Religion:Avestan period

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Short description: Early history of the Iranian peoples


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The Avestan period (

Short description: Latin loanword meaning "approximately, around" 
CA|other uses of "Cca"|CCA (disambiguation)|CCA|other uses of "Circa"|Circa (disambiguation)}}Template:TWCleanup2Circa (from la 'around, about, roughly, approximately') – frequently abbreviated ca. or c. and less frequently circ., cca. or cc. – signifies "approximately" in several European languages and is used as a loanword in English, usually in reference to a date.[1] Circa is widely used in historical writing when the dates of events are not accurately known.

When used in date ranges, circa is applied before each approximate date, while dates without circa immediately preceding them are generally assumed to be known with certainty.

Examples

  • 1732–1799: Both years are known precisely.
  • c. 1732 – 1799: The beginning year is approximate; the end year is known precisely.
  • 1732 – c. 1799: The beginning year is known precisely; the end year is approximate.
  • c. 1732 – c. 1799: Both years are approximate.

See also

  • Floruit

References

  1. ↑ "circa". Dictionary.com. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/circa. 



)[note 1] is the period of Iranian history when the collection of canonical texts of Zoroastrianism called the Avesta was produced.[1] The period saw important developments to religious thought and to Persian mythology and the tradition of epic poetry exemplified by the Shahnameh.[2]

Scholars can reliably distinguish between two different linguistic strata in the Avesta labeled "Old Avestan" and "Young Avestan". These two strata represent two different stages in the development of the Avestan language and the society of its speakers.[3] The Old Avestan society is the one to which Zoroaster and his immediate followers belonged. The Young Avestan society is less clearly delineated and reflects a longer time span.[4]

There is a varying level of scholarly consensus on the chronology and geographical extent of the Avestan period. Scholarship largely agrees that it reflects the eastern portion of Greater Iran.[5] Early scholarship placed Zoroaster in the 6th century BCE. More recent scholarship, however, places him several centuries earlier, and this dating has become widely accepted.[6][7] This early chronology would place the Avestan period

Short description: Latin loanword meaning "approximately, around" 
CA|other uses of "Cca"|CCA (disambiguation)|CCA|other uses of "Circa"|Circa (disambiguation)}}Template:TWCleanup2Circa (from la 'around, about, roughly, approximately') – frequently abbreviated ca. or c. and less frequently circ., cca. or cc. – signifies "approximately" in several European languages and is used as a loanword in English, usually in reference to a date.[8] Circa is widely used in historical writing when the dates of events are not accurately known.

When used in date ranges, circa is applied before each approximate date, while dates without circa immediately preceding them are generally assumed to be known with certainty.

Examples

  • 1732–1799: Both years are known precisely.
  • c. 1732 – 1799: The beginning year is approximate; the end year is known precisely.
  • 1732 – c. 1799: The beginning year is known precisely; the end year is approximate.
  • c. 1732 – c. 1799: Both years are approximate.

See also

  • Floruit

References

  1. ↑ Boyce 2011, p. 62: "The term Avestan people is used here to include both Zoroaster's own tribe, with that of his patron, Kavi Vištāspa, and those peoples settled in Eastern Iran who, though not all "Avestan" speaking, were "of the Avesta" in that they shared in transmitting, and in part composing, the holy texts".
  2. ↑ Daniel 2012, p. 51: "In addition to their religious thought, the Avestan people also contributed to another enduring aspect of Iranian culture, the epic tradition".
  3. ↑ Schmitt 2000, p. 25: "Die Sprachform der avestischen Texte insgesamt ist nicht einheitlich; es lassen sich zwei Hauptgruppen unterscheiden, die nicht nur chronologisch, sondern in einzelnen Punkten auch dialektologisch voneinander zu trennen sind[.]".
  4. ↑ Skjaervø 1995, pp. 160-161: "There is therefore no reason to believe that the texts contained in the younger Avesta belong to even the same century".
  5. ↑ Witzel 2000, p. 10: "Since the evidence of Young Avestan place names so clearly points to a more eastern location, the Avesta is again understood, nowadays, as an East Iranian text, whose area of composition comprised -- at least -- Sīstån/Arachosia, Herat, Merw and Bactria".
  6. ↑ Bryant 2001, p. 130: "Previously, a sixth century B.C.E. date based on Greek sources was accepted by many scholars, but this has now been completely discarded by present-day specialists in the field".
  7. ↑ Malandra 2009, "Controversy over Zaraθuštra's date has been an embarrassment of long standing to Zoroastrian studies. If anything approaching a consensus exists, it is that he lived ca. 1000 BCE give or take a century or so".
  8. ↑ "circa". Dictionary.com. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/circa. 



, predating the Achaemenid Empire of 550 – 330 BCE. The early chronology would thus make the Avestan the oldest period of Iranian history for which literary sources are available.[1]

Sources

See also: Social:Avesta
Verses of the Avesta (Yasna 28.1) in the Avestan script

The primary sources for the Avestan period are the texts of the Avesta. All material in the Avesta is composed in Avestan, an otherwise unattested Old Iranian language. The first edition of the Avesta was compiled and put into writing much later during the Middle Iranian Sassanian period (224 – 651 CE).[2] Avestan had long ceased to be a spoken language by the time of the Sassanians, and it is generally agreed that the texts of the Avesta had been passed down orally.[3] The exact age and provenance of the different Avestan texts are still debated, but scholars can reliably distinguish two linguistic strata, Old Avestan and Young Avestan.[4]

Old Avestan

See also: Religion:Gatha (Zoroaster) and Yasna Haptanghaiti

The Old Avestan material is found in the Staota Yesnya, the central part of Zoroastrinian High Liturgies such as the Yasna and the Visperad. The Staota Yesnya consists of the Gathas, the Yasna Haptanghaiti, and a number of manthras including the Ashem Vohu, the Ahuna Vairya and the Airyaman ishya.[5] These Old Avestan texts are assumed to have been composed close together in time and to have taken their final form early in the period, possibly due to the activity of Zoroaster himself.[6] The Yenghe hatam manthra and some parts of the Yasna Haptanghait may have originated during the Young Avestan time;[7] if so, they were composed in a style characterized as "pseudo-Old Avestan" in order to appear more ancient.[8]

Young Avestan

See also: Religion:Yasht and Vendidad

There is much more material in Young Avestan than Old Avestan. Young Avestan is more varied, which may indicate a longer time of composition and transmission, during which the different texts may have been constantly updated and revised.[9] When these revisions eventually stopped, the Young Avestan texts "crystallized" into their final shape, and the material began to be transmitted largely unchanged.[10] This crystallization may have occurred in the Achaemenid period (550 – 330 BCE), a consequence of Old Persian-speaking priests Magi (priests) who were not fluent in the Avestan language.[11]

However, some Young Avestan texts are considered to have altered after the major parts of the corpus had been fixed.[12] The alterations may indicate composition and redaction by people who did not speak Avestan, possibly after Avestan became an extinct language.[13][14] An example of late revision may be found in the Aban Yasht (the yasht was a Zoroastrian hymn of praise) dedicated to Aredvi Sura Anahita, an Iranian deity later known simply as Anahita. Anahita became popular under the Achaemenid kings, and some scholars argue that verses in the Yasht were added later, reflecting Anahita's popularity and a pronounced Near Eastern influence under royal patronage.[15] A particularly late date is often considered for the Vendidad. This text is assumed to have been redacted by an editor or group of editors who, while having only a limited command of the Avestan language, compiled a number of early Avestan sources, now lost.[16] Apart from such changes and redactions, the extant Old and Young Avestan texts were then passed on orally for several centuries until they were eventually set down in writing during the Sassanid period.[6]

Zoroastrian literature

See also: Religion:Bundahishn and Denkard

In addition to the canonical texts in Avestan, Zoroastrianism features a large literature in Middle Persian. The most important of them are the Bundahishn, a collection of Zoroastrian cosmogony, and the Denkard, a sort of "encyclopedia of Zoroastrianism". These contain texts said to be from the Avesta which are not present in the extant text. These texts are not considered scripture. A large portion of the Avesta became lost after the Islamic conquest of Iran and the subsequent marginalisation of Zoroastrianism.[17] The summaries of and references to these lost texts in the Middle Persian literature are, therefore, an important additional source on the Avestan period.[18]

Geography

Geographical horizon of the Avestan people during the Young Avestan period

The Old Avestan portions of the Avesta contain no geographical places names that can be identified with any degree of certainty.[19][20] Later Iranian tradition identifies Airyanem Vaejah as the home of the early Iranians and birthplace of Zoroaster. There is no consensus, however, on where Airyanem Vaijah was located, or even whether it was a real place or strictly mythical.[21] Attempts to locate the Old Avestan society are thus often on the assumed chronology of the text. Proponents of an early chronology locate Zoroaster and his followers in Central Asia or Eastern Iran, whereas proponents of a late chronology sometimes place him in Western Iran.[22]

The Younger Avestan portion of the text contains a number of recognizable place-names and references that can be identified with modern locations, allowing closer delineation of the Avestan geography.[23] It is generally accepted that these place names are concentrated in the eastern parts of Greater Iran, centered around modern Afghanistan and Tajikistan.[24][25]

Chronology

There has been a long debate in modern scholarship about the chronology of the Avestan period, particularly about the life of Zoroaster. While a relative chronology between the time of Zoroaster and that of his community in the Young Avestan period has been established with some certainty, opinions about its absolute place in time have changed considerably in recent decades. It is generally accepted that the Young Avestan period reflects considerable linguistic, social and cultural changes compared to its Old Avestan predecessor.[26] Scholars posit that such change can occur only over the course of several centuries.[27] Jean Kellens gives an estimate of roughly 400 years,[28] whereas Prods Oktor Skjaervo assumes that 300–500 years may separate Old and Young Avestan.[29]

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Approximate timeline of the Avestan period (estimates according to Prods Oktor Skjaervo[30]) vis-a-vis several regions inhabited by Indo-Iranian peoples from 1500 BCE to 0 CE. The range for the Old Avestan period represents an uncertainty range rather than a duration, i.e., Zarathustra and his immediate followers may have lived sometime during the indicated time frame.

Attempts to establish an absolute dating have resulted in two different chronologies, one late and one early.

The late chronology assumes that Zoroaster lived in the sixth century BCE. In this chronology, the Young Avestan period would have occurred in the Seleucid (312 – 63 BCE) or early Parthian period (247 BCE – 224 CE) of Iranian history. This dating accords with some Greek accounts of Zoroaster's life as well as with later Zoroastrian texts such as the Bundahishn. Scholars Walter Bruno Henning, Ilya Gershevitch, and Gherardo Gnoli all favored the late chronology.[31][32]

The early chronology, however, assumes that:

  • Zoroaster lived c. 1500-1000 BCE; and
  • Young Avestan was spoken c. 1000 - 500 BCE.[30]

An early chronology is supported by two general groups of arguments. First are the numerous strong parallels between Old Avestan and the early Vedic period of the second half of second millennium BCE.[33] Old Avestan and the Indo-Aryan Sanskrit of the Rigveda are very similar, suggesting relatively recent branching from their common Proto-Indo-Iranian ancestor.[34] Both the Avesta and the Rigveda depict a society of semi-nomadic pastoralists, who ride chariots, engage in regular cattle raids, and neither text mentions iron.[35][36] Second, the Young Avestan texts lack any discernible Persian or Median influence, indicating that the bulk of the texts was produced before the rise of the Achaemenid Empire in c. 550 BCE.[37][38][39][40] As a result, more recent scholarship now supports an early chronology for the Avestan period.[41][42][43][44]

This early chronology is also supported by an older Greek dating of Zoroaster's life which—while giving an implausibly early date of 6,000 years before the time of Xerxes (r. 486 – 465 BCE)—suggests that the Greeks initially placed Zoroaster in a remote past.[45]

Archaeology

See also: Biology:Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex, Andronovo culture, Yaz culture, and Tazabagyab culture
Archeological cultures associated with Indo-Iranian migrations during the Old Avestan period (c. 1500-1000 BCE)

Modern archaeology has unearthed a wealth of data on settlements and cultures in Central Asia and Greater Iran from the Middle Bronze Age to the rise of the Achaemenids.[46] Linking the data to the literary sources of the Avesta remains difficult due to the uncertainty of the texts' provenance, and any identification of a particular archaeological site or culture with descriptions in the Avesta runs the risk of circular reasoning.[47] Modern scholarship thus largely interprets the Avesta only within the broader outline of Iranian history, focusing in particular on the migrations of Iranian peoples. Through the late Bronze and early Iron Ages, these early Iranians moved south from their homelands in the Eurasian steppe. They entered southern Central Asia before eventually arriving in the Iranian plateau.[48]

The pastoralism in the Old Avestan material has prompted some scholars to connect Avestan with the Bronze Age Andronovo culture of the Eurasian Steppe.[49] Southern Central Asia has also been proposed as the geographical range of the Young Avestan period.[50] A shift from a pastoralist to a sedentary agricultural lifestyle between the Old and Young Avestan period, and the interaction of the Avestan people with pastoralist Eurasian nomads of the steppes, indicate a continued proximity to the Eurasian Steppe during the Young Avestan period.

Bronze Age southern Central Asia was home to an urban civilization called the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) which had long-range trade networks to the south. The middle of the second millennium BCE saw major transformations of the BMAC, with urban centers replaced by smaller settlements and a shift to a mixed agricultural-pastoral economy with strong links to the northern steppe regions.[51] These transformations are attributed to the arrival of the Iranian tribes from the steppe.[52] The Central Asian Tazabagyab culture in Khwarazm on the Amu Darya has also been proposed as a location for Avestan culture.[53] Some scholars equate Khwarazm with Airyanem Vaejah, which Zoroastrian tradition names as the early homeland of the Iranians and birthplace of the Zoroastrianism.[54] The Yaz culture, also known as Sine-Sepulchro or Handmade-Painted-Ware cultural complex,[51] has also been proposed as the historical Avestan culture. Like the Avestan culture, the Yaz culture shows evidence of the in-migration of steppe peoples, common farming practices, and—consistent with the Zoroastrian practice of excarnation—a lack of burial sites.[55]

Society

Old Avestan period

Reconstructed pit-house of the Srubnaya culture, an example of early Iranic steppe pastoralists.

The Old Avestan texts reflect the perspective of a pastoralist society.[56] The cow is of primary importance and considered sacred.[57] In addition to cattle, livestock like sheep and goats are mentioned in the texts. Hippophoric names like Vishtaspa, Pourushaspa and Haecataspa (āspa, 'horse') show the value placed on horses. In addition, camelophoric names like Zarathustra and Frahaostra (uštra, 'camel') show the importance of the Bactrian camel, an animal well adapted to the harsh conditions of the steppe and desert regions of Central Asia.[58]

Kinship is perceived as concentric circles, with the innermost being the family (xvaētu), followed by the clan (vərəzə̄na) and the outermost being the tribe (airyaman).[59] These kinship groups may relate to geographical distinctions, with the family sharing a home (dəmāna), the clan living in a settlement (vīs), and the tribe living jointly in a land (dahyu).[60] There is a clear delineation between priest on one side and warrior-herdsmen on the other. However, it is not clear whether the later group is further separated like in the related Young Avestan and Vedic societies.[61] In the non-Zoroastrian Old Avestan society, priests are generally called karapan, whereas an officiating priest is called zaotar (compare Sanskrit: hotar) and manthras are uttered by priests called mąθran (compare Sanskrit: mántrin).[60]

There is no mention of horse riding but several allusion to chariots and chariot races are made. The Old Avestan people knew metal working. Like the Old Vedic term for metal ayas, the meaning of the Old Avestan term aiiah is unknown, but it has been interpreted as copper/bronze, consistent with a setting in the Bronze Age.[62][63]

Young Avestan period

Colorized picture of farmers winnowing grain in Southern Iran, 1921.

The Young Avestan texts present a substantially different perspective. Society is now mostly sedentary and numerous references are being made to settlements and larger buildings.[64] Agriculture is very prominent and the texts name activities like ploughing, irrigating, seeding, harvesting and winnowing. Mentioned are grains like barley (yava) and wheat (gantuma). The Vendidad specifically states how "who sows grain sows Asha" and how it is equivalent to "ten thousand Yenghe hatam manthras". In addition, montane transhumance of cattle, sheep and goats is practiced and each September a feast similar to Almabtrieb (ayāθrima, driving in) is celebrated, after which the livestock is kept in stables during the winter.[65]

Young Avestan society has similar concentric circles of kinship; the family (nmāna), clan (vīs) and the tribe (zantu). Together with term for land (dahyu), they are related to the Old Avestan geographical distinctions. There is now a distinct tripartite division of the society into priests (Avestan: āθravan, Sanskrit: aθaravan, 'fire priest'), warriors (Avestan: raθaēštar, Sanskrit: raθešta, 'he who stands in a raθa'), and commoners (vāstryō.fšuyant, 'he who fattens cattle on pastures').[66] Despite the same division and the same general terms existing in the Vedic society, the specific names for priests, warriors and commoners are different, which may reflect an independent development of the two systems.[67] There is a single passage in the Avesta that names a fourth class, namely the craftsmen (huiti).[68]

Society appears to be very warlike and numerous references are made to battles with nomadic raiders.[69] Asking the gods for favors related to war is the most common request found in the Young Avestan texts.[70] Before battle, warriors apply protective magic to shield themselves from hostile weapons.[71] Some of these magic rituals, like using an amulet from a Haoma stalk or stroking one's body with a bird's feather, were also used by the Vedic people as described in the Atharvaveda.[72] The army is organised at the level of clans and tribes.[73] They march into battle with uplifted banners.[74] Chiefs ride chariots, while commoners fight on foot and warriors on horseback. Weapons include spears, maces and short swords.[73] There is no mention of logistics, and military campaigns were probably only organised on a small scale.[73]

In the Young Avestan society, a number of features associated with Zoroastrianism, like the killing of noxious animals, purity laws, the veneration of the dog, and a strong dichotomy between good and evil, are already fully present.[67] Great emphasis is placed on procreation, and sexual activities that are not conducive to this goal, such as masturbation, homosexuality and prostitution, are strongly condemned.[75] One of the most salient elements of the Young Avestan society was the promotion of next-of-kin marriage (xᵛae.tuuadaθa), even between direct relatives. Although it is not clear to what extent it was practiced by common people, it has been speculated that this custom was part of an identity-building process in which the customs of closely related Indo-Iranian groups were deliberately inverted.[76]

Arya and Iranian identity

The people of the Avesta consistently use the term Arya (Avestan: Template:Script/Avestan, airiia) as an endonym. In Western Iran, the same term (Old Persian: 𐎠𐎼𐎡𐎹, ariyaʰ) appears in the 6th and 5th century BCE in several inscriptions by Darius and Xerxes. In the inscriptions, the use of the word "Arya" already indicates a sense of a wider, shared cultural space; modern scholars interpret Avestan and Old Persian "Arya" as the expression of a distinct Iranian identity.[77][78] This identification of "Arya" with "Iranian" is, however, context-specific.

The term Arya (Sanskrit: आर्य, ārya) also appears in ancient India as the endonym of people in the Vedic period. The people of the Vedas—the oldest Hindu scripture, composed in Sanskrit—and the people of the Avesta share a wide range of linguistic, social, religious, and cultural similarities; scholars conclude that the two branched from an older Indo-Iranian people.[79][80] It is not known if these two peoples continued to interact after their branching, since neither the Avesta nor the Vedas make any unambiguous reference to the other group.

The Avesta also mentions a number of people with whom the Arya were in continuous contact called the Turiia, Sairima, Sainu and Dahi; all appear to be Iranian-speaking peoples.[81][82] The Turiia are the Turanians of later legends; they were said to live in Transoxiana, the Central Asian historical region between the Amu Darya (or Oxus) and Syr Darya rivers. The Sairima and Dahi have been identified with the Sarmatians[83] and Dahae[84] by linguistics; the identity of the Sainu is unknown. Scholars equate these peoples with Iranic nomads of the Scytho-Siberian world who lived in the steppe zone of northern Central Asia.[85]

Religion

See also: Religion:Zoroastrianism, Ancient Iranian religion, and Proto-Indo-Iranian paganism

Template:Contain special characters

Zoroaster was an innovator or reformer within the Ancient Iranian religion. There are no direct sources on the religious beliefs of the Iranian peoples before Zoroaster, but scholars use allusions from Zoroastrian texts and comparisons with the historical Vedic religion of Ancient India. Similarities in rituals of Zoroastrianism and the Vedic religion suggest a common origin in the Proto-Indo-Iranian religion.[86] The exact nature of Zoroaster's reforms remains a subject of scholarly debate, but the hostility described by the early Zoroastrian community suggests that the reforms were substantial.[87] A prime target of Zoroaster's criticism was the Iranian cult of the Daevas.[88] These supernatural beings appear in the Vedic religion and in later Hinduism as gods called Devas, and it is assumed that they had at some point also been the gods of the Iranian peoples.[89]

Old Avestan period

The major innovations attributed to Zoroaster are his introduction of a supreme deity called Ahura Mazda (Avestan: Template:Script/Avestan, the Wise One) or Ahura (Avestan: Template:Script/Avestan, the Lord), and the establishment of a strict cosmological dualism—the opposition of Good and Evil. Zoroaster's teachings contain both monotheistic and polytheistic elements.[90] There is no consensus on the origin of Ahura Mazda, who does not appear in the Vedic religion. Some scholars accept that the god may be a religious innovation of Zoroaster; others believe that the god is the Iranian counterpart of the Vedic Varuna; still others maintain that the god Ahura Mazda represents an early Iranian innovation distinct from the Vedic tradition.[91][92] The dualism expressed in the Gathas exist both within the contrast between Asha (Avestan: Template:Script/Avestan, truth) and Druj (Avestan: Template:Script/Avestan, deception) as well as between Vohu Manah (good mind) and Aka Manah (bad mind). While Asha and Druj have counterparts in Vedic Ṛta and Druh, both concepts have a more prominent and expanded role in Zoroaster's thinking.[93] The Gathas use the term "Ahura" for both Ahura Mazda and for some of the supernatural entities called Amesha Spentas associated with Ahura Mazda .[94] And as with the Deavas, these Ahuras have an Ancient Indian equivalent in the Asuras. During the Old Vedic period, both the Devas and Asuras were considered gods, but the Asuras became demonized in the Late Vedic period, a process that parallels the demonization of the Daevas in Ancient Iran.

Young Avestan period

The religious practices described in the Young Avestan texts exhibit elements that can be closely associated with Zoroastrianism. [95] The dualism of the Old Avestan texts was now expressed in the divine sphere as the opposition between Ahura Mazda (the Wise Lord), whose name is now fixed, and Angra Mainyu (Avestan: Template:Script/Avestan, the Evil Spirit), who did not directly appear in the Gathas. The most striking difference, however, between these and the Old Avestan texts are the numerous deities called yazata (Avestan: Template:Script/Avestan, one worthy of worship).[96] These deities add a pronounced polytheistic element to the religion.[97] Some of these deities have counterparts in the Vedic religion whereas others may be Iranian innovations.[98] There is no consensus on how and why these deities appear in the Younger Avestan texts. Scholars including Mary Boyce believe their emergence reflects a continuation of Zarathustra's teaching. In contrast, Ilya Gershevitch and others maintain that the Young Avestan Zoroastrianism is a syncretistic religion which emerged as a fusion of Zoroaster's monotheistic and dualistic teachings with the traditional Iranian polytheism that Zoroastrianism absorbed as it spread through the region Avestan.[99]

Avestan worldview

See also: Religion:Karshvar
Approximate location of the place names that form the Airyoshayana, i.e., the lands inhabited by the people of the Avesta in the Mihr Yasht according to Ilya Gershevitch.[100]

The people of the Avesta saw the world as divided into seven regions called Karshvar,[101] arranged concentrically. The central continent, called xvaniraθa, was their home. This is expressed in the "Mihr" Yasht (hymn), as the divine being Mithra climbs the mythical Hara Berezaiti to survey the Airyoshayana and the seven regions or "climes" of the Karshvar (Yt. 10.12-16, 67).[102] The mountain Hara Berezaiti occupied the center of the inhabited world; its peak was orbited by the Sun, the Moon and stars, and from it the mythical river Anahita flowed into a cosmic ocean called Vourukasha.

Contacts with civilizations of the Ancient Near East and later Ancient Greece would come to influence Iranians' changing worldview and geographical knowledge. The Sassanians (224 – 651 CE) often used a four-fold division of the Earth, inspired by the Greeks. An Avestan worldview persisted well into the Islamic period which followed the Sassanid, when Iranian scholars such as al-Biruni (973 – 1050) merged the science of a spherical Earth with the Avestan concept of Karshvar.[103]

Epic tradition

Illustration from the Shahnameh depicting the murder of Iraj by his brothers Sarm and Tur.

The Avesta contains numerous allusions to the poetry, mythology, stories and folklore of the early Iranians. The Aban Yasht, the Gosh Yasht, the Ram Yasht, the Den Yasht, and the Zamyad Yasht—together called the "legendary Yashts"—in particular contain a large number of such allusions.[104] The single largest source is the Bundahishn, a compendium of Zoroastrian cosmogony from the 8th or 9th century CE written in the Pahlavi script.

The long mythical history presented in the Avesta texts starts with the Pishdadian dynasty, followed by the Kayanian dynasty. The last of the Kayanians is Vishtaspa, an early convert to Zoroastrianism and an important patron of Zoroaster. Central to these stories is the conflict between the Iranians (Airiia) and their arch-enemies the Turanians (Turiia). The Turanian king Afrasiab and his attempts to steal the divine mystical power called Khvarenah feature in great detail.

Avestan characters like Jamshid, Fereydun and Kay Kāvus have counterparts in the Vedic Yama, Trita, and Kavya Ushanas, suggesting a common origin in the Indo-Iranian period. Some elements of the texts may contain historical information, such as the memory of kinship between the Iranian peoples expressed through three sons of Fereydun: Iraj (Airiia); Tur (Turiia); and Sarm (Sairima).[105][106] Early scholarship generally accepted the historicity of the Kayanians; more recent opinions diverge.[107]

Elements of these stories and characters recur in later Iranian texts including the Bahman-nameh, the Borzu Nama, the Darab-nama, the Kush Nama, and—most prominently—in the Iranian national epic the Shahnameh.

The influence of the Avestan period on Iranian literary tradition is substantial. Elton L. Daniel concluded that the Avestan period's "stories were so rich, detailed, coherent, and meaningful that they came to be accepted as records of actual events—so much so that they almost totally supplanted in collective memory the genuine history of ancient Iran."[108]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ This dating of the Avestan period reflects the opinion of recent scholarship. For a more thorough discussion of the chronology and other possible datings, see below.

Citations

  1. ↑ Skjaervø 1995, p. 158 "In view of the dearth of historical sources it is of paramount importance that one should evaluate the evidence of the Avesta, the holy book of the Zoroastrians, parts at least of which antedate the Old Persian inscriptions by several centuries".
  2. ↑ de Vaan & Martínez García 2014, p. 3.
  3. ↑ Hoffmann 1989, p. 90: "Mazdayasnische Priester, die die Avesta-Texte rezitieren konnten, müssen aber in die Persis gelangt sein. Denn es ist kein Avesta-Text außerhalb der südwestiranischen, d.h. persischen Überlieferung bekannt[...]. Wenn die Überführung der Avesta-Texte, wie wir annehmen, früh genug vonstatten ging, dann müssen diese Texte in zunehmendem Maße von nicht mehr muttersprachlich avestisch sprechenden Priestern tradiert worden sein".
  4. ↑ Schmitt 2000, p. 25: "Die Sprachform der avestischen Texte insgesamt ist nicht einheitlich; es lassen sich zwei Hauptgruppen unterscheiden, die nicht nur chronologisch, sondern in einzelnen Punkten auch dialektologisch voneinander zu trennen sind".
  5. ↑ Cantera & Redard 2023, p. 1: "The central part of this ceremony, the staōta yesńiia "the sacrificial praises" (the stanza known as the Ahuna Vairiia and Y28–54.1, except for Y42 and Y52), is written in a different language called Old Avestan (§ 1.1.1).".
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Skjaervø 2009, p. 46.
  7. ↑ Humbach 1991, p. 7.
  8. ↑ Hoffmann 1996, p. 34: "Doch sind einige zusammenhängende jav. Textstücke vor allem durch die Durchführung auslautender Langvokale (§5,2) dem Aav. oberflächlich angeglichen; man kann die Sprache dieser Stücke pseudo-altavestisch (=pseudo-aav) nennen.".
  9. ↑ Hintze 2014, "Like other parts of the Avesta, including Young Avestan sections of the Yasna, Visperad, Vidēvdād, and Khorde Avesta, the Yašts were produced throughout the Old Iranian period in the oral culture of priestly composition, which was alive and productive as long as the priests were able to master the Avestan language.".
  10. ↑ de Vaan & Martínez García 2014.
  11. ↑ Skjaervø 2011, p. 59: "The Old Avestan texts were crystallized, perhaps, some time in the late second millennium BCE, while the Young Avestan texts, including the already crystallized Old Avesta, were themselves, perhaps, crystallized under the Acheamenids, when Zoroastrianism became the religion of the kings".
  12. ↑ Skjaervø 1995, p. 163: "Finally, some parts of the Young Avesta, in particular of the Videvdad, exhibit grammatical features very similar to those of late Old Persian, that is, texts consisting of "correct words with the wrong grammatical ending"".
  13. ↑ Skjaervø 1995, p. 166.
  14. ↑ Schmitt 2000, p. 26: "Andere Texte sind von sehr viel geringerem Rang und zeigen eine sehr uneinheitliche und oft grammatisch fehlerhafte Sprache, die deutlich verrät, daß die Textverfasser oder -kompilatoren sie gar nicht mehr verstanden haben".
  15. ↑ Boyce 2014, "[T]here are others which appear to have been composed after the syncretistic identification of Arədvī Sūrā with the Semitic goddess Anaïtis. [...] The final version is linguistically harmonious; but the literary quality varies greatly, from some truly poetic lines in the archaic portions to the halting Avestan of the latest additions".
  16. ↑ Malandra 2006, "A review of the contents of the Vendīdād (see below) reveals that this is a quite heterogeneous work. Rather than the creation of a single author composing in his native language, the Vendīdād is the conscious product of a redactor (or redactors) who has assembled diverse materials from sources now mostly lost. [I]t is the piecing together of separately good Avestan phrases by someone who could not compose Avestan, yet who could produce, nonetheless, an intelligible statement".
  17. ↑ Hoffmann 1996, p. 36: "Nach dem Sturz der Sassaniden durch die islamische Eroberung (651 n. Chr.) kam über das Avesta eine Zeit des Niedergangs. In dieser "Nachsasanidischen Verfallszeit" gingen große Teile des Avesta verloren".
  18. ↑ Boyce 1990, p. 4:"Several important Pahlavi books consist largely or in part of selections from the Zand of lost Avestan nasks, often cited by name; and by comparing these with the Zand of extant texts it becomes possible to distinguish fairly confidently the translation from the paraphrases and commentaries, and so to attain knowledge of missing doctrinal and narrative Avestan works".
  19. ↑ Boyce 1996, p. 250: "The Fravasis are also honoured of individuals in the lands of Muzii, Raozdyii, Tanya, Auhvi and ApakhSirii. As has been said: "We suffer the torments of Tantalus with regard to these names, whose secret will probably always elude us". One can only presume that they belonged to regions in the remote north-east, at some distant time in the prehistory of that area".
  20. ↑ Grenet 2015, p. 21: "Does the Avesta contain any reliable evidence concerning the place where the "real" Zarathustra (i.e., the person repeatedly mentioned in the Gāthās) lived? The answer is no".
  21. ↑ Vogelsang 2000, pp. 49: "An additional problem is the question whether all the lands that are mentioned in the list refer to an actual geographical location, or whether in at least some cases we are dealing with mythical names that bear no direct relationship to a specific area. Such a point has often been brought forward as regards the first and the last names in the list: Airyanem Vaejah (No. 1) and Upa Aodaeshu Rahnghaya (No. 16)".
  22. ↑ Grenet 2015, pp. 22-24.
  23. ↑ Grenet 2015, p. 21: "Can we determine the regional and, to a certain extent, the archaeological context where his followers lived a few centuries later, before they entered recorded history? The answer is definitely yes".
  24. ↑ Witzel 2000, p. 48: "The Vīdẽvdaδ list obviously was composed or redacted by someone who regarded Afghanistan and the lands surrounding it as the home of all Aryans (airiia), that is of all (eastern) Iranians, with Airiianem Vaẽjah as their center".
  25. ↑ Vogelsang 2000, p. 58: "The list describes the lands which are located to the north, west, south and east of the mountains of modern Afghanistan".
  26. ↑ Daniel 2012, p. 46: "The society of the Avestan people was in many respects a simple one, but it changed considerably in the period from Old Avestan to Young Avestan times.".
  27. ↑ Hintze 2015, p. 38: "Linguistic, literary and conceptual characteristics suggest that the Old(er) Avesta pre‐dates the Young(er) Avesta by several centuries.".
  28. ↑ Kellens 1989, p. 36.
  29. ↑ Skjaervø 1995, p. 162.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Skjaervø 2012, p. 2.
  31. ↑ Shahbazi 1977, pp. 25-35.
  32. ↑ Stausberg 2008, p. 572.
  33. ↑ Bryant 2001, p. 130: "The oldest parts of the Avesta, which is the body of texts preserving the ancient canon of the Iranian Zarthustrian tradition, is linguistically and culturally very close to the material preserved in the Rgveda.".
  34. ↑ Humbach 1991, p. 73: "Though phonetically somewhat dissimilar from each other, Old Avestan (in its original form) and Vedic had not yet developed far from each other.".
  35. ↑ Boyce 1996, p. 14: "there is not a single simile there drawn from tilling the soil - no mention of plough or com, seed time or harvest, though such things are much spoken of in the Younger Avesta.".
  36. ↑ Schwartz 1985, p. 662: "It is a striking fact that in the oldest Avestan texts, the Gathas, which abound, as we have seen, in cattle imagery, there seems to be little or no reference to agriculture.".
  37. ↑ Skjaervø 1995, p.166 "The fact that the oldest Young Avestan texts apparently contain no reference to western Iran, including Media, would seem to indicate that they were composed in eastern Iran before the Median domination reached the area.".
  38. ↑ Boyce 1996, p. 191: "Had it been otherwise, and had Zoroastrianism been carried in its infancy to the Medes and Persians, these imperial people must inevitable have found mention in its religious works.".
  39. ↑ Vogelsang 2000, p. 62 "All of the above observations would indicate a date for the composition of the Videvdat list which would antedate, for a considerable time, the arrival in Eastern Iran of the Persian Acheamenids (ca. 550 B.C.)".
  40. ↑ Grenet 2005, pp. 44-45 "It is difficult to imagine that the text was composed anywhere other than in South Afghanistan and later than the middle of the 6th century BCE.".
  41. ↑ Stausberg 2002, p. 27 "Die 'Spätdatierung' wird auch in der jüngeren Forschung gelegentlich vertreten. Die Mehrzahl der Forscher neigt heutzutage allerding der 'Frühdatierung' zu".
  42. ↑ Kellens 2011, pp. 35-44 "In the last ten years a general consensus has gradually emerged in favor of placing the Gāthās around 1000 BCE [...]".
  43. ↑ Daniel 2012, p. 47: "Recent research, however, has cast considerable doubt on this dating and geographical setting. [...] All in all, it seems likely that Zoroaster and the Avestan people flourished in eastern Iran at a much earlier date (anywhere from 1500 to 900 B.C.) than once thought.".
  44. ↑ Foltz 2013, p. 57: "The archaic nature of the Avestan language and its similarities to that of the Rig Veda, as well as the social and ecological environment it describes, would suggest a date somewhere between these two extremes, but not much later than 1000 BCE.".
  45. ↑ Boyce 1996, p. 191: "The prophet himself must therefore have flourished centuries earlier, and this accords with the fact that the Greeks in the 6th century [BCE] learnt of him from the Persians as a figure belonging to immense, remote antiquity.".
  46. ↑ Lhuillier & Boroffka 2018.
  47. ↑ Skjaervø 1995, p. 158: "Of course, when we use archaeology and history to date the Avesta, we cannot turn around and use the Avesta to date the same archaeological and historical events, and vice versa.".
  48. ↑ Hintze 2015, p. 38: " Although it is currently not possible to correlate archaeological and linguistic evidence, the most likely model historically is that Iranian tribes were on the move southwards into Iran some time around the mid‐2nd millennium bce. The provenance of the Avesta and of the Zoroastrian religion would then coincide with that of the Avestan language and early Iranians, presumably in the area of Southern Central Asia.".
  49. ↑ Grenet 2015, p. 22: "All things considered, our chronological and cultural parameters tend to suggest locating Zarathustra (or, at least, the "Gathic community") in the northern steppes in the Bronze Age period, prior to the southward migration of the Iranian tribes, thus favoring some variant of the Andronovo pastoralist culture of present‐day Kazakhstan around c. 1500–1200 BCE.".
  50. ↑ Kuzmina 2008, chap. Archeological Cultures of Southern Central Asia.
  51. ↑ 51.0 51.1 Lhuillier 2019.
  52. ↑ Kuzmina 2007.
  53. ↑ Boyce 1996, pp. 3-4: "The linguistic evidence shows, moreover, that his home must have been among the Iranians of the north-east; and it is probable that his own people (known as the "Avestan people" from the name of the Zoroastrian scriptures, the Avesta) settled eventually in Khwarezmia, the land along the lower course of the Oxus.".
  54. ↑ Vogelsang 2000, p. 9: "The land of Airyanem Vaejah, which is described in the text as a land of extreme cold, has often been identified with ancient Choresmia.".
  55. ↑ Kuzmina 2007, p. 430.
  56. ↑ Daniel 2012, p. 46: "There is no indication that urban life or trade and commerce were of any importance in the Old Avestan period".
  57. ↑ Daniel 2012, p. 47: "The economy was primarily based on the herding of livestock; the people were pastoralists, cattle served as the basic unit of economic exchange, and the cow was venerated as sacred".
  58. ↑ Schmitt 1979, pp. 337–348.
  59. ↑ Skjaervø 1995, p. 167.
  60. ↑ 60.0 60.1 Boyce 2011, p. 63.
  61. ↑ Boyce 2011, p. 63: "In 1930 G. Dumézil put forward the theory that the tripartite divisions of Younger Avestan and Vedic society shared a proto-Indo-Iranian origin, despite the wholly different terminology".
  62. ↑ Skjaervø 1995, p. 168: "The original meaning of this word may have been "bronze," but its exact meaning in the Gathas cannot be determined".
  63. ↑ Witzel 1995, "The next major archaeological date available is that of the introduction of iron at c. 1200 B.C. It is first mentioned in the second oldest text, the Atharvaveda, as 'black metal' (krsna ayas, ́syama ayas) while the Rigveda only knows of ayas itself "copper/bronze"".
  64. ↑ Skjaervø 1995, p. 169: "Architectural imagery play an important role: colums supporting "towering" buildings, beams, porches, and so on, are a clear indication of a settled society.".
  65. ↑ Schwartz 1985, pp. 658-663.
  66. ↑ Schwartz 1985, pp. 650-651.
  67. ↑ 67.0 67.1 Boyce 2011, p. 66.
  68. ↑ Schwartz 1985, p. 651.
  69. ↑ Boyce 2011, p. 65: "During the course of these events the more warlike "Younger Avestan" society evolved.".
  70. ↑ Stewart 2007, p. 142: "Worship offered by named individuals is confined to the offering of gifts and praises in return for specific, personal boons, usually to do with war. In the Yafts there are more prayers to the gods for such things [...] than there are for any other benefits".
  71. ↑ König 2017.
  72. ↑ Sadovski 2009.
  73. ↑ 73.0 73.1 73.2 Shahbazi 2011, p. 489.
  74. ↑ Malandra 2018, p. 186 "Armies went into battle with upraised banners or standards".
  75. ↑ Schwartz 1985, p. 654.
  76. ↑ Daniel 2012, "Interestingly, many customs of the Avestan people seem to have been almost deliberately designed to reinforce a sense of identity as a people apart from the non-Aranys and even other Aryans".
  77. ↑ Kellens 2005, pp. 233-251.
  78. ↑ Gnoli 2006, p. 504: "The inscriptions of Darius I [...] and Xerxes, in which the different provinces of the empire are listed, make it clear that, between the end of the 6th century and the middle of the 5th century B.C.E., the Persians were already aware of belonging to the ariya "Iranian" nation".
  79. ↑ See wiktionary:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-Iranian/Áryas
  80. ↑ Bailey 2011, pp. 681-683.
  81. ↑ Boyce 1996, p. 104: "In the Farvadin Yasht, 143-4, five divisions are recognized among the Iranians, namely the Airya (a term which the Avestan people appear to use of themselves), Tuirya, Sairima, Sainu and Dahi".
  82. ↑ Schwartz 1985, p. 648: "While it is obvious that Iranian dialects were spoken throughout the East, and, as we have seen, a vast ares is regarded by the Avesta as Aryan, we find individuals bearing Iranian names who are classed as belonging to peoples others than Iranian (Airyas).".
  83. ↑ Bailey 2011, p. 65: "In the Scythian field there are two names to be mentioned. The Sarmatai are in the Avesta Sairima-, and there are also the Sauromatai. The etyma of these two names are somewhat complex. The Sarmatai survived in the Zor. Pahl. slm *salm (the -l- is marked for -l-, not -r-, Bundashin TD 2, 106.15).".
  84. ↑ Bailey 1959, p. 109: "A people called by the ethnic name Iran. daha-, now found in Old Persian daha placed before saka in an inscription of Xerxes (Persopolis h 26) has long been known. The Akkadian form is da-a-an for *daha-. The Avestan *daha- attested in the fem. dahi;- is an epithet of lands. Yasht 13.143-4 has the list airyanam ... tūiryanam ... sairimanam ... saininam ... dahinam ... From this we get : Arya-, Turiya-, Sarima-, Saini-, Daha-, as names of peoples known to the early litany of Yasht 13.".
  85. ↑ Daniel 2012, p. 52: "They also included tales of the Kayanian kings, culminating in the reign of Kavi Vishtaspa (Goshtasp) and the warfare between the Iranians and their natural enemies, the Turanians (probably nomadic peoples to the north of Iran, later identified with the Turks).".
  86. ↑ Gnoli 2012, "The highly ritualistic nature of the Vedic religion and of the religious world in which, by way of reaction and deliberate opposition, Zoroaster's message established itself, features a number of common points.".
  87. ↑ Foltz 2013, p. 61: "Apparently Zoroaster's ideas were often seen as a threat, since there are hints, in the Avesta and elsewhere, of his missionaries being persecuted and even killed.".
  88. ↑ Ahmadi 2019.
  89. ↑ Herrenschmidt 2011, " That they were national gods is confirmed by the fact that they were invoked by means of the Iranian versions of expressions common in Vedic rhetoric, for example, daēuua-/maṧiia-: devá-/mártya-, vīspa-daēuua-: víśva- devá-, and daēuuo.zušta-: devájuṣṭa-.".
  90. ↑ Boyd & Crosby 1979.
  91. ↑ Hintze 2015, p. 33.
  92. ↑ Kuiper 1976.
  93. ↑ Stausberg 2002, p. 95.
  94. ↑ Skjaervø 2012, p. 12: "In the Old Avesta, divine beings are referred to as "lords" (ahura, Old Indic asura), among them the heavenly fire, Ahura Mazdā's son, but they are mostly anonymous".
  95. ↑ Skjaervø 1995, p. 169: "In religion, for the first time, we find allusions to the cosmological myth well known from later times: the stages of the creation of Ahura Mazda; the attack of the aggressor, Agra Mainiiu and his coming through the division between the world of light and that of darkness. [...] We also have for the first time a description of the end of time, when Astuuat.areta will rise out of Lake Kasaoiia to banish the lie from the world of order ( Yt 19).".
  96. ↑ Skjaervø 2012, p. 12: "The Young Avestan term for "deity, god" is yazata, literally "worthy of sacrifices" (only male deities), which is an epithet of Ahura Mazdā in the Old Avesta (Yasna 41.3).".
  97. ↑ Hintze 2013.
  98. ↑ Skjaervø 1995, p. 169: "Numerous deities are invoked or simply mentioned, most of whom are inherited, but some only of Iranian date, such as the goddesses Ashi and Druuäspä, both of whom were worshipped in central Asia during the Kushan period (Duchesne-Guillemin 1962: 240).".
  99. ↑ Gershevitch 1967, pp. 13-14.
  100. ↑ Gershevitch 1967.
  101. ↑ Boyce 1990, pp. 16-17.
  102. ↑ Gershevitch 1967, pp. 79-80.
  103. ↑ Shahbazi 2012, pp. 519-522: "In due course and under the influence of astronomers, the seven climes came to be pictured as seven tracts of land above and parallel to the equator, each belonging to a planet and associated with one or two signs of the zodiac.".
  104. ↑ Hintze 2014.
  105. ↑ Boyce 1996, pp. 104–105: "The eponymous founders of the second and third groups figure with "Airya" in the Pahlavi tradition as Erec (older *Airyaeca), Tuc (*Tur(a)ca) and Sarm, who are represented as the three sons of Faredon among whom he divided the world. In the Book of Kings they appear as :Eraj, Tur and Salm, of whom Eraj received the realm of Iran itself, Tur the lands to north and east, and Salm those to the west; and ultimately the people of Tur, the Turanians, were identified with the alien Turks, who came to replace the Iranians in those lands."
  106. ↑ Kuzmina 2007, p. 174 "In Iranian texts, the idea about the kinship of all Iranian-speaking languages is reflected in a legend of how the ancestor of the Iranians divided the land between three sons: Sairima, the forefather of Sauromatians (who dwelt in the historic period from the Don to the Urals), Tur, from whom the Turians originated (the northern part of Central Asia was called Turan), and the younger son Iraj, the ancestor of the Iranian population (Christensen 1934).".
  107. ↑ Skjaervø 2013.
  108. ↑ Daniel 2012, p. 47.

Bibliography



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