Concept
Bundahishn
Overview
The Bundahishn (Middle Persian: Bun-dahišn(īh), "Primal Creation") is an encyclopedic collection of beliefs about Zoroastrian cosmology written in the Book Pahlavi script. The original name of the work is not known. It is one of the most important extant witnesses to Zoroastrian literature in the Middle Persian language. Most of the chapters of the compendium date to the 8th and 9th centuries CE.
Although the Bundahishn draws on the Avesta and develops ideas alluded to in those texts, it is not itself scripture. The content reflects Zoroastrian scripture, which, in turn, reflects both ancient Zoroastrian and pre-Zoroastrian beliefs. In some cases, the text alludes to contingencies of post-7th century Islam in Iran, and in yet other cases, such as the idea that the Moon is farther than the stars.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
The more northerly regions, as we have seen, are the very ones in which plant totems also are numerous, whereas they are lacking in the south. The cults of which we have been speaking are called _Intichiuma ceremonies_--an expression of Australian derivation. These ceremonies, moreover, involve the magical use of churingas, the Australian fetishes.
Wilhelm Max Wundt, Elements of Folk Psychology Outline of a Psychological History of the Development of Mankind
States what Bundahishn is.
The authors of all these books are called prophets in the more general sense of the term.
Moses Maimonides, The guide for the perplexed
States what Bundahishn is.
A mononthour is a hundred and twenty-six millions of our years. But God vouchsafed to pardon the guilty at the end of five thousand years, and their Onderah was nothing more than a purgatory.
Voltaire, A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 02
States what Bundahishn is.
Philosophers who discussed Bundahishn
Related ideas
Place in the tradition
Part of Iranian philosophy.