In the Vendidad, Yima builds a “Var” to protect the essence of life from a coming cataclysm.
Bund.): “For a hundred years, Yima was in the Var”—this late Pahlavi text (circa 9th century CE) specifies Yima’s retreat into Vara post-fall, enduring the deluge’s aftermath underground, reinforcing the Vendidad’s narrative (Fargard 2).
Vara: Yima builds Vara (Vendidad 2:25-40, Yt5.31)—a self-sustaining enclosure—for 100 years (Gr.
Ancient Zoroastrian texts, such as the Vendidad, describe an underground refuge built by Yima to survive a devastating winter.
These men were: Harritza, to write the Avesta; Vraghettes, to write the Vendidad; Royhoh, to write the Vispered; Yathavah, to write the Yacna; and Uzariah, to write the Khordavesta.
Some centuries afterward the Aryans endeavored to gather up the lost literature of the sacred people who were destroyed, and by stone tablets and by secret ceremonies, which had been partially preserved by the half-breeds, they recovered that which is called the Avesta, the Vendidad, the Vispered and Yacna, and the Khordah-Avesta.
The story of Yima and the creation of the vara is found in the Zoroastrian text called the Vendidad (or Videvdat), which is part of the Avesta, the sacred scripture of Zoroastrianism.
The specific part of the Vendidad where this story is recounted is in Fargard 2 (chapters or sections of the Vendidad).
Fargard 2 of the Vendidad: The specific section of the Zoroastrian text where this myth is detailed.
The Zoroastrian scriptures, including the Avesta and the Vendidad, do not have precise dates attributed to their origins as they were transmitted orally for centuries before being written down.