Avesta

A context-semantic analysis of the use of the word ‘silver’ (Av. ərəzata-) in Avestan texts is carried out in the paper. There are 12 cases of its usage (Yasna 10.17; Yashts 5.129; 10.112, 125; 17.14; 19.67; Videvdat 7.75; 8.88; 14.11 (2); Aogemadaēca 17; 84). The analysis shows that the word ‘silver’ is used in several different semantic contexts, such as the ritual of Haoma (Yasna 10.17) and the purifying ceremony (Videvdat 7.75). Silver is associated with the concept of ‘brilliance’ and is represented in the descriptions of its various manifestations. The brilliance of silver is associated
with the idea of the sun rays manifesting themselves in the image of Mithra (Yasht 10.112), and of lunar splendour (Yasht 10.125). Beaver-skin robe of the goddess Arədvī Sūrā Anāhitā glistens like “silver (and) gold” (Yasht 5.129). The connection of silver with water is confirmed by its inclusion in Iranian hydronymics (Yasht 19.67). The combination “silver (and) gold” may be a metonymic designation for the concept of wealth (Yasht 5.129; 17.14; Aogemadaēca 84). The value of silver was lower than that of gold (Yasna 10.17; Yasht 10.125; Videvdat 7.74–75, 8.87–88; 14.11). Silver
is mentioned in the descriptions of the other world: the pantries of the righteous are filled with silver (Yasht 17.14), and the righteous deceased have silver clothes (Aogemadaēca 17).

Мифические горы, расположенные на севере, за которыми находится Северный Океан, нашли отражение в пись менных античных памятниках Греции и Рима, а также в индоарийских источниках: Ригведа, Махабхарата, Авеста, Бундахишн. Локализация Рипейских гор, вызывающая споры до настоящего времени, предполагает, прежде всего, географически обозначить Северный Океан. Ключевые слова: Рипейские горы, Каспийское море, Гирканское море, Северный океан, Кавказ.
The mythical mountains located in the North, beyond which is the North Ocean, are reflected in the written ancient monu ments of Greece and Rome and in the Indo Aryan sources: Rigveda, Mahabharata, Avesta, Bundakhishn. The localization of the Riphean mountains, causing controversy to date, suggests, first of all, to geographically designate the Northern Ocean.

Toprak, insanın üzerinde yaşadığı ve ona bağlı olduğu en eski ve temel unsur olarak kabul edilir. Bu nedenledir ki eski iktisadi sistemler toprağa bağlı bir biçimde şekillenmişlerdir. İnsanın yerleşik hayata geçmesiyle, toprak insan hayatında belirleyici olmuştur. Toprağın sahip olduğu bu önem nispetinde bir sisteme bağlı olması zorunluydu. Bu ihtiyaca binaen Eski Çağdan itibaren işlenen toprak, bir sisteme bağlı gelişerek belli bir olgunluğa erişmişti. Ortaçağ’da gelişen toprak sistemleri, Eski Çağın birikimi olan sistemlere dayalı olmuş ve bu sistemler revize edilerek günün koşullarında yeniden yorumlanmışlardır. Bu çalışmada insanın toprakla ilişkisi öncelikle birkaç edebi metin üzerinden tartışılacak, ardından dini metinlerden olan Avesta’nın toprak üzerindeki etkilerine bakılacaktır.

Pers mitolojisi ve efsaneleriyle ilgili elde edilen en eski bilgiler MÖ. 15. yüzyıla kadar gitmektedir. Arkeolojik verilerin dışında İran’ın tarihi ve dini inançları ile ilgili en eski bilgiler ise Rîg Vedâ ve Avestâ’da yer almaktadır.
Zerdüştlük, açığa çıkarılan dünya dinleri arasında en eskilerinden birisidir. Bundan dolayı da  insanlık üzerinde büyük bir etki bırakarak, Batı dinlerinin de gelişmesinde önemli rol  oynamıştır. Zerdüştler köken olarak Hint-Avrupa ailesinin torunları olan Proto Hint-İran halkının torunlarıdır. Zerdüştlük dini, tarihte önemli bir güç olan Akhaimenid İmparatorluğu (M.Ö. 550-330) tarafından benimsenmiş ve devlet dini haline getirilmiştir. Dünya çapında 200.000'den az takipçisi olduğu düşünülen Zerdüştlük dinin, İran coğrafyasında ortaya çıktığı  düşünülmektedir. Zerdüştlük dininin peygamberi olan Zerdüşt’ün yaşadığı tarih tartışmalı bir  konu olup, inancını 5 temel ilkeye dayandırmaktaydı. Zerdüşt, kötülük güçlerine karşı bir savaş ilan etmişti; iyi dini seçen her kişiyi kötülerle savaşmaya ve dünyayı kötülerden temizlemeye çağırıyordu. Zerdüşt’ün kutsal kitabı olan Avestâ, farklı dönemlerde kaleme alınmış ve en eski bölümünü Gathalar oluşturmaktaydı. Pers mitolojisi İslamiyet öncesi inanç, efsane ve özellikle de zerdüştlüğün düalist yapısı ile birçok tanrı ve olağanüstü yaratıkların hikayesini taşımaktadır. Pers mitolojisinde yer alan karakterler güçlü bir şekilde iyi ve kötü olanlar olmak üzere ikiye ayrılmıştır. Söz konusu olan iyi ve kötü anlayışı Pers mitolojisinde efsane, hikâye, figür ve motiflerde de sıkça karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Aynı zamanda İran kralları da kötülük ve ölüm güçleriyle savaşıp, İyiliğin kazanmasında önemli katkılarda bulunmaktaydılar. Bu konuda Pers imparatoru 1. Kserkses (M.Ö. 485-465) imparatorluk genelinde Daevaların tapımını
yasaklamaktaydı. Özetle bir Mazdeist, Ahura Mazda’yı seçerken kötüye karşı iyiyi, Daevaların dinine karşı hakikat dinini de seçmiş olur. Bundan dolayı da her Mazdeist kötülüğe karşı savaşmalıdır. İyi ve kötü arasındaki bu çekişme Pers mitolojisinde yaratılışın başlangıcında yaratılan Spenta Mainyu (Yardımsever Ruh) ve onun ikizi olan Angra Mainyu (Yıkıcı Ruh)
arasındaki mücadeleden kaynaklanmaktaydı. Zerdüşt dininin en önemli tanrısı olan Ahura Mazda ışığın ve iyiliğin sembolü iken onun tam karşıtı olan Angra Mainyu öfke, kıskançlık, kötülük ve karanlıkla özdeşleştirilmekteydi. Kutsal ateşi yaratan Ahura Mazda “Ameşa Spenta”
ismi verilen melekleri yönetirken, külleri yaratan Angra Mainyu ise “Daeva” ismi verilen şeytanları yönetmektedir. Angra Mainyu’nun bildiği tek şey Ahura Mazda’nın oluşturduğu düzeni ve yaratığı güzel şeyleri yıkmaktı. Bu yüzden kötücül güçlerin veya şeytanların lideri olarak tanımlanmaktaydı. Bu araştırmada, öncelikle Pers imparatorluğunun tarihi çağları elle alınmış, Zerdüşt dini ve Avestâ hakkında bilgi verilip, Pers mitolojisindeki iyi ve kötü güçler  arasındaki mücadelelerin Pers mitolojisindeki yeri ve yansımaları anlatılacaktır. Sonrasında  araştırmanın ana konusunu oluşturan Pers mitolojisindeki kötücül güçler tanımlanmaya  çalışılacaktır.

This essay’s aim is to show that monotheism is not a useful means of understanding Zoroastrianism, particularly in a historical sense, and that if any term is to be used polytheism is far more applicable.

Author's Note:
Let me make it clear that I consider Zoroastrians who identify as monotheists as being Zoroastrians and that Zoroastrian theology is more complex in its multi-tendency fashion than this paper has the capacity to explore. For now, as long as we use these terms in our academic and lay vocabulary, I am against using monotheism and instead stand for its "opposite" especially when it comes to Pre-Modern expressions of Zoroastrianism.

A major aspect of Zoroastrianism is how they discredited existing Iranian deities, and reused them in an expanded pantheon of gods subordinated to Ahura Mazdā. Their most difficult task was to find ways to reintegrate Apam Napāt (Apam Naphāt?), a deity who was perceived as the main rival to Ahura Mazdā, and the one who was initially branded as daeva. The subtle ways by which they achieved this is a testimony to their mastery in the art of sophistry, at a level seldom seen in the history of religions.

This article discusses the early Indo-Iranian Aryan religious schisms and how Zarathustranism was born from early Rig Vedic religion. The comparative analysis of pre-Vedic and post Vedic religion shows how close they were in their theologies.

Abstract
The close connection between the ancient civilizations of India and Iran has been explored by numerous scholars. Comparative philologists have shown the intimate connection between the Vedic and the Avestan language, and, therefore, argued for a link between the Indo-Iranian speakers with the Indo-Aryan speakers. That the history of the Vedic religion cannot be separated from its Central/West Asian prehistory is testified by epigraphs like the Boghazkoi Inscription mentioning some prominent Vedic deities. Michael Witzel has argued that, though the Ṛg Veda had been finally composed at the Panjab under Bharata-Puru patronage, there is a pre-Vedic Indo-Iranian level of composition embedded in it.
The present paper tries to explore the traces left by the Indo-Iranian connection on Indian mythology. Whereas the Ṛg Veda provides interesting information about the migration of some prominent Vedic tribes from Iran to India, the most notable legacy of the connection seems to be the myths formed around the conflict between the Devas and the Asuras. In Indian mythology, the Devas have been portrayed as divine and the Asuras as demonic, though a close kinship connection between the two has been acknowledged. The case is exactly the opposite in Iranian mythology where ‘Asura’ (Ahura) is the epithet of the Supreme God. Therefore, the mythic conflict between the Devas and the Asuras seems to be the reminiscences of an actual cultic confrontation between two groups among the Indo-Iranians. The paper locates this conflict as representative of the clash between two prominent priestly clans of the pre-Vedic and Vedic times, namely the Āṅgirasas and the Bhārgavas. While the Deva-worshipping Āṅgirasas – the most prominent priestly clan in Ṛgvedic poetry – seem to have been among the earliest migrants to India, the Bhārgavas – the clan that would later play a huge part in the construction of the Brahmanical tradition, by composing the Manu Smṛti and Brahmanizing the two epics – initially retained a pro-Asura sentiment. The paper shows how that conflict has been reshaped in the later Mahābhāratan legend of the clash between the Āṅgirasa Bṛhaspati, teacher of the Devas, and the Bhārgava Uśanas Śukrācārya, teacher of the Asuras. The legend is interestingly juxtaposed with the myth about King Yayāti and his five sons, deconstruction of which unmistakably reveals the history of the migration of the five famous Vedic tribes: the Yadus, the Turvaśas, the Druhyus, the Anus, and the Purus.
Finally, the paper also points out how Iran has possibly been a channel through which myths travelled from ancient Mesopotamia to India. A good number of Mesopotamian legends found their way into Indian mythology, including the famous myth of the ‘Great Flood’. The Harappans had a trade relation with the Mesopotamians. Still, the Indo-Iranian connection seems to be crucial in transmitting some of these myths. As a supporting evidence, the paper shows how the stereotypical portrayal of the Indian Asura is not derived from any Iranian model but from a Mesopotamian one. The Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh is the story of an all-powerful hero who wanted to attain immortality but was denied that privilege. In Indian mythology also, the Asura is usually an immensely powerful figure who strives hard for attaining the boon of immortality and goes very close, but is ultimately denied that privilege by the utilization of some loophole in the conferred boon. Gilgamesh was a hero in Mesopotamia, and ‘Asura’ was an esteemed epithet in the Mesopotamian civilizations. The epithet retained its positive connotation in Iran as well as in some of the early Vedic verses. However, gradually, the word ‘Asura’ received a demonic connotation in Brahmanical mythology. Still, the portraiture of the Asura is often more heroic than villainic. More often than not the Asura plays an ill-fated tragic hero in the legends, while the Deva appears as the deceptive victor. Not only does the pro-Deva Brahmanical tradition recognize the common origin and kinship affinity of the Devas and the Asuras, but also contains a disguised hint at the not-so-glorious role of the Devas in the conflict, when it imagines the wealth of the world as produced by the joint effort of the Devas and the Asuras in the Churning of the Milk Ocean and accepts that the Asuras were deprived of their rightful share by divine deception.
This paper explores ancient Indian myths to bring out these various dimensions of the cross-cultural journey of several symbols, ideas and memories, and shows how they are situated within the Indian mythological tradition in reconstructed forms. It also highlights the necessity of a macro-study comparing the various mythological and religious traditions of the ancient world for situating them in their context, since the boundaries among them have been much more fluid and the connections between them much more intimate than we commonly perceive.

Astrosophie ist ein auf Himmelskörperkonstellationen gerichtetes Reflexionsfeld vorzugsweise von Esoterikern und Okkultisten. In Bezug auf die gewöhnliche traditionelle Astrologie wird der Begriff seit Jahrhunderten in Abgrenzung zu Astronomie und Astrologie benutzt und publiziert und befindet sich bereits 1687 im Titel eines "wichtigen und einflussreichen astrologischen Werkes" als lateinisierte „Astrosophia“, nämlich in der „Universa Astrosophia Naturalis“ von Antonius Franciscus de Bonatti sowie 1737 in der "Astrosophia numerica in qua generaliter tabulae", von Angelo Capello. Der Ursprung des Begriffs Astrosophie geht in die Zeit der Sumerer zurück, hat in verschiedenen Fachdisziplinen Beachtung erfahren und wurde umfangreich publiziert. Veröffentlichungen u.a.: 1/2020 im Meridian Fachmagazin für Astrologie, 1/2020 Tattva Zeitschrift für Wissenschaft, Philosophie und spirituelle Kultur.

The monotheistic ideology that Darius imposed on the nascent Achaemenid state resulted in a religious revolution with far reaching effects, as it reverberated on two different levels. At the top level, the imposition of an omnipotent abstract god, Ahura Mazda,created a sharp reaction that led to the general massacre of the opposition termed as Magophonia by Herodotus. Several centuries of doctrinal development led to Zoroastrianism, a religion marked by the art of compromise and virulent rhetoric. While the Zoroastrian influence on Abrahamic religions has mainly been investigated in respect to borrowed concepts such as Paradise or Day of Judgment, its influence on the art of compromise and rhetoric has been neglected. So has been the influence of its underground opposition, organized as brotherhood. The underground opposition affected early Christianity, while the Iranian clergy influenced the Judaic priesthood. Together, they ended up affecting Islam.

In this paper I translate and interpret R̥gveda 1.143, which presents a newer and stronger vision of Dīrghatamas. In the arrangement of the surviving Śākalya recension of the R̥V, 1.143 belongs to the Dīrghatamas cycle, a group of 25 hymns traditionally attributed to Dīrghatamas. Vedic scholars have been frustrated about the hymn, and no consensus on its significance and meaning has been reached. It is a laudation of Agni and Apāṃ Napāt. I will show that the intertwining imagery of the hymn gives Agni a unique cosmological significance unparalleled in contemporary sacerdotal poetry.

This lecture discusses the major progress made in our understanding of the Avestan corpus/texts in the last years. Based on her recent publication co-written with Jean Kellens, L'introduction à l'Avesta, Céline Redard introduces the new vision of the Avesta, leading to the new editions currently undertaken. The important ritual aspect will also be underlined, with some concrete examples taken from her books The Srōš Drōn-Yasna 3 to 8, and The Gujarati Ritual Directions of the Paragnā, Yasna and Visperad Ceremonies (co-written with Kerman Daruwalla).

https://pourdavoud.ucla.edu/event/pourdavoud-center-lecture-series-celine-redard/

The Nērang ī ātaxš abrōxtan is a variant of the Ātaxš Niyāyišn to be performed when the flames of the sleeping fire are not visible. The Avestan texts makes explicitly reference to the action of "awakening" the fire confirming the existence in Avestan times of the ritual and the antiquity of the metaphor of the sleeping fire. It is further analysed the evolution of this ritual and the connections between eternal fire and haōma.

It gives a broad outline of the persistent presence of the Steppe Iranians in Persian history and culture, by bringing together two fields that have often been treated independently. After an overview of the history of interactions between Persia and the Iranian-speaking Steppe nomads, we will extend our attention to the Iranian national history to offer some insights on the myths and legends of the Shahnama that are originated from or influenced by the mutual relations between the Steppe nomads and the dynasties who ruled on the Iranian Plateau.

Keywords: Eurasian Steppes, Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Persian Empire, Iranian national traditions, Avesta, Shahnama

In this paper a new reconstruction of the text and interpretation of the fragment 580 Luria / B 30 DK is proposed. The author refutes the widespread opinion going back to Reinhardt (1912), according to which the fragment speaks of ancient sages, and argues that those who pray in the open air and call ‘Zeus’ air, are Iranian magi performing a Zoroastrian ritual. The fragment comes from the ‘Small Diakosmos’ of Democritus, which expounded the history of civilization and the origin of religion. For the reconstruction of the ancient phase of religion, Democritus uses the principle “as among barbarians now, so among the Greeks in ancient times”, which was widespread in the epoch of Sophists. The worship of the elements, preserved by the Persians, the absence of temples and statues, is a relic of the ancient phase of religion, which was replaced in Greece by the worship of anthropomorphic gods invented by the poets, a religion of “fools” (axynetoi).

The Indus Civilization, often denoted by its major city Harappa, spanned almost two millennia from 3200 to 1300 BC. Its tradition reaches back to 7000 BC: a 5000 year long expansion of villages and towns, of trading activity, and of technological advancements culminates between 2600 and 1900 BC in the build-up of large cities, writing, and political authority; it emerges as one of the first great civilizations in history. During the ensuing 600 years, however, key technologies fall out of use, urban centers are depopulated, and people emigrate from former core settlement areas. Although many different hypotheses have been put forward to explain this deurbanization, a conclusive causal chain has not yet been established. We here combine literature estimates on brick typology, and on urban area for individual cities. In the context of the existing extensive data on Harappan artifact find sites and put in their chronological context, the combined narratives told by bricks, cities, and spatial extent can provide a new point of departure for discussing the possible reasons for the mysterious "decline".

Oral et écrit dans l’Antiquité orientale : les processus de rédaction et d’édition. Actes du colloque organisé par le Collège de France, Paris, les 26 et 27 mai 2016, Thomas Römer, Hervé Gonzalez, Lionel Marti & Jan Rückl (éds.), Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 291, Leuven – Paris – Bristol CT (Peeters), 53-59.

As the deity associated with the sun’s glow or sun light, opposed to that of the astral body, Miϑra is the god of the liminal time, viz. the points of contact between day and night (that is, sunrise and sunset) and metonymically between summer and winter (that is, the equinoxes). Besides the well-known transformation of the Avestan liturgical calendar caused by the adoption of the Egyptian solar calendar, scholars have in recent years drawn attention to a further transformation in the liturgical calendar (for the first time H. Humbach in 2010): the expansion of the ritual divisions of the day from three to five. Later, J. Kellens pointed out the important role of Miϑra in introducing the division of the day starting with sunrise. In this paper, I will argue that Miϑra is not only associated with sunrise, but also with sunset, introducing Miϑra as the protagonist in the process that eventually led to the transformation of the ritual parts of the day. Moreover, I will show that the adoption of the solar calendar caused the transformation. Both processes are linked through a series of analogies between the day and the year around the axis defined by Miϑra: sunrise and sunset on the one hand and the two equinoxes on the other. I will also discuss Miϑra’s connection with both equinoxes. The autumn equinox is celebrated at the festival of Mihragān and corresponds to the Avestan festival paitiš.hahaiia-. With the vernal equinox begins the new ritual year with a series of celebrations that extend over the first week of the year. These celebrations are dedicated to the Aməṣ̌a Spəṇta, and in them the liturgical season of each asńiia- ratu- is introduced at a different day, thus connecting parts of the day with the conception of the year and even hemeronyms of the first week. In this context, I will also show that the standard Yasna, the Yasna with the dedicatory of Nōg Nāwar, in which Miϑra takes a prominent position, is originally the Yasna for the celebration of the opening of the new ritual year at the first sunrise after the vernal equinox. Other important actors of the reform are the Waters and the Frauuaṣ̌is in whose honour the other great seasonal festivals are celebrated and to which the longest Yašts are dedicated. Most likely, the reform of the liturgical calendar took place in Western Iran in Achaemenid times, perhaps concurrently with other significant changes such as the introduction of a permanent fire and the creation of a supra-national authority.

The discovery of the Sungai Batu complex by the Centre for Global Archaeological Research, Universiti Sains Malaysia in 2007 is of great significant in understanding the early civilisations in Malaysia. The complex was found during a scientific palaeoenvironmental reconstruction sutdy. A total pf 97 mounds were mapped and identified in 3km2 area that has great archaeological potential. To date, excavations at 16 mounds revealed ritual monuments, a riverside jetty built in the 2nd century CE, and iron smelting sites that were used from the 1st century CE. The discovery of the iron smelting industry in this complex showed that the Sungai Batu civilisation had an economic base. These new findings give a more holistoc and complete picture of the Bujang Valley civilisation and should lead to a significant re-evaluation of the evidence that has been accumulated since the 1840s. Based on the early research results, the Bujang Valley civilisation was thought to date as early as the end of the 4th century CE and to be primarily a Hindu-Buddhist site (Coedes, 1968). These new finds with chronometric dating (radiocarbon and OSL) allow us to re-write not onl the history of Malaysian civilisation but also that of the region. To date, the important discovery of a 110 CE monument meant Sungai Batu provides the earliest evidence of a monument (with chronometric dates) in Southeast Asia.

The Iranian language; Avestan and ancient Persian contains certain fundamental words and names that are still alive and widely used in other languages specifically in Indo-European languages that have also spread to other languages changing forms however in contemporary Persian they have either lost their meaning and no longer used or their meaning and purpose has changed. Adding to all this there are pronunciation and orthographic issues as well yet in some cases they can be used to compare the similarities that could uncover the root words or names. In this article several examples shall be introduced.

Avestan texts has been edited decontextualized. This is especially true for the so-called "fragments Westergaard". Most of them are parts of short rituals that were edited uncomplete and in a way that makes their understanding impossible. Here are edited complete and in their ritual contexts the rituals corresponding to FrW6 and 7, two sections of the preeliminaries of the performance of the LL.

The article provides a literary analysis of three Middle Persian tales: the Story of Jōišt ī Friyān, the Memorial of Zarēr, and the Explanation of Chess and the Invention of Backgammon. Similar to most works of Zoroastrian narrative literature, composed in the late Sasanian and early Islamic era, they are based on oral traditions and contain numerous references to personalities and events also familiar from other Iranian sources. But, different from comparable stories belonging to the same context and time, they are thematically closely interwoven with the Zoroastrian cosmological myth. The reason for this striking intertextual connection is sought in their authors' intent to provide didactic narratives for religious instruction to an audience hoping for eschatological deliverance from social oppression and spiritual evil.

In the younger layers of the Avesta and the subsequent Iranian religious and literary traditions, the daēvas are noxious supernatural beings. But this is not the case in the Gāthās, the metric compositions traditionally attributed to Zarathuštra and dating perhaps to late second millennium B.C. The poet of the Gāthās condemns the daēvas, but as deities worshipped by the members of his community. There are references, sometimes enigmatic, in these texts to the ritual devoted to these ancient Iranian gods. The ‘men’ who take part in the cult are said to pursue ‘immortality’ and engage in ritual rage, cruel treatment of the sacrificial victim, and consumption of drugs. The cult survived, and possibly thrived in some regions, in the face of the expanding Zoroastrianism to at least the Achaemenid period. There may have been accommodations on both sides. It is thus almost certain that there were reflexes of the cult in historical evidence. This article examines two such reflexes: nocturnal celebration and wolf sacrifice. These two features are anomalous in the perspective of normal Indo-European festivals and sacrifices. There is no reason to dismiss the authenticity of the reports that convey our evidence. What do they tell us about the daēva cult and the daēvas? I consider the evidence and try to answer this question.