دار بيبليون
Zara 5:
Zoroastrianism and its interaction with Hinduism
Lecture by Lwiis Saliba on Zoom Wednesday 09/03/2022
Between Zoroastrianism and the ancient Iranian religion in general, on the one hand, and Hinduism in its most ancient periods, on the other hand, there are close and deep links. We have dwelt on this at length in one of our theses (). We will first reproduce here what we said previously, then comment on it, add elements and information that our subsequent research has made available to us, and add a comparative analysis. We would like to make it clear that we will be quoting our previous text as it stands, and then adding to it, which means that we will not be able to avoid certain repetitions.
The Rig Veda and the Avesta
In our presentation of the language of the Rig Veda, we have indicated a close relationship between it and the language of the Avesta. We have asked ourselves about the relationship between the two books, and it is to this question that we will answer in this paragraph.
The Avesta: its time and its authors
Let us begin by answering an obvious question: what is the Avesta? And to what period does it belong?
The Avesta is the sacred book of the Zoroastrians. It contains a number of hymns, as well as a group of sayings and teachings of Zoroaster, the ancient prophet of Iran and founder of the Zoroastrian religion.
Zoroaster was born around 660 BC. “The Avesta was born out of all the ancient Iranian religions, and it was established, codified, organised, classified, at the order of Ardashir (224-241 AD), the first of the Sassanid kings ()”
Ardashir made Mazdaism or Zoroastrianism the official religion of the state. This was after about nine centuries of the time of Zoroaster (). Thus, the Avesta in its codified form includes, in addition to Zoroaster’s teachings and sayings, hymns that predate Zoroaster’s era, which were used in rituals and sacrifices. Unfortunately, the entire text of the Avesta was lost as a result of the Islamic invasion of Iran. Only ritual parts remained, which the priests kept in memory. They passed it on orally for generations. Then it migrated with them to India, and it is the Avesta that we know today. From this exhibition, we conclude that the Avesta dates back to a modern time in relation to the Rig Veda. But this includes the ancient contemporary or semi-contemporary sections of the Vedas. Masson-Oursel states that the oldest document found in its ancient parts contains similarities of language, or homogeneity of spirit with the Indian Vedas, and confirms that it comes from the works of the third century BC. He concludes by saying: “That is, after 1500 years have passed since it should have been. It is therefore difficult to distinguish between what is contemporary with the Vedas and what belongs to more recent times.
From some of Zoroaster’s hymns in the Avesta, we conclude that he knew the Vedas because he quotes them in some of his hymns. He says, for example: “Like the Vedic poet, he sometimes includes in his hymns a demand for wages: shall I receive my reward, by right, ten dowries and a horse, with camels, which I have been promised” ( ).
After this definition and historical presentation, we return to the heart of our subject to try to clarify the relationship and kinship between the Rig Veda and the Avesta. There is no doubt that the literature of the Avesta and the Vedic literature are closely related. To speak of Vedic literature, therefore, inevitably leads us to speak of the Avesta.
The Rig Veda and the Language of Avesta
If we take the language of each of the two books, as we have discussed earlier, we find that the language of the Avesta, in many of the chapters that are the older chapters of that book, comes close to the language of the Rig Veda. The linguist and historian Oldenberg goes so far as to say that the language of the Avesta in these chapters is closer to the language of the Rig Veda, than is the language of the Mahabharata ( ). Oldenberg adds that Sanskrit, which developed from the Rig Veda and the Zend Avesta, is no further apart phonologically than would be two Greek dialects. The grammar, simple sentence structure and vocabulary are basically the same. Oldenberg notes that certain sentence forms that abound in the Vedas or Avesta are not found in post-Vedic Sanskrit. To conclude, we can translate a sentence from the Avesta word for word into a Vedic sentence, just by changing a few vowels and consonants. He adds that the result of this simple work is often a Vedic-style sentence, in keeping with the spirit of the general poetry of the Vedas.
Oldenberg’s view, which we have presented, is exactly the same as that of Griswold, which we have already set out in our discussion of the language of the Rig Veda. And both give the same example of the conversion of an Avesta sentence into a Rig Veda sentence. This is tangible proof of the proximity and even unity of these two languages.
The Deities of the Rig Veda and Avesta
From a linguistic point of view, what about the themes and deities (gods)? We find, for example, that the great Asura, the god-king whom the Vedas worship and called Varuna, made him the bestower of all bounties in the Avesta, the god with all privileges Ahuramazda. If we convert the diluted ‘s’ of Asura into ‘h’, we get the name Ahura. The name is thus the same. This deity retains in both the Indian and Iranian aspects, and down to the last detail, his essential attributes.
This same God possesses, controls, and rules over the supreme Truth and Order: that is, what is called Rita in Sanskrit, and Asha in the Zend Avesta.
Like Varuna, the Persian god Ahura is closely related to the god Mitra. And like him, he heads the family of the seven gods of light. Or rather, seven luminous beings ‘Devata’. Varuna, in the Rig Veda, catches the sun, prevents it from falling from the sky and makes his way through space. Ahura in the Avesta holds the sun and prevents it from falling. He also paves the way for the sun and the planets.
However, this is not all that can be said about the comparative theology between the Rig Veda and the Avesta. The model of all the gods travelling through the heavens on a horse-drawn chariot, the charming model that is repeated in many of the songs of the Rig Veda, is no less present in the Avesta than in the Rig Veda.
Concepts of death are also common, even complementary, between the Vedas and the Avesta, Oldenberg says. So is the doctrine of the first man to cross the threshold of death and become the King of the Dead: Yama is the son of Vivasvant in the Vedas. Yima son of Vivanhant in the Avesta. The names are almost identical. Especially if you exchange the S in Vivasvant with the H, you almost get Vivanhant.
Soma between the Rig Veda and the Avesta
There is one last similarity, with which we conclude our comparative presentation between the Rig Veda and the Avesta. This is the most precious sacrifice, Soma. We shall return to this at length in a special chapter, for it is Haoma in the Avesta. On both sides, the pontiffs call him the king of plants, the one who grows in the mountains, feeds on the rains of the sky, and is carried by a falcon. We will also see this repeatedly in the Soma episode. Its drink is extracted in the afternoon, by passing through a wool refinery, and mixing it with milk. These expressions, which will often be repeated in our translation of the Soma cycle, are also found in the Avesta, as if we were reading them in the Rig Veda. And if we replace the S in soma with the H in the language of the Avesta, we get Homa.
We content ourselves with these comparisons while pointing out that we have established them between the Rig Veda and certain ancient parts of the Avesta, that the loss of the complete and integral text of the Avesta has made us lose a golden opportunity for a comparative study, and for exploring the relations and exchanges between Iran and India.
This concludes this chapter in which we have dealt with the language, style and explanations of the Rig Veda, and its close relationship with the Avesta.
The Rig Veda is an essential source
for the study of Zoroastrianism
For his part, Foltz emphasises the importance of the Rig Veda as a source for the study not only of Hinduism, but also of Zoroastrianism. The world of the Rig Veda and its geographical setting is a common Indo-Iranian space. Foltz says: “The Hindu sacred hymns of the Rig Veda are considered the oldest existing literary source on Indo-European civilisation. Its present form probably dates back to the 8th century BC, but its content is much older. The world invoked by the Rig Veda does not, in fact, resemble the warm plains of northwest India, but rather the dry steppes of western Asian Europe, where the first Aryans came. Because it recalls the original homeland of the first Indo-Europeans and in particular because it bears similarities to the older Iranian text, the Avesta (the Zoroastrian scriptures), the Rig Veda can shed as much light as possible on the origins of the Iranian religion as well as the Hindu religion. The remote and hostile environment described in the Rig Veda is the environment from which the Aryans came, both in Iran and India. “
What Foltz proposes in this short text deserves contemplation and insight. The Rig Veda is a common Indo-Iranian heritage, he tells us, and it developed in a common space between the two peoples. If it had been studied in this light, especially in the obvious points of similarity between it and the Avesta, it would have taught us much about Zoroastrianism and its predecessors, the religion of the magi, and their stages of development and transformation. Here, the geographical location of Zoroastrianism takes on its rightful place as an impact, research and contemplation: the close contact of this religion with the Middle East, on the one hand, and the Far East, on the other, made it a link and a bridge of passage between these two sets of civilisations and cultures. It thus transferred a group of influences from the former to the latter, and perhaps had a similar action in the opposite direction. This dual role of Zoroastrianism has not been fully explored, as it should, to date.
The Rig Veda is the main
source of the Avesta
Concerning the apparent similarity between the Rig Veda and the Avesta, and what he deduces from it, Foltz says: “The two earliest literary monuments of the Indo-Aryans and their ancient Iranian cousins, namely the Rig Veda and the Avesta, are so similar in language and content that they draw, when compared with each other and with other Hindu and Zoroastrian writings, a more or less detailed picture of the actions and beliefs of the Indo-Iranians.
The influence of the Rig Veda on the Avesta and Zoroastrianism in general is clear, is the reverse true? Historically, the precedence of the former is settled. In this connection, the orientalist Tomlin says:
“The deities of the Persians before the time of Zoroaster were very much like the deities contained in the Indian scriptures, the Vedas. In fact, Indian scholars have often claimed that the Avesta owes almost all its basic teachings to the Vedas, including its name.
In the same context, the famous historian of civilisation, Will Durant, says: “The student may find in some parts of the Avesta what he finds in the Rig Veda, as gods and opinions, and sometimes as words and structures. These are so numerous that some Indian scholars believe that the Avesta is not a revelation of Ahura Mazda, but rather is taken from the books of the Vedas” ().
Today, this view is no longer held by Indian scholars, but rather by a number of historians of religion and international scholars.