СНАР. I. Heden. the East the hot country of the seven rivers (hepta hendu'), that is India, and in the South the lovely 'Harakaiti,' Archosia. It knows Haetumat-Drangiana,' or Sedchestan; it specifies in the North Airyana vaêjô,' or the Aryan home; Sugdhu,' or Sogdiana; Bakhdhi,' or Balkh; Muru,' or Merv, that is the country of the Margus; Haroju,' the hariva' in the Cuneiform inscriptions, that is the country of the Aryans; Sarkana,' the land of wolves, Hyrkania; Mezenderan,' and 'Ragha,' which consists of three castles. The latter is the most westerly point mentioned in the Avesta, and it is further described as the seat of the wicked and exceeding great doubt.' Now, Ragha is situated on the eastern frontier of Media, and it is difficult to conceive why the capital of Media should not have been mentioned if it had existed at that time. Another proof of the high antiquity which must be assigned to the age of Zoroaster is derived from the circumstance that he is stated in the Avesta to have been born in the aboriginal home of the Aryans, in Airyana vaêjô, the first place where, according to Aryan tradition, God assembled living creatures.1 Although Zoroaster was probably born in Bactria, yet the celebrated one of Airyana vaêjô,' the son of Pourushâspa, was by tradition 2 16Abraham and Zoroaster issue forth, about five thousand years ago, from a dark chaos of middle Asiatic life; the former as Prophet of the Spirit in western Asia, the latter as witness of the moral consciousness of God in Eastern Asia. They both stand in the midst of a great and ancient civilisation, and move in a wonderfully propelling activity of the tribes and people of that part of the world. On the other side of the Euphrates Abraham looks back towards the wide plains of Aram, and beyond them into the ancestral land, Arpaksad, the Assyro-Armenian mountains of Arrapakhitis. Zoroaster and his disciples look back upon the lost home in the north, in that once paradise-like land on the sources of the Oxus and Jaxartes, towards Pamer, the Upameru of the ancients, and towards the northern Mountain of Gods, of the tradition of which we find a later echo even among the prophets of the Hebrews (Is. xiv. 13; comp. Ez. xxviii. 14).' See Bunsen's 'Gott in der Geschichte,' 1858, of which an English translation is now being prepared for publication by Miss Winkworth. 2 Yas. ix. 14. 2 I. thus connected with Haedinesh or Heden, the land of CHAP. charm,' where a 'paradise,' that is, a fenced garden or park, was in primordial times laid out by Divine command, and probably was situated near the sources of the Oxus and Yaxartes. Into this place of refuge, according to Aryan tradition the cradle of mankind, where the winter lasted ten months, of every living thing, both of the animal and of the vegetable kingdom, two of every sort,' were to be admitted. Zoroaster asks God, who was 'the first man' with whom he conversed, and the Prophet receives the answer that God first conversed about the law' with 'Hom,' or ' Yima,' that is with King Jemshid' of Aryan tradition, who, however, would not promulgate the Divine law revealed to him. Hereupon the first man with whom God spoke, and who obeyed his voice, was Zoroaster, who is called the beautiful,' and 'the pureborn," whom God commanded to 'spread' over God's worlds and to make them 'fruitful.' This seems to refer to the historical fact that in the time of Zoroaster the ancestors of the Indo-Germanic races, the Aryans, began to spread over God's world. The earliest migration took Aboriginal place in prehistorical times, under King Jemshid, and the migration. account of this exodus, prefixed to one of the most ancient books of the Avesta, the Vendidad, must have been preserved by oral tradition for a long time before it was committed to writing. This aboriginal migration had for its starting point the Aryan home,' in the highlands of Central Asia, perhaps on the western slopes of the Belurdagh and the Musdagh. The Aryan emigrants seem to have taken a westerly course, since the places mentioned in this migration-acccount as lying towards the north and north-east of ancient Bactria, are recorded in exactly the same order, in which emigrants coming from the east and going to the west would reach them; so 1 Yas. xi. 25. 2 The name given to this race in the records of the Bible is Japhet, which means according to some interpreters 'to spread.' I. CHAP. that we may regard Sugdhu, Bakhdhi and Muru, as the principal halting-places of the primordial Aryan migration from Airyana to Berekhdha, or Bâkhdhi, that is, from the Aryan to the Bactrian home. What concerns us, and what we have here to consider, are the historical migrations of the Aryan race from the kingdom of Bactria; the first of which is the migration of Aryan tribes, in the time of Zoroaster, to the confines of the Indus, from whence, at a later period, they spread to the plains of the Ganges. Migration to the Indus. It has been fully established that the light-coloured Indians, who called themselves Aryans, migrated from the Bactrian mountains first into the valley of the Indus, where they met with the non-Aryan races, the Dasyus of the Veda, now called Turanians, and by some Cushites. These Aryan immigrants called the great river 'Sindhu,' that is, 'Stream,' and its aboriginal inhabitants 'Saindhava,' from which name the Greeks formed the word 'Indoi.' The cause of this migration was a serious conflict between different tribes of the Aryan family, who had up to this time lived peaceably together in the Bactrian mountains. Originally the Aryans were all shepherds and led a nomadic life, but before the foundation of the Aryan state in Bactria, agriculture must have been resorted to by some of the Aryan brother-tribes. It may, perhaps, even be conjectured that fencing off particular districts in the aboriginal 'home' of the Aryans was a practice which denotes, if not the first introduction of agriculture to a nomadic race, at least the difficulties which must necessarily arise between brother-tribes pursuing in increasing numbers the common avocation of grazing their flocks. In the time of Zoroaster it had become advisable to urge the necessity of cultivating the ground, and to discourage the nomadic habits of the Aryans. But it would seem that hereupon a division arose between the brother-tribes; some were ready to remain in the country which they then inhabited, whilst others directed their attention to emigration. The separa tion would, perhaps, not then have taken place had Zoroaster not occasioned a schism in the Aryan family by promulgating the divine revelations which he claimed to have received from God himself. CHAP. I. In order to do this with due solemnity and effect, Aryan Zoroaster summoned a monster-meeting of all the Aryan Reform. tribes, and standing before the sacred fire, he addressed his countrymen in a metrical speech, which has been preserved to us, and the chief tendency of which is 'to induce his countrymen to leave the worship of the devas, or gods-that is, polytheism-to bow only before AhuraMazda (the living Wise One), and to separate themselves entirely from the idolaters.' This was the cardinal point of Zoroaster's reform. But the prophet of the living God was also 'the prophet of agriculture and civilization.' A true perception of the duties of man towards God must lead to the due performance of man's duties towards his neighbour. Among these stands foremost the cultivation of the soil, as the most efficacious means of checking the influences of wicked men and evil spirits. The primeval Spirit-the essence of truth, the creator of life, who manifests his life in his works-first created through his inborn glory, the multitude of celestial bodies; and through his mind the good creatures, governed by the inborn good mind.' He, 'the living and everlasting Spirit,' makes them to grow,' and to be led by His Spirit, that is, by the inborn good mind.' This Divine Spirit in the world has first dwelt with the tiller of the soil," and it has then visited him who does not cultivate it.' Of these two (the agriculturist and the herdsman) she (Armaiti, the spirit of the world) chose the pious cultivator, the propagator of life, whom she blessed with the riches produced by the good mind. All who do not till the earth, and who continue to worship the devas, have no share' in 'the good tidings,' 2 or gospel. 1 The word Aryan has been derived from 'Ar,' the plough. CHAP. I. Time of migration. Obliged to choose between the new worship of the one and living God and the pursuit of agriculture at home on the one side, or the worship of many gods, and the nomadic life abroad on the other, some of the brothertribes finally decided to separate from the rest, and taking an easterly course settled on the banks of the Upper Indus. We are not told whether bloody struggles preceded this separation of the Aryan brothers. The nomadic tribes may well have complained of being thus driven out from the face of that beloved part of the earth where they and their ancestors had dwelled, and of being forced to become fugitives and vagabonds on the earth, where death by violence might await them. Again, the great reformer and lawgiver, patronised as he was by the King of the Land, may have felt that the departing tribe were entitled to every kind of protection which could be extended to them previous to their exodus, and during the same. The prophet may well have considered it necessary to declare that sevenfold vengeance should be taken on those who might act in a hostile manner to the brother-tribe which was going out from the presence of the Lord in order to dwell in countries unknown. We know not how many centuries the immigrant tribes of the Aryans may have lived on the banks of the Indus. Not only had they to conquer the non-Aryan, that is the Turanian races, which had settled in these districts before them, but in course of time they had likewise to defend themselves against the attacks of other Aryan tribes, who followed their example in quitting the Bactrian home of their forefathers. Long indeed must have been the period of time during which the conquests were effected to which the songs of the Veda refer, and which were written on the banks of the Indus.1 Here it suffices to point out, that about the year 1300 B.C. the Aryans had not only conquered the countries of the Ganges, which river is not mentioned in the ancient Vedas, but that 1 Comp. Max Müller's work on the Veda. |