The Journal for the Study and Research into the
Mandaean Culture, Religion, and Language.

Volume 3                                 Special Issue                                           Online edition

THE DRABŠA

RESEARCH DONE BY AJAE

COPYRIGHT 2000

In the book The Secret Adam, Drower writes more on the Drabša:

“The banner in the coronation prayers is called Sislamiel and in the canonical prayer book twenty canticles are intoned for it.  On the other hand, neither Sislam-Rba nor his banner are mentioned in the GR.

The word for ‘banner’ is Persian not Semitic—drabsa pronounced drafsha: it also means ‘ray of light’. In Persian the drafsha is a ‘banner or standard, a flash of light or sunrise’. In hymns the banner is always a symbol of light.  The Persian origin of the word may offer some clues as to the time and when it was adopted as a symbol used in cult or religious ceremony.  Professor Henning was good enough to direct my attention to Persian coins.  On those of the Frataraka dynasty of Fars, somewhere about 200 B.C., a banner is represented beside a fire-alter: on one set of coins, that of Autrophradates the First, the king stands by a large fire-alter in an attitude of worship; the banner is planted on the opposite side if the alter above is the wingesd effigy of Ahura Mazada.  This banner is square and marked with a cross and four points- probably as a sun-symbol.

Now such a grouping is familiar to anyone who has watched a Mandaean baptism today, the ‘king’ of course being the priest.  The fire-alter has shrunk to the small but nevertheless essential fire-saucer.  The banner is planted beside it just as on the Persian coin, although the pennant part is lengthened considerably.”

Reference:
The Secret Adam by E.S. Drower – Oxford University Press:1960—page 61 and 62

Description

The Word Drabsa

Evidence of the Drabša in use during and after 70 AD

Evidence of Parthian Contact before 70 AD

The Idea of the Drabša

The Theory