A literary history of Persia

THE A VESTA 95heard itsaid by English scholars that alreadybefore the Battleof Hastings the Anglo-Saxon, or Old English, language had,Dto a great extent, ceased to be written grammatiefgu^e"dC^Y) an ^ tnat lt was m ^ decadence before theNorman invasion. As regardsthe Old Persiangfa nTascri'ptions?'language, at least,this appears to be beyonddoubt ;and in the inscription to which reference is madeabove we find such errors in declensions and cases as bum&m("earth," ace. case) for bum'im ;asmanam ("heaven," ace.sing.) for asmanam; shayatam ("joy," ace. sing.) for shiydtim ;martihyd ("of men," gen. pi.)for martiyahya ; khshdyathiya("king," nom. for ace. sing.), and the like. And concurrentlywith this decay of language appear signs of a degenerationin creed ;Ahuramazda no longerstands alone, but isassociated with other gods, Mithra (the Sun) and Anahita(Venus).II.THE A VESTA.We have already, in Chapter I,touched on some of theand home ofgeneral questions connected with the origin, age,the Avesta, and the language in which it is written questionsnot admitting, unfortunately, of very precise or certainanswers. Geldner's article on " Zoroaster " in the ninthedition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (1888), and Darmesteter'sFrench translation of the Avesta in the Annalesdu Musle Gutmet^ vols. xxi, xxii, xxiv (18923), may betaken as representing the two extreme views. According toGr ervfe'^s (i888)!the former, part of the Avesta at least (theGathas) represented the actual utterances ofZoroaster or his immediate disciples ;Bactria wasthe scene of his activity, and itslanguagethe vehicle of histeaching ; the King Vishtasp (Gushtasp, Hystaspes), whomhe converted, and who became the zealous patron andprotector of his " creed, has no place in any historical chronology,"" must have lived long before Cyrus," and " must be