Chinvat (Chinvad, Kinvad) In Persian mythology, a bridge over which all souls of the dead must pass on their way to heaven or hell. According to one Zoroastrian text, Chinvat “is like a beam of many sides, of whose edges there are some which are broad, and there are some which are thin and sharp; its broad sides are so large that its width is twenty-seven reeds, and its sharp sides are so contracted that in thinness it is like the edge of a razor.” Both the good and the wicked come to the bridge, but it “becomes a narrow bridge for the wicked, even unto a resemblance to the edge of a razor. . . . He who is of the wicked, as he places a footstep on the bridge . . . falls from the middle of the bridge, and rolls over head-foremost” to hell. The good, however, pass over the bridge easily.

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Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, Third Edition – Written by Anthony S. Mercatante & James R. Dow– Copyright © 2009 by Anthony S. Mercatante