Misplaced Pages

Part of a series on
Zoroastrianism
Primary topics Ahura Mazda Zarathustra Asha Vohu Manah Persia/Iran Faravahar Avestan
Divine entities Amesha Spentas Yazatas Ahuras Daevas Fravashi Angra Mainyu
Scripture and worship Zoroastrian literature Avesta Ashem Vohu Ahuna Vairya Yenghe hatam Airyaman ishya Fire Temples 101 Names of Ahura Mazda Adur Burzen-Mihr Adur Farnbag Adur Gushnasp Cypress of Kashmar Gathas Yasna Vendidad Visperad Yashts Khordeh Avesta The Rivayats Ab-Zohr
Accounts and legends Dēnkard Bundahišn Book of Arda Viraf Book of Jamasp Story of Sanjan Chinvat Bridge Frashokereti
History and culture Zurvanism Mazdakism Khurramites Calendar Festivals Initiation Kushti Sedreh Marriage Burial
Adherents Afghanistan Armenia Azerbaijan China Sichuan India Iranis Iran Iraq Pakistan Parsis Russia United States Uzbekistan Persecution of Zoroastrians
Related topics Criticism of Zoroastrianism Zoroastrian cosmology
Religion portal
v t e

The Sasanian Avesta or Great Avesta refers to the anthology of Zoroastrian literature produced during the Sasanian period. Most of this work is now lost, but its content and structure can be reconstructed from references found in a number of texts from the 9th century onward.

Compared to the extant Avesta, the Sasanian Avesta was much larger and organized into 21 distinct volumes called nasks (Avestan: naska; Middle Persian: nask, 'bundle'). Of those, only one is preserved in its entirety, while others are either lost or only preserved in fragments.

Sources

The most important source on the Sasanian Avesta is the Denkard, a 9th-10th century compendium of Zoroastrianism. The 8th and 9th book of the Denkard give an overview of the Avesta as it was available at the time. Whereas the 8th book lists the content, the 9th book provides a lengthy summary on a number of its nasks In addition, the Rivayats, a series of epistles from the 15th - 17th century, also list its content but do not provide further summaries. In general, the information provided by the Denkard and the Rivayats agree except for minor differences.

Name

The Sasanian Avesta is never called Avesta in the sources. Instead, it is called the "collection of the Den". Its modern name was coined due to its connection to the extant Avesta. To distinguish both, authors have used terms like Sasanian Avesta or Great Avesta.

Content

The Sasanian Avesta was organized into 21 nasks, i.e., volumes, with each nask being in turn divided into several fragards, i.e., chapters. These 21 nasks are grouped into 3 divisions; the Gāhānīg (Gathic nasks), Hada Mānsrīg (manthras connected with the ritual), and Dādīg (legal nasks). This threefold division of the 21 nasks was modelled after the three lines and 21 words of the Ahuna Vairya manthra, the most important Zoroastrian prayer.

Gathic (Gāhānīg) nasks

The Gathic nasks contain commentaries on the Gathas of Zarathustra and are consequently named after them. The Denkard also associates the Gathic nasks with the menogic world, i.e., the ideal and invisible aspect of existence. Not all content can be identified with certainty, but some of the nasks seem to have contained additional material on Zarathustra's life.

Although the Stōd-yasn is placed as the first nask of the Gathic group, book 8 of the Denkard places it last in the list of all the 21 nasks of the Sasanian Avesta. It has been speculated that this may have been to convey the cyclical and interconnected nature of the texts within the Sasanian Avesta. The Waštag nask is not described in any of the sources, indicating that it was already lost in its entirety by the 9th century.

Ritual (Hada Mānsrīg) nasks

The ritual nasks, called Hada Mānsrīg, are the second division of the Sasanian Avesta. They are placed between the Gathic nasks, dealing with the menogic world of thought, and the legal nasks, dealing with the getic world of action. Their purpose has therefore been interpreted as connecting both these worlds by virtue of the ritual.

None of the ritual nasks has survied in its entirety and most are considered lost or highly fragmentary. In addition, the Denkard does only provide short summaries for most of the nasks, which makes a reconstruction of their original content difficult. The Denkard furthermore states that no Zand exists for the Nāxtar nask, indicating that by the 9th century it had already been lost.

Legal (Dād) nasks

The legal nasks, called Dād, form the third division of the Sasanian Avesta. The Denkard associates the legal nasks with the getig world, i.e., the tangible and visible aspect of existence. This division, therefore, forms the complement to the menogic world covered in the Gathic nasks.

This division contains five actually legal (dādīg) nasks (Nikātum, Duzd-sar-nizad, Huspāram, Sakātum, and the Vidēvdād) as well as two miscellaneous nasks (Čihrdād and Bagān Yašt). The Čihrdād Nask contains a mythical history of Iran, which makes it particularily stand out from the other nasks. Its inclusion may have been due to a misinterpretation of the second element of its name as dād (law), whereas a derivation from *čiθrō.dāti (the establish­ment of the origins) is considered more likely.

According to the listing in the Denkard, the 12th fragard of the Vidēvdād was already lost at the time. Despite this, it is the only nask that has remained intact since then. This survival may be due to its use in the corresponding ceremony. The other two longer texts that survive are the Nīrangestān and the Hērbedestān from the Huspāram nask.

Connection to the extant Avesta

There is no consensus on the relationship between the Sasanian Avesta and the extant Avestan texts. Both show substantial differences. First, comparing the number of fragards, the Sasanian Avesta seems to have been several times larger than the texts available today. In addition, the Sasanian Avesta is structures into nasks which seem to be grouped according to their thematic content, whereas the extant Avestan texts are grouped according to the rituals they are used in.

The traditional view is that the ritual Avesta we have today formed as remnants of the Sasanian Avesta. According to this view, the Sasanian Avesta formed a Sasanian archetype and some portions of it were regularly quoted in the liturgies. These texts simply survived since they happened to have be in regular use, whereas the Sasanian Avesta became lost when the scholarly tradition deteriorated as Zoroastrianism became increasingly marginalized.

While the loss of the Sasanian Avesta is not disputed, the view that the extant Avesta are the remnants of it has been challenged. Kellens for instance points out that the extant manuscripts do not appear to be fragments of the Sasanian Avesta but are organized according to a liturgical structure. Likewise Stausberg has argued that the Sasanian Avesta is never called Avesta in the sources, which weakens any direct connection between the two. Instead, this view argues that a ritual Avesta already existed long before the Sasanian period, in oral form, and its written tradition evolved simultaneously with that of the Sasanian Avesta.

References

Citations

1. 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".
2. Duchesne-Guillemin 1962, p. 31.
3. ^ Kellens 1987, "The Sasanian collection of the Avesta and its commentary (zand) is described in chap. 8 of the Dēnkard; it was probably composed of three books of seven chapters ".
4. Gignoux 1994.
5. Shapira 1998, Chap. II - The Way of Zand.
6. Cantera 2024, "Die mittelpersischen Beschreibungen dieser Sammlung bezeichnen sie nie als das Avesta, sondern als eine Sammlung der dēn.".
7. ^ Shaki 1993.
8. ^ Shapira 1998, p. 7.
9. ^ Kellens 1987.
10. Vevaina 2024.
11. Vevaina 2010.
12. Skjærvø 1988a.
13. Kellens 2002.
14. Cereti 2009, "he Waštag was by then completely lost ".
15. MacKenzie 2012.
16. Skjærvø 1988b.
17. Cereti 2009, "nly the Avestan text of the Nāxtar was still preserved, for teaching, studying, and worship (pad čāšišn ud ōšmurišn ud ēzišn )".
18. ^ MacKenzie 1991.
19. Shaki 1993, chap. Nikātum Nask.
20. Shaki 1993, chap. Duzd-sar-nizad Nask.
21. Shaki 1993, chap. Huspāram Nask.
22. Shaki 1993, chap. Sakātum Nask.
23. Malandra 2000.
24. Skjærvø 1988c.
25. Malandra 2000, "Why did the Vendīdād survive almost intact while so much else of the Sasanian Avesta was lost or has been preserved only in the countless citations of the 9th century books? The answer lies, most probably, in its ritual use for the nocturnal Widēwdād-ceremony ".
26. Kotwal 2003.
27. Cantera 2022, "Western scholarship has found difficulties in explaining the exact relationship between this “Great Avesta” and extant Avestan texts".
28. Cantera 2022, "In Sasanian times, there were two parallel collections: the Great Avesta and the Ritual Avesta. The extant Avesta known from the manuscripts derives from the latter and has no relationship with the former.".

Bibliography

• Cantera, Alberto (2022). "On the Edge between Literacy and Orality - Manuscripts and Performance of the Zoroastrian Long Liturgy". Oral Tradition. 35 (2).
• Cantera, Alberto (April 18, 2024). "Das Avesta: heiliges Buch oder akademische Konstruktion, Vortrag: Köln, 18.04.2024". www.academia.edu. Köln: Karl Rahner Akademie. Retrieved January 10, 2025.
• Cereti, Carlo G. (2009). "MIDDLE PERSIAN LITERATURE i. PAHLAVI LITERATURE". Encyclopædia Iranica. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
• Duchesne-Guillemin, Jacques (1962). La religion de l'Iran ancien. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
• Gignoux, Philippe (1994). "DĒNKARD". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. VII. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul. pp. 284–289.
• Kellens, Jean (1987). "AVESTA i. Survey of the history and contents of the book". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. III. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul. pp. 35–44.
• Kellens, Jean (2002). "HĀDŌXT NASK". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. XI. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul. pp. 457–458.
• MacKenzie, David N. (1991). "ČIHRDĀD NASK". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. V. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul. p. 561.
• MacKenzie, David N. (2012). "DĀMDĀD NASK". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. VI. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul. pp. 631–632.
• Kotwal, Firoze M. (2003). "HĒRBEDESTĀN". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. XII. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul. pp. 227–228.
• Malandra, William W. (2000). "VENDĪDĀD i. Survey of the history and contents of the text". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. V. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
• Shaki, Mansour (1993). "DĀD NASK". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. VI. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul. pp. 546–549.
• Shapira, Dan (1998). Studies in Zoroastrian Exegesis - Zand (PhD thesis). Jerusalem.
• Skjærvø, Prods O. (1988a). "BAG NASK". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. III. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul. pp. 400–401.
• Skjærvø, Prods O. (1988b). "BARIŠ NASK". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. III. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul. pp. 799–800.
• Skjærvø, Prods O. (1988c). "BAGĀN YAŠT". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. III. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul. p. 406.
• Vevaina, Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw (2010). "SŪDGAR NASK and WARŠTMĀNSR NASK". Encyclopædia Iranica. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
• Vevaina, Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw (2024). The "Sudgar Nask" of "Denkard" Book 9 - Text, Translation and Critical Apparatus (PDF). Iranica. Vol. 31. Harrassowitz Verlag. doi:10.13173/9783447121057. ISBN 978-3-447-12105-7.

External links

• Book 8 of the Denkard: translation by Edward William West from the Sacred Books of the East series
• Book 9 of the Denkard: translation by Edward William West from the Sacred Books of the East series

• Avesta
• Zoroastrian texts