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| Avesta | |
|---|---|
 French translation of the Avesta by Polish Orientalist Ignacy Pietraszewski, Berlin, 1858. | |
| Information | |
| Religion | Zoroastrianism |
| Language | Avestan |
| Period | Avestan period (c. 1500–c. 400 BCE) |
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The Avesta (/əˈvɛstə/, Book Pahlavi: ʾp(y)stʾk' (abestāg), Persian: اوستا (avestâ)) is the text corpus of religious literature of Zoroastrianism.[1] All its texts are composed in the Avestan language and written in the Avestan alphabet.[2] Modern editions of the Avesta are based on the various manuscript traditions that have survived in India and Iran.[3]
The individual texts of the Avesta were originally oral compositions.[4] They were composed over a long period of several centuries during the Old Iranian period (possibly ranging from 15th century BCE – 4th century BCE).[5] The written transmission began during the Sassanian period, with the creation of the Avestan alphabet. The resulting texts were then compiled into a comprehensive edition of the Avesta in 21 volumes.[6] This edition was lost sometime after the 10th century CE and only a small part survived through a series of different manuscript traditions. The oldest surviving fragment of such a manuscript dates to 1323 CE.[7]
Unlike the Sasanian Avesta, which was organized thematically, the surviving Avestan manuscripts correspond to the different ceremonies in which they are used.[8] It is assumed that it was their regular use which ensured their survival to this day.[9] The principal text is the Yasna, which takes its name from the corresponding ceremony, in which it is recited. The most important portion of the Yasna texts are the five Gathas, consisting of seventeen hymns attributed to Zoroaster himself. These hymns, together with five other short Old Avestan texts that are also part of the Yasna, are in the Old (or 'Gathic') Avestan language. The remainder of the Yasna's texts are in Younger Avestan, which is not only from a later stage of the language, but also from a different geographic region.
Extensions to the Yasna ceremony include the texts of the Vendidad and the Visperad.[10] The Visperad extensions consist mainly of additional invocations of the divinities (yazatas),[11] while the Vendidad is a mixed collection of prose texts mostly dealing with purity laws.[11] Even today, the Vendidad is the only liturgical text that is not recited entirely from memory.[11] Some of the materials of the extended Yasna are from the Yashts,[11] which are hymns to the individual yazatas. Unlike the Yasna, Visperad and Vendidad, the Yashts and the other lesser texts of the Avesta are no longer used liturgically in high rituals. Aside from the Yashts, these other lesser texts include the Nyayesh texts, the Gah texts, the Siroza and various other fragments. Together, these lesser texts are conventionally called Khordeh Avesta or "Little Avesta" texts. When the first Khordeh Avesta editions were printed in the 19th century, these texts (together with some non-Avestan language prayers) became a book of common prayer for lay people.[10]
- ^ Vevaina 2013, p. 996: "The Avesta, conventionally referred to as the “Sacred Book of the Persians” is, in fact, an orally transmitted, liturgically based, corpus redacted by the Zoroastrian priesthood".
- ^ Boyce 1984, p. 1.
- ^ Hintze 2012, p. 419.
- ^ Skjaervo, P. Oktor (2012). "The Zoroastrian Oral Tradition as Reflected in the Texts". In Cantera, Alberto (ed.). The Transmission of the Avesta. Iranica. Vol. 20. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. pp. 3–48. ISBN 978-3-447-06554-2.
- ^ Cantera 2012, "The Avestan texts were probably composed in Eastern Iran between the second half of the 2nd millennium bce and the end of the Achaemenid dynasty".
- ^ Kellens 1987, "The Sasanian Avesta. It has now been established beyond any doubt that the known Avestan Vulgate originates from a canon which was arranged and written down under the Sasanians".
- ^ Boyce 1984, p. 1.
- ^ Cantera 2012, "Almost all Avestan texts preserved in the manuscripts are ritual texts performed in the different Zoroastrian rituals".
- ^ West 1892, chap. Introduction: "[B]ut when, through conversion and extermination, the Mazda-worshippers had become a mere remnant, [...] they rapidly lost all their old literature that was not in daily religious use".
- ^ a b Boyce 1984, p. 3.
- ^ a b c d Boyce 1984, p. 2.
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