ZARATHUSTRA: THE OLDEST KNOWN TANTRIC FROM ASIA
RE: THE AVESTAN HOMA IS THE VEDIC SOMA
ALSO: THE VEDIC SOMA PAVA-MANA IS THE BIBLICAL MANNA FROM HEAVEN
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Avesta
http://www.livius.org/au-az/avesta/avesta.html

Avesta: the holy book of Zoroastrianism, the Iranian religion that
was founded by the legendary Bactrian prophet Zarathustra.
Like the Bible, the Avesta (sometimes incorrectly called Zend-
Avesta) is actually a library, containing different sacred texts
which were written during a very long period in different languages.
A difference with the Bible is that the Avesta often resembles a
prayer book and has few narratives.

The seventeen Gâthâ's, probably composed by Zarathustra himself, are
the oldest part of the Avesta (overview). The language of these
hymns resembles that of the Indian Rigveda, hymns that were probably
composed in the Punjab between 1500 and 1200 BCE. E.g., the Gathic
word ahura, 'divine lord', is identical to the Vedic word asura.
This linguistic similarity suggests that the Gâthâ's are very old
indeed.

In the Gâthâ's, Zarathustra addresses the supreme god Ahuramazda,
which offers the prophet an opportunity to explain his own
doctrines. An example:

I shall recognize Thee as strong and holy, Ahuramazda, when Thou
wilt help me by the hand with which Thou holdest the recompenses
that Thou wilt give, through the heat of Thy truth-strong fire, to
the wicked man and the just - and when the might of Good Purpose
shall come to me.

Then as holy I have recognized Thee, Ahuramazda, when I saw Thee as
First at the birth of life, when Thou didst appoint rewards for acts
and words, bad for the bad, a good recompense for the good by Thy
innate virtue, at the final turning point of the creation [i.e., the
Last Judgment]. [Yasna 43.4-5]

It should be stressed that the Gâthâ's are difficult to understand.
They were written long time ago in an otherwise unkown dialect. To
understand what Zarathustra intended to convey, we need parallels
from the language of the Rigveda and we must use younger parts of
the Avesta or medieval commentaries (Zand; see below).

Both methods are dangerous. The Vedic and Gathic languages have a
common ancestor, but developed differently. As we have already seen
above, the Gathic ahura meant 'divine lord'; Vedic asura
meant 'demon'. It is a funny coincidence that the reverse also
happens to be true: the Vedic word for 'gods', deva, means 'demons'
in Gathic (daeva). It is obvious that linguistic comparisons are a
difficult method to study the Gâthâ's.

The use of younger parts of the Avesta to explain the older parts
can be dangerous as well. Some of these texts are clearly written to
explain something that was no longer understood. The explanations
are, therefore, nothing but hypotheses of a venerable age.
Unfortunately, we are unable to check these interpretations and
therefore, several European scholars have argued that it is better
not to explain the Gâthâ's by using younger texts. Perhaps this is a
bit too skeptical, but the risks of the method are real.

There are other hymns that are attributed to Zarathustra. These
Yashts are dedicated to lower gods (overview). However, it is almost
certain that these hymns were not really composed by the prophet,
because they are written in another language, which is usually
called 'Younger Avestan'. This language resembles the Old Persian
that we know from the cuneiform texts of the Achaemenid empire
written between 521 and 331 BCE. The composition of the Yashts may
therefore tentatively be dated between, say, 625 and 225. (There is
one clue that points at the beginning of the sixth century.)

The Gâthâ's were recited by the Zoroastrians in their daily liturgy.
The liturgical texts, usually called Yasna ('reverence'), were also
written in Gathic; at least some of them seem to be older than the
Gâthâ's, and appear to have been reworked in the light of the
teachings of Zarathustra (overview). The Yasna describes all kinds
of rituals, e.g., the use of the trance-inducing beverage haoma,
sacrifices and offerings to water and fire. Over the centuries, new
liturgic texts were written; these are written in Younger Avestan.

The next group of texts is called the Vendidad. This word is a
corruption of Vidaevadata, 'against the demons'. The language of
these prose texts, which deal with myth and purity laws, is Younger
Avestan, but it does not resemble the language of the cuneiform
texts of the Achaemenid empire; probably, the Vendidad was written
later, during the Parthian period (141 BCE - 224 CE) (overview).

It is only at this stage that the Avesta was written down, but the
date of this first redaction is very uncertain. Some scholars have
denied that there was a redaction at the Parthian time; others
maintain that there was an even earlier redaction in the Achaemenid
period. The excellent transmission of the Gâthâ's suggests that
there was some sort of written version, but we do not know what this
can have been. However this may be, it is very likely that the word
Avesta was coined in the Parthian age, because âbâsta, 'the law' is
Parthian Younger Avestan.

As we have seen, the main parts were at this stage:

the older Yasna: liturgic texts, written in Gathic
including the Gâthâ's, hymns to Ahuramazda written in Gathic by
Zarathustra (1400-1200 BCE)

Yashts: hymns to several deities in Younger Avestan

the younger Yasna: liturgic texts, written in Younger Avestan
Vendidad: prose texts on ritual purity and myth (codified in the
Parthian age)

These were the main parts of the Avesta, but there must have been
other texts. For example, we possess apocalyptic texts in Middle
Persian, but these seem to be composed at the end of the fourth
century BCE, when the Macedonian king Alexander the Great conquered
the Achaemenid empire.

It should be stressed that the bulk of the Avesta was probably
written before the Parthian period. That there was a large religious
literature, can be deduced from a remark by the Roman author Pliny
the Elder (23-79 CE), who writes about the Alexandrine scholar
Hermippus of Smyrna (third century BCE):

Hermippus, who wrote most painstakingly about the whole art of magic
and interpreted two million verses by Zarathustra, also added lists
of contents and handed down the name of Agonaces as the teacher who
instructed him, placing Zarathustra five thousand years before the
Trojan War.

[Natural history 30.4]

In 224 CE, the Parthian rulers of Iran were replaced by a new
Persian dynasty, the Sasanians. Other texts were added to the
already existing corpus, the most important being the Visperad, a
long liturgy made up from Yasna and Vendidad texts with many
additional invocations. Another texts is the Khorda Avesta or Short
Avesta, a collection of short prayers that could be used by every
believer. The language of this period is known as Middle Persian or
Pahlavi.

Khusrau II (©!!)

The Sasanians were devout Zoroastrians and did much to improve the
understanding of the ancient texts. There were already several
commentaries on the Avesta, but they imposed a new version, the
Zand. It became an integral part of the books; every Avesta was
edited with the Zand. (When the French scholar Abraham Hyacinthe
Anquetil du Perron [1731-1805] started -as the first European- to
study the holy books of Zoroastrianism, he erroneously called it the
Zand-Avesta.)

Under the Sasanian king Khusrau II 'the victorious' (591-628), a
Zoroastrian high priest named Tansar established the canon of
Avestan texts. It contained all the texts that we have already seen,
but also some books on cosmogony and law, a biography of
Zarathustra, apocalypses and several expositions of doctrine. This
library was certainly written down; it is called the Great Avesta.

The Great Avesta was too large to survive, especially since invading
armies sometimes destroyed the books. In 642, the Arabs invaded
Iran. As a rule, they were not intolerant towards Zoroastrianism,
but Islam became the dominant religion and some Avestan works were
translated into Arabic, the originals being lost. In the eighth
century, relations between Muslims and Zoroastrians became hostile
and the Zoroastrians started to redefine themselves; their ancient
religion and old language were important aspects of their new self-
image. The antagonism between the two groups continued to grow in
the ninth century, when caliph Mutawakkil ordered the holy cypress
at Kâshmar, which was very important to the Zoroastrians, to be cut
down (in 846). Many Zoroastrians decided to migrate to India.
Several texts from the Avesta are therefore known from Indian
translations.

Between 1037 and 1157, the Seljuk Turks ruled Iran (nominally under
the caliphs of Baghdad). Harshness towards non-Muslims increased,
but it was nothing compared to the events of 1256, when the Mongol
leader Hulagu, a grandson of Genghis Khan, invaded Iran, Iraq and
Syria (his men destroyed Baghdad in 1258). For the first time,
Zoroastrianism was actually prosecuted, and many books were burnt.
This was repeated in 1381, when Timur Lenk, a Muslim Turk from
Samarkand, invaded and ravaged Persia. The Zoroastrians were forced
to withdraw to desert towns like Yazd and Kerman.

From 1501 onward, Iran was independent under the dynasty of the
Safavids. Their kings were Shi`ite Muslims and were in general harsh
towards Zoroastrians. The latter were even forced to conversion by
shah `Abbas II (1642-1667), who had many of them massacred at
Isfahan. Again, many Avestas were destroyed.

What remains of the Avesta today, is about a quarter of the Great
Avesta of the sixth century. Fortunately, we do possess a summary,
which is called the Denkard (go here to read a chapter). Using the
Denkard, the Zand and the traditions of medieval Zoroastrianism, we
can reconstruct large parts of the Great Avesta. However, this
reconstruction is necessarily hypothetical, and as we have seen
above, some European scholars have decided that these texts are not
very useful - except, of course, for the study of medieval
Zorastrianism. This is a little bit too skeptical: the Denkard and
the Zand contain some very ancient traditions. On the other hand,
one should be very careful when one studies a complex library like
the Avesta.

Modern portrait of Zarathustra Literature

The Avesta is translated by James Darmesteter and L.H. Mills in Max
Müller (ed.): Sacred Books of the East, vols. IV (The Zend-Avesta,
part 1), XXIII (The Zend-Avesta, part 2), XXXI (The Zend-Avesta,
part 3; unreliable). These translations are rather old, but there
is -to the best of my knowledge- no alternative.

The Gâthâ's, on the other hand, have found many recent translators:
e.g., H. Humbach, D.J Irani, A.A. Jafarey, M.C. Monna, S. Insler, F.
Azargoshab, and I.J.S. Taraporewala.

Mary Boyce, Textual sources for the study of Zoroastrianism (1984
Manchester) offers several translations from the Avesta, together
with brief introductions and comments

Peter Clark, Zoroastrianism. An Introduction to an Ancient Faith
(1998 Brighton)

http://www.livius.org/au-az/avesta/avesta.html
----------------------

Zarathustra
http://www.livius.org/za-zn/zarathustra/zarathustra.htm

Modern portrait of Zarathustra Zarathustra (Greek Zoroaster):
legendary religious teacher from Bactria, founder of Zoroastrianism.
Hardly anything is known about Zarathustra's life. For example, it
is uncertain when he lived. The ancient Greeks speculated that he
lived six thousand years before the philosopher Plato and several
scholars have argued for a date at the beginning of the sixth
century BCE. Other scholars accept that Zarathustra is the author of
the Gâthâ's (a part of the holy book of the Zoroastrians, the
Avesta), which they date, on linguistic grounds, in the fourteenth
or thirteenth century BCE.

It is also unclear where Zarathustra was born and where he spent the
first half of his life. Every tribe that converted to Zoroastrianism
made up legends about the prophet's life, and nearly all of them
claimed that the great teacher was "one of them". On linguistic
grounds, we may argue that author of the Gâthâ's belonged to a tribe
that lived in the eastern part of Iran, in Afghanistan or
Turkmenistan. This fits neatly with a tradition that connects
Zarathustra with the ancient country named Bactria and a cypress at
Kâshmar (below), but it hardly proves Zarathustra's Bactrian
origins.

The Gâthâ's are not a great help either. They contain some personal
information, but are hardly the stuff that biographies are made of.
The Denkard, a late Avestic text, contains a summary of an older
biography. It contains many legends and the reliability seems not
very great. The following reconstruction of Zarathustra's life is,
therefore, not to be taken as the very truth.

Zarathustra was born in Bactria (or Aria) as the son of a not very
powerful nobleman named Purushaspa and a woman named Dughdhova.
Zarathustra was the third of five brothers. He became a priest and
seems to have showed a remarkable care for humans and cattle. The
family is often called Spitama, which is a honorary title
meaning 'most beneficient', but was later taken for a family name.

Zarathustra's life changed when the god Ahuramazda granted him a
vision. A spirit named Good Thought appeared and ordered Zarathustra
to oppose the bloody sacrifices of the traditional Iranian cults and
to give aid to the poor. In one of his own compositions, Zarathustra
says:

Thee I conceived as holy, O Ahuramazda, when thy Good Thought
appeared to me and asked me: 'Who art thou? And whose is thine
allegiance?' [...]

Then I answered: 'Zarathustra am I; to the false believers a
forthright enemy, but to the righteous a mighty help and joy. [...]
Thee I conceived as holy, O Ahuramazda, when thy Good Thought
appeared to me. [...] A difficult thing it seemed to me, to spread
thy faith among men, to do that which Thou didst say was best.
[Yasna 43.4]

Zarathustra started to preach that there was a supreme god,
the "wise lord" Ahuramazda, who had created the world, mankind and
all good things in it through his holy spirit, Spenta Mainyu. The
rest of the universe was created by six other spirits, the Amesha
Spentas ('holy immortals'). However, the order of this sevenfold
creation was threatened by The Lie; good and evil spirits were
fighting and mankind had to support the good spirits in order to
speed up the inevitable victory of the good.

A remarkable aspect of Zarathustra's teaching is that he employs
special words to describe the demons. Their names are remarkably
similar to words from the Indian Rigveda. Now it is reasonably
certain that the language of the Rigveda was spoken in eastern Iran
at some stage in the history of the second millennium BCE. We may
assume that Zarathustra opposed the old religion, which was to
flourish in the Punjab.

It was the duty of the believer to side with Ahuramazda, which was
possible by avoiding lies, supporting the poor, several kinds of
sacrifices, the cult of fire, et cetera. Zarathustra warned the
people that there would be a Last Judgment, where the friends of The
Lie were to be condemned to Hell and the pious allowed to enter
Heaven (text).

This new teaching caused a conflict between Zarathustra and the
priests of the god Mithra.

The Enemy has ever fought with me [...] he is most powerful. [...] O
Ahuramazda, aid me; obtain for me with thy Good Thoughts his defeat.
[Yasna 39]

There seem to have been some fights, and Zarathustra was forced to
leave his country. Not even his family wanted to assist him.
To what land to turn? Whither shall I go? Kinsman and friend turn
from me; none is found, to conciliate, to give to me; still less the
false-believing chiefs of the land. This I know, Ahuramazda, why I
am powerless: because my flocks are diminished and my followers are
few. Therefore I cry to Thee: Lord, look upon it. [Yasna 46.1-2]

Finally, Zarathustra obtained asylum from a king named Hystaspes; he
may have ruled in Chorasmia or Aria. At his court, the prophet
debated with the priests of Mithra; on an official gathering, they
discussed thirty three questions, and Zarathustra's opinions
prevailed. According to legend, the cypress at Kâshmar (in northeast
Iran) commemorates this event (or another important event). The
Denkard tells more about this event (text).

Many noblemen followed the example of Hystaspes to convert to
Zarathustra's new religion. From now on, Zarathustra lived at the
court of Hystaspes, until he was killed at the age of seventy-seven
by invading nomads. Some locate his death at Bactra (Balkh, near
modern Mazâr-e Sharîf) in Afghanistan.

Zarathustra's teachings are strongly dualistic. The believer has to
make a choice between good and evil. Zoroastrianism was one of first
world religions to make ethical demands on the believers.

Zarathustra was not the inventor of monotheism, although several
European scholars have thought so. More information can be found
here.

Literature

Mary Boyce, Textual sources for the study of Zoroastrianism (1984
Manchester).

Peter Clark, Zoroastrianism. An Introduction to an Ancient Faith
(1998 Brighton)

Gherardo Gnoli, Zoroaster in History (2000 New York)

A. de Jong, Traditions of the Magi (1997 Leiden).

M. Schwartz, 'The Religion of Achaemenian Iran' in: Ilya Gershevitch
(ed.): The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. II: The Median and
Achaemenian Periods (1985 Cambridge) pages 664-667

© Jona Lendering for
Livius.Org, 2001
Revision: 9 December 2006

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