The sacred symbols

Treatise about The Significance of the Sacred Girdle by Raham Asha. Published in 2005 by Erman, The Institute of Eric Studies, e-mail: ericstudies@yahoo.fr The book is available on sale at The K. R. Cama Oriental Institute, 136, Bombay Samachar Marg, opposite Lion Gate, Fort, Bombay 400023. Pp: 126. Price: Rs 200.

The book Apara Chim-i-Kustig (pp 126) by Raham Asha is a small Pahlavi text which is rendered into English as Treatise about The Significance of the Sacred Girdle by the same author.

Raham Asha: explanation of the holy vestments

In the introduction, the author describes the references available in other Zoroastrian scriptural books on the significance of the sacred shirt and the sacred girdle (sudreh and kusti) which are the main emblems of the religion of Zarathushtra.

There is no reliable information on the precise age and original authorship of the said Pahlavi text. From the references available in the book, it could be inferred that "Chim-i-Kustig was only one chapter of a book which comprehended questions on miscellaneous subjects put by a learned student, and answered by a wise teacher, and composed in the Sassanian period.”

The text of Chim-i-Kustig consists of about 75 small sentence-type paragraphs. As expounded by Asha, "The purport of the work is clear: It is a textbook for the student of a priestly school or a scribes training school, in that a stage is represented as expounding the meaning of the sacred girdle to a student, through question and answer. The treatment is philosophical and dualistic: the divisions and the concord of the science and the belief; the view of Man as a microcosm, so that the human body is a miniature copy of the material world, and the human winds resemble the two cosmic spirits.” The text is in Roman script and transliterated/translated into English with relevant notes.

The source of this text in various manuscripts is cited in this book. Previous works on this text by various authors have also been enumerated. But what makes this work by Asha unique is that the available texts of the Pazand version, the Sanskrit version, the old Gujarati version and also the "reproduced Pahlavi version from Pazand” in a couple of manuscripts, are all printed together in one book only, making it an object of comprehensive study thereby. Moreover, some 26 interesting illustrations related to the subject matter at the end of the book enhance its value further.

ERVAD ROOYINTAN P. PEER