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
Evidence of Parthian Contact before 70 AD
Is it possible that the Mandaeans could have been exposed to the Parthian word before their move to Mesopotamia.
“I think we have a clue here. The adoption of the banner together with a great many name of cult objects, vestments and so on point to Persia or Parthia. Supposing migration to be accepted as possible was all this adopted before or after migration? Possibly the latter?“ (14)
In her book, The Secret Adam, Lady Drower describes the similarity between an image on a Parthian coin and a Mandaean 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." (15)
The Coin that Lady Drower mentions could have looked similar to this Parthian coin.
Figure #6
In the book The Secret Adam Drower writes more on the drabša. Click here to read the complete text in reference to the drabša.
The coin mentioned by Drower is from the Frataraka dynasty of Fars and is dated at 200 BC. The word Fars is actually mentioned in the Canonical Prayerbook:
In the name of the Great Life!
When Radiance emerged from the white land, Paris (i.e. Faris or Fars)
A youth, Arsapan, son of the radiant-beings
Unfurled a banner. He unfurled a great radiance
So that the 'uthras and skintas shone in the banner’s brilliance
They shone in the brightness of his banner
(That was) like the Radiance in the House of the Mighty (Life) (16)
As Drower noted the placement of the banner and the fire altar is very similar to that of a Mandaean baptism.
The differences being that the fire altar has now become a small fire token, the King is now a Mandaean priest, and the cloth of the banner (less Ahura Mazda on top) is longer. The fire has also ceased to be a item of worship and now plays a small but important part.
"The small fire brazier, upon which the sacramental bread is baked and incense constantly cast, is very important to all Mandaean rites. Without it no rite can be performed. It is kindled by the priest, is fed with ritually immersed and ritually pure fuel and is tended by the celebrant or asganda. and without this fire there is no baptism." (17)
Even in the Alf Trisar Suialia, a Mandaean book used mostly by the priesthood for instructions and rules, it says:
"And let him beware least he extinguish the fire in the incense brazier before him, cause a baptism without fire will not ascend to the House of Life."" (18)
The Parthian Empire ruled from 247 B.C. to A.D. 228 in ancient Persia (Iran). They defeated Alexander the Great's successors, the Seleucids and conquered most of the Middle East and southwest Asia. Parthia at one time occupied areas now in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaidzjan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and even to Pakistan. They included the sub-kingdoms of Characene, Elymais and Persis. Yet there is limited historical information on the Parthians, most evidence is derived from coins.
Figure #7
We can therefore conclude that it is possible for the Mandaeans to have come into contact with the Parthians as early as 200 BC. And it is possible they could have acquired the word- drabša- at this early date--but did they also acquired the idea of the banner from the Parthians or from elsewhere.
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
