Ī, the Pahlavi term (Pers. kusti, košti, Guj. ܲī) used to designate the “holy cord or girdle” worn around the waist (Pahl. kust, Pers. košt “side, waist”) by Zoroastrians (Figure 1). The term glosses Pahl. ɲ < Av. &ٲ;&Բ;ŋԲ- “holy cord” < Av. aiβi + 1 “to wrap around, to girdle” (Y. 9.26, Yt. 1.17). It is wrapped three times around the waist and is tied with two square or reef knots, one in the front and then one at the back, by both male and female Zoroastrians after they have been initiated into the faith.
The ܲīg is a single cord of six interwoven strands, each made up of twelve white threads of lamb’s or, less frequently goat’s, wool—that is, a total of seventy-two threads. Cotton can be used as well (ŧԲ 67.6, 9). The six strands are braided together at each end to form three tassels, which contain twenty-four threads each. The holy cord’s symbolism was elaborated over the centuries. The six strands were equated to the six Բs or “religious feasts,” the twelve threads to the twelve months of the religious calendar, the twenty-four threads of the tassels to the chapters of the Visperad, and the seventy-two threads of the entire cord to the chapters of the Yasna.
Traditionally, in Iran and India, ܲīgs have been woven by women from ٳǰ or priestly families (Figure 2), both as a pious duty and as a means of supplementing their families’ modest incomes. Sometimes the cords were woven by mobeds or magi themselves—a practice now very infrequent. During the 1920s, behdin or Zoroastrian women in the towns and villages around Yazd were trained to weave the cords (Boyce, 1977, pp. 236-37). Parsis at the city of Navsari in Gujarat became well known for supplying the holy cords to coreligionists in India and in other Zoroastrian diasporas, such as Great Britain and the United States. As in Iran, income from sale of the cords augments family earnings. Parsi girls attending the Tata Girls’ School at Navsari are still taught how to weave ܲīgs. Other Parsi women learn the skill from their elders; for example, Mrs. Najamai M. Kotwal, mother of Dastur Dr. Firoze M. Kotwal, instructed Parsi girls for almost three decades. Production of the cords is considered a joyful activity during which the women sing, laugh, and share religious and lay stories (Littledale, 1898).
Tying the ܲīg around the waist with three encirclements (Pahl. kiš) is believed to represent ū, ū, ūɲ&Dz; or “good thoughts, good words, good deeds,” which is the religion’s credo, and thereby serve as a boundary to protect the body against the forces of evil (Rehbar-e Din-e Jarthushi 5). So it is said to be luminously ǝ貹ŧŋ- “star-spangled” (Y. 9.26), encircling each devotee’s midsection like the zodiac demarcating the axis of the sky (Dādestān ī dēnīg 36.35-36; Bundahišn 28.15; see also Bailey, 1971, pp. 145-47). According to the Čīm ī ܲīg or “Reasons for the Holy Cord” (42-47), a Sasanian-era text preserved in both Pahlavi (or Middle Persian) and Pazand versions: “The place of all beauty, light, and wisdom is the higher part, the head, which like paradise is the station of lights … that lower half, the place of darkness and desolation, is like hell … and the purpose of wearing the holy cord is to demarcate the two regions.” This theme of separating mental from physical recurs in post-Sasanian texts, such as the Gizistag Abāliš (33-34), when explanations are provided as to why Zoroastrians must always wear the ܲīg. Essentially a religious symbol transformed into an article of devotional clothing, the ܲīg and its recurrent exercise of untying and retying remind each wearer about the centrality of piety and the need to follow the religious path throughout life (see further Stausberg, 2004).
The rite of wearing a ܲīg probably dates to pre-Zoroastrian times (Boyce, 1989, pp. 13, 257-58). A similar practice among the Hindus goes back to Vedic ritual, where men of the upper three castes are invested with a holy cord at a religious initiation—the ceremony of the second birth (Skt. upanayana-)—between the ages of eight and twelve. Those Hindus wear the cord diagonally around the body over the left shoulder and under the right arm, slipping it aside when necessary but never untying it. Although a date for the ܲīg’s introduction into the Zoroastrian faith cannot be determined precisely, its use may have been present among the prophet Zarathushtra’s earliest followers due to their prior familiarity with the practice. Possible origins of its usage are variously mentioned in the Zoroastrian texts. According to the Yasna (10.21), it was introduced by a holy sage named Haoma Frāšmi. The Dādestān ī dēnīg (39.18-19), on the other hand, attributes its first use to the legendary Pishdādian ruler Yima Xšaēta or &Dz;ŧ, centuries before the birth of Zarathushtra; and later Ferdowsi too would echo this tale in the &Dz;-峾. Other legends hold that Zarathushtra commended the custom to those who accepted his preaching (Rehbar-e Din-e Jarthushti 5).
According to Zoroastrian praxis, a ܲīg must be worn by every man and woman who has been initiated into the faith through the navjote (also naojote) or “new birth” ceremony among Parsis and the sedra-pušun or “putting on the holy undershirt” ceremony among Iranian Zoroastrians (JamaspAsa, 1887; Modi, 1937: pp. 169-15; Boyce, 1977, pp. 238-240; Choksy, 1989, p. 55). During that initiation, which represents transition to adulthood and acceptance of responsibility for religious deed thereafter (Yt. 8.13-14, Vd. 18.54), each boy or girl dons a white undershirt (Pahl. &Dz;ī, Pers. šabi, ṣu, ṣe, Guj. sudra, sudre) and ties a ܲīg over it around the waist. Thereafter it is a ٲܳ ( sin to not wear the cord and undershirt, for so doing leaves the person unprotected from evil and consequently is equated to “scrambling around naked” (Pahl. wišād dwārišnīh) in the Šāyest nē šāyest (4.10) and the ŧԲ (67.11). The ܲīg is mentioned in the third of sixteen Sanskrit śǰ첹 by Ākā Adhyāru as a “good woolen holy cord put on the waist.” The merit accrued from tying the ܲīg is equated in the thirteenth Śǰ첹 to performing “ablution in the [holy River] Ganges.” Compared in the śǰ첹 to “a coat of mail armor,” it also serves to ward off evil under other situations (Schmidt, 1960-61). So, during funerals, the ܲīg is held in hand to create paywand or “ritual connection” between two persons such as corpse-bearers (who hold this cord between them) while the Zoroastrian mourners, also in similar paywand, follow in procession (Boyce, 1977, p. 151).
Due to its religious roles, not only must the cord be worn every day during the devotee’s lifetime, it needs to be ritually untied and retied with specific prayers after the purificatory ablution—a ceremony called the -kusti which involves “making new the holy cord” (Pers. košti nav kardan) or “tying the holy cord” (Guj. ܲī bastan) (Choksy, 1989, pp. 55-61; Figure 3).
While untying and tying the ܲīg, the devotee should face east from dawn to midday and west until sunset—that is, toward the sun. At night, he or she may face an oil lamp, fire, moon, or stars. In the absence of any source of illumination, facing south is regarded as an appropriate qebla, for it is believed to be the direction to the heavenly abode of Ahura Mazdā. The prayers, which are recited during the ܲīg ritual, are divided into three parts. The first part is called the Nīrang ī “rite for ritual ablutions.” Recited before untying the cord, it consists of the Kə̄m nā Mazdā prayer (which has its roots in Y. 46.7, Y. 44.16, Vd. 8.21, and the third line of Y. 49.10; Choksy, 1989, p. 141). The second part is called the Nīrang ī ܲīg bastan/abzūdan “rite for tying the holy cord” which is chanted while ceremonially retying the ܲīg. The initial Pazand prayer of Ohrmazd Xwadāy (up to pa patit hōm) is a summary of the previous Kə̄m nā Mazdā (Kotwal and Hintze, 2008, p. 10 with n. 29). The prayer ends with a short Avestan passage praising Ahura Mazdā and showing contempt for Aŋra Mainyu as an act of faith, followed by a line taken from Y. 50.11 (Choksy, 1989, p. 141). This part is completed by reciting one Ašǝm vohū prayer, two Yaθā ahū vairiiō (Ahuna vairiia, Ahunwar), and one more Ašǝm vohū (Choksy, 1989, p. 139). The third part, which begins with the words Jasa mē avaŋhe Mazdā, constitutes the Zoroastrian confession of faith (MPers. āstawānīh ī dēn); it also is titled stāyišn dēnīh “the praise of religion” in the Pahlavi version. The first line of this prayer is taken from Yt. 1.27 and the remaining portion from Y. 12.8-9. It concludes with the repetition of one Ašǝm vohū (Choksy, 1989, pp. 140-41).
The ܲīg’s ritual efficacy must be renewed through the -ܲīg ceremony prior to engaging in other religious acts like worshipping at a fire temple, and after sexual intercourse, urination, and defecation. It is untied and retied upon awakening each day, at the beginning of the other watches or divisions (MPers. and Pers. ) of the day. Most Parsis, even when living in Western countries, still wear the ܲīg regularly; Iranian Zoroastrians often wear it only for religious services so as not to be singled out for maltreatment by Muslims (Choksy, 1989, pp. 60-61).
Bibliography:
H. W. Bailey, Zoroastrian Problems in the Ninth-Century Books, 2nd ed., Oxford, 1971.
M. Boyce, A History of Zoroastrianism I, 2nd ed., Leiden, 1989.
Idem, A Persian Stronghold of Zoroastrianism, Oxford, 1977.
J. K. Choksy, Purity and Pollution in Zoroastrianism: Triumph over Evil, Austin, 1989.
[Čīm ī ܲīg] Heinrich F. J. Junker, ed., Der wissbegierige Sohn; ein mittelpersischer Text über das Kustik, Leipzig, 1959.
[Gizistag Abāliš] H. F. Chacha, ed., Gajastak Abālish : Pahlavi text with transliteration, English transl. notes and glossary, Bombay, 1936.
J. JamaspAsa, A Short Treatise on the Navjot Ceremony: Compiled into English from the Original Zoroastrian Scriptures, Bombay, 1887.
F. M. Kotwal and A. Hintze, The Khorda Avesta and Yašt Codex E1, Wiesbaden, 2008.
H. Littledale, Weaving Song of Parsee Girls while Making the Sacred Thread or Kusti, Gujarati Text with an English Verse Translation, Bombay, 1898.
J. J. Modi, The Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the Parsees, 2nd ed., Bombay, 1937.
[ŧԲ] F. M. Kotwal and P. G. Kreyenbroek, eds., The Hērbedestān and ŧԲ, vol. IV, Paris, 2009.
[Rehbar-e Din-e Jarthushti] F. M. Kotwal and J. W. Boyd, eds., A Guide to the Zoroastrian Religion. A Nineteenth Century Catechism with Modern Commentary, Chico, 1982.
[Šāyest nē šāyest] J. C. Tavadia, ed., &Dz;̄ⲹ-Ա̄-&Dz;̄ⲹ : a Pahlavi Text on Religious Customs, Hamburg, 1930.
H.-P. Schmidt, “The Sixteen Sanskrit Sanjan Slokas of Ākā Adhyāru,” Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute 21, 1960-61, pp. 157-96.
M. Stausberg, “The Significance of the Kusti: A History of Its Zoroastrian Interpretations,” East and West 54/1-4, 2004, pp. 9-29.
(J. K. Choksy and F. M. Kotwal)
Originally Published: September 23, 2014
Last Updated: September 23, 2014
Cite this entry:J. K. Choksy and F. M. Kotwal, "Ī," Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition, 2014, available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kustig (accessed on 23 September 2014).
