Avesta (redirected from Avesta (Zoroastrianism))

Avesta, Zoroastrian scriptures

Avesta: see Zoroastrianism.

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Avesta, city, Sweden

Avesta (ä`vəstä'), city (1990 est. pop. 16,860), Kopparberg co., S central Sweden, on the Dalälven River. Aluminum and high quality steel are manufactured there. Formerly a copper mining and refining center, Avesta was the seat of copper minting in Sweden from 1644 to 1831.

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Avesta

 or Zend-Avesta

Sacred book of Zoroastrianism. It contains hymns, prayers, and appeals to righteousness ascribed to Zoroaster. The present text was assembled in the 3rd–7th century AD from the remains of a larger body of scripture that was destroyed when Alexander the Great conquered Persia. It has five parts: the Gathas, hymns in what are thought to be Zoroaster's own words; Visp-rat, containing homages to spiritual leaders; Vendidad, the main source for Zoroastrian law; the Yashts, 21 hymns to angels and ancient heroes; and the Khurda avesta, composed of minor texts.

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Avesta

a collection of sacred writings of Zoroastrianism, including the Songs of Zoroaster

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Avesta

book of teachings of Zoroaster. [Zoroastrianism: Leach, 97]

See : Writings, Sacred

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Avesta

the collection of the sacred books of Zoroas-trianism, a religion that was widespread in antiquity and in the early Middle Ages in Iran, Central Asia, Azerbaijan, and Afghanistan. It is still used in religious services by the Par-sis in India. The written text of the Avesta, based on age-old oral tradition, was codified in the third through seventh centuries under the Sassanids into 21 books, or nasks. Not more than one-fourth of this text has survived.

The Avesta is known in two editions, or variants. The first is a collection of liturgical fragments from various books of the Avesta, and the second consists of the Vendidad, a compilation of religious and legal precepts; the Vispered and Yasna, liturgical hymns; the Yashts, hymns to the Zoroastrian deities; and the Little Avesta, prayers. The oldest part of the Avesta—the Gathas (hymns)—is the section of the Yasna ascribed to the prophet Zarathustra (Zoroaster). In contrast to the Gathas, the other parts of the Avesta are called the Younger Avesta. All parts of the Avesta, especially the Yasna and the Yashts, contain many elements of mythology.

Most contemporary scholars think that the Avesta appeared during the first half of the first millennium B.C. in one of the regions of Central Asia or in the neighboring territories of northwestern Afghanistan and northeastern Iran. The Younger Avesta, which also includes the Yashts, reflects the process of the fusion—commonly thought to have begun in the fifth century B.C.—of the teachings of Zoroaster, developed by his followers, with beliefs and rites of old tribal cults that were alien to the preaching of this prophet and of religious systems that were unorthodox from the point of view of Zoroastrianism and were widespread in the territories of the Achaemenian, Parthian, and Sassanid states of Iran.

The Avesta underwent accretions and changes in many areas that were settled by Iranian peoples. Thus it is the common monument of many peoples and is important for the study of their history, their social and political institutions, their mode of life, culture, religious beliefs, folklore, and literary traditions. The Avesta has preserved some artistic passages, principally of a mythological nature. They contain many poetical figures and some elements of initial rhyme as well as assonances and alliterations. The hymns of the Gathas are fully versified in five different syllabic meters. The Avesta was first translated and published in a European language (French) in 1771 by Anquetil-Duperron. It has given rise to a vast scholarly literature.

EDITION

Avesta. Die heiligen Bücher der Parsen. Edited by K. F. Geldner. Volumes 1–3. Stuttgart, 1886–95.

TRANSLATIONS OF AVESTA

Avesta: Die heiligen Bücher der Parsen, übers. auf der Grundlage von Chr. Bartholomae’s altiran. Wörterbuch. Edited by F. Wolff. Reprint. Berlin, 1924.
Die Gathas des Awesta. . . . Translated by Chr. Bartholomae. Strasbourg, 1905.
The Hymns of Zarathustra. With introduction and commentary by J. Duchesne-Guillemin. [Boston,] 1963.

REFERENCES

Braginskii, I. S. Iz istorii tadzh. nar. poezii. (Translations from the Avesta). Moscow, 1956.
D’iakonov, M. M. Ocherk istorii drevnego Irana. (Bibliography.) Pages 343–45, 360–63.
Duchesne-Guillemin, J. La religion de Viran ancien. Paris, 1962.
Widengren,G. Die Religionen Irans. Stuttgart, 1965.

I. S. BRAGINSKII and E. A. GRANTOVSKII [1–140 -1]