a third for children. As
> not every house is considerable or rich enough to have these three
> accommodations, there will be a common Zad-marj for the village.
> The Zad-marj is a small mud house where the corpse is laid, to
> lie there till it can be taken to the Dakhma (Anquetil, Zend-Avesta
> II, 583). The Zad-marj is still used in Persia, and in the Gujarati
> provinces (where it is called Nasa-khana, 'house for corpses').
> In Bombay they use the simpler and more economical method
> given in Vd8.8.
> 
> 11. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! How large shall
> be those rooms for the dead? Ahura Mazda answered: 'Large enough
> not to strike the skull of the man, if he13 should stand erect,
> or his feet or his hands stretched out: such shall be, according
> to the law, the rooms for the dead.
> 
> 13. 'Being in life' (Comm.)
> 
> 12. 'And they shall let the lifeless body lie
> there, for two nights, or for three nights, or a
> month long, until the birds begin to fly14, the plants
> to grow, the hidden floods15 to flow, and the
> wind to dry up the earth16.
> 
> 13. 'And as soon as the birds begin to fly, the plants to grow,
> the hidden floods to flow, and the wind to dry up the earth, then
> the worshippers of Mazda shall lay down the dead (on the Dakhma),
> his eyes towards the sun.
> 
> 14. To come back.
> 
> 15. They were hidden under the earth.
> 
> 16. 'Until the winter is past' (Comm.)
> 
> 14. 'If the worshippers of Mazda have not, within a year, laid
> down the dead (on the Dakhma), his eyes towards the sun, thou
> shalt prescribe for that trespass the same penalty as for the
> murder of one of the faithful17; until the corpse has heen rained
> on, until the Dakhma has heen rained on, until the unclean remains
> have been rained on, until the birds have eaten up the corpse.'
> 
> 17. See Vd3.41; note; cf. below, §§ 21-26.
> 
> IV.
> 
> 15. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Is it true at
> thou, Ahura Mazda, seizest the waters from the sea Vouru-kasha18
> with the wind and the clouds?
> 
> 18. Vouru-kasha or Frakh-kart, the Ocean, wherefrom all
> waters come and whereto they return (Vd21.4).
> 
> 16. That thou, Ahura Mazda, takest them down to the corpses19?
> that thou, Ahura Mazda, takest them down to the Dakhmas? that
> thou, Ahura Mazda, takest them down to the unclean remains? that
> thou, Ahura Mazda, takest them down to the bones? and that then
> thou, Ahura Mazda, makest them flow back unseen? that thou, Ahura
> Mazda, makest them flow back to the sea Puitika20?
> 
> 17. Ahura Mazda answered: 'It is even so as thou hast said, O
> righteous Zarathushtra! I, Ahura Mazda, seize the waters from
> the sea Vouru-kasha with the wind and the clouds.
> 
> 18. 'I, Ahura Mazda, take them to the corpses; I, Ahura Mazda,
> take them down to the Dakhmas; I, Ahura Mazda, take them down
> to the unclean remains; I, Ahura Mazda, take them down to the
> bones; then I, Ahura Mazda, make them flow back unseen; I, Ahura
> Mazda, make them flow back to the sea Puitika.
> 
> 19. Zartosht wonders that Ohrmazd fears so little to infringe
> his own laws by defiling waters with the dead. In a Rivayat, he
> asks him bluntly why he forbids men to take corpses to the water,
> while he himself sends rain to the Dakhmas (Gr. Riv. 125).
> 
> 20. The sea where waters are purified before going back to their
> gathering place, the sea Vouru-kasha (see § 19). 'All the thickness,
> salt, and impurity of the sea Putik wishes to go to the Frakh-kart
> sea; but a mighty high wind, blowing from the Var Satves, drives
> it away: whatever is clean and movable passes to the Frakh-kart
> sea, and the rest (the unclean element) flows back to the Putik'
> (Bund. 13.10).
> 
> 19. 'The waters stand there boiling, boiling up in the heart of
> the sea Puitika, and, when cleansed there, they run back again
> from the sea Puitika to the sea Vouru-kasha, towards the well-watered
> tree21, whereon grow the seeds of my plants of every kind by hundreds,
> by thousands, by hundreds of thousands.
> 
> 20. 'Those plants, I, Ahura Mazda, rain
> down upon the earth21, to bring food to the faithful,
> and fodder to the beneficent cow; to bring food to
> 
> my people that they may live on it, and fodder
> to the beneficent cow.'
> 
> 21. The tree of all seeds (Harvisptokhm), which grows in the
> middle of the sea Vouru-kasha; the seeds of all plants are on it.
> There is a godlike bird, the Sinamru [simurgh], sitting on that tree; whenever
> he flies off the tree, there grow out of it a thousand boughs;
> whenever he alights on it, there break a thousand boughs, the seeds
> of which are scattered about, and rained down on the earth by
> Tishtar (Tishtrya), the rain-god (Yt12.17;
> Menog-i Khrad 62.37 seq.;
> Bundahishn 27;
> cf. Vd20.4 seq.)
> 
> V.
> 
> 21. 'This22 is the best, this is the fairest of all things, even
> as thou hast said, O pure [Zarathushtra]!'
> 
> With these words the holy, Ahura Mazda rejoiced the holy Zarathushtra23:
> 'Purity is for man, next to life, the greatest good24, that purity,
> O Zarathushtra, that is in the Religion of Mazda for him who cleanses
> his own self with good thoughts, words, and deeds25.'
> 
> 22. The cleansing, the purification.
> 
> 23. 'When Zartosht saw that man is able to escape sin by performing
> good works, he was filled with joy' (Comm.)
> 
> 24. Quotation from the Gathas
> (Yasna 48.5c).
> 
> 25. That is to say, 'Who performs the rites of cleansing according
> to the prescriptions of the law.'
> 
> 22. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! This Law, this
> fiend-destroying Law of Zarathushtra26, by what greatness, goodness,
> and fairness is it great, good, and fair above all other utterances?
> 
> 26. The Law (Datem), that part of the religious system of
> which the Vendidad is the specimen, and the object of which is
> the purification of man.
> 
> 23. Ahura Mazda answered: 'As much above all other floods as is
> the sea Vouru-kasha, so much above all other utterances in greatness,
> goodness, and fairness is this Law, this fiend-destroying Law
> of Zarathushtra.
> 
> 24. 'As much as a great stream flows swifter than a slender rivulet,
> so much above all other utterances in greatness, goodness, and
> fairness is this Law, this fiend-destroying Law of Zarathushtra.
> 
> 'As high as the great tree27 stands above the small plants it overshadows,
> so high above all other utterances in greatness, goodness, and
> fairness is this Law, this fiend-destroying Law of Zarathushtra.
> 
> 27. 'The royal cypress above small herbs' (Comm.)
> 
> 25. 'As high as heaven is above the earth that it compasses around,
> so high above all other utterances is this Law, this fiend-destroying
> Law of Mazda.
> 
> '[Therefore], he will apply to the Ratu28, he will apply to the
> Sraosha-varez29; whether for a draona-service30
> that should have been undertaken31 and has not been
> undertaken32; or for a draona
> that should have been offered up and has not been offered up;
> or for a draona that should have been entrusted and has not been
> entrusted33.
> 
> 28. 'To take the rule' (Comm.), which probably means, 'to know
> what sort of penance he must undergo;' as, when a man has
> sinned with the tongue or with the hand, the Dastur (or Ratu) must
> prescribe for him the expiation that the sin requires. The Ratu is
> the chief priest, the spiritual head of the community.
> 
> 29. 'To weep for his crime' (Comm.), which may mean, 'to recite
> to him the Patet, or, to receive at his hand the proper number of
> stripes.' The Sraosha-varez is the priest that superintends the
> sacrifice. He receives the confession of the guilty man and very
> likely wields the Sraosho-charana.
> 
> 30. The Srosh-dron, a service in honour of any of the angels,
> or of deceased persons, in which small cakes, called draona, are
> consecrated in their names, and then given to those present to eat.
> 
> 31. When it ought not to be.
> 
> 32. When it ought to be.
> 
> 33. The meaning of the sentence is not certain. The Commentary
> has: 'Whether he has thought what he ought not to
> have thought, or has not thought what he ought to have thought;
> whether he has said what he ought not to have said, or has not
> said what he ought to have said; whether he has done what he ought
> not to have done, or has not done what he ought to have done.'
> 
> 26. 'The Ratu has power to remit him one-third of his penalty34:
> if he has committed any other evil deed, it is remitted by his
> repentance; if he has committed no other evil deed, he is absolved
> by his repentance for ever and ever35.'
> 
> 34. When the Ratu remits one-third of the sin, God remits the
> whole of it (Saddar 29).
> 
> 35. Cf. Vd3.41.
> 
> VI.
> 
> 27. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! If there be
> a number of men resting in the same place, on the same carpet,
> on the same pillows, be there two men near one another, or five,
> or fifty, or a hundred, close by one another; and of those people
> one happens to die; how many of them does the Druj Nasu36 envelope
> with corruption, infection, and pollution?
> 
> 36. Nasu [Nasa] (nekuV) designates both
> the corpse and the corpse-demon (the Druj that produces the
> corruption and infection of the dead body).
> 
> 28. Ahura Mazda answered: 'If the dead one be a priest, the Druj
> Nasu rushes forth37, O Spitama Zarathushtra! she goes as far as
> the eleventh and defiles the ten38.
> 
> 'If the dead one be a warrior, the Druj Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama
> Zarathushtra! she goes as far as the tenth and defiles the nine.
> 
> 'If the dead one be a husbandman, the Druj Nasu rushes forth,
> O Spitama Zarathushtra! she goes as far as the ninth and defiles
> the eight.
> 
> 37. In opposition to the case when the dead one is an
> Ashmogh (§ 35), as no Nasa issues then.
> 
> 38. Literally, 'If she goes as far as the eleventh, she defiles the
> tenth.' That is to say, she stops at the eleventh and defiles the
> next ten. In the Rivayats, the
> Avesta distinctions are lost, and the defiling power of the
> Nasa is the same, whatever may have been the rank of the
> dead: 'If there be a number of people sleeping
> in the same place, and if one of them happens to die, all those
> around him, in any direction, as far as the eleventh, become unclean
> if they have been in contact with one another' (Gr. Riv. 470).
> 
> 29. 'If it be a shepherd's dog, the Druj Nasu rushes forth, O
> Spitama Zarathushtra! she goes as far as the eighth and defiles
> the seven.
> 
> 'If it be a house-dog, the Druj Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama Zarathushtra!
> she goes as far as the seventh and defiles the six.
> 
> 30. 'If it be a Vohunazga dog39, the Druj Nasu rushes forth, O
> Spitama Zarathushtra! she goes as far as the sixth and defiles
> the five.
> 
> 'If it be a Tauruna dog40, the Druj Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama
> Zarathushtra! she goes as far as the fifth and defiles the four.
> 
> 39. A dog without a master (Vd13.19).
> 
> 40. A hunting-dog.
> 
> 31. 'If it be a porcupine dog, the Druj Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama
> Zarathushtra! she goes as far as the fourth and defiles the three.
> 
> 'If it be a Jazu dog41, the Druj Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama Zarathushtra!
> she goes as far as the third and defiles the two.
> 
> 41. This name and the two following, Aiwizu and Vizu, are left
> untranslated in the Pahlavi translation.
> 
> 32. 'If it be an Aiwizu dog, the Druj Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama
> Zarathushtra! she goes as far as the second and defiles the next.
> 
> 'If it be a Vizu dog, the Druj Nasu rushes forth, O Spitama Zarathushtra!
> she goes as far as the next, she defiles the next.'
> 
> 33. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! If it be a weasel42,
> how many of the creatures of the good spirit [Spenta Mainyu -JHP] does it directly
> defile, how many does it indirectly defile?
> 
> 42. A weasel. The weasel is one of the creatures of Ahura, for 'it
> has been created to fight against the serpent garza and the other
> khrafstras that live in holes'
> (Bund. 19.27).
> 
> 34. Ahura Mazda answered : 'A weasel does neither directly nor
> indirectly defile any of the creatures of the good spirit [Spenta Mainyu -JHP], but
> him who smites and kills it; to him the uncleanness clings for
> ever and ever43.'
> 
> 43. Not that the unclean one cannot be cleansed, but that his uncleanness
> does not pass from him to another.
> 
> 3544. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! If the dead
> one be such a wicked, two-footed ruffian, as an ungodly Ashemaogha45,
> how many of the creatures of the good spirit [Spenta Mainyu -JHP] does he directly
> defile, how many does he indirectly defile?
> 
> 44. §§ 35-38; cf. Vd12.21-24.
> 
> 45. Ashemaogha, a heretic.
> 
> 36. Ahura Mazda answered: 'No more than a frog does whose venom
> is dried up, and that has been dead more than a year46. Whilst
> alive, indeed, O Spitama Zarathushtra! such a wicked, two-legged
> ruffian as an ungodly Ashemaogha, directly defiles the creatures
> of the good spirit [Spenta Mainyu -JHP], and indirectly defiles them.
> 
> 46. The frog is a creature of Ahriman's, and one of the most
> hateful. Cf. Vd14.5.
> 
> 37. 'Whilst alive he smites the water47; whilst alive he blows
> out the fire48; whilst alive he carries off the cow49; whilst alive
> he smites the faithful man with a deadly blow, that parts the
> soul from the body50; not so will he do when dead.
> 
> 47. By defiling it (a capital crime; see Vd7.25).
> 
> 48. He extinguishes the Warharan fire (a capital crime;
> cf. Vd7.25.)
> 
> 49. As a cattle-lifter.
> 
> 50. As an assassin.
> 
> 38. 'Whilst alive, indeed, O Spitama Zarathushtra! such a wicked,
> two-legged ruffian as an ungodly Ashemaogha robs the faithful
> man of the full possession of his food, of his clothing, of his
> wood, of his bed, of his vessels51; not so will
> he do when dead52.'
> 
> 51. By defiling them, he deprives the faithful of their use.
> 
> 52. 'When a wicked man dies, the Druj who was with him during his
> lifetime, seizes him and drags him down to Ahriman; therefore,
> his body, as the Druj is no longer with it, becomes pure. On the
> contrary, when it is a righteous man that dies, the Amahraspands
> take his soul to Ohrmazd and the Druj settles in the house of the
> body and makes it impure' (Gujastak Abalish).
> 
> VII.
> 
> 39. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! When into our
> houses here below we have brought the fire, the Baresma, the cups,
> the Haoma, and the mortar53, O holy Ahura Mazda! if it come to
> pass that either a dog or a man dies there, what shall the worshippers
> of Mazda do?
> 
> 53. In order to perform a sacrifice.
> 
> 40. Ahura Mazda answered: 'Out of the house, O Spitama Zarathushtra!
> shall they take the fire, the Baresma, the cups, the Haoma, and
> the mortar; they shall take the dead one out to the proper place54
> whereto, according to the law, corpses must be brought, to be
> devoured there.'
> 
> 54. The Dakhma.
> 
> 41. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! When shall they
> bring back the fire into the house wherein the man has died?
> 
> 42. Ahura Mazda answered: 'They shall wait for nine nights in winter,
> for a month in summer55, and then they shall bring back the fire
> to the house wherein the man has died.'
> 
> 55. Corruption being worse in summer.
> 
> 43. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! And if they
> shall bring back the fire to the house wherein the man iias died,
> within the nine nights, or within the month, what penalty shall
> they pay?
> 
> 44. Ahura Mazda answered: 'They shall be Peshotanus: two hundred
> stripes with the Aspahe-astra, two hundred stripes with the Sraosho-charana.'
> 
> VIII.
> 
> 4556. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! If in the house
> of a worshipper of Mazda there be a woman with child, and if being
> a month gone, or two, or three, or four, or five, or six, or seven,
> or eight, or nine, or ten months gone57, she bring forth a still-born
> child, what shall the worshippers of Mazda do?
> 
> 56. §§ 45-54 = Vd7.60-69.
> 
> 57. The pregnancy, without lasting more than nine calendar
> months (9 times 30 days), generally extends along ten months on
> the calendar (for instance from January 10 to October 10).
> 
> 46. Ahura Mazda answered: 'The place in that Mazdean house whereof
> the ground is the cleanest and the driest, and the least passed through
> by flocks and herds, by the fire of Ahura Mazda, by the consecrated
> bundles of Baresma, and by the faithful;'
> 
> 47. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! How far from
> the fire? How far from the water? How tar fiom the consecrated
> bundles of Baresma? How far from the faithful?
> 
> 48. Ahura Mazda answered: 'Thirty paces from the fire; thirty
> paces from the water; thirty paces from the consecrated bundles
> of Baresma; three paces from the faithful58;-
> 
> 58. The carrier alone is kept thirty feet from the faithful
> (Vd3.18),
> as he is cut off from the community: his food is not brought
> to him, he has a store prepared for him. The woman, when
> armesht, is only temporarily isolated; she stays in the house and
> her food is brought to her all but from hand to hand
> (Vd16.6).
> 
> 49. 'On that place shall the worshippers of Mazda erect an enclosure59,
> and therein shall they establish her with food, therein shall
> they establish her with clothes.'
> 
> 59. The place for the man or woman in state of uncleanness, or
> Armesht-gah.
> 
> 50. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! What is the
> food that the woman shall first take?
> 
> 51. Ahura Mazda answered: 'Gomez60 mixed with ashes, three draughts
> of it, or six, or nine, to send down the Dakhma within her womb61.
> 
> 60. Urine of the ox: the so-called Nirang-din;
> cf. Vd8.37;
> Vd19.21. 'Three cups, or six, or nine, according to her
> strength' (Asp.)
> 
> 61. Her womb is a Dakhma, as it contained a dead body. -- These
> nine draughts of gomez mixed with ashes are like an interior
> barashnom, as the Barashnom consists of nine successive purifications
> with gomez and dust.
> 
> 52. 'Afterwards she may drink boiling62 milk of mares, cows, sheep,
> or goats, with pap or without pap63; she may take cooked milk without
> water, meal without water, and wine without water64.'
> 
> 62. Doubtful.
> 
> 63. Doubtful.
> 
> 64. 'The water would be defiled;' cf. Vd7.70 seq.
> 
> 53. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! How long shall she
> remain so? How long shall she live thus on milk, meal, and wine?
> 
> 54. Ahura Mazda answered: 'Three nights long shall she remain
> so; three nights long shall she live thus on milk, meal, and wine.
> Then, when three nights have passed, she shall wash her body,
> she shall wash her clothes, with gomez and water, by the nine
> holes65, and thus shall she be clean.'
> 
> 65. She shall perform the nine nights' Barashnom, for the
> details of which see Vd9. That Barashnom is taken forty
> days after the delivery.
> 
> 55. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! How long shall
> she remain so? How long, after the three nights have gone, shall
> she sit confined, and live separated from the rest of the worshippers
> of Mazda, as to her seat, her food, and her clothing?
> 
> 56. Ahura Mazda answered: 'Nine nights long shall she remain so:
> nine nights long, after the three nights have gone, shall she
> sit confined, and live separated from the rest of the worshippers
> of Mazda, as to her seat, her food, and her clothing. Then, when
> the nine nights have gone, she shall wash her body, and cleanse
> her clothes with gomez and water66.'
> 
> 66. 'If a woman brings forth a still-born child, after a pregnancy
> of one month to ten months, the first food she shall take is nirang
> (= gomez) ... fire and ashes; and she is not allowed until the
> fourth day to take water or salt, or any food that is cooked with
> water or salt: on the fourth day they give her nirang, that she
> may cleanse herself and wash her clothes with it, and she is not
> allowed to wash herself and her clothes with water until the forty-first
> day' (Gr. Riv. 568).
> 
> 5767. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Can those clothes,
> when once washed and cleansed, ever be used either by a Zaotar,
> or by a Havanan, or by an Atare-vakhsha, or by a Frabaretar, or
> by an Abered, or by an Asnatar, or by a Rathwiskar, or by
> a Sraosha-varez68,
> or by any priest, warrior, or husbandman69?
> 
> 67. # 57-62 = Vd7.17-22.
> 
> 68. These are the names of the different priests who were engaged
> in the sacrifices. The Havanan strains the Haoma; the Atarevakhsha
> kindles the fire; the Frabaretar brings to the Zaotar all
> that he needs; the Aberet brings the water; the Asnatar washes
> and strains the Haoma; the Rathwishkar mixes the Haoma and
> the milk; the Zaotar chants the hymns and says the prayers; the
> Sraosh-varez superintends the sacrifice. Nowadays there are only
> two priests, the Zaotar (Zot) and the Rathwishkar (Raspi), the latter
> performing all the accessory services formerly performed by several
> priests. Cf. Nirangistan, 71 sq.
> 
> 69. In short, by any of the faithful, when in state of purity.
> 
> 58. Ahura Mazda answered: 'Never can those clothes, even when
> washed and cleansed, be used either by a Zaotar, or by a Havanan,
> or by an Atare-vakhsha, or by a Frabaretar, or by an Abered, or
> by an Asnatar, or by a Rathwiskar, or by a Sraosha-varez, or by
> any priest, warrior, or husbandman.
> 
> 59. 'But if there be in a Mazdean house a woman who is in her
> sickness, or a man who has become unfit for work70, and who must
> sit in the place of infirmity71, those clothes shall serve for
> their coverings and for their sheets72, until they can withdraw
> their hands for prayer73.
> 
> 70. An Armesht; literally, 'an infirm person,' that is to say, one
> who is unclean, during the time of his uncleanness
> (Vd9.33 seq.),
> when all work is forbidden to him.
> 
> 71. The Armesht-gah, the place of seclusion of the Armesht.
> 
> 72. The clothing defiled by the dead can only serve for Dashtan
> women, even after it has been washed and exposed for six months
> to the light of the sun and of the moon
> (Saddar 91;
> cf. Vd7.10 seq.)
> 
> 73. Until they are clean. The unclean must have their hands
> wrapped in an old piece of linen, lest they should touch and defile
> anything clean.
> 
> 60. 'Ahura Mazda, indeed, does not allow us to waste anything
> of value that we may have, not even so much as an Asperena's74
> weight of thread, not even so much as a maid lets fall in spinning.
> 
> 74. See Vd4.48, note 4.
> 
> 61. 'Whosoever throws any clothing on a dead body75, even so much
> as a maid lets fall in spinning, is not a pious man whilst alive,
> nor shall he, when dead, have a place in Paradise.
> 
> 75. Cf. Vd8.23 seq. It appears from those passages that
> the dead must lie on the mountain naked, or 'clothed only with
> the light of heaven' (Vd6.51). The modern custom is to
> clothe them with old clothing (Dadabhai Naoroji, Manners and
> Customs of the Parsis, p. 15). 'When a man dies and receives
> the order (to depart), the older the shroud they make for him, the
> better. It must be old, worn out, but well washed: they must not
> lay anything new on the dead. For it is said in the Zand Vendidad,
> If they put on the dead even so much as a thread from the distaff
> more than is necessary, every thread shall become in the other
> world a black snake clinging to the heart of him who made that
> shroud, and even the dead shall rise against him and seize him by
> the skirt, and say, That shroud which thou madest for me has become
> food for worms and vermin'
> (Saddar 12). After the fourth
> day, when the soul is in heaven, then rich garments are offered up
> to it, which it will wear in its celestial life
> (Saddar 87).
> 
> 62. 'He makes himself a viaticum unto the world of the wicked,
> into that world76, made of darkness, the offspring
> of darkness77,
> which is Darkness' self. To that world, to the world of Hell,
> you are delivered by your own doings, by your own religion, O
> sinners78!'
> 
> 76. 'Where darkness can be seized with the hand' (Comm.; cf.
> Aogemadaeca 28); something more than the
> 'visible darkness.'
> 
> 77. The Commentary has, 'the place of those who impregnate
> darkness, for the Druj who conceives seed from the sinner comes
> from that place' (cf. Vd18.30 seq.)
> 
> 78. Quotation from the Gathas (Yasna 31.20).
> 
> Home
> 
> Contents
> 
> Prev
> 
> vd5sbe
> 
> Next
> 
> Avestan
> 
> Glossary
>
> — *Vendidad — Chapter 5 — L.H. Mills / James Darmesteter (1880-1887) (Public domain (Sacred Books of the East, 1880-1887))*