Temple of Khshathra Vairya; the Desirable Kingdom

East of the Apadana stands a second audience hall, the hall of a Hundred Columns, the foundation of which was laid by Xerxes and which was finished by Artaxerxes I. This building seems to have given the name sat-stun (hundred columns). The square interior is only slightly larger than that of the Apadana, but has ten rows of ten columns, there is but one portico to the North, with two rows of eight columns flanked by two colossal bulls like the main gate. Around the other sides runs a closed narrow passage for service purposes.

In the four side-doors of the Hall of a Hundred Columns, a human figure is represented fighting a bull, a lion, a griffon with a scorpion’s tail, and a griffon which are resemblance of four cardinal points of the heaven. The style of the combat suggests zodiacal alignment. According to Mazdean cosmology, six areas of the zodiac ruled by Mazda and light, and six by Ahriman and darkness. The constellation Leo represents heat of summer and the Taurus represents fertility of spring which are creation of Mazda, while griffon with a scorpion’s tail represents the constellation Scorpius of fall, and the griffon the evil creature, represents coldness and darkness of winter which is creation of Ahriman.

Possibly the fighters were meant to represent the ancient mythical heroes. If we stress the symbolical and intentional numbers of four fights, there is such a group of four in the Mazdean literature. In the Haoma Yasht of the Avesta, four legendary heroes Yima, Thraetaona, Krsaspa, and Zarathustra are mentioned as heroes who fight with monsters and demons as their primary involution.

Khshathra Vairya, the desirable kingdom of Mazda, is the term standing for the divine majesty, the sovereign power of Mazda, represents a state or a condition brought about in the world by the work of man. The progress and evolution of the universe has a main ideal; the establishment of the Desirable Kingdom of Mazda the wisdom, on earth.