The Avesta era

Farid Shoolizadeh
Amordad bi-weekly

The word ‘Avesta’ in common language means base and foundation. (1)  This word’s specific meaning is an epistle in which the Iranians of ancient times have compiled their range of written science.  In ‘Deenkerd’ it is written that Avesta consists of 1000 chapters on subjects such as medicine, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, geography, history, natural science, health, religious and common laws, monotheism and morale.  The most salient evidence in history is the invaluable copy of Avesta of Achamenians written in gold on 12,000 hides. (2)  The present available Avesta consists of 5 parts altogether, i.e., Yasna, Yashtha, Visparad, Vandidad and Khordeh Avesta, each of which have been compiled in different periods, according to their need.  We should note that besides Gathas, the divine hymns of Zarathushtra, which is in the heart of Yasna, the other chapters of Avesta were written in the course of history by the learned and religious

Zoroastrians.

Yasna:  means prayer and worship, which is written as ‘Yazeshn’ in Pahlavi dialect.  Yasna is the most pivoted part of Avesta and at the same time, the closest chapter, with respect to its age, to the Gathas of Zarathushtra.  Yasna has 72 chapters and each of them is called ‘Haniti’ or ‘Ha’.

Yashtha:  The word ‘Yashtha’ has the same root as Yasna and means worship and praying.  In Pahlavi, this word is used with the meaning of praying and worshiping.  Yashtha, in its specific meaning, refers to the section of Avesta in which praise is offered to the angels and attributes (Amshaspand and Izad).  Yashtha consists of 21 chapters, which is called the 21 Yasht of Avesta.  Each Yasht (chapter) of Avesta has many parts which are called ‘kardeh’.

Vandidad:  (vae-dao-dat) means “the law against Dev’ (evil)”.  This book consists of 22 chapters or ‘pargard’ (fargard).  Contents of the chapters are varying.  In some chapters the history and whereabouts of countries, regions, and the story of ‘Jam’ and in some chapters about the customs and rules of taking oath, keeping an oath, cleanliness and hygiene, keeping water clean, customs of praying, the rate of a doctor’s wage, ‘patet’ prayer and expiation, about false and true leaders and respecting useful animals.

Visparad:  This word is composed of the two words ‘visp’ and ‘rad’ and means the superiors and leaders.  Visparad by itself is not a separate book but in fact a collection of annexes to Yasna.  Each of its chapters is called ‘kardeh’.  From long time back the chapter of Visparad could not be specified number wise; some say it has 27 chapters, some say 23 and some others say 24.

Khordeh Avesta:  Khordeh Avesta is a collection of Zoroastrian prayers for different times in 24 hours and also prayers for special days of the month, annual festivals, the important occasion of Navjote, marriage and ceremonies for the dead, and. . .

It is famous that the compiler of Khordeh Avesta is ‘Azarbod Mehr Espand’, the great sage that lived in the period of Shapoor II.  It is said that he compiled this book for Zoroastrians to use for praying.

But, in which alphabet was Avesta, the grand epistle of ancient Iranians, written?  The script used by the religious men for writing Avesta was called Avesta script or ‘Deen Dabirah’. (3)  Deen dabireh alphabet has 48 letters (14 vowels and 34 consonants) and each of the vowels has an independent letter.  No dot or sign for stress on letters are seen in the Avesta texts.  Words are written with space between them, after each word there is a fullstop and after each sentence 3 fullstops.

In Avesta, two different dialects can be found.  The first is the ancient Gathas accent in which the pure hymns of Zarathushtra have been written, which is very old and has a lexical compactness and its linguistic structure is unique.  The other is the Avesta dialect which has larger number of vocabulary compared to Gathas and is more recent but in fact is an ancient language in the same level as the Vedic Sanskrit.

The oldest available handwritten script of Avesta in the world belongs to the 13th century AD.  Professor Goldner has found its exact date to be 1323 AD.  This copy has been copied by Esfandiar Mehraban Marzban Bahram and Hirbod Mehraban Keykhosrow Mehraban and is presently kept in Copenhagan.

In the past 3 centuries a great amount of effort has been put by western easternologists and the Parsees of India for translation of different parts of Avesta, which have fortunately resulted in clarifying people’s minds about the true quiddity of the Zoroastrian religion.  In Iran, Professor Poordavood worked in this field like a savior.  After many years of unparalleled and invaluable research Prof Poordavood translated different parts of Avesta for the first time, after Arab invasion (may his great soul rest in peace).

Contrary to Gathas, which are the words of Zarathushtra alone, the different parts of Avesta have been compiled by many, to the extent that in some chapters of Avesta it is clear that the composers of parts of a verse even are more than one person.  Therefore, we should know that the whole collection of Avesta is the collective manifestation of the thoughts and unity of Zoroastrian sages and religious leaders in the monotheism era after Zarathushtra, the era which is called the Avesta era.

When studying the divine hymns of Gathas, we note unity in the words, subjects and method of writing but contents of Avesta are not so and are composed of many subjects and methods.  The hymns of Gathas open the secrets of deep insight and show the direct way to know and reach the truth of life, while the chapters of Avesta are reflections of the message and ideology of Gathas, like polarity philosophy, pantheism, and. . .based on the beliefs and customs of Zoroastrians in the Avesta era.  When studying contents of Avesta we come across various subjects in the fields of medicine, philosophy, mathematics, theology, geography, history, natural science, health, religious and common laws, monotheism and morale, which shows the vastness of knowledge in this book.  There is no doubt that the name “book of sagacity’ is the most suitable name for this collection.

In the field of practical philosophy Avesta has a pyramid structure.  We can compare contents of Avesta with Mount Damavand.  Gathas is the summit and other parts the foot and slopes of the mountain.  The one who wishes to climb to the summit should first climb the slope.  In answer to some who think that Gathas alone is sufficient to show the greatness and philosophy of monotheism and with such a deep and wise message there is no need to refer to the other sections of Avesta, we should say that though the contents of Avesta are like human hymns and cannot be compared with the divine words of Gathas, but from the historic and traditional point of view and for knowing religious customs (rituals) Avesta is of great value and importance because it shows us the results of the teachings of Gathas and its effect in the following centuries.  In answer to those who criticize that the ancient customs and life style of the Aryans can be seen in parts of

Avesta, we should say that no messenger has come to destroy all the good and human customs among his nation or change the people radically and play with their beliefs, or turn all the people of the world into one shape, like robots.  All messengers have kept or accepted, with little change, those customs and beliefs which have existed in a society and have been good and useful.  Zarathushtra disagreed with harmful customs and worship of evil, which was prevailing among Aryan tribes, disagreed with sacrificing, surrendering to destiny and to time, and kept the evil hands of priests and Karpons away from the people, those priests and Karpons who had forbidden people from thinking.  Instead, he encouraged good customs like Nowrooz, Sadeh and respecting nature and the environment. . .

 

Footnote:

1)The late Dastoor Dr Dahala assumes that the word “Avesta” is derived from the word ‘ved’ meaning ‘knowledge’ or in its deeper meaning ‘wisdom and insight’.  But Dr Mohammad Moghaddam believes Avesta to be tidings of the salvation of human beings from heinousness, evil thoughts and anger, defeat of falsehood and destruction and victory and empowerment of goodness, righteousness (asha), and creativeness.  When reading Deenkerd we come across the word ‘apstak’ which usually means ‘base and foundation’ and in the main text this word is formed of two parts ‘upa’ and ‘sta’ (upa-sta) meaning ‘to understand’.  Scholars like Bartolome and Wikander write this word as ‘upastavak, coming from ‘stav’, meaning ‘praise’.  Wikander believes this word to mean ‘polite and decent’.  He compares it with the ancient Indian word ‘upasthana’, meaning ‘salute and praise to light’.

The renowned Parsee Avestaologist, Dr Jahangir Tavadia, has had extensive research on this subject and says “On the whole, the word Avesta, is a compound word, meaning “religious education organization”.  The late Dr Firooz Azargoshasb writes:  “Avesta comes from its root ‘ved’, meaning ‘knowledge’, and its meaning is “whatever is learned and known”.  Rigveda also has the same root.

2)Reference Deenkerd book, text of the letter of Tanser to Goshnasb.

3)Islamic historians haverecorded this script as ‘Dafireh’ or ‘Daftarieh’.  Ebn Al-Muqaffa and Masoudi, both, have spoken about this script as the Deen Dabireh script.  According to Masoudi, Deendabireh has had 60 letters.

In his book, ‘Al Fehrest’, Ebn Nadim quotes Ebn Al-Muqaffa:  “Iranians have had 7 different scripts and Deen Dabireh is one of them.”  Many renowned Iranian scientists agree that Deen Dabireh is an ancient language from Zarathushtra’s time.