A Religious-historical Background of Karnamak i Artaser

ITO, Gikyo

It the Karnamak i Artaxser i Papakan a person named Mtnnk at Zn'm in Pars is opposed to and killed by the Zoroastrian Artaxser. Its partly accepted reading Mihrak carries little conviction. Instead, Herrfeld, Altpersische Inschriften p. 133 f., reads it Mahrok<Av. Maoravaka (Yast 13_<105>); but why the pious Zoroastrian apostle Maoravaka appears as an anti-Zoroastrian Alahrok is a question which he has left unanswered. Kzwaspa is originally a mairya, as can be made clear, among other ways, from his name itself. That there is intended an etymologizing word-play between karasa and the first member of karasabazam in Yt. 1977 cannot be denied, karasa- must be derived from IE. 3kar- " hard ", Pokorny, Indogermanisches etymologisehes Worterbuch p. 531 f., or rather from its rootnoun with -k- enlargement: i. e. IE. krk-, and not from IE. krk- " lean " (>OI. krca) Pokorny, op. cit. p. 581. All of the compound proper names having karasa- "strong, stout" as their first member, including OI. Krcanu, have some connection with anti-Magupat-Zoroastrian or daevic elements. It is out of the question that the Magupats made Karasaspa their co-religious hero, and yet left his hitherto co-religiokus brethren as mairya's colleagues or daeva-yasnians. The same can be said also of Maoravaka, especially because Yt. 13_<105> describing him and Yt. 13_<135> describing Karasaspa have one and the same construction. In the Karnamak, the Magupat-Zoroastrarising tendency has not yet arrived at its zenith. Herpat traditions often appear. Re fen ing to Alexander, the text has not cursed him to have burnt down the written Avesta. The title kai is applied to Artaxser, whose lineage goes as far back as Darai i Darayan, but not earlier to the Kayanian dynasty. Only Stayr is known as the capital city. These circumstances may explain why Mahrok<Maoravaka appears as an anti-Zoroastrian figure. Mahrok in the Karnamak is what Maoravaka seems originally to be, i. e. mairya, and not the Maoravaka himself whom as an alleged pious Zoroastrion we come across in Yt. 13_<105>.

A Religious-historical Background of Karnamak i Artaser

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