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68-403: The Avestan term for the sacred thread is aiwyaongana . Kustig is the later Middle Persian term. The use of the kushti may have existed among the prophet Zarathushtra's earliest followers due to their prior familiarity with practices of the proto-Indo-Iranian-speaking peoples, and its Vedic analogue, the yajñopavita . Zoroastrian scripture and texts make various references to the usage of

136-630: A Parsi interpretation in the West, where they appeared to be corroborating Haug. Reinforcing themselves, Haug's ideas came to be iterated so often that they are today almost universally accepted as doctrine. Some scholars (Kuiper. IIJ I, 1957; Zimmer. Münchner Studien 1984:187–215) believe that Ahura Mazda originates from *vouruna-miθra, or Vedic Varuna (and Mitra ). According to William W. Malandra both Varuna (in Vedic period) and Ahura Mazda (in old Iranian religion) represented same Indo-Iranian concept of

204-556: A consistent representation of vowels) was the name used in place of Ahura Mazda. Via contacts with Turkic peoples like the Uyghurs , this Sogdian name came to the Mongols , who still name this deity Qormusta Tengri (also Qormusta or Qormusda ) is now a popular enough deity to appear in many contexts that are not explicitly Buddhist. The pre-Christian Armenians held Aramazd as an important deity in their pantheon of gods. He

272-464: A created spirit, one of two twin sons of Zurvan, their father and the primary spirit. Zurvanism also makes Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu of equal strength and only contrasting spirits. Besides Zurvanism, the Sassanian kings demonstrated their devotion to Ahura Mazda in different fashions. Five kings took the name Hormizd and Bahram II created the title of "Ohrmazd-mowbad", which was continued after

340-504: A guardian and watchman, the Dog-star . Twenty-four other gods he created and placed in an egg . But those created by Areimanius, who were equal in number to the others, pierced through the egg and made their way inside; hence evils are now combined with good. But a destined time shall come when it is decreed that Areimanius, engaged in bringing on pestilence and famine, shall by these be utterly annihilated and shall disappear; and then shall

408-476: A heretical and divergent form of Zoroastrianism , termed Zurvanism , emerged. It gained adherents throughout the Sasanian Empire , most notably the royal lineage of Sasanian emperors . Under the reign of Shapur I , Zurvanism spread and became a widespread cult. Zurvanism revokes Zoroaster's original message of Ahura Mazda as the uncreated spirit and the "uncreated creator" of all and reduces him to

476-530: A late Achaemenid temple at Persepolis , which invoked Ahura Mazda and two other deities, Mithra and Anahita . Artaxerxes III makes this invocation Ahuramazda again during his reign. In the Elamite language Persepolis Fortification Tablets dated between 509–494 BC, offerings to Ahura Mazda are recorded in tablets #377, #338 (notably alongside Mitra), #339, and #771. The early Achaemenid period contained no representation of Ahura Mazda. The winged symbol with

544-472: A male figure formerly regarded by European scholars as Ahura Mazda has been now speculated to represent the royal khvarenah , the personification of divine power and regal glory. However, it was customary for every emperor from Cyrus until Darius III to have an empty chariot drawn by white horses as a place for Ahura Mazda to accompany the Persian army on battles. The use of images of Ahura Mazda began in

612-831: A number of reasons for this shift, based on both the Old Avestan and the Young Avestan material. As regards Old Avestan, the Gathas show strong linguistic and cultural similarities with the Rigveda , which in turn is assumed to represent the second half of the second millennium BC. As regards Young Avestan, texts like the Yashts and the Vendidad are situated in the eastern parts of Greater Iran and lack any discernible Persian or Median influence from Western Iran. This

680-457: A series of events, his sons, later known as the World Soul , will, for the most part, escape from matter and return to the world of light where they came from. Manicheans often identified many of Mani's cosmological figures with Zoroastrian ones. This may partly be because Mani was born in the greatly Zoroastrian Parthian Empire. In Sogdian Buddhism , Xwrmztʼ (Sogdian was written without

748-575: A supreme "wise, all-knowing lord". In Manichaeism , the name Ohrmazd Bay ("god Ahura Mazda") was used for the primal figure Nāšā Qaḏmāyā, the "original man" and emanation of the Father of Greatness (in Manicheism called Zurvan ) through whom after he sacrificed himself to defend the world of light was consumed by the forces of darkness. Although Ormuzd is freed from the world of darkness his "sons", often called his garments or weapons, remain. After

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816-521: A way as to drive away their own best men; de Jong (1997) doubted that a Persian king would pray to his own national religion's god of evil, particularly in public. According to Plutarch, the king then made a sacrifice and got drunk – essentially a running gag on Persian kings in Plutarch's writing, and thus dubious evidence for actual behavior. Whether the Achaemenids were Zoroastrians

884-643: Is a matter of much debate. However, it is known that the Achaemenids were worshipers of Ahura Mazda. The representation and invocation of Ahura Mazda can be seen on royal inscriptions written by Achaemenid kings. The most notable of all the inscriptions is the Behistun Inscription written by Darius the Great which contains many references to Ahura Mazda. An inscription written in Greek was found in

952-532: Is an umbrella term for two Old Iranian languages , Old Avestan (spoken in the mid-2nd to 1st millennium BC) and Younger Avestan (spoken in the 1st millennium BC). They are known only from their conjoined use as the scriptural language of Zoroastrianism . Both are early Eastern Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian language branch of the Indo-European language family . Its immediate ancestor

1020-462: Is attested in roughly two forms, known as "Old Avestan" (or "Gathic Avestan") and "Younger Avestan". Younger Avestan did not evolve from Old Avestan; the two differ not only in time, but they are also different dialects. Every Avestan text, regardless of whether originally composed in Old or Younger Avestan, underwent several transformations. Karl Hoffmann traced the following stages for Avestan as found in

1088-566: Is classified as Eastern Old Iranian. But the east–west distinction is of limited meaning for Avestan, as the linguistic developments that later distinguish Eastern from Western Iranian had not yet occurred. Avestan does not display some typical (South-)Western Iranian innovations already visible in Old Persian, and so in this sense, "eastern" only means "non-western". Old Avestan is closely related to Old Persian and largely agrees morphologically with Vedic Sanskrit . The Avestan language

1156-571: Is cognate with Proto-Germanic *ansuz . Finnish Indologist Asko Parpola locates a borrowing from Proto-Indo-Aryan *asera- to the Uralic languages , with the meaning 'lord, prince'. 'Mazda', or rather the Avestan stem-form Mazdā- , nominative Mazdå , reflects Proto-Iranian *mazdáH (a feminine noun). It is generally taken to be the proper name of the spirit and, like its Vedic cognate medhā́ , means " intelligence " or " wisdom ". Both

1224-572: Is completed by reciting one Ašǝm vohū prayer, two Yaθā ahū vairiiō ( Ahuna vairiia , Ahunwar ), and an additional Ašǝm vohū . The third section, which starts with the declaration Jasa mē avaŋhe Mazdā , is the Zoroastrian confession of faith (MPers. āstawānīh ī dēn ); it also is titled stāyišn dēnīh “the praise of religion” in Pahlavi. The first line of this prayer is taken from the Yt . 1.27 and

1292-489: Is interpreted such that the bulk of this material, which has been produced several centuries after Zarathustra, must still predate the sixth century BC. As a result, more recent scholarship often assumes that the major parts of the Young Avestan texts mainly reflect the first half of the first millennia BC, whereas the Old Avestan texts of Zarathustra may have been composed around 1000 BC or even as early as 1500 BC. The script used for writing Avestan developed during

1360-502: Is known as the Nīrang ī kustīg bastan/abzūdan , or "rite for tying the holy cord," and it is recited as the kushti is retied. Ohrmazd Xwadāy opening Pazand prayer (up to pa patit hōm ) is a synopsis of the Kə̄m nā Mazdā prayer that came before it. A brief Avestan stanza that praises Ahura Mazda and scorns Angra Mainyu concludes this prayer, followed by a line taken from Y . 50.11. This section

1428-429: Is mentioned by Omar Khayyam , thought to have been the son of a Zoroastrian convert. For how long must I profess ignorance Heartsick am I of this distress The Magi's zonnar that I shall don, Do you know why? Of the shame in being Moslem This Zoroastrianism -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Avestan Avestan ( / ə ˈ v ɛ s t ən / ə- VESS -tən )

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1496-425: Is no source of light, they may face south, as it is believed to be the direction of Ahura Mazda's celestial home. Three sections make up the prayers that are recited during the ritual. The Nīrang ī pādyāb , or "rite for ceremonial ablutions," is the name of the first section. Kə̄m nā Mazdā prayer (which has its origins in Y . 46.7, Y . 44.16, Vd . 8.21, that is recited before untying the knots. The second section

1564-588: Is noticed, but it stopped within the Sassanid period. Zoroastrian iconoclasm , which can be traced to the end of the Parthian period and the beginning of the Sassanid, eventually put an end to the use of all images of Ahura Mazda in worship. However, Ahura Mazda remained symbolized by a dignified male figure, standing or on horseback, which is found in Sassanian investiture. During the Sassanid Empire,

1632-465: Is released and retied each morning. Most Parsis, especially those who reside in Western nations, continue to wear the kusht on a regular basis; Iranian Zoroastrians frequently wear it just during religious ceremonies to avoid being picked out for abuse by Muslims. The Kusti is carried in the hand at funerals to create a paywand or "ritual connection" between two people, such as corpse-bearers, who hold

1700-517: Is the creator deity and god of the sky in the ancient Iranian religion Zoroastrianism . He is the first and most frequently invoked spirit in the Yasna . The literal meaning of the word Ahura is "lord", and that of Mazda is "wisdom". The first notable invocation of Ahura Mazda occurred during the Achaemenid period ( c.  550–330 BC ) with the Behistun Inscription of Darius

1768-445: Is traditionally the first time Zoroastrians wear the kushti. Every man and woman who has been initiated into the faith must wear a kusti, according to Zoroastrian praxis. Each boy or girl dons a white undershirt (Pahl. šabīg , Pers. šabi , ṣudra , ṣedra , Guj. sudra , sudre ), and ties a kustig over it, which symbolises both the transition to adulthood and acceptance of responsibility for religious deed thereafter. The failure to wear

1836-575: The c.  12th century texts of Neryosang Dhaval and other Parsi Sanskritist theologians of that era, which are roughly contemporary with the oldest surviving manuscripts in Avestan script. Today, Avestan is most commonly typeset in the Gujarati script ( Gujarati being the traditional language of the Indian Zoroastrians). Some Avestan letters with no corresponding symbol are synthesized with additional diacritical marks, for example,

1904-493: The [holy river] Ganges ." The ritual of untying and tying the kushti is performed several times a day and is called nirang-i kushti . During this ritual, the individual must remain standing in one spot, and may not speak to anyone. If the individual speaks, the ritual must be restarted from the beginning. Owing to its religious significance, the kushti must be worn every day of a Zoroastrian's life. The kushti must be ritually released and retied with specific prayers following

1972-524: The /z/ in zaraθuštra is written with j with a dot below. Avestan has retained voiced sibilants, and has fricative rather than aspirate series. There are various conventions for transliteration of the Avestan alphabet , the one adopted for this article being: Vowels: Consonants: The glides y and w are often transcribed as < ii > and < uu >. The letter transcribed < t̰ > indicates an allophone of /t/ with no audible release at

2040-584: The Avesta , a collection of Zoroastrian religious literature composed in the language, the name of which comes from Persian اوستا , avestâ and is of obscure origin, though it might come from or be cognate with the Avestan term 𐬎𐬞𐬀𐬯𐬙𐬁𐬬𐬀𐬐𐬀 , upastāvaka , 'praise'. The language was sometimes called Zend in older works, stemming from a misunderstanding of the Zend (commentaries and interpretations of Zoroastrian scripture) as synonymous with

2108-407: The Indo-Iranian religion, he had not yet been given the title of "uncreated spirit". This title was given by Zoroaster , who proclaimed Ahura Mazda as the uncreated spirit, wholly wise, benevolent, and sound, as well as the creator and upholder of Asha . According to Zoroastrian tradition, at the age of 30, Zoroaster received a revelation: while fetching water at dawn for a sacred ritual, he saw

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2176-643: The Muslim conquest of Persia and through Islamic times. All devotional acts in Zoroastrianism originating from the Sassanian period begin with homage to Ahura Mazda. The five Gāhs start with the declaration in Middle Persian that "Ohrmazd is Lord" and incorporate the Gathic verse "Whom, Mazda hast thou appointed my protector". Zoroastrian prayers are to be said in the presence of light, either in

2244-464: The Persian army on battles. Images of Ahura Mazda, however, were present from the 5th century BC but were stopped and replaced with stone-carved figures in the Sassanid period and later removed altogether through an iconoclastic movement supported by the Sassanid dynasty . The most likely etymology is from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ḿ̥suros , from *h₂ems- ("to engender, beget"), and therefore it

2312-508: The Sasanian period ". The Avestan language is only known from the Avesta and otherwise unattested. As a result, there is no external evidence on which to base the time frame during which the Avestan language was spoken and all attempts have to rely on internal evidence. Such attempts were often based on the life of Zarathustra as the most distinct event in the Avestan period . Zarathustra

2380-403: The pādyāb purificatory ablution. This ceremony, known as the pādyāb-kusti , entails "making new the holy cord" (Pers. košti nav kardan ) or "tying the holy cord" (Guj. kustī bastan ). The devotee should look to the east from dawn to midday and west until sunset, (toward the sun) whilst untying and tying the kushti. They can face an oil lamp, a fire, the moon, or stars at nighttime. When there

2448-532: The 20th century. In both Iran and India, the kushti is usually produced by women from priestly duties. It has a dual function of a religious duty but also a necessity to augment the modest income of Zoroastrian clergy. Occasionally kustis, were woven by priests ( mobads ) themselves, though this is now exceedingly uncommon. Since the 1920s, non-priestly ( behdin) Zoroastrian women in Yazd province in Iran, were trained in

2516-592: The 24 chapters of the Visperad , and the sum of all tassels, which is six, represents the six gahambars (feasts). The kushti, was often considered to be a marker of Zoroastrian identity both in India and Iran, as this passage from the Rivayats shows. In these writings, the terms Iranian and Zoroastrian are synonymous, and Zoroastrian writers did not recognise their non-Zoroastrian fellow countrymen as Iranians until

2584-414: The 3rd or 4th century AD. By then the language had been extinct for many centuries, and remained in use only as a liturgical language of the Avesta canon. As is still the case today, the liturgies were memorized by the priesthood and recited by rote. The script devised to render Avestan was natively known as Din dabireh "religion writing". It has 53 distinct characters and is written right-to-left. Among

2652-453: The 53 characters are about 30 letters that are – through the addition of various loops and flourishes – variations of the 13 graphemes of the cursive Pahlavi script (i.e. "Book" Pahlavi) that is known from the post-Sassanian texts of Zoroastrian tradition. These symbols, like those of all the Pahlavi scripts, are in turn based on Aramaic script symbols. Avestan also incorporates several letters from other writing systems, most notably

2720-583: The Avesta itself, due to both often being bundled together as "Zend-Avesta". Avestan and Old Persian are the two attested languages comprising Old Iranian , and while Avestan was localized in the northeastern parts of Greater Iran according to Paul Maximilian Tedesco  [ de ] (1921), other scholars have favored regarding Avestan as originating in eastern parts. Scholars traditionally classify Iranian languages as "old", "middle" and "new" according to their age, and as "eastern" or "western" according to geography, and within this framework Avestan

2788-478: The Avestan and the Sanskrit words reflect Proto-Indo-Iranian *mazdʰáH , from Proto-Indo-European *mn̥sdʰh₁éh₂ , literally meaning "placing ( *dʰeh₁ ) one's mind ( *mn̥-s )", hence "wise". In Old Persian , during the Achaemenid era , the name was either depicted using the cuneiform logograms 𐏈 or 𐏉 (genitive 𐏊 ), or spelled out as 𐎠𐎢𐎼𐎶𐏀𐎭𐎠 ( a-u-r-m-z-d-a , Auramazdā ). In Parthian,

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2856-519: The Great . Until the reign of Artaxerxes II ( c.  405/404–358 BC ), Ahura Mazda was worshipped and invoked alone in all extant royal inscriptions. With Artaxerxes II, Ahura Mazda was gathered in a triad with Mithra and Anahita . In the Achaemenid period, there are no known representations of Ahura Mazda at the royal court other than the custom for every emperor to have an empty chariot drawn by white horses to invite Ahura Mazda to accompany

2924-566: The Kusti. The Avestan Yasna (10.21) claims that a holy sage by the name of Haoma Frmi introduced it. Contrarily, the Dādestān ī dēnīg (39.18–19) claims that it was first used by the legendary Pishdadian ruler Jamshid ( Yima xšaēta) , centuries before Zarathustra was born. Later, Ferdowsi al-Tusi would repeat this story in the Shahnameh . Other myths claim that Zarathushtra himself recommended

2992-459: The cord and undershirt is then considered a tanāpuhl (sin), because it leaves the wearer exposed to evil. The Šāyest nē šāyest (4.10) and the Nērangestān (67.11) equate not wearing the kushti to “scrambling around naked”. Ākā Adhyāru in the third of his sixteen slogans, considers it to be a "coat of mail armour" and writing for Hindu audience he compares the act of tying the kusti to "ablution in

3060-506: The destructive spirit. Angra Mainyu was the source of all sin and misery in the universe. Zoroaster claimed that Ahura Mazda used the aid of humans in the cosmic struggle against Angra Mainyu. Nonetheless, Ahura Mazda is Angra Mainyu's superior, not his equal. Angra Mainyu and his daevas , which attempt to attract humans away from the Path of Asha , would eventually be defeated. According to Plutarch , Zoroaster named " Arimanius " as one of

3128-479: The earth become a level plain, and there shall be one manner of life and one form of government for a blessed people who shall all speak one tongue. — Plutarch Scholar Mary Boyce asserted that the passage shows a "fairly accurate" knowledge of basic Zoroastrianism. In his Life of Themistocles , Plutarch has the Persian king invoke Arimanius by name, asking the god to cause the king's enemies to behave in such

3196-543: The end of a word and before certain obstruents . According to Beekes, [ð] and [ɣ] are allophones of /θ/ and /x/ respectively (in Old Avestan). The following phrases were phonetically transcribed from Avestan: Ahura Mazda Ahura Mazda ( / ə ˌ h ʊər ə ˈ m æ z d ə / ; Avestan : 𐬀𐬵𐬎𐬭𐬀 𐬨𐬀𐬰𐬛𐬁 , romanized:  Ahura Mazdā ; Persian : اهورا مزدا , romanized :  Ahurâ Mazdâ ), also known as Horomazes ,

3264-478: The entirety of present-day Afghanistan as well as parts of Tajikistan , Turkmenistan , and Uzbekistan . The Yaz culture of Bactria–Margiana has been regarded as a likely archaeological reflection of the early " Eastern Iranian " culture that is described in the Zoroastrian Avesta . It is not known what the original speakers of Avestan called the language. The modern term "Avestan" comes from

3332-513: The extant texts. In roughly chronological order: Many phonetic features cannot be ascribed with certainty to a particular stage since there may be more than one possibility. Every phonetic form that can be ascribed to the Sasanian archetype on the basis of critical assessment of the manuscript evidence must have gone through the stages mentioned above so that "Old Avestan" and "Young Avestan" really mean no more than "Old Avestan and Young Avestan of

3400-622: The first of Good Thought, the second of Truth, the third of Order, and, of the rest, one of Wisdom, one of Wealth, and one the Artificer of Pleasure in what is Honourable. But Areimanius created rivals, as it were, equal to these in number. Then Oromazes enlarged himself to thrice his former size, and removed himself as far distant from the Sun as the Sun is distant from the Earth, and adorned the heavens with stars. One star he set there before all others as

3468-509: The form of fire or the sun. In the Iranian languages Yidgha and Munji , the sun is still called ormozd . In 1884, Martin Haug proposed a new interpretation of Yasna 30.3 that subsequently influenced Zoroastrian doctrine significantly. According to Haug's interpretation, the "twin spirits" of 30.3 were Angra Mainyu and Spenta Mainyu, the former being literally the "Destructive Spirit" and

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3536-603: The kusti between them, while the Zoroastrian mourners, also in similar paywand , follow them in procession. There is some evidence to suggest that such girdles were worn by non-Muslims in general, including Christians, as a symbol to mark them out from Muslims. An exception to this would be the Muslim Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great , who was invested with a kusti and sedreh by the Zoroastrian Parsi community of Gujarat . The kushti (zonnar)

3604-512: The kusti is about 30 cm long during the weaving process, it is taken off the loom and presented to the priest to be blessed and cut. The kusti is given back to the weavers once the ceremony is over so they can finish knitting the remaining portion. In keeping with Zoroastrian philosophy exalting happiness, the process of weaving the kushti is a joyous activity during which the women sing songs, laugh and share stories, both religious and secular. The navjote/sedra-pušun ceremony of initiation

3672-507: The latter being the "Bounteous Spirit" (of Ahura Mazda). Further, in Haug's scheme, Angra Mainyu was now not Ahura Mazda's binary opposite, but—like Spenta Mainyu—an emanation of Him. Haug also interpreted the concept of a free will of Yasna 45.9 as an accommodation to explain where Angra Mainyu came from since Ahura Mazda created only good. The free will made it possible for Angra Mainyu to choose to be evil. Although these latter conclusions were not substantiated by Zoroastrian tradition, at

3740-666: The name of the Greek ruler of the underworld used most commonly in texts and inscriptions pertaining to the mystery religions , and in Greek dramatists and philosophers of Athens in the Classical period . Turcan notes that Plutarch makes of Arimanius "a sort of tenebrous Pluto". Plutarch, however, names the Greek god as Hades , not the name Plouton used in the Eleusinian tradition ("The Hidden One") and darkness. The Arimanius ritual required an otherwise-unknown plant that Plutarch calls " omomi " ( Haoma or Soma ), which

3808-400: The name was written as 𐭀𐭇𐭅𐭓𐭌𐭆𐭃 ( ʾḥwrmzd , Ahurmazd ), while 𐭠𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭬𐭦𐭣𐭩 ( ʾwhrmzdy , Ōhramazdē ) was the Middle Persian term used during the Sassanid era . The name may be attested on cuneiform tablets of Assyrian Assurbanipal , in the form Assara Mazaš , but that interpretation is very controversial. Even though it is speculated that Ahura Mazda was a spirit in

3876-554: The practise to those who listened to his sermons ( Rehbar-e Din-e Jarthushti 5) . The kushti is worn wound three times around the waist. It is tied twice in a double knot in the front and back, the ends of the kushti hanging on the back. The kushti is made of 72 fine, white and woolen threads, which represent the 72 chapters of the Yasna , the primary liturgical collection of texts of the Avesta . The kushti also has 3 tassels, each with 24 threads, at each end. These 24 threads indicate

3944-570: The procedure of weaving the kushti. Navsari , a former stronghold of Zoroastrianism became very well known for supplying kushtis to other Zoroastrians in India as well as across the diaspora. Zoroastrian students at the Tata Girls’ School at Navsari are still instructed how to weave kushtis. Traditionally Parsi women would be taught the unique skill from their elders, Najamai M. Kotwal, the mother of High Priest (Vada Dastur) Firoze M. Kotwal notably taught Parsi women for almost thirty years. When

4012-408: The remaining portion from Y . 12.8-9. It is concluded with the repetition of one Ašǝm vohū . The padyab-kusht ceremony is required to restore the ritual effectiveness of the kusht before engaging in other religious activities like visiting a fire temple, as well as following sexual activity, urinating, and defecating. At the start of the other watches or divisions (MPers. and Pers. gh) of the day, it

4080-728: The shining figure of the Amesha Spenta , Vohu Manah , who led Zoroaster to the presence of Ahura Mazda, where he was taught the cardinal principles of the "Good Religion" later known as Zoroastrianism . As a result of this vision, Zoroaster felt that he was chosen to spread and preach the religion. He stated that this source of all goodness was the Ahura, worthy of the highest worship. He further stated that Ahura Mazda created spirits known as yazata s to aid him. Zoroaster proclaimed that some Iranian gods were daevas who deserved no worship. These "bad" deities were created by Angra Mainyu ,

4148-768: The time, Haug's interpretation was gratefully accepted by the Parsis of Bombay since it provided a defense against Christian missionary rhetoric, particularly the attacks on the Zoroastrian idea of an uncreated Evil that was as uncreated as God was. Following Haug, the Bombay Parsis began to defend themselves in the English-language press. The argument was that Angra Mainyu was not Mazda's binary opposite but his subordinate, who—as in Zurvanism also— chose to be evil. Consequently, Haug's theories were disseminated as

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4216-468: The two rivals who were the artificers of good and evil. In terms of sense perception, Oromazes was to be compared to light, and Arimanius to darkness and ignorance; between these was Mithras the Mediator. Arimanius received offerings that pertained to warding off evil and mourning . In describing a ritual to Arimanius, Plutarch says the god was invoked as Hades gives the identification as Pluto ,

4284-432: The vowels, which are mostly derived from Greek minuscules. A few letters were free inventions, as were also the symbols used for punctuation. Also, the Avestan alphabet has one letter that has no corresponding sound in the Avestan language; the character for /l/ (a sound that Avestan does not have) was added to write Pazend texts. The Avestan script is alphabetic , and the large number of letters suggests that its design

4352-468: The western satraps of the Achaemenid Empire in the late 5th century BC. Under Artaxerxes II, the first literary reference, as well as a statue of Ahura Mazda, was built by a Persian governor of Lydia in 365 BC. It is known that the reverence for Ahura Mazda, as well as Anahita and Mithra, continued with the same traditions during this period. The worship of Ahura Mazda with symbolic images

4420-462: Was due to the need to render the orally recited texts with high phonetic precision. The correct enunciation of the liturgies was (and still is) considered necessary for the prayers to be effective. The Zoroastrians of India, who represent one of the largest surviving Zoroastrian communities worldwide, also transcribe Avestan in Brahmi -based scripts. This is a relatively recent development first seen in

4488-562: Was the Proto-Iranian language , a sister language to the Proto-Indo-Aryan language , with both having developed from the earlier Proto-Indo-Iranian language ; as such, Old Avestan is quite close in both grammar and lexicon to Vedic Sanskrit , the oldest preserved Indo-Aryan language . The Avestan text corpus was composed in the ancient Iranian satrapies of Arachosia , Aria , Bactria , and Margiana , corresponding to

4556-460: Was to be pounded in a mortar and mixed with the blood of a sacrificed wolf. The substance was then carried to a place " where the sun never shines " and cast therein. He adds that "water-rats" belong to this god, and therefore proficient rat-killers are fortunate men. Plutarch then gives a cosmogonical myth: Oromazes, born from the purest light, and Areimanius, born from darkness, are constantly at war with each other; and Oromazes created six gods,

4624-501: Was traditionally based in the 6th century BC meaning that Old Avestan would have been spoken during the early Achaemenid period . Given that a substantial time must have passed between Old Avestan and Young Avestan, the latter would have been spoken somewhere during the Hellenistic or the Parthian period of Iranian history. However, more recent scholarship has increasingly shifted to an earlier dating. The literature presents

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