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Most of the Avestan corpus is composed in Young Avestan. These texts originated in a later stage of the Avestan period separated from the Old Avestan time by several centuries. [ 29 ] Due to a number of geographical references , there is a wide consensus that they were composed in the eastern portion of Greater Iran . [ 30 ]
Avestan (/ ə ˈ v ɛ s t ən / ə-VESS-tən) [1] is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. [2] It was originally spoken during the Old Iranian period (c. 1500 – 400 BCE) [3] [f 1] by the Iranians living in the eastern portion of Greater Iran.
The development of the Avestan alphabet allowed these commentaries to interleave quotation of scripture with explanation thereof. The direct effect of these texts was a "standardized" interpretation of scripture that survives to the present day.
The name of the texts is a contraction of the Avestan language Vî-Daêvô-Dāta, "Given Against the Daevas (Demons)", and as the name suggests, the Vendidad is an enumeration of various manifestations of evil spirits, and ways to confound them.
The Old Avestan material consists of the Gathas, the Yasna Haptanghaiti, and a number of mantras, namely the Ashem Vohu, the Ahuna Vairya and the Airyaman ishya.These Old Avestan texts are assumed to have been composed close together and must have crystallized early on, possibly due to the associating with Zarathustra himself. [12]
Yasna (/ ˈ j ʌ s n ə /; [1] Avestan: 𐬫𐬀𐬯𐬥𐬀) is the Avestan name of Zoroastrianism's principal act of worship. It is also the name of the primary liturgical collection of Avesta texts, recited during that yasna ceremony. [2]
Ahuna Vairya (Avestan: 𐬀𐬵𐬎𐬥𐬀 𐬬𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀) is the first of Zoroastrianism's four Gathic Avestan mantras. The text, which appears in Yasna 27.13, is also known after its opening words yatha ahu vairyo. In Zoroastrian tradition, the mantra is also known as the ahun(a)war.
A daeva (Avestan: 𐬛𐬀𐬉𐬎𐬎𐬀 daēuua) is a Zoroastrian supernatural entity with disagreeable characteristics. In the Gathas, the oldest texts of the Zoroastrian canon, the daevas are "gods that are (to be) rejected".