Avesta

, believed to be a depiction of a Farvashi, as mentioned in the ''Yasna'', ''Yasht''s and ''Vendidad'']]

The Avesta is a collection of the sacred texts of the Mazdaist (Zoroastrian) religion. Although some of the texts are very old, the term ''Avesta'' itself only dates to the second century CE . The term's Etymological roots are the Middle Persian ''Abestāg'', Old Persian ''Upastāvaka'', "Praise God ".

HISTORY

Age of the texts

The texts of the Avesta was collated over several hundred years. The most important portion, the Gathas , in ''Gathic'' Avestan , are the hymns thought to have been composed by Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) himself, and dates linguistically to around 1000 BCE . The liturgical texts of the ''Yasna'', which includes the Gathas, is partially in Older and partially in Younger Avestan. The oldest portions may be older than the Gathas, later adapted to more closely follow the doctrine of Zoroaster. The hymns of the ''Yasht'', which are also attributed to Zoroaster but were almost certainly not composed by the prophet, are in Younger Avestan and thought to date to the Achaemenid Era ( 648 – 330 BCE ). The ''Vendidad'', which is also in Younger Avestan, was probably composed even later, during the Parthian Era ( 141 BCE - 224 CE ). The ''Visperad'' contains the youngest portion of the Avesta, which are in Middle Persian and date to Sassanid Times ( 226 - 651 CE ).

Early transmission

Some Avesta texts are thought to have been transmitted orally for centuries before they found written form. The '' Book Of Arda Viraf '', a work composed in the 3rd or 4th century CE , suggests that the Gathas and some other texts that were incorporated into the Avesta had previously existed in the palace library of the Achaemenid Kings ( 648 – 330 BCE ). According to the ''Shatroiha-i Airan'', the palace library was lost in a fire caused by the troops of Alexander The Great . However, neither assertion can be confirmed since the texts, if they existed, have been lost.

Nonetheless, Rasmus Christian Rask concluded that the texts must indeed be the remnants of a much larger literature, as Pliny The Elder had suggested in his '' Naturalis Historiae '', where he describes one Hermippus of Smyrna having "interpreted two million verses of Zoroaster" in the 3rd century BCE. As Peter Clark in ''Zoroastrianism. An Introduction to an Ancient Faith'' (1998, Brighton) points out, it is unlikely that the ''Gathas'' and older ''Yasna'' texts would have retained their old-language qualities if they had only been orally transmitted.

Later redaction

According to the '' Dēnkard '', a semi-religious work written in the 9th century, the king Volgash (thought to be the Parthian king Vologases IV , ''c.'' 147 – 191 CE ) attempted to have the sacred texts collected and collated. The results of this undertaking, if it occurred, have not survived.

In the 3rd century, the Sassanian emperor Ardashir I ( 226 - 241 CE ) commanded his high priest Tonsar (or Tansar) to compile the theological texts. According to the '' Dēnkard '', the Tonsar effort resulted in the reproduction of twenty-one volumes, called ''nask''s, in the Avestan language (though not in the original Gathic Avestan), subdivided into 348 chapters, with approximately 3.5 million words in total.

One final redaction took place under Shapur II ( 309 - 379 ). The Avesta, as used today, is essentially the result of that revision, although important sections of the text have been lost since then, especially after the fall of the Persian Empire , after which Zoroastrianism was supplanted by Islam .

European scholarship

The texts became available to European scholarship comparatively late. Abraham Anquetil-Duperron travelled to east India in 1755 , and discovered the texts in Parsi communities. He published a French translation in 1771 , based on a Modern Persian language translation provided by a Parsi priest.

Several Avesta manuscripts were collected by Rasmus Rask on a visit to Bombay (now Mumbai ) in 1820 , and it was Rask's examination of the Avestan language that first established that the texts must indeed be the remnants of a much larger literature of sacred texts of ancient Persia and Bactria ( Ta-Hsia ).

Rask's collection now lies in the library of the University Of Copenhagen . Other manuscripts are preserved in the East India House and the British Museum in London; the Bodleian Library at Oxford and at various university libraries in Paris .

The ''Zend''

The word ''Zend'' or ''Zand'', meaning "commentary" or "translation", refers to late Middle Persian and Pazend language supplementaries in Pahlavi Script . These commentaries from the early Sassanid era were not intended for use as theological texts by themselves but for religious instruction of the (by then) non-Avestan-speaking public. In contrast, the texts of the Avesta proper remained sacrosanct and continued to be recited in Avestan - which was considered a Sacred Language .

The use of the expression ''Zend-Avesta'' to refer to the Avesta, or the use of ''Zend'' as the name of a language or script, are relatively recent and popular mistakes. In 1759 , Anquetil-Duperron reported having been told that ''Zend'' was the name of the language of the more ancient writings. In his third discourse, published in 1798 , Sir William Jones mentions a conversation with a Hindu priest who told him that the the script was called ''Zend'', and the ''language'' ''Avesta''.

The confusion then became too universal in Western scholarship to be reversed, and ''Zend-Avesta'', although a misnomer, is still occasionally used to denote the older texts.

Rask's seminal work, ''A Dissertation on the Authenticity of the Zend Language'' (Bombay, 1821), may have contributed to the confusion. N. L. Westergaard's ''Zendavesta, or the religious books of the Zoroastrians'' (Copenhagen, 1852-54) only propagated the error.

STRUCTURE AND CONTENT

In its present form, the Avesta is a compilation from various sources, and its different parts date from different periods and vary widely in character.

The 21 ''nask''s mirror the structure of the 21-word-long ''Ahuna Vairya'' prayer: each of the three lines of the prayer consists of seven words. Correspondingly, the ''nask''s are divided into three groups, of seven volumes per group. Originally, each volume had a word of the prayer as its name, which so marked a volume’s position relative to the other volumes. Only about a quarter of the text from the ''nask''s has survived until today.

The contents of the Avesta, that is, the contents of the ''nask''s supplemented by other (semi-)theological texts, are generally divided into five categories. This divisions are topical (even though the organization of the ''nask''s is not) and are by no means fixed or canonical. Some scholars prefer to place the five categories in two groups, the one liturgical, and the other general.

The texts are preserved in two languages: the more ancient in the Avestan Language , the oldest attested Indo-Iranian Language still very closely related to Sanskrit and the younger texts in Middle Persian with Pahlavi Script .

The ''Yasna''

The ''Yasna'' ( Middle Persian ''yazišn'' "worship, oblations", cognate with Sanskrit '' Yajña ''), is the primary liturgical collection. It consists of 72 sections called the ''Ha-iti'' or ''Ha''. The 72 threads of lamb’s wool in the ''Kusti'', the sacred thread worn by Zoroastrians, represent these sections. The ''Yasna'' includes all of the 21st ''nask'' (the seventh and last volume in the third and last group), which in turn includes the '' Gathas '', the oldest and most sacred portion of the Avesta, and believed to have composed by Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) himself. The ''Gathas'' are structurally interrupted by the ''Yasna Haptanghāiti'' ("seven-chapter ''Yasna''"), which makes up chapters 35-42 of the ''Yasna'' and is almost as old as the ''Gathas'', consists of prayers and hymns in honour of the Supreme Deity, Ahura Mazda, the Angels, Fire, Water, and Earth. The structure of the ''Yasna'', though handed down in prose, may once have been metrical. Six of the ''nask''s from the first group of ''nask''s, which are commentaries on the '' Gathas '', also belong to the ''Yasna'' category.

The ''Visparad''

The ''Visparad'' ( Middle Persian ''vîspe ratavo'', "all lords") is a collection of supplements to the ''Yasna''. The ''Visparad'' is subdivided into 23 ''karda'' (sections, singular: kardo), which deal with a description of the angels, and the worship thereof.

The ''Yasht''s

The ''Yašt''s (''yešti'', "worship by praise"), of which there are twenty-four, are hymns in honour of various divinities, many of whom also have days of the month dedicated to them (see Zoroastrian Calendar ). The hymns are an important source of Persian Mythology , and were incorporated by Ferdowsi , with due acknowledgement, in his Shahnameh epic. Among the divinities to whom special ''Yašt''s are devoted we find ''Ardvi Sura'', the goddess of waters; ''Tishtrya'', the star Sirius ; '' Mithra '', the divinity of light and truth; '' Fravaši '', the guardian spirits; ''Verethragna'', the genius of victory; and the ''Kavaya Hvarenah'', "kingly glory", the divine light illuminating the ancient kings. The ''Yašt''s are for the most part metrical in structure, and some hymns show considerable poetic merit, an attribute that is not common in the Avesta texts. The older ''Hôm Yašt'' is part of the ''Yasna'' and is not counted among the twenty-four Yašts.

The ''Vendidad''

The ''Vendidad'' (corruption of Avestan ''Vî-Daêvô-Dāta'', "Given Against the Demons") is an enumeration of various manifestations of evil spirits, and ways to confound them. The ''Vendidad'' includes all of the 19th ''nask'', which is the only ''nask'' that has survived in its entirety. The text consists of 22 ''Fargard''s, fragments arranged as discussions between Ahura Mazda and Zoroaster. The first ''fargard'' is a dualistic Account Of Creation , followed by the description of a destructive winter on the lines of the Deluge Of Mythology . The second ''fargard'' recounts the legend of ''Yima'' ( Jamshid ). The remaining ''fargard''s deal primarily with hygiene (care of the dead in particular) 3,5,6,7,8,9,10,16,17,19 as well as disease and spells to fight it [7,10,11,13,20,21,22]. ''Fargard''s 4 and 15 discuss the dignity of wealth and charity, of marriage and of physical effort, and the indignity of unacceptable social behaviour such as assault and Breach Of Contract , and specify the penances required to atone for violations thereof. The ''Vendidad'' is an ecclesiastical code, not a liturgical manual, and there is a degree of Moral Relativism apparent in the codes of conduct. The ''Vendidad'''s different parts vary widely in character and in age. Some parts may be comparatively recent in origin although the greater part is very old.

Other material

All material in the Avesta that is not already present in one of the other four categories falls into a fifth category. This category does not have a name, and is generally considered to include shorter texts and prayers (as included in the ''Khordeh Avesta'', see below), the five ''Nyaishes'' (worship and praise of the Sun, Moon, Mithra, Water, and Fire), the ''Sirozeh'' and the ''Afringans'' (blessings).

THE ''KHORDEH AVESTA''

The ''Khordeh Avesta'', literally meaning 'abridged Avesta', or 'a selection of Avesta prayers', is a selection of texts from the ''Yasna'', ''Visparad'' and ''Yasht'', as well as minor texts and brief prayers, such as the five ''Nyaishes''. The collection, taken together, is considered the prayer book for general daily use.

OTHER ZOROASTRIAN RELIGIOUS TEXTS

Although the Avesta is by far the most important of the Zoroastrian theological texts, other works, in both middle and modern Persian, are also included in the sacred canon. The most notable among the early middle Persian texts are the '' Dēnkard '' ("Acts of Religion"), dating from the 9th century; ''Bundahishn'', ("Original Creation"), finished in the 11th or 12th century, but containing older material such as the ''nask''s; the ''Mainog-i-Khirad'' ("Spirit of Wisdom"), a religious conference on questions of faith, and the '' Arda Viraf Namak '' ("Book of Arda Viraf"), a sort of Zoroastrian '' Divina Commedia '', which is especially important because of its account of the Persian ideas concerning the future life. Later Zoroastrian literature in modern Persian include the ''Zartushtnamah'' ("Book of Zoroaster"), the ''Sad-dar'' ("Hundred Doors, or Chapters"), and the ''Rivayat''s (traditional treatises).

LEGENDS

At the time of Alexander's invasion of Persia in 330 BCE , the palace library of Darius III , the last king of the Achaemenid Dynasty , encompassed some 12,000 volumes (not necessarily of a religious nature) in the Gathic Avestan language. According to the '' Book Of Arda Viraf '', a work composed in the 3rd or 4th century CE , the religious and semi-religious texts were inscribed in gold ink on parchment. During the looting of Persepolis by Alexander's League troops, a fire broke out in the eastern palace of Xerxes and spread to the rest of the city. It is not known if this was a drunken accident or a deliberate act of revenge for the burning of the (first) Parthenon during the Second Greco-Persian War . According to the ''Shatroiha-i Airan'', the palace library was lost in the fire, and although this text specifically names the Avesta among the destroyed works, this latter assertion is doubtful since the Avesta is thought to not have have existed in written form until much later. Equally doubtful is a Zoroastrian legend in which Alexander commanded the Avesta be thrown into the river Zeravshan near Samarkand . It was not until the second century CE , during the reign of Volgash (presumed to be the Parthian king Vologases IV ), that any attempt was made to reconstruct the contents of the library from other sources.

EXTERNAL LINKS

avesta.org: Translations of the Avesta texts

The Avesta ( Catholic Encyclopedia )

The Gathas -->

The Avesta at LIVIUS

Passages in this article incorporate text from the '' Public Domain '' Catholic Encyclopedia .

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