The Vendidad /ˈvendi'dæd/, also known as Videvdad or Juddevdad, is the only volume of the Sasanian Avesta to be still present in the extant Avesta collection. It is assumed that its use within the Videvdad liturgy guaranteed its survival to this day.
Name
In the sources, the text is variously referred to as
Vendidad, Videvdad or
Juddewdad. All these forms are assumed to derive from
Avestan 𐬬𐬍𐬛𐬀𐬉𐬬𐬋𐬛𐬁𐬙𐬀, (vī-daēvō-dāta). Whereas
Juddewdad is the
Middle Persian translation,
Videvdad and
Vendidad are seen as Middle Persian renderings of the Avestan original. In the scholarly literature, a wide range of
Transliteration can be found for these various forms. Examples include
Vendīdād,
Vīdēvdād,
Vidēvdād or
Wīdēwdād.
The interpretation of vī-daēvō-dāta, likewise varies in the literature. The term daēuua (Avestan: 𐬛𐬀𐬉𐬎𐬎𐬀) refers to the daevas; whereas dāta (Avestan: 𐬛𐬁𐬙𐬀) is an Avestan term for rule, norm or law. However, vī (Avestan: 𐬬𐬍) has a range of meanings, including against or away. Using the interpretation of vī as against, the name was originally interpreted as the law against the deavas. Nowadays, however, vī is interpreted as away and the name of the text as the law for pushing the deavas away.
History
The classic view is that the Vendidad is a late creation and its current use within the Videvdad liturgy happened later still. This is based on the corrupt Avestan of the text and the seeming lack of any connection between its content and the liturgy in which it is used. So whereas the Vendidad may be a product of the
Parthian empire, the ceremony may be "an innovation of the Islamic period".
Both points have been challenged more recently. Skjaervo has argued that the corruptions of the Vendidad are not necessarily the result of a late redaction, but may have occurred during the process of its oral transmission. In addition, he demonstrates that at least the beginning and end of the Vendidad show a connection to the parts of the liturgy in which they are inserted. Cantera furthermore demonstrates a connection between its overall structure and the corresponding parts of the liturgy. This indicates that they were indeed composed as insertions. Finally, Cantera has shown that the performative variations of the liturgy are in proper Avestan, indicating that both the text and the liturgy were created when Avestan was still a productive language, i.e., during the much earlier Avestan period.
Manuscripts
The text of the Vendidad has been transmitted in two types: exegetical manuscripts, called
Pahlavi Vendidad, and liturgical manuscripts, called
Vendidad Sade. Exegetical manuscripts contain only the 22 chapters of the Vendidad, but include a
Zend in
Middle Persian, the written form of which is called
Pahlavi scripts.
On the other hand, liturgical manuscripts contain the text as it is performed in the liturgy, i.e., the text of the Yasht i Visperad plus the Vendidad. As a result, they contain all 72 chapters of the Yasna, all 24 chapters of the Visperad and the 22 chapters of the Vendidad. They are called Sade, pure, since they do not contain a translation, but only liturgical instructions along the Avestan text. A comprehensive list of all available manuscripts of the Vendidad is provided by Andrés-Toledo and Cantera.
Content
The chapters of the Vendidad are bookended by a mythical framing device. The first chapter is, therefore, the Zoroastrian
creation myth of
Ahura Mazda, followed by the description of the destructive winter of
Angra Mainyu. This chapter contains a lengthy description of the world, known to the Avestan people and is therefore an important source for the delination of their geographical horizon. The second chapter recounts the legend of
Yima (
Jamshid). Chapter 19 relates the temptation of
Zoroaster, who, when urged by Angra Mainyu to turn from the good religion, turns instead towards Ahura Mazda. The chapters in between cover diverse rules and regulations, through the adherence of which the
daevas may be confounded. Broken down by subject, these fargards deal with the following topics (chapters where a topic is covered are in brackets):
-
hygiene (in particular care of the dead) 3, and cleansing 9,10;
-
disease, its origin, and spells against it 7,;
-
mourning for the dead 12, the Towers of Silence 6, and the remuneration of deeds after death 19;
-
the sanctity of, and invocations to, Atar (fire) 8, Zam (earth) 3,6, Aban (water) 6, and the light of the stars 21;
-
the dignity of wealth and charity 4, of marriage 4, and of physical effort 4
-
statutes on unacceptable social behaviour 15 such as breach of contract 4 and assault 4;
-
on the worthiness of priests 18;
-
praise and care of the bull 21, the dog 13,, the otter 14, the Sraosha bird 18, and the Haoma tree 6.
There is a degree of moral relativism apparent in the Vendidad, and the diverse rules and regulations are not always expressed as being mystical, absolute, universal or mandatory. The Vendidad is mainly about social laws, mores, customs and culture. In some instances, the description of prescribed behaviour is accompanied by a description of the penances that have to be made to atone for violations thereof. Such penances include payment in cash or kind to the aggrieved; corporal punishment such as whipping; as well as repeated recitations of certain parts of the liturgy such as the Ahuna Vairya manthra.
Editions and translations
The text of the Vendidad was part of the critical editions of the
Avesta by Westergaard and Geldner. Of those, the edition by Geldner is considered the reference edition of the text, due to the large number of manuscripts used for his work In his Prologomena, Geldner also provided the standard critical apparatus of the text including a number of stemmatics of different manuscript traditions.
Among the classic translations, the works of Darmesteter and Wolff stand out. Darmesteter provided translations into English and French, while Wolff translated the text into German. Overall, Wollf's work is considered more reliable, but Darmesteter's translation is considered more accessible. More recently, Andrés-Toledo has published a new critical edition of parts of the Vendidad including a critical apparatus.
Value of the Vendidad among Zoroastrians
Most of the Zoroastrians continue to use the Vendidad as a valued and fundamental cultural and ethical moral guide, viewing their teachings as essential to Zoroastrian tradition and see it as part of Zoroastrianism original perspectives about the truth of spiritual existence. They argue that it has origins on early oral tradition, being only later written.
[Ervad Marzban Hathiram Significance and Philosophy of the Vendidad Retrieved 14 January 2023]
The emergent reformist Zoroastrian movement reject the later writings in the Avesta as being corruptions of Zarathustra's original teachings and thus do not consider the Vendidad as an original Zoroastrian scripture. They argue that it was written nearly 700 years after the death of Zarathustra and interpret the writing as different from the other parts of the Avesta.
An article by Hannah M. G. Shapero sums up the reformist perspective:[ The Vendidad. The Law Against Demons Retrieved 14 January 2023]
"How do Zoroastrians view the Vendidad today? And how many of the laws of the Vendidad are still followed? This depends, as so many other Zoroastrian beliefs and practices do, on whether you are a "reformist" or a "traditionalist." The reformists, following the Gathas as their prime guide, judge the Vendidad harshly as being a deviation from the non-prescriptive, abstract teachings of the Gathas. For them, few if any of the laws or practices in the Vendidad are either in the spirit or the letter of the Gathas, and so they are not to be followed. The reformists prefer to regard the Vendidad as a document which has no religious value but is only of historic or anthropological interest. Many Zoroastrians, in Iran, India, and the world diaspora, inspired by reformists, have chosen to dispense with the Vendidad prescriptions entirely or only to follow those which they believe are not against the original spirit of the Gathas."
Liturgical use
Yasht i Visperad abag Videvdad
The Vendidad text is used within the
Yasht i Visperad abag Videvdad, or simply
Videvdad, one of the main variants of the Zoroastrian
Long Liturgy. As the name implies, this liturgy consists of a
Yasht i Visperad into which the chapters of the Vendidad are intercalated. This intercalation happens during the Old Avestan text in the
Staota Yesnya. Its use is connected to purification rituals like the
Barashnom or the establishment of an
Atash Behram. Nowadays, the Videvdad liturgy is only performed in India.
Videvdad Sade
The Videvdad liturgy has to be distinguished from another performance of the text, namely the
Videvdad Sade performance. This performance is different from the liturgy since it is only performed by a single priest, instead of two in the Videvdad liturgy, and there is no ritual activity. Instead, the priest simply reads the text as given in the
Videvdad Sade manuscripts. The performance also does not require the typical levels of ritual purity. Due to this lack of ritual actions, the
Videvdad Sade performance has been described as a lengthy prayer.
See also
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
External links
