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

The drabša as described by E.S. Drower in her book The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran:

"The last cultic object, the dravsha (drabsha), is not employed for all occasions of baptism, e.g. it was not at the baptism of a woman after childbirth, though it may be used for the baptism of a single person. (I saw one employed at a baptism at Dehwa Hnina, the Little Feast, where there was only one soul.) It is always present at the baptisms of Panja.  The cross-piece from which the long silken strip hangs, and to which it is sewn, has been taken by people resolved to see in Mandaeanism a form of Christian Gnosticism, for a cross.  There is no foundation for such a symbol, and Mandaeans imagine the light of the sun, moon and stars as streaming from just such banners.

Water does not enter into the ritual for its concentration some of the prayers for which are given by Lidzbarski (Q.264). I give a photograph (Plate 12) of this consecration.  The strip is of unbleached white silk.  Some Mandaeans have told me that it should be woven of so many stitches, but others declare it is not so.  The specimens I have seen, though I was allowed to handle and measure them, appeared all the same in length and with.  To judge by eye alone, the strip was about 3 yards long and a dhra (see chapter 4 note 4) wide.  As the pole is about 2 yards high, the silk is looped up so as to not to touch the ground, and is thrown around the peak.  The end is fringed.  A myrtle wreath is slipped over the peak of the banner, and, just beneath the cross-piece, hidden from sight, a piece of gold wire called the aran dravshi, twisted into a “letter”, secures seven twigs of myrtle in place.  The pole itself is of any kind of wood, and the pointed base which is thrust into the ground is usually shod with iron. It is the silk strip, not the staff, which is of ritual importance.  Had the pole with its cross-piece any significance, the wood would be specified, and one of the ‘pure woods’ such as willow or olive, prescribed.  The drabsa is never carried processionally.”

Reference:
The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran
by E.S. Drower --
Leiden: E.J. Brill: 1962 -- pages 108-109

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