AVESTA: VENDIDAD (English): Fargard 21. Healing spells

This digital edition prepared by Joseph H. Peterson, 1995; updated Jul 7, 2001.

Translated by James Darmesteter (From Sacred Books of the East, American Edition, 1898.)

I (1). Praise of the holy bull.

II (2-3). Invocation addressed to rain as a healing power.

III a (4-7). Joint invocation addressed to the waters and to the light of the sun.

III b (8-11). Joint invocation addressed to the waters and to the light of the moon.

III c (12-17). Joint invocation addressed to the waters and to the light of the stars.

IV (18-21), Spells against disease.

The largest part of this Fargard is filled with a uniform spell, intended, as it seems, for the protection of lying-in women (§§ 6-7, 10-11, 14-15), who are under the special care of Ardvi Sura Anahita, the great goddess of the waters. That spell is repeated three times, in a joint invocation to the sun, to the moon, and to the stars respectively; that strange association is perhaps owing to the fact that both the light and the waters spring up from the Hara Berezaiti and return there (see § 4, note 1).

FARGARD 21.

I.

 Notes:
1. Hail, bounteous bull1! Hail to thee, beneficent bull! Hail to thee, who makest increase! Hail to thee, who makest growth! Hail to thee, who dost bestow his part2 upon the righteous faithful, and wilt bestow it on the faithful yet unborn! Hail to thee, whom the Jahi kills3, and the ungodly Ashemaogha, and the wicked tyrant4. 1. The primeval bull who was created by Ohrmazd and killed by Ahriman with the help of the Jahi. -- Clause 1 is to be recited when one meets an ox or any kind of cattle, Gr. Riv. 386.

2. Possibly, 'who dost kill the Jahi (by means of gomez).

3. His daily food.

4. The wicked kills animals, out of mere cruelty, beyond his needs (Yasna 29.1; Y32.12, 14; Y48.7).

II.

2. 'Come, come on, O clouds, from up above, down on the earth, by thousands of drops, by myriads of drops:' thus say, O holy Zarathushtra! 'to destroy sickness, to destroy death, to destroy the sickness that kills5, to destroy death that kills, to destroy Gadha and Apagadha6. 5. Cf. Bund. 3.3, 6, 4.

6. Names of diseases.

3. 'If death come after noon, may healing come at eve!

'If death come at eve, may healing come at night!

'If death come at night, may healing come at dawn!

'And showers shower down new water, new earth, new plants, new healing powers, and new healing.

IIIa.

4. 'As the sea Vouru-kasha is the gathering place of the waters7, rising up and going down, up the aerial way and down the earth, down the earth and up the aerial way8: thus rise up and roll along! thou in whose rising and growing Ahura Mazda made the aerial way. 7. Waters and light are believed to flow from the same spring and in the same bed: 'As the light comes in through Alburz (Hara Berezaiti) and goes out through Alburz, so water also comes out through Alburz and goes away through Alburz' (Bund. 20.4). Every day the sun, moon, and stars rise up from Alburz, and every day all the waters on the earth come back together to the sea Vouru-kasha, and there collected come down again to the earth from the peaks of Alburz (Gr. Riv. 43'). As light comes from three different sources (the sun, the moon, and the stars), the waters are invoked three times, first in company with the sun, then with the moon, lastly with the stars, as if there should be three different movements of the rain connected with the three movements or light.

8. Waters come down from the sky to the earth and rise back from the earth to the sky (see Vd5.15 seq.)

5. 'Up! rise up and roll along! thou swift-horsed Sun, above Hara Berezaiti, and produce light for the world (and mayst thou [O man!] rise up there, if thou art to abide in Garo-nmanem9)10, along the path made by Mazda, along the way made by the gods, the watery way they opened. 9. 'If thou art a righteous man' (Comm.)

10. The translation of this clause is doubtful.

6. 'And the Holy Word [manthra spenta] shall keep away the evil11: Of thee [O child!] I will cleanse the birth and growth; of thee [O woman!] I will make the body and the strength pure; I make thee rich in children and rich in milk;

11. The spell refers to the cleansing and generative power of the waters; cf. the invocation to Ardvi Sura, Vd7.16: the waters are supposed to make females fertile as they make the earth. This spell was probably pronounced to facilitate childbirth.
7. 'Rich in seed, in milk12, in fat, in marrow, and in offspring. I shall bring to thee a thousand pure springs, running towards the pastures that give food to the child. 12. There are, in the text, two words for 'milk,' the one referring to the milk of women, the other to the milk of cows.

IIIb.

8. 'As the sea Vouru-kasha is the gathering place of the waters, rising up and going down, up the aerial way and down the earth, down the earth and up the aerial way:

'Thus rise up and roll along! thou in whose rising and growing Ahura Mazda made the earth.

9. 'Up! rise up, thou Moon, that dost keep in thee the seed of the bull13;

'Rise up above Hara Berezaiti, and produce light for the world (and mayst thou [O man!] rise up there, if thou art to abide in Garo-nmanem), along the path made by Mazda, along the way made by the gods, the watery way they opened.

13. When the primeval bull died, 'what was bright and strong in his seed was brought to the sphere of the moon, and when it was cleansed there in the light of the astre, two creatures were shaped with it, a male and a female, from which came two hundred and seventy-two kinds of animals' (Bund. 4, Bund. 10).

10. 'And the Holy Word [manthra spenta] shall keep away the evil: Of thee [O child!] I will cleanse the birth and growth; of thee [O woman!] I will make the body and the strength pure; I make thee rich in children and rich in milk;

11. 'Rich in seed, in milk, in fat, in marrow, and in offspring. I shall bring to thee a thousand pure springs, running towards the pastures that give food to the child.

IIIc.

12. 'As the sea Vouru-kasha is the gathering place of the waters, rising up and going down, up the aerial way and down the earth, down the earth and up the aerial way:

'Thus rise up and roll along! thou in whose rising and growing Ahura Mazda made everything that grows14.

14. The plants that grow under the action of 'those stars that have in them the seed of waters ' (cf. § 13).
13. 'Up! rise up, ye deep Stars, that have in you the seed of waters15;

'Rise up above Hara Berezaiti and produce light for the world (and mayst thou [O man!] rise up there, if thou art to abide in Gara-nmanem), along the path made by Mazda. along the way made by the gods, the watery way they opened.

15. See Yt12.29.

14. 'And the Holy Word [manthra spenta] shall keep away the evil: Of thee [O child!] I will cleanse the birth and growth; of thee [O woman!] I will make the body and the strength pure; I make thee rich in children and rich in milk;

15. 'Rich in seed, in milk, in fat, in marrow, and in offspring. I shall bring to thee a thousand pure springs, running towards the pastures that will give food to the child.

16. 'As the sea Vouru-kasha is the gathering place of the waters, rising up and going down, up the aerial way and down the earth, down the earth and up the aerial way:

'Thus rise up and roll along! ye in whose rising and growing Ahura Mazda made everything that rises.

17. 'In your rising away will the Kahvuzi16 fly and cry, away will the Ayehi17 fly and cry, away will the Jahi who follows the Yatu, fly and cry. 16. 'He who diminishes glory, Ahriman' (Comm.)

17. 'Sterility, Ahriman' (Comm.)

IV.

[1818. 'I drive away Ishire and I drive away Aghuire; I drive away Aghra and I drive away Ughra; I drive away sickness and I drive away death; I drive away pain and I drive away fever; I drive away Sarana and I drive away Sarastya. I drive away Azana and I drive away Azahva; I drive away Kurugha and I drive away Azhivaka; l drive away Duruka and I drive away Astairya; I drive away the evil eye, rottenness, and infection which Angra Mainyu has created against the bodies of mortals. 18. §§ 18-23 = Vd20.9-13.
19. 'I drive away all manner of sickness and death, all the Yatus and Pairikas, and all the wicked Jainis.

20. 'A Airyema ishyo:- May the vow-fulfilling Airyaman come here, for the men and women of Zarathushtra to rejoice, for Vohu-mano to rejoice; with the desirable reward that Religion deserves. I solicit for holiness that boon that is vouchsafed by Ahura!

21. 'May the vow-fulfilling Airyaman smite all manner of sickness and death, all the Yatus and Pairikas, and all the wicked Jainis.

22. 'Yatha ahu vairyo:- The will of the Lord is the law of righteousness!

'Kem-na mazda:- What protector hast thou given unto me ... ?

'Ke verethrem-ja:- Who is the victorious who will protect thy teaching ... ?

23. 'Keep us from our hater, O Mazda and Armaiti Spenta! Perish, O fiendish Druj! Perish, O brood of the fiend! Perish, O world of the fiend! Perish away, O Druj! Perish away to the regions of the north, never more to give unto death the living world of Righteousness!]