Rashnu
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(West Asian mythology)
The ‘just’ judge in Persian mythology. Along with Mithra and Sraosha, he judges the souls of men according to their deeds. ‘His spiritual scales favour no one; neither the good nor the bad, nor yet kings and princes. Not for a hair's breadth will he deviate, for he is no respecter of persons. He deals out impartial justice to the highest and the lowest.’ The soul was thought to sit beside the corpse for three days and nights, a period in which Rashnu arrived at a verdict and its fate was determined. Then, the saved would be assisted in crossing ‘the bridge of separation’ by a fair maiden personifying the soul's good deeds, and led safely to heaven where all was light and joy. But the damned, ‘the unjustified soul’, would find the bridge was as thin as the edge of a razor and topple downwards to hell, where a hideous woman personifying its misdeeds was waiting. To the demons she passed on the condemned soul, thereafter imprisoned in the place of torment, Druj, which had ‘jaws like the most frightful pit, descending into a very narrow and fearful place … so confined that existence there was unendurable’.
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Rashnu
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For the villages in Iran, see Ramazanabad and Rashnudeh.
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Avesta |
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Dēnkard · Bundahišn |
| History and culture |
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Zoroastrians in Iran |
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Rashnu is the Avestan language name of the Zoroastrian yazata of justice. Together with Mithra and Sraosha, Rashnu is one of the three judges who pass judgment on the souls of people after death. Rashnu's standard appellation is "the very straight."
In creation accounts
In the Bundahishn, a Zoroastrian account of creation finished in the 11th or 12th century, Rashnu (Middle Persian: Rashn) is identified as an assistant of the Amesha Spenta Ameretat (Amurdad), "immortality". (GBd xxvi.115). In a subsequent passage, Rashnu is described as the essence of truth (arta/asha) that prevents the daevas from destroying material Creation. "Rashnu adjudges even the souls of men and women as to bad deeds and good deeds. As one says, 'Rashnu shall not see thither the rank of the judge who delivers false judgment.'" (GBd xxvi.116-117).
In other texts
In the Avestan Dahman Afrin, Rashnu is invoked in an address to Ameretat. According to the Denkard, the Duwasrud Nask - a legal manual now lost - contained passages extolling the supremacy of Rashnu. (Dk 8.16) In the Siroza ("thirty days") "the very straight Rashnu ... augments the world and is the true-spoken speech that furthers the world." (Siroza 18).
Holy days
The 18th day of every month in the Zoroastrian calendar is dedicated to Rashnu. The Counsels of Adarbad Mahraspandan, a Sassanid-era text, notes that on the 18th day "life is merry".
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Copyrights:
Oxford Dictionary of World Mythology
A Dictionary of World Mythology. Copyright © Arthur Cotterell 1979, 1986, 2003. All rights reserved.
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