Dr. V.K.Maheshwari, M.A(Socio, Phil) B.Sc. M. Ed, Ph.D
Former Principal, K.L.D.A.V.(P.G) College, Roorkee, India
Many languages have been used in the long history of Persia. The speech of the court and the nobility in the days of Darius I was Old Persian so closely related to Sanskrit that evidently both were once dialects of an older tongue, and were cousins to our own. The languages of the Zoroastrian scriptures, the Avesta, and the Hindu scriptures, the Rig Veda, are classified by linguists as part of the Indo-Iranian family of languages. Prof. Hermann Brunnhofer title durgeschichte der Arier in Vorder- und Centralasien (Prehistory of the Aryans in West- and Central-Asia), 1893.stated “the Bactrian (i.e. Avestan) is so (greatly) related to the Old-Indian language (Vedic), and in particular, that of the Vedas, that without exaggeration it can be called a dialect thereof.” The oldest language or dialect in the Avesta, the language of the Gathas and the Yasna Haptanghaiti, is close to the language used in the Rig Veda, the older Hindu scriptures. The people who spoke the Indo-Iranian languages are in turn called the Indo-Iranian peoples. For example:
Old Persian/ Sanskrit
Pitar / pitar , nama / nama , napat / napat , bar / bhri , matar / matar , bratar / bhratar,
eta / stha
The following is an example of the closeness of the Avestan and Vedic (Sanskrit) languages:
Old Iranian/Avestan: aevo pantao yo ashahe, vispe anyaesham apantam (Yasna 72.11)
Old Indian/Sanskrit: abade pantha he ashae, visha anyaesham apantham
Translation: the one path is that of Asha, all others are not-paths.
[The Vedic-Sanskrit translation of the Avestan was provided to this writer by Dr. Satyan Banerjee.]
Old Persian developed on the one hand into Zend the language of the Zend-Avesta and on the other hand into Pahlavi, a Hindu tongue from which has come the Persian language of to- day.”
Grammatically there is little difference between the languages of the Avesta and the Vedas. Both languages underwent systematic phonetic change. However, according to Thomas-Burrow, in his book, The Sanskrit Language. “It is quite possible to find verses in the oldest portion of the Avesta, which simply by phonetic substitutions according to established laws can be turned into intelligible Sanskrit.”
At some point in history, the oral Avestan texts were committed to writing. The first record of a written text of the Avesta comes from the Middle Persian language (Pahlavi) writer Arda Viraf, in his book the Arda Viraf Nameh. In it, he writes that the the Persian Achaemenian kings (c. 700 – 300 BCE) commissioned the commitment of the Avesta to writing and deposited the texts in the royal library at Istakhr. “…the entire Avesta and Zand, written on parchment with gold ink, were deposited in the archives at Stakhar Papakan (Istakhr, near Persepolis and Shiraz in Pars province), … and the invader Alexander of Macedonia… burned them. He also killed several judges, dasturs, mobeds, herbads and other upholders of the religion, as well as the competent and wise of the country of Iran” (in an attempt to destroy the oral tradition as well). After the overthrow of the Macedonian occupation, surviving information was collected and the texts were reassembled as best as possible.
Persian legend tells how, many hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, a great prophet appeared in Airyana-vaejo, the ancient “home of the Aryans.” His people called him Zarathustra; but the Greeks, who could never bear the orthography of the “barbarians” patiently, called him Zoroastres. As far as the timeline for Zoroaster’s life. Greek sources placed him as early as 6000 BC. The traditional Zoroastrian date for Zarathushtra’s birth and ministry is around 600 B.C. This is derived from a Greek source that places him “300 years before Alexander” which would give that date; other rationales for the 600 BC date identify the King Vishtaspa of Zarathushtra’s Gathas with the father of the Persian King Darius, who lived around that time. According to the Zend Avesta, the sacred book of Zoroastrianism, Zoroaster was born in Azerbaijan, in northern Persia. The name Zarathustra is a Bahuvrihi compound in the Avestan language, of zarata- “feeble, old” and usatra “camel”, translating to “having old camels, the one who owns old camels”. The first part of the name was formerly commonly translated as “yellow” or “golden”, from the Avestan “zaray”, giving the meaning “having yellow camels”. The later Zoroastrians, perhaps embarrassed by their prophet’s primitive-sounding name, said that the name meant “Golden Light,” deriving their meaning from the word ‘zara’ and the word ‘ushers’, light or dawn. There is no doubt about Zarathushtra’s clan name, which is Spitama – perhaps meaning “white.” Zarathushtra’s father was named Pouruchaspa (many horses) and his mother was named Dughdova (milkmaid). . With his wife, Huvovi, Zoroaster had three sons, Isat Vastar, Uruvat-Nara and Hvare Cira and three daughters, Freni, Pourucista and Triti. His wife, children and a cousin named Maidhyoimangha, were his first converts after his illumination from Ahura Mazda at age 30.
Ancient alien theorists believe Zarathustra was the son of an alien god named who went by the name Ahura Mazda in this scenario. Scholars believe Zoroaster was a priest and a prophet. Linked to the Magi, he was considered a magian. In Zoroaster images he appears with a mace, the varza (Similar to the wepon Vajra of Indian Vedic god Indra)- usually stylized as a steel rod crowned by a bull’s head – that priests carry in their installation ceremony. In other depictions he appears with a raised hand and thoughtfully lifted finger, as if to make a point. Zoroaster is rarely depicted as looking directly at the viewer; instead, he appears to be looking slightly upwards, as if beseeching. Zoroaster is almost always depicted with a beard, this along with other factors bear similarities to 19th century portraits of Jesus.
No one knows how Zarathushtra died, allegedly at age 77. Many legends, and Zoroastrian tradition, say that he was killed, while praying in the sanctuary, by a foreign enemy of the king. But there is no holiday commemorating the martyrdom of the Prophet, as there would be in other religions and other Zoroastrian traditions, and scholars, say that Zarathushtra died peacefully.His birthday is celebrated on March 21, as part of the Persian New Year Festival.
Elements of Zoroastrian philosophy entered the West through their influence on Judaism and Middle Platonism and have been identified as one of the key early events in the development of philosophy. Among the classic Greek philosophers, Heraclitus is often referred to as inspired by Zoroaster’s thinking. Contemporary Zoroastrians often point to the similarities between Zoroaster’s philosophy and the ideas of Baruch Spinoza. He was very influential.
Zoroaster’s teachings, as noted above, centered on Ahura Mazda, who is the highest god and alone is worthy of worship. He is, according to the Gathas, the creator of heaven and earth; i.e., of the material and the spiritual world. He is the source of the alternation of light and darkness, the sovereign lawgiver, and the very centre of nature, as well as the originator of the moral order and judge of the entire world. The kind of polytheism found in the Indian Vedas (Hindu scriptures having the same religious background as the Gathas) is totally absent; the Gathas, for example, mention no female deity sharing Ahura Mazda’s rule.
He is surrounded by six or seven beings, or entities, which the later Avesta calls amesha spentas, “beneficent immortals.” The names of the amesha spentas frequently recur throughout the Gathas and may be said to characterize Zoroaster’s thought and his concept of god. In the words of the Gathas, Ahura Mazda is the father of Spenta Mainyu (Holy Spirit), of Asha Vahishta (Justice, Truth), of Vohu Manah (Righteous Thinking), and of Armaiti (Spenta Armaiti, Devotion).
The other three beings (entities) of this group are said to personify qualities attributed to Ahura Mazda: they are Khshathra Vairya (Desirable Dominion), Haurvatat (Wholeness), and Ameretat (Immortality). This does not exclude the possibility that they, too, are creatures of Ahura Mazda. The good qualities represented by these beings are also to be earned and possessed by Ahura Mazda’s followers.
This means that the gods and mankind are both bound to observe the same ethical principles. If the amesha spentas show the working of the deity, while at the same time constituting the order binding the adherents of the Wise Lord, then the world of Ahura Mazda and the world of his followers (the ashavan) come close to each other.
His conception was divine: his guardian angel entered into an haoma plant,(similar to Some Rasa in Ancient India) and passed with its juice into the body of a priest as the latter offered divine sacrifice; at the same time a ray of heaven’s glory entered the bosom of a maid of noble lineage. The priest espoused the maid, the imprisoned angel mingled with the imprisoned ray, and Zarathustra began to be. He laughed aloud on the very day of his birth, and the evil spirits that gather around every life fled from him in tumult and terror.” Out of his great love for wisdom and righteousness he withdrew from the society of men, and chose to live in a mountain wilderness on cheese and the fruits of the soil. The Devil tempted him, but to no avail. His breast was pierced with a sword, and his entrails were filled with molten lead; he did not complain, but clung to his faith in Ahura- Mazda the Lord of Light as supreme god. Ahura-Mazda appeared to him and gave into his hands the Avesta, or Book of Knowledge and Wisdom, and bade him preach it to mankind. For a long time all the world ridiculed and persecuted him; but at last a high prince of Iran Vishtaspa or Hystaspcs heard him gladly, and promised to spread the new faith among his people. Thus was the Zoroastrian religion born. Zarathustra himself lived to a very old age, was consumed in a flash of lightning, and ascended into heaven.” We cannot tell how much of his story is true; perhaps some Josiah discovered him. The Greeks accepted him as historical, and honoured him with an antiquity of 5500 years before their time; M Berosus the Babylonian brought him down to 2000 B.C.; 07 modern historians, when they believe in his existence, assign him to any century between the tenth and the sixth before Christ. ( If the Vishtaspa who promulgated him was the father of Darius I, the last of these dates seems the most probable.)
Zoroaster sees the human condition as the mental struggle between asa (truth) and druj (lie). The cardinal concept of asa – which is highly nuanced and only vaguely translatable – is at the foundation of all Zoroastrian doctrine, including that of Ahura Mazda (who is asa), creation (that is asa), existence (that is asa) and as the condition for Free Will, which is arguably Zoroaster’s greatest contribution to religious philosophy.
When he appeared, among the ancestors of the Medes and the Persians, he found his people worshiping animals, ancestors, the earth and the sun, in a religion having many elements and deities in common with the Hindus of the Vedic age. The chief divinities of this pre-Zoroastrian faith were Mithra, god of the sun, Anaita, goddess of fertility and the earth, and Haoma the bull-god who, dying, rose again, and gave mankind his blood as a drink that would confer immortality; him the early Iranians worshiped by drinking the intoxicating juice of the haama herb found on their mountain slopes. Zarathustra was shocked at these primitive deities and this Dionysian ritual; he rebelled against the “Magi” or priests who prayed and sacrificed to them; and with all the bravery of his contemporaries Amos and Isaiah he announced to the world one God here Ahura-Mazda, the Lord of Light and Heaven, of whom all other gods were but manifestations and qualities. Perhaps Darius I, who accepted the new doctrine, saw in it a faith that would both inspire his people and strengthen his government. From the moment of his accession he declared war upon the old cults and the Magician priesthood, and made Zoroastrianism the religion of the state.
The Bible of the new faith was the collection of books in which the disciples of the Master had gathered his sayings and his prayers. Later followers called these books Avesta; by the error of a modern scholar they are known to the Occidental world as the Zend-Avesta derived.( Anquetil-Duperron (ca. 1771 A.D.) introduced the prefix Zend, which the Persians had used to denote merely a translation and interpretation of the Avesta. The last is a word of uncertain origin, probably, like Veda, from the Aryan root v id, to know. )
The contemporary non-Persian reader is terrified to find that the substantial volumes that survive, though much shorter than our Bible, are but a small fraction of the revelation vouchsafed to Zarathustra by his god.
Ahura Mazda (also known as Ohrmazd, Ahuramazda, Hormazd, and Aramazd) is the Avestan name for a divinity of the Old Iranian religion who was proclaimed the uncreated God by Zoroaster, the founder of Zoroastrianism. Ahura Mazda is described as the highest deity of worship in Zoroastrianism, along with being the first and most frequently invoked deity in the Yasna. Ahura Mazda is the creator and upholder of asha (truth). Ahura Mazda is an omniscient, but not an omnipotent God, however Ahura Mazda would eventually destroy evil. Ahura Mazda’s counterpart is Angra Mainyu, the “evil spirit” and the creator of evil who will be destroyed before frashokereti (the destruction of evil).
(Native tradition tells of a larger Avesta in twenty-one books called Nasks; these in turn, we are told, were but part of the original Scriptures. One of the Nasks remains intact the Vendidad; the rest survive only in scattered fragments in such later compositions as the Dinkard and the Bundahish. Arab historians speak of the complete text as having covered 12,000 cowhides. According to a sacred tradition, two copies of this were made by Prince Vishtaspa; one of them was destroyed when Alexander burned the royal palace at Persepolis; the other was taken by the victorious Greeks to their own country, and being translated, provided the Greeks (according to the Persian; authorities) with all their scientific knowledge. During the third century of the Christian Era Vologesus V, a Parthian king of the Arsacid Dynasty, ordered the collection of all fragments surviving cither in writing or in the memory of the faithful; this collection was fixed in its present form as the Zoroastrian canon in the fourth century, and became the official religion of the Persian state. The compilation so formed suffered further ravages during the Moslem conquest of Persia in the seventh century.”
The extant fragments may be divided into five parts:
(1) The Yasna- forty-five chapters of the liturgy recited by the Zoroastrian priests, and twenty-seven chapters (chs. 28-54) called Gat has, containing, apparently in metric form,the discourses and revelations of the Prophet;
(2) The Vispered- twenty-four additional chapters of liturgy;
(3) The Vendidad -twenty-two chapters or fargards expounding the theology and moral legislation of the Zoroastrians, and now forming the priestly code of the Parsees;
(4) The Yashts i.e., songs of praise twenty-one psalms to angels, interspersed with legendary history and a prophecy of the end of the world; and
(5) The Khordah Avesta or Small Avesta prayers for various occasions of life.*
What remains is, to the foreign and provincial observer, a confused mass of prayers, songs, legends, prescriptions, ritual and morals, brightened now and then by noble language, fervent devotion, ethical elevation, or lyric piety. Like our Old Testament it is a highly eclectic composition. The student discovers here I and there the gods, the ideas, sometimes the very words and phrases of the Rig-vedato such an extent that some Indian scholars consider the Avesta to have been inspired not by Ahura-Mazda but by the Vedas? at other times one comes upon passages of ancient Babylonian provenance, such as the creation of the world in six periods (the heavens, the waters, the earth, plants, animals, man,) the descent of all men from two first parents, the establishment of an earthly paradise,” the discontent of the Creator with his creation, and his resolve to destroy all but a remnant of it by a flood. 87 But the specifically Iranian elements suffice abundantly to characterize the whole: the world is conceived in dualistic terms as the stage of a conflict, lasting twelve thousand years, between the god Ahura-Mazda and the devil Ahriman; purity and honesty arc the greatest of the virtues, and will lead to everlasting life; the dead must not be buried or burned, as by the obscene Greeks or Hindus, but must be thrown to the dogs or to birds of prey.
The god of Zarathustra was first of all “the whole circle of the heavens” themselves. Ahura-Mazda “clothes himself with the solid vault of the firmament as his raiment; … his body is the light and the sovereign glory; the sun and the moon are his eyes.” In later days, when the religion passed from prophets to politicians, the great deity was pictured as a gigantic king of imposing majesty. As creator and ruler of the world he was assisted by a legion of lesser divinities, originally picturedas forms and powers of nature fire and water, sun and moon, wind and rain; but it was the achievement of Zarathustra that he conceived his god as supreme over all things, in terms as noble as the Book of Job:
This I ask thee, tell me truly, O Ahura-Mazda: Who determined the paths of suns and stars who is it by whom the moon waxes and wanes? . . . Who, from below, sustained the earth and the firmament from falling who sustained the waters and plants who yoked swiftness with the winds and the clouds who, Ahura-Mazda, called forth the Good Mind?
This “Good Mind” meant not any human mind, but a divine wisdom, almost a Logos*(Darmesteter believes the “Good Mind” to be a semi-Gnostic adaptation of Philo’s logos theios, or Divine Word, and therefore dates the Yasna about the first century B.C.) used by Ahura-Mazda as an intermediate agency of creation. Zarathustra had interpreted Ahura-Mazda as having seven aspects or qualities: Light, Good Mind, Right, Dominion, Piety, Well- being, and Immortality. His followers, habituated to polytheism, interpreted these attributes as persons (called by them amesha spenta, or immortal holy ones) who, under the leadership of Ahura-Mazda, created and managed the world; in this way the majestic monotheism of the founder became as in the case of Christianity the polytheism of the people. In addition to these holy spirits were the guardian angels, of which Persian theology supplied one for every man, woman and child. But just as these angels and the immortal holy ones helped men to virtue, so, according to the pious Persian (influenced, presumably, by Babylonian demonology), seven dtevas, or evil spirits, hovered in the air, always tempting men to crime and sin, and forever engaged in a war upon Ahura- Mazda and every form of righteousness. In the field of religion there are some interesting contrasts. Words such as devá have the meaning of god in the Vedas have the meaning of devil in the Avesta. Likewise some names for Vedic gods show up in the Avesta as evil spirits. This is likely due to the ancestors of the migrants to North India being a competing tribe of the tribe responsible for the creation of the Avesta
The leader of these devils was Angro-Mainyus or Ahriman, Prince of Darkness and ruler of the nether world, prototype of that busy Satan whom the Jews appear to have adopted from Persia and bequeathed to Christianity. It was Ahriman, for example, who had created serpents, vermin, locusts, ants, winter, darkness, crime, sin, sodomy, menstruation, and the other plagues of life; and it was these inventions of the Devil that had ruined the Paradise in which Ahura-Mazda had placed the first progenitors of the human race. Zarathustra seems to have regarded these evil spirits as spurious deities, popular and superstitious incarnations of the abstract forces that resist the progress of man. His followers, however, found it easier to think of them as living beings, and personified them in such abundance that in after times the devils of Persian theology were numbered in millions.
As this system of belief came from Zarathustra it bordered upon monotheism. Even with the intrusion of Ahriman and the evil spirits it remained as monotheistic as Christianity was to be with its Satan, its devils and its angels; indeed, one hears, in early Christian theology, as many echoes of Persian dualism as of Hebrew Puritanism or Greek philosophy. The Zoroastrian conception of God might have satisfied as particular a spirit as Matthew Arnold: Ahura-Mazda was the sum-total of all those forces in the world that make for righteousness; and morality lay in cooperation with those forces. Furthermore there was in this dualism a certain justice to the contradictoriness and perversity of things, which monotheism never provided; and though the Zoroastrian theologians, after the manner of Hindu mystics and Scholastic philosophers, sometimes argued that evil was unreal, they offered, in effect, a theology well adapted to dramatize for the average mind the moral issues of life.
The last act of the play, they promised, would be for the just man a happy ending: after four epochs of three thousand years each, in which Ahura-Mazda and Ahriman would alternately predominate, the forces of evil would be finally destroyed; right would triumph everywhere, and evil would forever cease to be. Then all good men would join Ahura- Mazda in Paradise, and the wicked would fall into a gulf of outer darkness, where they would feed on poison eternally.
“I must pay tribute to Zarathustra, a Persian. Persians were the first who thought of history in its full entirety.” Nietzsche’s philosophical ideas included “Ubermensch” (“Superman”) or the evolution of human consciousness in the alchemy of time.
Nietzsche
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