11

Appendix 11

Christensen, in his work on the Kayanids, [1] states: “La tradition nationale fait grand cas du forgeron Kâvag, qui s’insurgeait contre l’usurpateur Dahâg (le Dahâka des Yashts) et hissait son tablier de cuir sur une lance, ce qui flit l’origine du drapeau de l’empire sassanide, appelé drafš ê kâvyân, ‘drapeau de Kâvag.’ Cette légende, née d’un malentendu, la vraie signification du nom de drafš ê kâvyân étant ’le drapeau royal,’ est inconnue dans la tradition religieuse.”

By means of such statements — apart from “modestly” insinuating that Firdausi spun whole chapters of his Shahnama out of “malentendus” — the way to relevant questions is effectively blocked. The story of the smith Kâvag — also written Kâweh, [2] or Kawa — is told by Firdausi in the book dealing with the 1,000 years’ rule of Dahâk, that fiendish tyrant out of whose shoulders grew two serpents [3] that had to be fed with the brains of two young men every day. The predestined dragon-slayer, and much expected savior, Faridûn — Avestan Thraethona — a true predecessor of Kai Khusrau, had been saved from the snares of Dahâk as a baby, and hidden away in the mountains. When the archdevil Dahâk claimed the sacrifice of the last son of Kaweh — seventeen sons had already been fed to the dragon-heads — the smith started the revolution for the sake of Faridûn:

He took a leathern apron, such as smiths

Wear to protect their legs while at the forge,

Stuck it upon a spear’s point and forthwith

Throughout the market dust began to rise . . .

He took the lead, and many valiant men

Resorted to him; he rebelled and went

To Faridun. When he arrived shouts rose.

He entered the new prince’s court, who marked

The apron on the spear and hailed the omen.

He decked the apron with brocade of Rum

Of jewelle patterns on a golden ground,

Placed on the spear point a full moon — a token

Portending gloriously — and having draped it

With yellow, red, and violet, he named it

The Kawian flag. Thenceforth when any Shah

Ascended to the throne, and donned the crown,

He hung the worthless apron of the smith

With still more jewels, sumptuous brocade,

And painted silk of China. It thus fell out

That Kawa’s standard grew to be a sun

Amid the gloom of night, and cheered all hearts.

Now, if there was only the “royal” flag to explain, why should Firdausi (or his source) invent a smith with the name Kâweh (Kavag, Kawa), if there was no connection whatever between kingship and the smith? Even if we leave out of consideration the widely diffused motif of great smiths as foster-fathers and educators of the hero [4] as well as the Chinese mythical imperial smiths, and all the material collected by Alföldi in his article on smith as a title of honor among the kings of Mongols and Turks: [5] the very name of the dynasty of Iranian kings which is of the greatest interest for us, i.e., the Kayanides, is derived from Kavi/Kawi. [6] The most “kawian” Shah is Kai Ka’us, whose name even contains the relevant word twice, the “Kavi Kavi-Usan,” who cannot be separated from Kavy Usa (or Usanas Kavya) of the Rigveda and the Mahabharata, [7] who shows several of the decisive characteristics of the Deus Faber. Not alone is he said to have forged the weapon for Indra [8] — instead of Tvashtri — and to have given Soma to Indra who, otherwise, has stolen (or has just drunk) the Soma in the “House of Tvashtri” (e.g., RV 3.48.2f.), but we are told that, during one of the never-ceasing wars between Asura and Deva for the “three worlds,” the Asura elected Kavya Ushanas for their “priest” or “messenger,” [9] the Deva elected Brihaspati (or Vrihaspati, i.e., Jupiter, in Taittiriya Sanhita Agni). Many warriors were slain on both sides, but — so the Mahabharata tells — “the open-minded Vrihaspati could not revive them, because he knew not the science called Sanjivani (re-vivification) which Kavya endued with great energy knew so well. And the gods were, therefore, in great sorrow." [10] The Bundahishn, in its turn, gives the following report in chapter 32, dedicated to “the mansions which the Kayans erected with glory, which they call marvels and wonders,” [11] in verse II: “Of the mansions of Kay Us one says: ‘One was of gold where-in he settled, two were of glass in which were his stables, and two were of steel in which was his flock; therefrom issued all tastes, and waters of the springs giving-immortality, which smite old-age, — that is, when a decrepit man enters by this gate, he comes out as a youth of fifteen years from the other gate, — and also dispel death.” According to Firdausi, Kai Ka’us had a kind of balm by means of which he could have restored Shurab to life, but he did not give it to Shurab’s father Rustem who implored him for this gift. [12] To which Lommel remarks (Mélanges Bally, p. 212): “Und das ist der hässlichste Zug im Bilde des Kay Kâus, dass er die Herausgabe des Wunderheilmittels verweigert, da Rostem und Sohrab, wenn beide am Leben wären, vereint ihm zu mächtig wären.” It is a rather idle occupation to look for “ugly traits” in the “character” of the Demiurge, even if he comes our way in the disguise of a Shah.

These few hints must suffice for now; it is bad enough that the burden of “proof” rests with the defenders of sense in our deteriorated century, whereas everyone who presupposes non-sense and “malentendus” can get away with the most preposterous claims. In other words: even if the individual Kâweh/Kavag should have been “invented” by Firdausi, the notion of the Deus Faber and Celestial Smith as the disposer and guardian of kingship, [13] as the original and legitimate owner of the “water of life,” [14] is by no means an accidental fancy, [15] and the significance and meaning of the smith’s apron as “Kawian flag” would have been under stood from China to Ireland.

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  1. A. Christensen, Les Kayanides (1932), p. 43.

  2. F. Justi, Iranisches Namenbuch (1895), p. 160. In the most recent translation of the Shahnama (Firdousi: Das Königsbuch [1967] — so far, only Pt. 1, Bks. 1-5 have come out), H. Kanus-Credé boldly identifies the smith Kawa with “awestisch Kawâta,” i.e., with Kai Kobâd, the first Iranian ruler.

  3. Dahâk with his two additional serpent heads is the same as the “powerful, raving Dasa with his 6 eyes and 3 heads” of RV 10.99.6.: Visvarupa, son of Tvashtri, and “Schwestersohn der Asura”; cf. Mbh. 12.343 (Roy trans., vol. 10, p. 572).

  4. To mention only Mimir, Regin, Gobann. Kâweh’s son Karnâ, by the way, whose life was spared thanks to the rebellion, became a famous paladin of Faridûn, as Wittige/Wittich, son of Waylant the smith, became a strong paladin of Thidrek.

  5. Cf., for Turkish traditions, R. Hartmann, “Ergeneqon,” in Festschrift Jacob (1932), pp. 68-79.

  6. For the word kavi , see H. Lommel, Die Yäshts des Awesta (1927), pp. 171f.; E. Herzfeld, Zoroaster and His World (1947), pp. 100-109.

  7. See Lommel’s article “Kavy Uçan,” in *Mélanges linguistiques offerts à Charles Bally *(1939), pp. 210f. That C. Bartholomae (Altiranisches Wörterbuch [1904], col. 405) confesses that he is “unable to find relations” between Iranian Kavi Usan and Rigvedian Kavy Usha is a precious gem in the collection of philological atrocities. “Falls meine etymologie richtig ist, entfällt auch die Namensähnlich keit.” Similarity he calls it! It will come out in the course of this essay that his proposition to derive the name Usan from “usa- m. (1) Quelle, Brunnen; (2) Abfluss, Leck . . " is no obstacle at all to the understanding of Kavy Usan. Kronos too has been derived from Greek krounós, i.e., “source," “spring" (see Eisler, Weltenmantel, pp. 3782, 3850, reminding us also of the Pythagorean formula concerning the sea: “Kronou dakryon, the tear of Kronos”).

  8. RV 1.51.10; 121.12, 5.34.2. It is particularly the Shushna-myth, where K. U. replaces Tvashtri.

  9. *Taittiriya *Sanhita 2.5.8 (Keith trans., vol. 1, p. 198).

  10. Mbh. 1.76 (Roy trans., vol. 1, p. 185). For this role of Kavya Ushanas, cf. Geldner, in R. Pischel and K. F. Geldner, Vedische Studien, vol. 2 (1897), pp. 166-70; for a life-restoring lake or well, owned by the “wicked Dânavas," see Mbh. 8.33 (Roy trans., vol. 7, p. 83). In Ireland the Tuatha de Danann were able to revivify the slain (in the Second Battle of Mag Tured), the Fomorians were not.

  11. Zand-Akâsih: Iranian or Greater Bundahishn, trans. by B. T. Anklesaria (1956), p. 271; cf. Christensen, p. 74.

  12. In the same manner, Lug — the strength and heart of the Tuatha De Danann as Krishna was that of the Pandava — denies the revivifying pig’s skin to Tuirill who, by means of it, could have restored to life his three sons, Brian, Juchair, and Jucharba.

  13. To repeat: the “Lord of the Triakontaeteris,” the period of thirty years, i.e., the Egyptian and Persian “Royal Jubilee” (Saturn’s sidereal revolution), is Ptah-Hephaistos.

  14. Also of the intoxicating beverage replacing it; Soma belonged to Tvasthri; Irish Goibniu brewed the ale which made the Tuatha De Danann immortal, and the beer of the Caucasian smith Kurdalogon played the same role. When Sumerian Inanna was almost lost in the underworld, it was Enki who gave to his messengers the life-restoring fluid with which to besprinkle the goddess. And, last but not least, it is Tane/Kane, the Polynesian Deus Faber, whose are “the Living Waters.”

  15. Leo Frobenius, when accused — as happened sometimes — of having been deceived by African informants who “made up” any amount of fairy tales which were not “true,” used to smile benevolently, and to point to what he called “stilgerechte Phantasie.”