A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
Vendidad 7 describes Druj Nasu rushing from the north onto a corpse when its soul departs. It assumes the form of a raging, incessantly droning fly with projecting knees and tail. The text contrasts ordinary death with certain violent deaths, for which the onset is placed at a later watch.
The adjacent bracketed passage says Nasu departs when the prescribed encounter with a dog or flesh-eating bird takes place. The translator marks that passage as coming from the Vendidad Sada, rather than silently presenting identical textual transmission. Nasu’s role is expressed through ritual defilement and purification; these are religious classifications of the selected source.
Fargard 7 next describes defilement moving through a chain of neighbouring people. Its numerical reach changes according to the ritual category of the dead person; the passage also treats garments and other objects that have touched a corpse. This hierarchy belongs to the text’s rules of purity. It is not a description of measured biological contagion.
Fargard 8 gives Nasu a strikingly mobile presence during purification. As water reaches successive parts of the body, the druj retreats from brows and head through shoulders, chest, hips and legs, finally taking refuge beneath a toe, where it is compared with a fly’s wing. The sequence ends with its flight northward. The body thus becomes a narrated route of expulsion, making ritual progress visible as the being’s forced movement. The edition again identifies bracketed material from the Vendidad Sada rather than presenting every line as a single undifferentiated witness.
Origins & earliest records
Iranian Zoroastrian ritual cosmology
Records & interpretation
Vendidad 7.1–11 and 8.35–72 primary translation and textual notes directly read.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Vendidad, Fargard 7
Sections 1–11; bracketed section 3 attributed to Vendidad Sada in translator note.
- 02
Vendidad, Fargard 8
Sections 35–72, especially the body-by-body retreat in 40–71; historical ritual account.
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
Primary records and illustrations
Vendidad
Fargard7. Sections1–5
Actual translated primary sections and variant-text note read; no object image asserted.
Fargard 7 next describes defilement moving through a chain of neighbouring people. Its numerical reach changes according to the ritual category of the dead person; the passage also treats garments and other objects that have touched a corpse. This hierarchy belongs to the text’s rules of purity. It is not a description of measured biological contagion. Fargard 8 gives Nasu a strikingly mobile presence during purification. As water reaches successive parts of the body, the druj retreats from brows and head through shoulders, chest, hips and legs, finally taking refuge beneath a toe, where it is compared with a fly’s wing. The sequence ends with its flight northward. The body thus becomes a narrated route of expulsion, making ritual progress visible as the being’s forced movement. The edition again identifies bracketed material from the Vendidad Sada rather than presenting every line as a single undifferentiated witness.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical religious primary-text translationVendidad7.1–5 — Darmesteter translationResearch access: 2026-10-05
- Historical religious primary-text translationVendidad 8.35–72 — Darmesteter translationResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.