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Once on a time, even earlier than long, long ago, in the far, far north of Central Asia dwelt the cult hero Yima Khshaeta (lit. "Shining Twin”). Jamshid or Jam, the name has evolved over the millennia from Yima, was a forceful and purpose-laden natural leader of mankind — the "great shepherd” with fine flocks and splendid herds of cattle. To him came a summons from Mazda, the Ahura, the wise lord who pressed him to spread his word throughout the world.

Yima, taken aback by this awesome responsibility, declined as best he politely could with "I was not born, I was not taught to be the bearer and promoter of your religion!” But Mazda would not be stayed. He then proposed to Yima: "Be instead the promoter, the increaser of this, My material world — nourish it, rule over it, and prosper it!”

To these exhortations Yima agreed. Thereupon the determined Mazda, sensing the enormity of the task assigned to this apprehensive cattle baron, conferred upon him two mighty symbols of sovereignty, wholly appropriate for a herdsman of Yima’s extraordinary standing — a golden goad and a gold-plated whip.

Mock ye not this storyteller, O discomfited reader, with a "Mahra saheb, ay soo gehlsuppi vat chalavoch! (Good sir! What ludicrous rigmarole are you putting about here)!” The Vandidad context, nonetheless, is absolutely clear — it is in good Avestan; it entirely befits this archetypal drover, for Yima was indeed the leader of pastoral confederations, and cattle, large and small, were the mainstay of their economies. The symbolic Mazda-conferred implements (zaya) are listed thus: suwram zaranaenim, ashtramcha zaranyo. paeshim which exactly translate the two regal items, the goad and the whip.

Yima thereupon declared his commitment to Ahura Mazda: "Yes, I will prosper this world; I will nourish, rule, and foster this world. Whilst I am earthly sovereign, there shall not be freezing nor scorching winds, neither disease nor death!” Thus spake Yima — Shah Jamshid — of vast flocks, fine herds and leader of goodly men.

To commemorate his divinely conferred kingship Yima decreed that the vernal equinox, marking the onset of spring with its equal division of day and night, be the start of the New Year. This day would be the No Ruz, "New Day,” when life and all of nature was renewed. As indicator of the true south’s noonday sun, Rapithwin was to have a special gah ("watch”) in its honor. This solar No Ruz was henceforth observed as Jamshidi.

And so passed 300 glorious years under his kingship. The earth abounded in cattle, with good men, red, blazing fires, companionable dogs, with birds and animals to joyously enhance right living for everyone. Yima’s earth, a veritable paradise, became populous with increase of cattle and men.

Thereupon Mazda advised Yima to make further living space and pasturage for these expanding populations. Yima, the great shepherd and cattle baron, duly strode forth southward with his golden implements, gaining lands and grazing grounds. He beseeched the spirit of the earth thus: "O prospering Armaiti, open for us these lands for bearing our flocks and herds and men!”

And Armaiti graciously consented, despite receiving vast animal sacrifices. Yima, with his Mazda-given golden implements, drove his cattle and ushered men towards the southerly regions, expanding the earth by a full third. Our Yashts praise his piously energetic activity; Firdausi’s Shah-namah, thousands of years later, recalls Yima as the benefactor of mankind, furtherer of civilization, patron of the arts and sciences, and as we shall shortly see, a master builder.

By now, 600 years had elapsed. These again were paradisiac years during Yima’s truly golden age; and once again Mazda warned of the growing need for further land space for a burgeoning mankind with its cattle. And yet again the valiant Yima, after huge animal slaughter for the sacrificial help of Armaiti, drove all before him farther towards the light-filled southern lands. The good earth was expanded by another third.

In this way, a full 900 years went by. But yet again Mazda had warned the glorious Yima of overcrowding, and yes, it would necessitate a further third’s enlargement of the earth’s habitable terrain to accommodate these overspill populations. With Spanta Armaiti’s blessing after even more animal offerings, the final push southward was achieved, and the golden age at its peak under the glorious Yima attained its greatest expansion. Our Vandidad speaks of it as peaceful, carefree and harmonious for mankind. The Yashts serve his memory differently — read on!

But now the all-knowing and farsighted Mazda, concerned as ever for the welfare of all His good creation, summoned together the spiritual beings — the yazdan-e menogan — by the sacred River Daitya, the River of the Law, that flows through Airyana Vaeja (Eranwez), the first homeland of the Aryan peoples. 

In turn, at the same location, Yima, the great shepherd of high renown, convened a meeting of the best of mortals to attend and consult with the yazads. It was a sober-minded coming together of the great and the good earthly and spiritual forces, united in the sole purpose of protecting and preserving all the living creatures against the merciless onslaught of the severest winter known to human and animal life. Cautioned against this nearing calamity when wild and domestic animals would perish, Yima was instructed to store up the abundant resources of animal feed from the lands that the free-flowing streams had nourished. This was to be the final yield of the paradise created by Yima with the guidance and help of Ahura Mazda and the spirit of the earth, Spanta Armaiti. The blest earth was shortly to be blighted by a vicious 100-year-long winter that would decimate the best of Mazda’s good creation. This horrid winter, with its associated plagues and fatal diseases and illnesses, would set in from the north, and all good Zoroastrians will recall that north is the inauspicious direction. We turn our backs to it when praying.

An even more arduous task awaited Yima — the sheltering of men and all animal life from this prolonged death-dealing winter. This was the construction, according to a specific design conveyed by Ahura Mazda to the glorious Yima, of a var or "enclosure” which would fend off the worst ravages to come. It was an extraordinary fortification against the coming long freeze-up. Here are some specifications:

The plan was square with sides of 3,000 meters and dwellings within for humans with domestic animals penned between the outer walls and human habitation. These folds were to be partially roofed over for sheltering against the predicted heavy snow and ice falls. The walls were to be of beaten earth or shaped mud bricks. House design was with balcony, courtyard and suite of rooms. Within this double-walled precinct were to be laid out nine streets, six of which are in its large area, three in the side portions, all or some to be lit against the approaching long darkness.

Water supplies were ensured through free-flowing streams which would provide for humans and their flocks and herds, and irrigation for plants that would be cultivated alongside. The all-important element of food production in this var was the growing from seed of various health-ensuring nourishing foods. To this end, Mazda recommends that Yima directs the storage and distribution of every kind of fruit and grain seed. "You shall bring two of every kind such that supplies become never-failing as long as mankind shall remain in the var.” In a quite modernistic vein, Mazda directs that the seed of every kind of animal also be collected and stored in the Yima-built var. How this could have been made feasible in Vandidadic Yima’s remote times is a matter for conjecture.

Now enters an element that some may see as logical; some will be sympathetic; others find quite repellent — that of eugenics. Call it ethnic purity or ethnic cleansing, the substance remains one of selection and exclusion. My story avoids debate on this issue, for it detracts from its main plot — that of the attempt towards realization of an ideal world right here and now: indeed one that Zarathushtra himself would aspire to in his Gathas. The ethical purpose is, however, not lacking in universal moral precepts.

Here is the Vandidad’s take on Mazda’s injunction with its best bits first: "There shall be no impoverishment, no falsehood, no niggardliness, no resentment!” It then builds up with: "No humpedy-backed, no obese, no impotent, no lunatic, none with decayed mouth, nor those confined by leprosy, nor indeed any with the many diseases and illnesses with which Ahriman has afflicted the living.”

One is relieved to learn that Yima faithfully carried out all of Mazda’s exact instructions. The var secured mankind and the creatures from the worst of the long, Ahrimanic winter. This part of our story ends with Ahura Mazda satisfying Zarathushtra’s curiosity on five items: that a var year seemed as one common day; that the var generation rate was 40 years; that each human couple produced a male and a female; that the Mazdaic religion was brought to the inhabitants of the var by the mythic Karshipt bird which transmitted the Avesta through birdsong; lastly, that the master and sovereign there was Urvatatnar, Zarathushtra’s pastoralist son, and Zarathushtra himself.

But now, look a little this way! The same Zarathushtra who figured in the post-Yima Vandidad has turned his wrath upon this long-revered cult hero in his Gathas. In condemning the ones who knowingly sin, Zarathushtra castigates Yima: "So too was this very Yima, son of Vivahvan, judged for the sin of gratifying mankind by blasphemously declaring it was the cow that was goddess.” Gatha students have much debated over the actual nature of Yima’s sin. Did he only blaspheme, or did he compound his impudence through the distribution of the flesh of the kine —which suggests he introduced meat-eating to a formerly vegan humankind. There is, of course, the guilt of cruel and wasteful animal sacrifice to obtain the favour of Spanta Armaiti. Yasnas 29 and 32 provide the clues. The ritualists among us — or at least those who are acquainted with the Gathas — maintain that such distribution was done against ritual protocol.

Knowing something of the animal slaughter that routinely occurred on a massive, wasteful scale during the earliest days, and frequently reported in our Yashts, this storyteller opts for the "potlatch” theory.

Be that as it may, it seems that towards the end of his 900 years of benevolent activity the glorious sovereign Yima fell victim to the ill-will of the counter-creating Ahriman. This ever lurking mischief-maker who hated Ahura Mazda’s good creation, determined upon wrecking it through every evil means at his command. Yima’s earthly paradise infuriated him, and with typical low cunning he insinuated himself into the sovereign’s good favor. Once there, Ahriman played upon Yima’s visible successes by infecting him with the poison of self-regard — was Yima himself surely not a god?

From then on, Yima began to preen himself and trumpet forth his achievements, such that he forgot just who was the true author of his earthly paradise. Filled with an overweening pride — one of Ahriman’s several insidious weapons, Yima overstepped all bounds of reason and — horror of horrors! — duly declared himself to be a god! 

Everything then commenced to go downhill: his true Mazda-given three-fold glory, his khwarr, departed from Yima in the shape of a Varaghna bird. The Zam Yazad Yasht takes up the story of Yima’s downfall (Yt XIX.34–38). His sin is detailed: "But when he started taking delight in false words and untruths, his glory departed from him in the form of a bird…” Yima’s disgrace was complete and utter: "He trembled with terror before his adversaries; his abjection was complete; he lay, disgraced, upon the earth.” Thus ended a life of high achievement on an egomaniac note of pride and falsehood.

Elsewhere the downfall story terminates with a lamentable final episode. Yima had a brother, one Spityura, also possessed by Ahriman who hocus-pocussed him into believing he would be a worthier and greater successor to the fallen Yima. But firstly Ahriman would take full revenge upon the hapless Yima, by inciting this weak-willed brother to slay the former sovereign so that all memory of him would vanish and then the murderer could rule Yima’s former kingdom unhindered.

Accordingly, the thoroughly despicable Spityura bound the fallen ex-king of all the world to a plank and sawed him in half. On this ghastly note we must cry off and end this awful saga of Yima, from rise to demise. May Ahura Mazda spare us Yima’s agonies! Let us pray for the soul of the once-great good shepherd and leader of all mankind — Yima the Resplendent. Eduntar-az baad!

Farrokh Vajifdar was former vice president of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. An author and editor, he is an independent researcher into Ancient Indo-Iranian culture, history and religions.