The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c41.s1.10

v2.c41.s1.10

The later Avesta in fact and the Parsi tradition ascribe the patron of Zoroaster to a Kavi dynasty, founded by a certain Kavāta; moreover it is silent regarding the great Persian kings who favoured the faith. It also, like the Greek tradition, gives Zoroaster the position of one of the Magoi. In Hertel’s view the dynasty of Kavi is a pure invention, Kavi Vištāspa in the Avesta really denoting merely the king ² Vištāspa; the omission to mention the Achaimenidai is due to the opposition of Dareios to the Magoi, and the connexion of Zoroaster with that body is mythical.³ On the contrary, in vv. 8 and 9 of the Gāthā (Yasna, liii.) Hertel finds a direct excitement to Vištāspa to overthrow the usurper Gaumāta and the Magoi, the passage dating shortly before Dareios acted on the hint in lieu of his father, and brought about by treachery the destruction of the Magoi. This suggestion, however, seems wholly implausible. The verses form part of the utterance of the prophet at the marriage of his daughter Pourucistā; what he says naturally applies generally to evil-doers and to their punishment by the Lord, and it is illegitimate to read into them an admonition, carefully disguised from motives of prudence under a double entendre in the later Indian style.