The women and children who saved the Daēnā (an account of the loss and recovery of the sacred texts)
There is a gap between the first guides of the daēnā (Av. paoiryō.kaēša) and the Magi (OPers. magu) who flourished in Achaemenian Persia. Xanthus the Lydian states that after the expedition of Xerxes there was a long line of Magians in succession, with names like Ostanas, Astrampsychos, Gobryas, and Pazatas, down to the conquest of Persia by Alexander. The Magi must already have possessed a canonical form of the Avesta when they prepared standard copies of the Avesta text corpus (with 21 Nasks) for the Persian kings. The scribes of the written versions of the daēnā –unlike the other Persian scribes who belonged to the third function– seem to have belonged to the priestly class. They used a new script for Avesta, “the Scripture writing”, probably similar to Kharoṣthi, and wrote on the tablets on hide. The oral transmission of the daēnā as a consecutive condition of the Magi, and the written text corpus of the daēnā preserved in the Treasure(s) of the kings and in the Castle(s) of the archives (Library), indicate an intimate relation between the daēnā and xšaθra in the Perso-Aryan society, reflecting the mythical twins, Yimī and Yima.
The downfall of the Aryan Xšaça (the Achaemenian kingdom) led to a lot of damage to the daēnā through the plunder and destruction of the palaces and temples and the massacre of the priests who were the repositories and communicators of the sacred wisdom. Alexander earned the titles given him in the Aryan tradition of “the (world) destroyer” and “the murderer of priests” (*moγu.jan-). The widespread slaughter of the Magi caused great harm to Avesta learning –also a small part of India suffered Alexander’s conquest and the killing of Brahmans. Many of the Avesta texts were lost for ever.
From the Ardā-virāz nāmag, 1.5-7:
ud ēn dēn cōn hamāg abestāg ud zand abar gāv pōstīhā ī virāstag ud ped āb ī zarr nibištag andar Staxr Pābagān ped diz <ī> nibišt ēstād ud ōy … Aleksander … abar āvurd ud bē suxt. ud cand dastvarān ud dāyvarān ud hērbedān ud mubedān ud dēnburdārān ud abzārumandān ud dānāgān ī Ērānšahr rāy bē kušt.
‘This religion, namely all the Avesta and Zand, had been prepared on cowhide and written with golden ink, and deposited in the Fortress of Writings in Staxr Pābagān (/Persepolis). Alexander took away and burnt (those scriptures); he killed many of the high priests, judges, teaching priests, chief priests, the devout ones (lit. the upholders of the religion), the expert ones, and the wise men of the Aryan kingdom (/Persia).’
The Dēnīg Vizargird refers to the 21 nasks (‘Avesta books’), and, while speaking of the various nasks alludes to the devastation at the hands of Alexander. Fol. 8b:
vāy, nūn agar ēn hamāg nask nē mānd hend, nē tuvān yaštan, hān ēd rāy cē guzastag Aleksander ī hrōmīg andar hān vīst-ud-ēk nask harv cē kē NUJŪM (axtarmārīh) ud bizešk<īh> būd andar uzvān ud ḤURŪF (nišān) ī hrōmīg cand nibišt kird ud anī naskīhā bē suxt … pas az vattarīh ī Aleksander cand dastvarān az dēn dānāgān būd <hend> hamrasišnīh hamāg abestāg az gyāg gyāg āvurd hambār kird.
‘Alas, if now all these books [of the Avesta] have not remained, so that it is not possible to sacrifice [the words of the whole Avesta], that is for this reason, that the accursed Alexander, the Greek, took some transcript, in the Greek language and script, of any among those twenty-one books which were about astronomy and medicine, and burnt up the other books. … After the villainy of Alexander, some high-priests, well versed in the Scientia Divina, who were yet alive, met together, and brought and collected all Avesta from various places.’
There exists a short treatise, in Pārsīg, from Drangiana (Sakastāna), the ASS (abdīh ud sahīgīh ī Sagestān), that gives an original account of the loss and recovery of the Avesta liturgical texts:
after Alexander’s onslaught, a few men of priestly class escaped and fled to Drangiana. There was a man, called Sēn-burzmihr, who had compiled the Avesta of liturgies, the Dva.yasna ‘the Two Liturgies’:
One, the Yasna and Visprad,
and the other the Yasna (Yašt) and Niyāyišn (the Xvardag Abestāg).
Masʿūdī tells obscurely how, after the year 300 (i.e., 300 years after the religion), a man in Sakastāna knew all the canonical texts by heart. A few women and young children tried to study and memorize the two texts. The Hērbedestān 5-6 refers to young women pursuing their studies (aθauruna) even after marriage –and even without the authority of the husband. Mazdayasnian women were admitted to full religious rites and consequently to complete educational facilities. Thanks to the women and minor children who pursued the study of the book of the daēnā arranged by Sēn-burzmihr the religion returned to Drangiana, and thereafter to the whole Ērānšahr.
Here is the Pārsīg text of the ASS with an English translation.
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