Bundahishn

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The Bundahishn, meaning "Primal Creation", is an account of Zoroastrian cosmogony and cosmology, and reflects ancient Zoroastrian and even pre-Zoroastrian beliefs. Although the Bundahishn draws on the Avesta and develops ideas alluded to in those texts, it is not itself scripture. Unlike the texts of the Avesta, the Bundahishn is in the Middle Persian language.

Most of the chapters of the compendium date to the 8th and 9th centuries. These portions of the collection are roughly contemporary with texts of the Denkard, another significant text of the Zoroastrian-Pahlavi canon. A final redaction was not completed until the 12th century.

The Bundahishn is the concise view of the world, and the battle of the forces of Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu for the hegemony of the world. According to Bundahishn the first 3,000 years of the cosmic year, Ahura Mazda created the Fravashis and conceived the idea of his would-be creation. He used the insensible and motionless Void as a weapon against Angra Mainyu, and at the end of that period, Angra Mainyu was forced to submission and fell into a stupor for the next 3,000 years. Taking advantage of Angra Mainyu's absence, Ahura Mazda created the Amesha Spentas (Holy Immortals), along with the material world, consisting of the sky, waters, earth, plants, the sacred white bull called Parvin, and Q-Mars, the cosmic man. What's more, he permeated his kingdom with truth in order to prevent Angra Mainyu from reaching and destroying it.

  • MacKenzie, David Neil. (1990). "Bundahišn". Encyclopedia Iranica 4: 547-551. Cosa Mesa: Mazda.

  • West, Edward William (1897). "The Bundahishn", in Max Müller: Sacred Books of the East 5. Oxford: OUP. 
 
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