This is the most poetical chapter in the work, and is devoted to Yima. Ahūra here proposes that Yima, the son of Vīvanghat, shall receive the law from him and carry it to men. Yima, however, refuses to do so, whereupon Ahūra gives him a commission, bidding him to keep his creatures and make them prosper. Yima, therefore, makes the creatures of Ahūra to thrive and increase, keeps death and disease away from them, and three times enlarges the earth, which had become too small for its inhabitants. On the approach of a dreadful winter, which was to destroy every living thing, Yima, being advised by Ahūra, built a Vara to preserve the seed of all animal and vegetable life, and there the blessed still live happily under his rule. The world, after lasting a long year of twelve millenniums, was to end in a dire winter, to be followed by an everlasting spring, when men, being sent back to earth from the heavens, should enjoy upon the earth the same happiness which they had found after death in the realms of Yima. But when a more definite form was taken by the Mazdean cosmology the world was made to end by fire, and therefore the Vara of Yima, instead of remaining the paradise from which the inhabitants of earth return, came to be a comparatively modern representative of Noah’s Ark. In the Vedas, Yama is the first man, the first priest and “the first of all who died”; he brought worship here below, as well as life, and “first he stretched out the thread of sacrifice.”
Yima had at first the same right as his Hindū prototype to the title of a founder of religion, but he lost it, as in the course of the development of Mazdeism, Zarathuśtra became the law-giver. Zarathuśtra asked of Ahūra Mazda:
“Who was the first mortal before myself, Zarathuśtra, With whom thou, Ahūra Mazda, did’st converse? To whom did’st thou teach the law of Ahūra?”
“The fair Yima, the great shepherd, O holy Zarathuśtra! He was the first mortal before thee With whom I, Ahūra Mazda, did converse— Whom I taught the law of Ahūra— The law of Zarathuśtra.
“Unto him, O Zarathuśtra, I, Ahūra Mazda, spake, saying: ‘Fair Yima, son of Vīvanghat, Be thou the bearer of my law,’ But the fair Yima replied, ‘I was not born, I was not taught To be the preacher and the bearer of thy law.’ Then I, Ahūra Mazda, said thus unto him: ‘Since thou wantest not to be my preacher And the bearer of my law, Then make thou my worlds to thrive— Make my worlds increase; Undertake thou to nourish, to rule And to watch over my world.’ And the fair Yima replied unto me: ‘Yes, I will make thy worlds thrive— I will make thy worlds increase— Yes, I will nourish and rule And watch over thy world.’ Then I, Ahūra Mazda, Brought the implements unto him, A golden ring and a poniard Inlaid with gold,[188] Behold here Yima bears the royal sway.”