AVESTA: VENDIDAD (English): Fargard 1. 

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 AVESTA: VENDIDAD (English): Fargard 1. 

This digital edition prepared by Joseph H. Peterson, 1995.

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

Compare this chapter with the ancient description given of it in
 the Denkard , Book 8, Chapter 44. 

For an analysis see
Mary Boyce, Zoroastrianism : Its Antiquity and Constant Vigour (Columbia Lectures on Iranian Studies, No 7)
(Costa Mesa, Mazda Pub, 1992, pp. 3 ff.)
and A. Christensen, Le premier chapitre du Vendidad (Copenhagen, 1943).

 Synopsis: 

This chapter is an enumeration of sixteen perfect
lands created by Ahura Mazda, and of as many plagues created in
opposition by Angra Mainyu.

Many attempts have been made, not only to identify
these sixteen lands, but also to draw historical conclusions from
their order of succession, as representing the actual order of
the migrations and settlements of the old Iranian tribes.
But there is nothing in the text to support such wide inferences
We have here nothing more than a geographical description of Iran,
seen from the religious point of view.

Of these sixteen lands there are nine, as follows:--

 AVESTAN NAME. OLD PERSIAN. GREEK MODERN NAME.
 Sughdha (2) Suguda 
 Sogdianh Soghd (Samarkand)
 Mouru (3) Margu 
 Margianh Marv
 Bakhdhi (4) Bâkhtri 
 Baktra Balkh
 Haroyu (6) Haraiva 
 ` Areia Harê(rud)
 Vehrkana (9) Varkâna 
 ' Urkania Gurgân, Jorgân
 Harahvaiti (10) Harauvati 
 ` Aracwsia Av-rokhaj, Arghand-(âb)
 Haetumant (11)   
 ` EtumandoV Helmend
 Ragha (12) Ragâ 
 ' Ragai Raî
 Hapta hindu (15) Hindava 
 ` Indoi Hind (Punjab)

which can be identified with certainty, as we are
able to follow their

names from the records of the Achaemenian kings or the works of
classical writers down to the map of modern Iran.

For the other lands we are confined for information
to the Pahlavi Commentary, from which we get:

 AVESTAN NAME. PAHLAVI NAME. MODERN NAME.
 Vaekereta (7) Kâpûl Kabul
 Urva (8) Mêshan Mesene
 Varena (14) Patashkhvârgar or Dailam Tabaristân or Gîlân
 Rangha (16) Arvastâni Rûm Eastern Mesopotamia

The identification of Nisaya (5) and Chakhra (13) remains an
open question, as there were several cities of that
name. We know, however, that Nisaya lay between Balkh and Marv.
The first province Airyanem Vaeja, or Eranwej, we identify with
the medieval Arrân (nowadays known as Karabagh).

There must have been some systematical idea in the
order followed, though it is not apparent, except in the succession
of Sughdha, Mouru, Bakhdhi, Nisaya, Haroyu, Vaekereta (numbers
2-7), which form one compact group of north-eastern provinces;
the last two provinces, Hindu and Rangha (numbers 15-16), are
the two limitroph provinces, east and west (Indus and Tigris);
and the Rangha brings us back to the first province, Eranwej,
whose chief river, the Vanguhi Daitya, or Aras, springs from
the same mountains as the Rangha-Tigris.

The several plagues created by Angra Mainyu to mar
the native perfection of Ahura's creations give instructive information
on the religious condition of several of the Iranian countries
at the time when this Fargard was written. Harat seems to have
been the seat of puritan sects that pushed rigorism to the extreme
in the law of purification. Sorcery was prevalent in the basin
of the Helmend river, and the Paris were powerful in Cabul, which
is a Zoroastrian way of saying that the Hindu civilisation prevailed
in those parts, which in fact in the two centuries before and
after Christ were known as White India, and remained more Indian
than Iranian till the Moslem conquest.

 FARGARD 1. Sixteen perfect lands created by Ahura Mazda, and
as many plagues created by Angra Mainyu. 

1. Ahura Mazda spake unto Spitama 1 Zarathushtra,
saying:

I have made every land dear (to its people),
even though it had no charms whatever in it 2 : had
I not made every land dear (to its people), even
though it had no charms whatever in it, then the
whole living world would have invaded the Airyana
Vaeja 3 .

 Notes: 

 1. Or Spitamide. Zarathushtra was descended from Spitama at the
 fifth generation.

 2. 'Everyone fancies that the land where he was born and has been
 brought up is the best and fairest land that I have created' (Comm.)

 3. Greater Bundahish: 'It is said in the Sacred Book: had I not
 created the Genius of the native place, all mankind would have
 gone to Eran-Vej, on account of its pleasantness.' — On Airyanem
 Vaeja or Eran-Vej, see following note.

2. 4 The first of the good lands and countries
which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the Airyana
Vaeja 5 , by the Vanguhi Daitya 6 .

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
and he counter-created the serpent in the river 7 and
Winter, a work of the Daevas 8 .

 4. Clause 2 in the Vendidad Sada is composed of
 Zend quotations in the Commentary that illustrate the alternative
 process of creation: 'First, Ahura Mazda would create a land of
 such kind that its dwellers might like it, and there could be
 nothing more delightful. Then he who is all death would bring
 against it a counter-creation.'

 5. Airyanem Vaeja, Iran-Vej, is the holy land of Zoroastrianism:
 Zarathushtra was born and founded his religion there
 ( Bund. 20.32 ;
 32.3 ):
 the first animal couple appeared there
 ( Bund. 14.4 ;
 Zadspram, 9.8 ).
 From its name, 'the Iranian seed,' it seems to
 have been considered as the original seat of the Iranian race. It has
 been generally supposed to belong to Eastern Iran, like the provinces
 which are enumerated after it, chiefly on account of the name
 of its river, the Vanguhi Daitya, which was in the Sassanian
 times (as Veh) the name of the Oxus. But the Bundahish distinctly
 states that Iran-Vej is 'bordering upon Adarbajan'
 ( 29.12 );
 now, Adarbaijan is bordered by the Caspian Sea on the east, by
 the Rangha provinces on the west, by Media proper on the south,
 and by Arran on the north. The Rangha provinces are out of question,
 since they are mentioned at the end of the Fargard (verse 20), and
 the climatic conditions of Iran-Vej with its long winter likewise
 exclude Media and suit Arran, where the summer lasts hardly two
 months (cf. § 4, note 6). The very name agrees, as the country
 known as Arran seems to have been known to the Greeks as
 `Ariania (Stephanus Byz.), which
 brings it close to our Airyanem. On the Vanguhi Daitya, see following
 note.

 6. The Vanguhi Daitya, belonging to Arran, must be the modern
 Aras (the classic Araxes). The Aras was named Vanguhi, like the
 Oxus, but distinguished from it by the addition Daitya, which made
 it 'the Vanguhi of the Law' (the Vanguhi by which Zarathushtra
 received the Law).

 7. 'There are many Khrafstras in the Daitik, as it is said, The
 Daitik full of Khrafstras' ( Bund. 20.13 ). Snakes abound on
 the banks of the Araxes (Morier, A Second Journey , p. 250)
 nowadays as much as in the time of Pompeius, to whom they
 barred the way from Albania to Hyrcania (Plut.)

 8. Arran (Karabagh) is celebrated for its cold winter as well as
 for its beauty. At the Naoroz (first day of spring) the fields still lie
 under the snow. The temperature does not become milder before
 the second fortnight of April; no flower is seen before May.
 Summer, which is marked by the migration of the nomads from
 the plain to the mountains, begins about the 20th of June and
 ends in the middle of August.

3. There are ten winter months there, two
summer months 9 ; and those are cold for the waters 10 ,
cold for the earth, cold for the trees 11 . Winter falls
there, the worst of all plagues. [Hum 35: "Ten are there the winter
months, two the summer months, and even then [in summer] the waters are
freezing, the earth is freezing, the plants are freezing; there is the
center of winter, there is the heart of winter, there winter rushes
around, there (occur) most damages caused by storm."]

 9. Vendidad Sada: 'It is known that [in the ordinary course
 of nature] there are seven months of summer and five of winter'
 (see Bund. 25 ).

 10. Some say: 'Even those two months of summer are cold for
 the waters...' (Comm.; see Mainyo-i-khard 44.20 ).

 11. Vend. Sada: 'There reigns the core and heart of winter.'

4. The second of the good lands and
countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the
plain 12 which the Sughdhas inhabit 13 .

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,

and he counter-created the locust 14 , which brings
death unto cattle and plants. 

 12. Doubtful.

 13. Old P. Suguda; Sogdiana.

 14. The plague that fell to that country was the bad locust: it
 devours the plants and death comes to the cattle' ( Gr. Bund. )

5. The third of the good lands and countries
which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the strong, holy
Mouru 15 .

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
and he counter-created plunder and sin 16 .

 15. Margu; Margianh ; Marv.

 16. Doubtful. The Gr. Bd. has: 'The plague that fell
 to that country was the coming and going of troops: for there
 is always there an evil concourse of horsemen, thieves, robbers,
 and heretics, who speak untruth and oppress the righteous.' — Marv
 continued to be the resort of Turanian plunderers till the recent
 Russian annexation.

6. The fourth of the good lands and countries
which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the beautiful
Bakhdhi 17 with high-lifted banner.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created
the ants and the ant-hills 18 . 

 17. Bakhtri; Baktra ; Balkh.

 18. 'The corn-carrying ants' (Asp.; cf. Farg. 14.5 ).

7. The fifth of the good lands and countries
which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Nisaya 19 , that
lies between the Mouru and Bakhdhi.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
and he counter-created the sin of unbelief 20 .

 19. By contradistinction to other places of the same name. There
 was a Nisaya, in Media, where Darius put to death the Mage
 Gaumata ( Behishtun I, 58 ). There was also a Nisâ
 in Fars, another in Kirman, a third again on the way from Amol
 to Marv (Tabari, tr. Noeldeke, p.101, 2), which may be the same
 as Nisaia , the capital of Parthia
 ( Parqaunisa ap. Isid. of Charax 12); cf. Pliny
 VI, 25 (29). One may therefore he tempted to translate, 'Nisaya
 between which and Bakhdhi Mouru lies;' but the text hardly admits of that
 construction, and we must suppose the existence of another Nisaya
 on the way from Balkh to Marv.

 20. There are people there 'who doubt the existence of God (Comm.)

8. The sixth of the good lands and countries
which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the house-deserting
Haroyu 21 .

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
and he counter-created tears and wailing 22 .

 21. Harôyu, Old P. Haraiva (transcribed in Greek and Latin
 'Areia Aria instead of `Areia 
 Haria, by a confusion with the name of the Aryans); P. Harê
 (in Firdausi and in Harê-rûd; Harât is an Arabicised
 form. — 'The house-deserting Harê: because there, when a
 man dies in a house, the people of the house leave it and go.
 We keep the ordinances for nine days or a month: they leave
 the house and absent themselves from it for nine days or a month'
 ( Gr. Bd. ) See Vd5.42 .

 22. 'The tears and wailing for the dead,' the voceros. The
 tears shed over a dead man grow to a river that prevents his
 crossing the Chinwad bridge
 ( Saddar 96 ;
 Arda Viraf 16.7, 10 ).

9. The seventh of the good lands and
countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was
Vaekereta 23 , of the evil shadows.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
and he counter-created the Pairika Knathaiti 24 , who
claves unto Keresaspa.

 23. Vaêkereta, an older name of Kabul (Kâpûl: Comm.
 and Gr. Bd.); perhaps the Ptolemeian Bagarda 
 in Paropanisus (Ptol. VI, 18).

 24. The Pairika, in Zoroastrian mythology, symbolises
 idolatry (uzdes-parastih). The land of Kubul, till the Moslem
 invasion, belonged to the Indian civilisation and was mostly of
 Brahmanical and Buddhist religion. The Pairika Khnathaiti will
 be destroyed at the end of the world by Saoshyant, the unborn
 son of Zarathushtra (when all false religions vanish before the
 true one; Vd19.5 ). — Sama Keresaspa,
 the Garshasp of later tradition, is the type of impious heroism:
 he let himself be seduced to the Daeva-worship, and Zarathushtra
 saw him punished in hell for his contempt of Zoroastrian observances.

10. The eighth of the good lands and
countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Urva
of the rich pastures 25 .

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
and he counter-created the sin of pride 26 .

 25. Urva, according to Gr. Bd. Mêshan, that is to say
 Mesene ( Meshnh ) the region of lower
 Euphrates, famous for its fertility
(Herod. I, 193 [?]): it was for four centuries (from about 150 B.C. to 225 A.D.) the
 seat of a flourishing commercial state.

 26. 'The people of Meshan are proud: there are no people worse
 than they' (Gr. Bd.)

11. The ninth of the good lands and countries
which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Khnenta which
the Vehrkanas 27 inhabit.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
and he counter-created a sin for which there is no
atonement, the unnatural sin 28 .

 27. 'Khnenta is a river in Vehrkâna (Hyrcania)'
 (Comm.); consequently the river Jorjan.

 28. See Vd8.31-2 .
 [Hum2 228 (shyaothna yânaô-vaeipya): "pederasty"]

12. The tenth of the good lands and
countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the
beautiful Harahvaiti 29 .

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
and he counter-created a sin for which there is no
atonement, the burying of the dead 30 .

 29. Harauvati; `Aracwsia ;
 corrupted into Ar-rokhag (name of the country in the
 Arabic literature) and Arghand (in the modern name
 of the river Arghand-âb).

 30. See Vd3.36 ff .

 13. The eleventh of the good lands and
countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the
bright, glorious Haetumant 31 .

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all
death, and he counter-created the evil work of witchcraft.

 31. The basin of the EtumandroV or Erymanthus,
 now Hermend, Helmend, that is to say, the region of Saistân.

14. And this is the sign by which it is known,
this is that by which it is seen at once: wheresoever
they may go and raise a cry of sorcery, there 32 the
worst works of witchcraft go forth. From there they
come to kill and strike at heart, and they bring
locusts as many as they want 33 .

 32. In Haetumant. — 'The plague created against Saistan is
 abundance of witchcraft: and that character appears from this,
 that all people from that place practise astrology: those
 wizards produce ... snow, hail, spiders, and locusts ' ( Gr Bd. )
 Saistan, like Kabul, was half Indian (Ma�oudi, II, 79-82),
 and Brahmans and Buddhists have the credit of being proficient in
 the darker sciences.

 33. This clause seems to be a quotation in the Pahlavi
 Commentary.

15. The twelfth of the good lands and
countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was
Ragha 34 of the three races 35 .

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created
the sin of utter unbelief 36 . 

 34. Ragha, transcribed Râk and identified by the
 Commentary with Adarbaijan and 'according to some' with Rai (the
 Greek ' Ragai in Media). There were
 apparently two Raghas, one in Atropatene, another in Media.

 35. 'That means that the three classes, priests, warriors,
 and husbandmen, were well organised there' (Comm. and Gr. Bd. )

 36. 'They doubt themselves and cause other people to
 doubt' (Comm.)

16. The thirteenth of the good lands and
countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the
strong, holy Chakhra 37 .

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,

and he counter-created a sin for which there is no
atonement, the cooking of corpses 38 .

 37. There were two towns of that name (Charkh), one in
 Khorasan, and the other in Ghaznin.

 38. 'Cooking a corpse and eating it. They cook foxes
 and weasels and eat them' ( Gr. Bd. ) See Vd8.73-4. 

17. The fourteenth of the good lands and
countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the
four-cornered Varena 39 , for which was born
Thraetaona, who smote Azi Dahaka [Zohak].

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
and he counter-created abnormal issues in women 40 ,
and barbarian oppression 41 .

 39. Varn, identified by the Comm. either with Patashkhvârgar
 or with Dailam (that is to say Tabaristan or Gilan). The Gr.
 Bd. identifies it with Mount Damavand (which belongs to
 Patashkhvargar): this is the mountain where Azi Dahaka [Zohak] was bound
 with iron bonds by Thraetaona [Faridoon]. — 'Four-cornered:'
 Tabaristan has rudely the shape of a quadrilateral.

 40. Vd16.11 ff .

 41. The aborigines of the Caspian littoral were Anarian
 savages, the so-called 'Demons of Mazana [Mazendaran].'

18. The fifteenth of the good lands and
countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the
Seven Rivers 42 .

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
and he counter-created abnormal issues in women,
and excessive heat. 

 42. Hapta hindava, the basin of the affluents of the
 Indus, the modern Panjab (= the Five Rivers), formerly called Hind,
 by contradistinction to Sindh, the basin of the lower river.
 [Hum34: "the PhlT of V1.18 quotes the fragment
 haca ushastara hinduua auui daosha<s>tarem hindum 
 'from the eastern river to the western river'.]

19. The sixteenth of the good lands and
countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the
land by the sources (?) of the Rangha 43 , where people
live who have no chiefs 44 .

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
and he counter-created Winter 45 , a work of the
Daevas 46 .

 43. 'Arvastin-i-Rum (Roman Mesopotamia)' (Comm.), that is to
 say, the basin of the upper Tigris (Rangha = Arvand = Tigris).

 44. 'People who do not hold the chief for a chief' (Comm.), which 
 is the translation for asraosha (Comm. ad XVI, 18), 'rebel 
 against the law,' and would well apply to the non-Mazdean people 
 of Arvastân-i-Rûm.

 45. The severe winters in the upper valleys of the Tigris.

 46. The Vendidad Sada has here: taozyâka danheush
 aiwishtâra, which the Gr. Bd. understands as:
 'and the Tajik (the Arabs) are oppressive there.'

20. There are still other lands and countries 47 ,
beautiful and deep, longing and asking for the good,
and bright. [Hum2 54: lands and regions, beautiful,�deep, esteemed, brilliant and bright.]

 47. 'Some say: Persis' (Comm.)

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