从伐由到乌悉帕卡:中古祆教风神的印度风

From Vayu to Wysprkr:The Zoroastrian Wind God in Hindu Garb from the Middle Ages

阿维斯陀经中的风神伐由不仅是自然之风,更象征万物生命的气息。伐由传到中亚地区后,借鉴了当地的湿婆形象,变成了贵霜祆教风神乌悉。萨珊人征服巴克特里亚地区后,对乌悉形象进行了一系列改变,使他更接近了伐由的“琐罗亚斯德教”特征。三头乌悉的形象在粟特继续存在,称为乌悉帕卡,比伊朗本土的伐由地位更重要了。传到中土的乌悉帕卡以三尊神之一的形象出现,唐宋文献清楚地记载了这一披着湿婆外衣的祆教风神,生动再现了祆教与印度教、佛教之间的交流图景。

Vayu,the god of wind in the Iranian text Avesta,represents both the wind of nature and the life-breath of all living things.After Vayu entered Central Asia he came to be represented using features borrowed from images of Shiva and eventually became Oeso,the Kushan variant of the Zoroastrian wind god.After the Sassanids conquered the Bactrian region,they made a series of changes to Oeso’s image that endowed him with characteristics closer to those of the Zoroastrian version of Vayu.The image of the three-headed Oeso continued to exist in Sogdiana but was known as Wysprkr and was more important than the local Iranian spirit Vayu.Wysprkr was imported to China with the triad of the great Zoroastrian Gods after the construction of the Silk Road.Documents from the Tang and Song dynasties clearly record the Zoroastrian wind god in a shape similar to that of Shiva,which vividly indicates the exchanges happening among Zoroastrianism,Hinduism,and Buddhism in the Middle Ages.