249 
colour/'’ “ and tl le entire name would be simply one of the 
thousand epithets of the bright hero”* * * § of the material 
heaven. Haug, again, connects the name with the Sanskrit 
jarat, “ old / 5 and uttara-ushtra, “ excellent ” ; and points out 
that the superlative form Zarathushtrotemo, “ the highest 
Zarathustra,” assumes the existence of several contem- 
poraneous Zarathustras, which term would thus mean 
“’senior, chief (in a spiritual sense), as the word ‘ Dastur ’f 
does now.”! Haug is perfectly convinced of the actual 
historical existence of Zoroaster, and regards the Gdthas 
(subsequently noticed) as really containing “ the sayings and 
teaching of the great founder of the Parsi religion himself.” § 
He also points out that the sago’s real or family name was 
Spitama, and that, according to the Palilavi books, a Spitama 
was the ancestor of Zarathustra in the ninth generation. The 
word Spitama was erroneously rendered by Burnouf “ holy,” 
in which he has been followed by later writers ; and the sage’s 
full title would thus be “ the Spitaman,” or “ Spitama, the 
spiidtual chief.” Although it may for a moment appear some- 
what paradoxical, yet the question of the actual historical 
existence of an individual Zoroaster but little affects the 
present investigation; for, just as we might have had Islamism 
and the Koran without a particular Muhammed, or have (as 
many think) an Ilias and an Odysseia without a particular 
Homer, so the existence of the Avesta and the Parsi religion is 
altogether independent of that of a particular Zoroaster ; 
and yet, so far as my own individual opinion is concerned, I 
certainly agree with Haug and with Mr. Vaux, when he 
declares, in his excellent little History of Persia, “ I do not 
doubt that Zoroaster was truly a teacher and reformer, and, 
further, that his religious views represent the reaction of the 
mind against the mere worship of nature, tending, as this 
does directly, to polytheism and to the doctrine of Emana- 
tions. It is, I think, equally evident that such views embody 
the highest struggle of the human intellect (unaided by Reve- 
lation) towards spiritualism \i.e. a truly spiritual religion], and 
that they are, so far, an attempt to create a religious system 
by the simple energies of human reason. Hence, their gene- 
ral direction is towards a pure monotheism.” |] 
* Or m and ct Ahriman, 194, note 1. 
t The Dasturs are the present priests of the Parsis. 
J Essays on the Parsis, 296-7. Edited by Dr. West. 1878. 
§ Ibid. 146. 
j| History of Persia, 10. (In the series of Ancient History from the 
Monuments.) 
