نسخة مذيلة من "بلاد فارس والشأن الفارسي" بقلم جورج كرزون، مع أوراق مدرجة [و‎‎٥‎٦‎٣] (١٨١٤/١١٤٠)

PERSEPOLIS, AND OTHER RUINS 143
consequently ordains an architectural elaboration which is confined to
the interior of the sepulchre, and was intended never again to meet
the human eye the Zoroastrian canon blazons forth to all men the
personality and the splendour of the illustrious departed. If a direct
Egyptian prototype is to be sought, it will be found rather in the rock-
ombs that overlook the Nile from the cliffs of Beni Hasan, than in the
tunnelled vaults of the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings.
But, at this point, the question may naturally arise, How came
it that monarchs, professing the faith of Zoroaster, should have sanc-
The tioned and adopted a mode of sepulture so little in keeping
frZcanon V ^ well ; known ™to imposed by that creed upon the
m umation of the dead? To this interesting question let
me attempt to give an answer. In the first place we must bear in
mind that the Avesta, 1 as we know it, dates from no more remote
period than the reign of the first Sassanian monarch, Ardeshir
Babekan (a.d. 226-40) ; and that the strict application of the canon
against sepulture either by cremation or interment, 2 as a desecration
of the primal and semi-divine elements of nature, was only then
systematically enforced. In the time of Darius the Avestan doctrines
had not gained the absolute sway that they did in later days ; and
were probably confined, as regards strict observance, to the sacerdotal
caste of the Magi. In any case the monarch who had himself over
thrown the political conspiracy of that priesthood, felt himself bound by
no such rigid inhibition. Cremation, as Herodotus tells us, 3 was forbidden
as an insult to the divinity ; and the Persians were horrified when
Cambyses burned the body of the Egyptian Amasis. Exposure to
birds of prey upon dakhmas or platforms was common ; but the
skeleton so denuded was, in the case of the ordinary people, coated
with wax so as to prevent defilement, and was then interred. 4 What
this form of burial was to his subjects, the rock-sepulchre became to
the sovereign ; and hence it is that we find this seeming violation of
the creed of Ormuzd perpetrated under the very shadow and effigy of
his name.
Opposite the third and fourth royal tombs of Nahsh-i-Rustam, the
ground rises in the form of a slight and mainly artificial elevation ; and
1 Zend-Avesta, the popular title started a century ago by Anquetil Duperron,
is, strictly speaking, a misnomer. Avesta—i.e. Law or Revelation (like the cognate
word Veda, from the root vid, to know)—is the name of the original scriptures of
the creed of Zoroaster. Zend (from the root to know) signifies Interpretation,
or Commentary, and is the comparatively late body of religious exposition, written
in Pehlevi, and dating from the Sassanian epoch.
2 A corpse-burner might be killed by any passer-by. Burial of the dead was
an inexpiable crime. Even Seioces, the minister of Kobad, was put to death for
this offence (Procopius, Be Bell. Pers. i. 11).
3 Lib. iii. c. 16.
4 Ibid. lib. i. c. 140.