NOTE.-Yet the fear of Azi under this name in Varena was perhaps imported. The dualism among the Jews at the late post-exile period of a belief in God and Azazel (? Azaz-el) is most marked. "Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat upon which the lot fell for the Lord and offer him for a sin offering. But the goat, on which the lot fell for Azazel, shall be set alive before the Lord, to make an atonement for him, to send him away for Azazel into the wilderness." Query, what does Azaz-el mean, and have we here but another form of the Vagh cult? (d) The land by the headstreams of the Rangha must be the Pamirs. There the people obey princes who are no princes. There there is perpetual enmity between the peoples of the different valleys. The Kafirs of the Hindu Kush in the last two generations have suffered from their utter lack of cohesion in their wars with the Afghans and, according to Hiuen Tsiang, in the neighbourhood of Ragh, which was but a small realm 200 li in circuit, you skirt along high mountain passes, penetrate deep valleys and pass in succession various districts and towns. We may therefore frame a general theory that the IndoIranians moved from the Caucasus to Mesopotamia, and thence to Persia proper, whence they sent colonies first to the northeast and later to Afghanistan, Balochistan and India. Keresaspa, a leader, joined with and followed the lead of other Aryans from the north of the Caspian, and assuming leadership of the Daeva worshippers of India was known as Kasyapa in that country. In support of the identification of the Rangha with the Indus may be mentioned the sacrifice by Keresaspa on the banks of the Gudha (Ram Yast V 28) with its reference to the Gandarewa who lives beneath the waters. Now if only there is no doubt about the country of the Gandharians and because the country of Keresaspa was the Cabul valley, it is impossible to accept the translator's identification of the Rangha with the Tigris, however hoary the tradition. It follows that the geography of the Vendidad Farg. I is not that of Iran proper, but of Greater Iran, of the Dis-united states of Iran, and that it is probably very late, subsequent to the passing of the Alexandrine empire. A further deduction is of interest. Chakhra was strong and holy. It is extremely likely therefore that the later Avesta was profoundly influenced by the course of history in Western India. The problems connected with the very name Indo-Scythia are insoluble as yet. Perhaps we should connect it with the barbarian oppression associated with the countercreation against Varena. It is interesting to note that Thraetaona of Varena was of the Athwya clan. Not only are the Athas a well-known Samma clan to this day, but the very name is recognisable in the name of Lower Sind apud Hiuen Tsiang, where we can recognise two clan names, Atha-Bukera, in O-tien-po-chi-lo. It is also a matter for consideration whether the Turanian Danus were not the autochthonous non-Aryan peoples of the Dis-united states of Iran (II. 71, II. 189). Lake Frozdanava is certainly in Seistan (II. 79), and Aregataspa, the traitor and later a Turanian (Afrasyab), is in II. 117 a Hoyaona. The question is complicated by the association of the Daityas and Danavas, just as in the Vishnu Purana, and it may be that Turan means no more than non-Irani, that the division was social and not geographical. Brahuis and Balochis, Dravid and Aryan still live side by side in the country of Balochistan. I shall now show you a few specimen coins, but only to draw one conclusion which will be obvious to all, viz., that the IndoSassanian coin is Sassanian only in its reproduction of the firealtar; in its weight, shape and get-up it is Parthian. This you may think is a small point. Its importance lies in indicating that Sassanian influence in India was grafted on the Parthian comity of nations. The coin which shows the strongest Sassanian influence is the Hun coin. CONCLUSION. We saw from the map of Ptolemy that Sokstra was an important advanced post of Gedrosia, dominating the Indus. We see from the foregoing paper that Chakhra was strong and holy, a veritable tower of strength to religion, to the Zoroastrian religion. From both combined we get a definite period for the recasting of the Avesta and, in my opinion, very broad hints as to the state of society in the highlands west of India. This corroboration on geographical grounds is again corroborated by all that we know (which is not much) from history. Only one conclusion is possible. Ptolemy's map of Sind should be made the basis for exploring Sind, partly to try to uncover the hidden secrets of Sokstra, partly to establish the study of the Avesta on a concrete archæological basis instead of being confined to literary research. Perhaps nothing can be found but Sind has not yet been properly explored and even inexpensive but careful search in likely spots may reveal much which is at present not even suspected. A FEW NOTES ON A FLYING VISIT PAPER IV. THE TORII OF JAPAN AND THE TORANS BY DR. JIVANJI JAMSHEDJI MODI. Read on 31st January 1923. The Torii play an important part in the architecture of the Houses of Worship of Japan, where Introduction. they are generally seen in the shrines of the Shinto religion. On my way back from Lucknow, where I had gone to preside at the Anthropological section of the 10th Indian Science Congress, which had met there from the 8th to the 13th January, I got down for about 12 hours at Sânchi in the State of Her Highness the Begum of Bhopal, to visit the well-known Buddhist Sânchi Topes. The visit was made very interesting by the excellent guide book, prepared for the Buddhist monuments there, by Sir John Marshall, whose great and good work in the field of Indian Archæology will be long remembered. We students of Anthropology, who have to do something with archæology, not only prehistoric archæology, but later archaeology, have to express our gratitude to him for all that he has done by his excavations and explorations. My visits to two places, with which his name will be more than ordinarily associated, viz., Taxala and Sânchi, have impressed me much with the good work of this great archæological scholar of modern India. I visited Sânchi on the 12th of January 1923, and, among all things that I saw there, it were the beautiful stone torans which drew my special attention. There were three following reasons for this: (1) They reminded me of the Torii of the Japanese and the pilou of the Chinese, the forms of both of which were fresh in my mind, having visited their countries in the spring of the last year. (2) They reminded me of our household torans with which we Indians are familiar. We Parsees are especially familiarised with them, because no joyful occasion in a Parsee house, like a birthday, a Naojote, a marriage, or a great Holiday begins without a fresh flower toran, sometimes more than one, being put up in the morning, at the gateway or door of the house. (3) Again, the carved stone torans at Sânchi, present, as said by a writer, something like a carved Bible of Buddhist scriptures. So, the object of this paper is threefold: I. To speak of the Torii of Japan. II. To speak of the torans in Indian architecture. While speaking on this subject, I will speak briefly of the Buddhist stupas at Sânchi, of which the torans there form the gateways. III. To speak of the torans, that have, as it were, entered from Church into Society and have adorned our Indian households. What is the Torii ? I. THE TORII OF JAPAN. A few notes on In my second paper before the Society, on a flying visit to Japan from an Anthropological point of view," I have referred to the religions of Japan and have spoken of the country's old Shinto religion. The Torii play an important part in the shrines of this Shinto religion. The Torii are the peculiar gateways at the entrance of the compounds of these Shinto shrines. The following figures will give one an idea of what a Japanese Torii is: ππ As said by Messrs. Chamberlain and Mason,' the first of the above two figures is the form of the gateway of a pure Shinto kind and the second of the Ryôbu Shinto kind. "The presence of the Torii is the easiest sign whereby to distinguish a Shinto from a Buddhist temple."2 These authors thus distinguish between a Pure Shinto temple and Ryôbu Shinto which had some elements of Chinese Buddhism in it. "The distinction between what are termed respectively Ryôbu and Pure Shintô arose from the fact that the doctrines of metempsychosis and universal perfectibility taught by Buddhism naturally made it tolerant of other creeds, and willing to afford hospitality to their gods in its own pantheon. Hence the early Buddhist teachers of the Japanese nation were led to regard the aboriginal Shintô gods and goddesses as incarnations or avtárs the Japanese term is gongen signifying literally 'temporary manifestations'-of some of the many myriads of 1 A Handbook for Traveliers in Japan, by Basil Hall Chamberlain and W. B. Mason. (1913), page 95. 2 Ibid, page 37. |