Gropp, Gerd

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MEHREGAN - CARE FOR THE EARTH5The Zoroastrian Endeavour to Venerate and Care for the EarthGerdGroppSeminar fUr Geschichte und Kultur des Vorderen OrientsUniversitat HamburgWhen preparing this paper on the Iranian love of nature and treament of the environment, I foundmyself recalling those many pieces of infonnation I had collected during several years of readinginto the Zoroastrian sacred books, in Avestan and Pahlavi. When I got these relevant items arrangedin due order I became aware that many important questions had arisen which I could not solve.Possibly future discussions like those in this symposium will contribute solutions to these problems.Some months ago, during the Gatha Congress in London, a young Iranian scholar put therhetorical question to me: "Aren't we Zoroastrians the real protectors of the environment from timeimmemorial? Wasn't it Zoroaster who at first made us conscious and responsible to avoid thepollution of the world? Isn't it that our religion is the most progressive one of all?" Indeed there isno question that the Zoroastrians, and their next of kin people the Indians, keep a specially deepfeeling of responsibility to nature. I believe it was the Indian concept of ahims/i ("non-violence")which motivated Brigitte Bardot to fight for the seals; but the roots of this Iranian love of natureseem to be much more profound than the modem trends and fashions of politics.German travellers to Iran mentioned several times their surprise that Iranian behaviour at least onthis particular point is quite familiar with their own: they love nature and they enjoy to walk throughforests and wildemesses. At weekends in Tehran and in Munich alike mountaineers in hundredsmove to the mountains and climb one or two thousand metres. And it seems every Iranian has theurgent desire to possess a small garden outside the walls of the town. On my last journey near toTehran I was enjoying a garden at Ab-e Ali high up in the Elburs mountains, and later a gardenoutside the town of Yazd, and on both occasions we were preparing kabab not unlike the Germanbarbecue.This Iranian behaviour is quite unusual in Asiastic countries, for rarely indeed would you meetpeople walking for pleasure in Egypt, Turkey of Arabian Syria. You would find some people doingso in India, but not in China or Central Asia. So there seems no question that this is an Indo-European heritage joining Germans walking in their Deutschen Wald and Iranians climbing theTouchal mountain!But let us try to trace back this Iranian love of nature. One of the most interesting Zoroastrianbooks is the Bundahishn ("the Creation of the World").} It is preserved in a Pahlavi version butoriginally it was composed in the Avestan language, and its name was Damdad Nask. In this bookwe read about the creation of the seven parts or elements of the world, that is, heaven-water-earth-plants-animals-mankind-fire. This is also the succession of their creation, heaven to be formed firstand fire latest by God Ahuramazda. European scholars would divide this line into two groups, oneanimate and one inanimate; they would distinguish between the four elements, fire-water-air-earthand the three kinds of living beings, plants-animals-mankind. But soon we will see that Zoroastrianskeep a quite different feeling to these elements than modem European science, because for them allthese seven elements are animate. And all these elements are suggested as being able to actintelligently; they are the forces of Ahuramazda fighting against Ahriman, as described in theBundahishn.I will not centre my paper on mythology, though, but more on customs and belief. Only one1 Behramgore Tehmuras Anklesaria (trans.). Zand-akllSih, Iranian or Greater Bundahisn. Bombay. 1956.31MEHREGAN - CARE FOR THE EARTHremark of the Bundahishn seems very important to me for understanding the Zoroastrian attitude tonature: not all beings were created by Ahuramazda, some were made by Ahriman and these are bad.So Zoroastrians do not like turtles, which they believe to be creations of Ahriman.I did not get much information about the veneration of heaven and air. Asman and Vayu areprotecting angels of two days of the month. But heaven is the home of the stars and of sun and moon,and the light of the morning sun is venerated by Zoroastrians with a full he_art. I still remember anexcursion together with a group of Parsis. After leaving Bombay early in the morning by train wecrossed the huge backwaters on a long bridge just at sunrise, the light and brightness spreading upto the horizon. My friends at once fell down for prayer. Already Herodotus2 tells us that the Persiansclimbed mountains to engage with God at sunrise. Certainly the Persian religion is the religion oflight. I think Zoroastrians are not venerating the sun itself but the brightness of light as theexpression of the clearness of God Almighty. My friends in the train prayed to God when theyadmired the rising sun.Water seems to be venerated by Zoroastrians and all Persians in two different ways. Our Germanexcavations at the Sasanian sanctuary of Adur Gushnasp on Takht-e Suleiman in Azarbaijan exposedthe firetemple at the shore of a very deep lake,3 which is mentioned several times in Avestan textsas Lake Chaichasta - "the white gleaming water". It was an offering place of ancient kings of Iran,and it seems to be that the brightness of sunrise over the clear water was venerated more than thelake itself.But there are several Achaemenid and Sasanian monuments erected near to a spring of water,which was apparently venerated in animate form. In Naqsh-e Rostram there was a big cascade of20m height,4 now dried up, and just beneath it King Narses son of Shapur I dedicated a beautifulrockrelief. He is depicted offering a flower to the lady of the cascade. Similar reliefs with the pictureof the lady of the animate spring are known at Barm-e Delak and Qandil near to Shiraz. Our Germanexcavations at Bisotun5 near Kermanshah have shown that Darius got his famous rock inscriptionsculptured just in front of a spring, which now has shifted considerably to the slope of the mountain.We could also find out more interesting things by excavating the ancient water basin built in theAchaemenid period. The inscription says that at this place, Bisotun or ancient Kunduru, the kingfought his decisive battle against the Median rebels, and most probably it was the water of thisspring which refreshed the soldiers and their horses and gave them new power. So King Darius paidhomage to this spring for her personal support.Still today in Bombay you can meet the Parsis venerating a sacred well near to ChurchgateRailway Station. This Bikhe Bahram is famous for its excellent water which saved the life of manypeople during a cholera epidemy a century ago. In Naqsh-e Rostam, Bisotun und Bombay water isvenerated as a shelter-giving well or spring which is conceived to be animate, a personality actingwith free will, and even choosing the right king during battle for support.Earth, similarly to water, seems to be venerated in two different ways. Being the ground on whichwe place our feet, earth as a whole is supporting and bearing us. But there are special spots of earth,mainly mountain places, where the earth is venerated in small sanctuaries. Famous between IranianZoroastrians are the sanctuaries near to the city of Yazd, Pir-e Sabz, Pir-e Heresht and Pir-e Naraki.6In legends it is told that these mountains gave protection to the daughters of the last Sasanian king2 Herodotus, Historiae, I, 132.3R. Naumann and H.H. von der Osten, Takht i Suleiman, vorliiufiger Bericht uber die Ausgrabungen 1959 (Teheraner Forschungen1), Berlin, 1961.4G. Gropp, Urartaische Miszellen (Archaologische Mitteilungen aus Iran N.F. 22), Berlin, 1989, 103-124; L. Vanden Berghe, Reliefsrupestres de l'lran ancien, Brussells~ 1984.5 W. K1eiss and P. Calmeyer (eds.), Bisutun, Ausgrabungen und Forschungen in den Jahren 1963-1967 (Teheraner Forschungen 7),Berlin, 1995.6 Jamshid Sorush Sorushian, Farhang-e Behdinan, Tehran, 1956.32MEHREGAN - CARE FOR THE EARTHYazdegerd when they were persecuted by the invading Arabs. Today every year on certain weekspeople assemble in these places for pilgrimage. These mountains seem to be animate individualswho helped humans in danger, and still today they will being good luck to the pilgrims.Some of these sanctuaries, like Pir-e Heresht and Pir-e Banu Pars near Yazd, seem to have beenancient offering places like those mentioned in Avestan texts. The ancient kings of the heroic erawould offer sheep to God on the top of mountains and places like these.Let us have a look at the veneration of plants and animals. There are many growing trees guardedwith love by Zoroastrian and Muslim communities likewise. Famous is the story told by Herodotusabout King Xerxes, who one day on his campaign against Greece was delighted by a beautifulsycamore-tree and then had it adorned by a golden chain as a present.? In two towns of Khorasaneven up to today the legend is preserved of a huge cypress planted by prophet Zoroaster himself andcut down centuries later by Muslim rulers.8 One is the cypress of Keshmar destroyed by the KalifMutawakkil, the other tree grew in Forumad and was felled by the Khwarazmshah. But wonderfulcypresses - sarv - are still venerated today by the Zoroastrians in villages near Yazd and by Muslimsin Abarquh and Gonabad. And plantane trees - chenar - are beloved objects of care in many Muslimsanctuaries in Tehran-Jamaran or in Khorasan.I could continue with some observations about veneration of beautiful animals and extraordinarymen and women. The Achaemenids fostered a group of beautiful white horses depicted at theApadana of Persepolis and mentioned by Herodotus.9 Similarly the Sogdians had a flock of sacredgeese which we can see on a Sasanian mural from Samarkand-Afrasiab. These sacred animals werespecially connected with the ruling family. The inscription of King Narses at Paikuli10 expresslygives a statement that only kings like the Sasanians Ardashir and Shapur are worth worship, andhave to be kept in mind as exemplary rulers. Places of worship for these persons were fires installedby them.All the Zoroastrian communities settle around a sanctuary with a burning purified fire. As far asI know the fire is protecting the village and is giving the identity to its citizens. So they would try totake it with them to the new abode if they are obliged to move the settlement. The Parsis moved thefire of Udwada-Atash Bahram from faraway Iran to India. Fire to me seems to be much related toearth, as far as I suggest it is something like the power of earth like the Persian homeland Mihan. Itseems that the words of Darius in his Persepolis inscriptions - that "God created happiness (sViyati;Persian: sadi) for mankind" - are related to the earth also, for through earth this happiness isadvancing to man. Here I must return to another aspect of the earth again.There is a whole book of Avesta concerned with the earth - the Vendidad. 11 Chapter 1 talks aboutthe sixteen lands of the Iranians, beginning with Iran Vez, with all of them being wonderful abodesthat were afterwards polluted with plagues by Ahriman. The second chapter gives the famous storyof King Jamshed ruling a golden age when people were not dying or growing old or getting sick,and everyone was being kept at the age of 15 or 30 years. And then Jamshed was informed that soonAhriman would destroy this paradise. So he got the advice to build a subterranean palace, the var-eJamshed, where he and a group of selected warriors are surviving up to the last days. The otherchapters of the book are full of instructions and ritual ceremonies to purify the world again after itwas polluted by Ahriman.It is not allowed to a Zoroastrian to pollute flowing water or the earth. Pollution by corpses is very7 Herodotus, Hist., VII, 31.8 B. Spuler, Zoroasters Zeit nach einer islamischen Oberlieferung des /2, lh. n.Chr. (Archaologische Mitteilungen aus Iran, NF 4),Berlin, 1971, pp. 113-115.9 Herodotus, Hist., VII, 55.10 H. Humbach and P. O. Skjarvo, The Sassanian Inscription of Paikuli, Wiesbaden 1978-1983, 4 vols.II Behramgore Tahmuras Anklesaria and Dinshah D. Kapadia (eds.), Pahlavi Vendidad (Zand-i lvit-dev-dat>, Bombay, 1949.33MEHREGAN - CARE FOR THE EARTHvehemently forbidden to every Zoroastrian, so that they developed their individual custom of gettingcorpses devoured by vultures. There are very depressing orders against the menstruation of womenand some other customs.But besides the restrictive customs against pollution there are also two very positive regulations.In the Zoroastrian books of Vendidad, Bundahishn and Dinkard we read that the best virtues of aZoroastrian are to till the earth and to earn crops from it or to lead flocks o_~ sheep and goats overthe meadow, because they make the earth happy with their feet and hooves. Such agricultural andflockbreeding ways were encouraged and approved by the Zoroastrian religion. Thus Zoroastriancommunities in Yazd and Kerman in Iran and in Gujerat in India developed into agricultural centres.The Parsis of India made their fortune with the cultivation of cotton, at first in sixteenth century,when they supplied the English with cotton and food for the arriving ships. Still now some Parsimerchants are known as Kings of Cotton.It will be one important object of future research to collect more knowledge about the specialZoroastrian customs and methods of agricultural work. The existing handbooks are still quiteinsufficient in treating this aspect of Iranian culture. This research should be done very SOOD, beforemodernization and urbanization tends to destroy the old patterns of village life.The love of nature among Iranian people can certainly be traced back to the most ancient texts,the Giithas of prophet Zarathustra. He puts many questions to Lord Ahura Mazda about nature:"Why is the sky turning around, why do the clouds move? .." (Yasna 44.4). And in the famousGatha (Yasna 29) he puts the most profound words into the mouth of an animal, the "soul of thecow" (geus urvanem). Modern Zoroastrian scholars have tried to "correct" the words of Zarathustraand have changed the word gav- "cow" to gay- "life",12 because the metaphorical language of theprophet seems much too enigmatic to them. A European scholar never would dare to make such aserious manipulation to a well preserved text of such age and religious weight. But also in Europethere is a lot of discussion about the metaphorical meaning of the soul of the cow.Well, as indicated by the last example, there remain unsolved many questions about the topic ofIranian attitudes to nature. The following are three:1. Would Zoroastrians think there is still now some feeling preserved in your much civilizedminds as members of an urbanized community, that you are protected by earth, plants,water - nature?2. Do you preserve a solemn feeling of unity and correlation with nature when you enter asite like Pir-e Sabz or an Atash Bahram or Shah Warahram Izad?3. Do you believe that from the earth beneath your feet there will proceed good luck ({odhappiness to you, that a mountain like Pir-e Sabz has a soul?12 [At the Seminar a heated discussion developed over this, with Dr Vahidi rendering gav- "cow" into gay- '"life'" while the Europeanstandpoint was supported by Mr Partov. Eds.].34

The Zoroastrian Endeavour to Venerate and Care for the Earth

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The Zoroastrian Endeavour to Venerate and Care for the Earth

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