History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

196 HISTORY OF THE PARSTS. [CHAP. Iy.

tion of what he beheld in a vision wherein he was transported to the other world, and visited the abodes of the deceased who had inherited either heaven or hell, according to their acts while they sojourned upon earth. The description given in this book of hell and of the punishments awarded therein to the wicked bears, as Dr. Haug says, ‘‘a striking resemblance to the accounts to be found in Dante’s Inferno.” In some points it resembles the vision of the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament.

Many Parsis believe in the reality of the narrative, and regard the revelations as genuine, whilst others, holding a more philosophic view, look upon the work as simply a vivid imaginative picture of the future destiny of men who follow the good or bad examples described in the revelations. They believe the work was composed for the vulgar with the object of encouraging virtue and morality, and deterrmg them from immoral conduct and pursuits. The proposed object of the revelations was one greatly to be desired, namely, to banish heresy and schism from the earth, and to restore the worship of the true God to its wonted purity as taught in the Zend-Ayesta. The national religion of Persia, from the invasion of Alexander to the accession of Ardeshir Babekan, had become much corrupted, and these revelations effected a reform.

Regarded in this light, the Arda Viraf-Nama is an