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"The reading, writing and translating of Pahlavi is difficult and thus the interpretation of the Pahalvi Jamaspig remains challenging,” Ervad (Dr) Rooyintan Peer informed the audience at the launch of Raham Asha’s translation of Jamaspig at The K. R. Cama Oriental Institute (KRCOI) on July 14, 2014. Based in France, Asha was unable to attend the unveiling of his English translation of the Pahlavi Jamaspig. The book, which has not been pinned to a specific date, means ‘the memorial of Jamaspa or belonging to Jamaspi.’ It is also termed Jamaspik, Jamaspi or Jamasp Namak. Subsequently, Asha also translated the book into Pazend and Persian.
"It is said that a consecrated flower was given to Jamasp — the wise person,” explained Peer. On receiving this he could see the past, present and future. In the Shahnameh King Gushtasp asked Jamasp what will happen in war between his Iranian army and that of Arjasp of Turan. Jamasp reportedly replied, "Better not ask me as great tragedy is to befall your entire family.” However, history records that ultimately Aspandiar (son of Gushtasp) triumphed.

 

 

 

 

The work is in a question-answer format and has been liberally supplemented in later times, with the add-on losing some of the original Jamaspig. Being a book of prophecy, over time, a chapter on omens was inserted. Subsequently the concept of a wheel of fortune, horoscopes, numerology and astronomy were also appended at differing times. The core part of all versions, however, largely remains the same, says Peer. In the 18th century the book took the fancy of ladies.
The text has apparently survived in three forms – a Pahlavi manuscript which is damaged, a Pazend version which has survived and a modern Persian edition which is in its entirety but which contains the maximum additions to the original. The version in Persian is popular with the Parsis, as is the Gujarati one; there is also a Sanskrit version translated by Dastur Neryosang (distinct from Dastur Neryosang Dhaval) in the 12th century. The speaker attributes the existence of so many versions of the book to it "being popular but not populist.”

"Literary holocaust” and restoration
"Avesta is our language and a sister language to Sanskrit. We lost most of our scriptures from Achemenian times,” Peer noted. "Only fragments remain from 323 BC… no books were supposedly taken during migration leaving many of them open to destruction… Jamaspig was originally not brought to India by a fleeing people,” as can be expected, proclaimed the priest. This "literary holocaust,” as Peer termed it, started with Alexander’s conquering spree before 340 BCE and was complete with the Arab and Mongol invasions in the early 13th century. Thus, a lot of our knowledge of our texts is through rock scriptures which are written in Old Persian. The book came to India in the 15th to 16th centuries. In fact, the specialist also clarified that the destruction of Persepolis was so complete that the complex was discovered deeply embedded in the earth, though its columns stand 90 feet tall.

 

 

 

 

Ardeshir Pabagan (180-242 ACE), founder of the Sasanian Empire, took up the matter of restoring religious books by sending learned priests all over Iran to gather any oral or written traditions. Not much seems to have been accomplished at the time. Peer mentioned that Changa Asa, a pious Parsi leader in Navsari similarly sent layman Nariman Hoshang to Iran in 1478 to ascertain the authenticity of the reet-reevaz (customs and traditions) followed in India. The Jamaspig seems to have wended its way to India during these exchanges.
Ervad (Dr) Jivanji J. Modi translated the book into Pahlavi and Pazend in 1903. Interest in Modi’s translation of these prophecies is attributed to people seeking answers to the plague which struck India in 1896-97 wherein an estimated 800-900 Parsis succumbed, he specified. As science had no remedy for the disease, people turned to soothsayers. "In times of catastrophe, people want to know the future, so Jamasp’s prophecies became very popular,” Peer explained.
Pahlavi or Middle Persian has only 18 alphabets, each alphabet representing several sounds or phonemes. Pahlavi, Peer told the audience, was "ambiguous and therefore very difficult to read and write.” This often makes interpretation loose and difficult. From Pahlavi, Pazend evolved. Avesta has 46 letters.
The priest also raised the question asked then of how long Zoroastrianism would survive as related in the Jamaspig. We are still awaiting an answer to the question posed centuries ago.
Muncherji Cama, president of the KRCOI, introduced Peer as one of few Avesta-Pahlavi scholars in Bombay who is also compos mentis (of sound mind). Dr Nawaz Mody, joint honorary secretary of KRCOI thanked the scholar priest.

Sovereigns and seers
Jāmāspīg. The Pārsīg version of The Memorial of Jāmāspa translated with notes by Raham Asha. Published in 2014 by The K. R. Cama Oriental Institute, 136, Bombay Samachar Marg, Bombay 400023. Pp: vi+170. Price: Not mentioned.

Certain aspects of human nature remain ever unchanging. Among these is the compulsive need to know the future of personal and business affairs and, generally, the outcome of world events.
Zarathushtra had acknowledged his deep understanding of humankind and its this-worldly destiny, after reverentially consulting Ahura Mazda.
Not through smoke and mirrors, but by probing questions and significant answers – thus had spoken Ahura Mazda to Zarathushtra in the Gāthās, and in the Vandīdād; and here by the Mazda-inspired seer Jāmāsp to the sovereign Wištāsp.
Mankind’s future was adjudged with cautious optimism; it was through spiritual evolution leading to purposeful participation towards the promised Frašō.karati, "Revitalization (of this world)” (Ys. 30.9) by all good people everywhere – not by a succession of millennial saviors set up in the Fravardīn and Zam Yazad Yašts!
Those claiming knowledge of the Jāmāspi, yet who employ divinations through star-gazing, palm-reading, scrutinizing tea-leaves, scanning scattered animal bones, turns of tarot images – they need read no further.
Fired up 19th century Parsi fantasizers had enthusiastically bulked out the slender original AJ [Ayādgār-i Jāmāsp(ig) = The Memorial of Jamas] with an over-abundance of highly colorful Gujarati fabrications, unthinkingly diminishing the precious core work. Cited here are a vigilant Bombay Parsi Punchayet’s and Dr Jivanji Modi’s protests which had prefaced that assiduous scholar’s much cherished 1903 translations. It is doubted whether Parsis of certain generations cared overmuch about such tamperings: all AJ prophecies were as gospel truth!
Raham Asha’s book is an overdue serious study, drawn from the best available manuscripts, of a late Pahlavi-Pāzand literary treasure from perhaps the 15th/16th centuries predicating a fathomless future. This estimable redactor is the latest in a line of distinguished authorities who have tackled the Pārsīg (Pahlavi) and Pāzand versions. An enviable feature resides in Asha’s fluent use of its Persian texts: all portions are rigorously subject to detailed foot-notes; pertinent connexions are made with related works of a similar hue.
Feelings of wad-zamānagīh, "bad times,” their uncertainties, tyrannical impositions and harsh dealings against the established religion of Zardušt in the Fatherland with consequent disasters, some natural, are vented along the four tri-millennial epochs of the Zarvanite Four Ages of the World. They are extensively presented as far-ranging questions from the sovereign Wištāsp, Zardušt’s patron, and responded to by his viceroy Jāmāsp, traditionally regarded as Zarathushtra’s son-in-law.
Of its 19 chapters, the Jāmāspīg’s 16th — among the lengthiest – could well detain the reader longingly anxious to know of the ever-nearing future and its ultimate outcome; such anxieties over the present-day events unfolding worldwide, presaged in this medieval text, may well be seen as frighteningly accurate!
This chapter details the breakdown of Zoroastrian moral and ethical values so abhorred by the Arabs and, later, the Turkic monarchs with their new-fangled religion. Suffice it here to note that the dire consequences for social discord and familial disruption will last until the advent of Zardušt’s miraculously born future sons who, wholly in accord with truth and good purpose, will vanquish deceit and once more restore Aryan Iran to its predestined glory.
To those for whom that ever-distant future is fantasy, and only the present is pertinent, then this little frightener might jolt them into sober reality: "The sovereignty will all pass away from the Aryans and will go to the non-Aryans. There will be a lot of doctrines and laws and faiths, and the massacre of one by the other will be considered as a pious work. The murder of men will become commonplace.” It is the real, horrid past’s forewarning of the actual, ugly present!  
The authors of the AJ had before them the specters of utmost savagery, brutality and persecutions by non-Iranians against the Zarduštis of Iran. Placed against recollections of their past grandeur and national primacy, they had back-projected their remembered history, pieced together and placed as a series of "prophecies” uttered by an inspired Jāmāsp in direct response to Wištāsp’s earnest interrogations.
Of special interest is a summing-up of the spiritual powers of light and darkness with their respective opposed domains of influence on world events. The six Amshaspands, the intellectual creations of Ahura Mazda, are followed by their six material creations – as in the Bundahishn.
Those who probingly consult the AJ will doubtless bear in mind Friedrich Nietzsche’s (author of Thus spake Zarathushtra) guidelines: "All things are subject to interpretation; whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.” He had additionally cautioned, "There are no facts, only interpretations.” It is the case with the AJ.
Drought, unseasonal rain, diminution and ruin of crop yields will ensue; earthquakes, būm-čandag, will abound with their devastation leading to great loss of lives and livelihoods (as they have throughout Iran’s pre- and recorded history).
Small wonder then that the Muslim and Turkic rulers of Iran were minded to destroy all copies of this prophetic text, and in fact did so. Asha’s text and translation are faithful to the spirit and power of this medieval apocalypse.
This reviewer could not resist noting the curious conclusion of this catalog: "Afterwards the Arabs will come up, (those with) dishevelled hair, and of the seed of wrath. They will seize Ērān-šahr with a little force (FJV: "with little resistance”) for 382 years, nine months, seven days and four hours.” Zoroastrian readers are heard piously intoning "and not a moment too soon thereafter!”
What could puzzle the reader is the near absence of the AJ copies from Iran itself. Those internally self-exiled Zarduštis saw their few remaining material and intellectual inheritances despoliated by brutish Muslim fanatics. What might surprise is Asha’s verifiable assertion that a copy (of the quadrupled larger original text?) is secreted amidst a Mashhad mosque’s library shelves. He notes also that the Persian text is among the manuscripts lodged in Patna’s Khudabakhsh Oriental Library. What other treasures must lie unrevealed in that august institution?
The AJ will never lose the allure of its popularity among devout Zoroastrians everywhere. It is important that the diverse material contained in it be carefully preserved and protected from thoughtlessly imported contaminants. The K. R. Cama Oriental Institute (KRCOI) is to be congratulated on its fine production of Asha’s scholarly endeavor. Could the KRCOI publications committee be prevailed upon to consider a properly proof-read second edition, with necessary minor corrections, so that the challenges of this inspiring work not be lost to students, researchers and enthusiasts the world over? Jāmāsp’s vision of an ever-bright optimistic future must not be allowed to prematurely fade!  
  FARROKH VAJIFDAR