that, according to Tabri, His disciples required the skins of 12,000 cattle to write it down, and these were placed by King Gustasp in a place called Istkhramdhe Darbisht and the place (or library) where the valuable writings were stored came to be known as Spigan.

Both Masudi and Shaherstani mention of ten Atashkhana, sanctuary of the Holy Fire, existing at different places (with names) before Zarathustra’s era. Mention has also been made of those which were built at the direction of Zarathustra. One was at Nishapur and another at Nisia. It is also stated that on the direction of Zarathustra, Gustasp discovered the Fire which was lit by King Jamshed and was brought to Khorasimia and later installed at Darabgard.

There was not all smooth-sailing of the spread of this new religion and mention has been made of stiff resistance in the form of attacks on the followers of this new faith. Yashts mention a few names of those who opposed this religion: (1) Tanthryavant, (2) Peshan, (3) Visp-Yoirwo-Asti's son, Asht-Aoorwant, (4) Darshinik, (5) Spinjaoorush, (6) Peshochang (7) Humyak and (8) Arjasp, King of Turan, about whom we have more details and who was Gustasp's arch enemy; Avesta mentions him as Erejat-Asp, chief of Khyaon people (Kheon in Pahlavi). On account of these attacks, Gustasp had to fight many religious wars in which his own brother Zarir, and his son Asfandiar, fought very bravely.

CHAPTER VIII

Wars With Arjasp

Now, we come to the wars with Arjasp, which according to Zad-Sparam, began seventeen years after Gustasp accepted the new faith, or counting the other way, in the thirtieth year from the day Zarathustra received His religion from Ahura Mazda. But before we deal with the wars, let us refer to "Dinkard" to see how this began.

Arjasp was a very powerful and willful king and was full of ruse and artifice. Though according to "Yadgare-Zariran", religion was the true cause of the two wars he waged on Gustasp, yet he noticed the inroad which the religion of Gustasp made into his own kingdom; so on accepting the advice of one, called Aaesham, he sent an emissary to Gustasp ordering him to pay a fourth of his total revenue as an annual tribute and the same time warned him that if he refused to pay, then he should be prepared for war. Gustasp turned to Zarathustra as he always used to do so on all problems, spiritual or mundane. Zarathustra, years ahead, saw with His prophetic eyes the wars with Arjasp and his ultimate end, and having had already warned Gustasp much earlier, his advice was to refuse paying the tribute. According to "Yadgare-Zariran", Arjasp before waging the war, sent an envoy again with a final note and laid several conditions for peace, one of which was that Gustasp should renounce the new religion. Zarir, who was sitting beside Gustasp, got enraged on hearing the insolent contents, stood up at the court and gave a strong reply, and with the approval of Gustasp sent the envoy away. Then the war started. (What description "Dinkard" gives of the wars is thought by some to have been taken from a lost Avesta book, called "Vistasp-Sasto". "Yadgare-Zariran" also gave a fairly good description, and some knowledge of the Turanian wars can also be had from Shahnama.)

Altogether, two big wars were fought ferociously and in the first war, two battles were fought at a short interval, which according to Shahnama was a fortnight. Yadgare-Zariran gave a detailed description of the battles and particularly the instances in connection with Zarir, brother of Gustasp.

Arjasp gathered a big army comprising a fighting force of 131,000 and a reserve force of 30,000 under the command of Gurgsar, and he marched from Khallukh city in