Bundahg

Bundahg, also spelled Bundahišn or Bundahishn, is a Zoroastrian treatise on cosmogony and cosmology written in Middle Persian. The title means “Primal Creation” or “That which has been created.” It is a key source for pre-Islamic Iranian myth and lore. Although the exact authorship is unknown, most scholars date the work to the early medieval period, roughly between the 9th and 11th centuries CE, and it survives in several manuscripts.

The Bundahg offers a comprehensive account of creation, the structure of the cosmos, and the origin and fate of beings. It describes the creation of the world by Ahura Mazda and the emanations of the Amesha Spentas, the ordering of nature and society, and the ongoing struggle between truth (asha) and lie (druj) under Angra Mainyu. It covers humanity, the dissemination of ritual knowledge, and the moral order that sustains the world. The text culminates in the prophesied renovation of the world (Frashokereti) in which good ultimately triumphs and a perfected creation endures.

The work also provides geographic, zoological, and cosmological detail, outlining the heavens, earth, and underworld, as well as the origins of animals and plants, frequently with mythic etiologies. It draws on earlier Zoroastrian lore and presents a priestly interpretive synthesis, bridging older Avesta material with later Pahlavi and Persian literary traditions.

Scholarly reception: the Bundahg is a foundational text for Zoroastrian cosmology and eschatology. It has been studied and translated in modern scholarship, with English translations and commentaries by scholars such as Mary Boyce. Its influence extends into later Zoroastrian and Persian literary traditions.