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Another
ancient religion is the Iranian religion.
The Iranian people have a long continuous history and recent
research shows that their civilization might be older than even the Vedic
civilization .
Both the ancient and the modern religions of these people show that
wine was permitted.
Students
of Zoroastrianism know that Zoroaster was not the founder of any new
religion
but that he only revived the ancient Iranian religion which had
become corrupt owing to lapse of time.
Hence in order to know the teaching of the Iranian religion about
wine we must look at both the pre-Zoroastrian and the post-Zoroastrian
periods.
Though
from history it appears that the Iranians freely indulged in
wine-drinking, yet how they regarded it from the religious point of view
can be seen only from the Zoroastrian literature.
The Pahlavi books,
while describing the nativity of Zoroaster, state that an angel handed a
cup of wine to Zoroaster’s father Pourushsapa who drank it.
Soon after his wife Daghdo conceived and gave birth to a child who
was destined to usher in a new era in the history of the East.
The fact that as a preparatory to the birth of a holy man, an angel gave a
cup of wine to that holy man’s father to drink shows that even before
the time of Zoroaster drinking wine was not only permissible but even
meritorious.
Even
the Iranian religion as reformed by Zoroaster holds drinking wine to be a
meritorious act;
for wine has an important part to play in the ceremonies performed
at a time when Afringan’s prayers, which are designed specially for
recital by Zoroastrian priests, are offered.
At the time of the recital of these prayers, the Dastur seats
himself on a carpet spread on the ground and has in front of him,
in a metal plate or on the leaf of a tree, the best fruits and the
choicest flowers of the season and has also before him vessels full of
fresh milk and wine and also vessels containing fresh water and some
refreshing sweet beverages.
In short, even according to the Iranian religion, the use of wine
is recognized as commendable and praiseworthy and at the performance of
certain religious ceremonies it is held to be essential to use it or have
it nearby. |
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ISRAELITE RELIGION |
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The other
ancient religion which comes next is the Israelite religion.
This religion, too, like Hinduism and Zoroastrianism
is believed to trace its origin to the beginning of
creation.
The history of this religion too shows that the practice of
drinking wine is as old as the world itself. |
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