Bundahishn

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Avestan 𐬠𐬎𐬥𐬛𐬀𐬵𐬌𐬱𐬥𐬍𐬵 (bundahišnīh, literally “primal creation”), being a word from the first sentence of the younger (and longer) of the two recensions of the work.

Proper noun

Bundahishn

1. (religion, Zoroastrianism, mythology) An encyclopaedic collection of Zoroastrian cosmogony and cosmology; especially, the longer of the two recessions of the work.
   • 1896, A. V. Williams Jackson, “The Ancient Persian Doctrine of A Future Life”, in William Rainey Harper, Ernest DeWitt Burton, Shailer Mathews, editors, The Biblical World, New Series: Volume 8, University of Chicago Press, page 162:

     The Bundahishn chapter is here given in outline, renderings from West's translation being sometimes adopted verbatim.

   • 1997 [Routledge], Alan Williams, 2: Later Zoroastrianism, Brian Carr, Indira Mahalingam (editors), Companion Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy, 2005, Taylor & Francis e-Library, page 23,

     The Bundahishn is concerned with, among other things, the themes of the creation of the world, the order of things, and the eschatological destiny of both the individual soul and the world at large.

   • 2003, Farhang Mehr, The Zoroastrian Tradition, Mazda Publishers, page 143:

     According to Bundahishn, the prophet had exclaimed that with the disintegration of the body and the destruction of matter, the reconstruction of the body would not be possible.

Derived terms

• Greater Bundahishn
• Indian Bundahishn (= Lesser Bundahishn)
• Iranian Bundahishn (= Greater Bundahishn)
• Lesser Bundahishn