Nana (Bactrian goddess)

Nana
Astral goddess
A Sogdian mural from Bunjikat depicting a four-armed Nana seated on a lion.
Major cult center	Panjakent
Symbols	crescent (in Bactria) representations of the sun and the moon (in Sogdia)
Adherents	Bactrians, Sogdians, Chorasmians, Yuezhi (Kushans), Khotanese
Mount	lion
Personal information
Spouse	possibly Tish
Equivalents
Mesopotamian equivalent	Nanaya

Nana was an ancient Eastern Iranian goddess worshiped by Bactrians, Sogdians and Chorasmians, as well as by non-Iranian Yuezhi, including Kushans, as the head of their respective pantheons. She was derived from the earlier Mesopotamian goddess Nanaya. Attempts to connect her with Inanna (Ishtar) instead depend on the erroneous notion that the latter was identical with Nanaya, which is considered outdated. She was regarded as an astral deity, and in Sogdian art was depicted representations of the sun and the moon. Kushan emperors additionally associated her with royal power. In Sogdia she might have also developed an otherwise unattested warlike aspect, as evidenced by murals showing her in battles against demons. She was seemingly associated with the Sogdian counterpart of Tishtrya, Tish, who might have been regarded as her spouse.

There is no consensus regarding the date of Nana's introduction to Central Asia, though most researchers assume it occurred in the late first millennium BCE. Her cult was adopted by the rulers of the Kushan Empire, and she is mentioned in the Rabatak inscription of Kanishka as the deity who granted him his position. She later spread to Sogdia, where she became a popular deity, as evidenced by her prevalence in theophoric names and her numerous representation in art. Panjakent was most likely her cult center, and a temple dedicated to her was located there. Attestations are also available from other Sogdian sites and from text corpora mentioning Sogdians living in China. Some evidence also exists for the worship of Nana in Chorasmia and Khotan.