Bundahishn

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Bundahischn , also Bundehesh or Bundehesch (Middle Persian: Primordial Creation or Foundation ) is a Middle Persian text about the cosmogony , mythology and legends of the Zoroastrian religion and at the same time reflects part of the Precoroastrian Iranian belief system.

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The Bundahishn describes the struggle between Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu for rule over the world and thus depicts the development of creation under the influence of good and evil.

The book tells of the struggle of by evil, Angra Mainyu created demons , Dew ( Pahlavi , New Persian : Div ), against creation represented by six groups of good, Ahura Mazda:

  1. sky
  2. water
  3. earth
  4. plants
  5. Animals
  6. human

The human being is represented here by the ancient Iranian prehistoric man Gayomarth , who also appears in the Book of Kings Shāhnāme , the Iranian national epic by the poet Firdausi , in the form of Kiumar and as the first king of the world. Gayomarth (Middle Persian) goes back to the Avestian Gayomaretan : Gaya : "life", and Mareta : "mortal". Like the Shahnameh later, a part of the Bundahishn is also devoted to depicting the early Iranian kings of the Kayanids , who can already be found in the Avesta as the Kavaya .

The text of the Bundahishn contains a detailed representation of the various regions of the earth indicated by numbers, the five species of animals, the five types of fire and the three species, even if it has been marked in part by displacements and omissions in the course of history the sacred fire, the origin of man, the Haoma plant and other parts of creation. Various dews are described in more detail here.

Another common name for Bundahishn is the term Zand-Agahi , "knowledge of Zand". The work is available in two versions, a “Large Bundahishn” or “Iranian Bundahishn” and a “Small Bundahishn” or “Indian Bundahishn”.

The Bundahishn also contains the idea of ​​the resurrection .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.zeno.org/Meyers-1905/A/Bundehesch

literature

  • Pahlavi Texts in 5 volumes. Translated by EW West. Routledge Curzon, 1895-1910, 2001.
  • A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary . DN MacKenzie. Routledge Curzon, 2005.
  • Old Avestan Glossary . P. Octor Skjaervo, Harvard University.
  • Geo Widengren : Iranian Spiritual World. , Holle Verlag, Baden-Baden 1961, (licensed edition for Bertelsmann Lesering) pp. 47–76, 91 f. and 209-221.

See also

Web link