13 - THE OLD EASTERN IRANIAN WORLD VIEW ACCORDING TO THE AVESTA

Summary

INTRODUCTION

For the traditional outlook of ancient Eastern Iran, the birthplace of Iranian culture, we must be guided by such realia as may be extracted from the religious texts which comprise the Avesta, supplemented, when necessary, by Pahlavi citations from lost Avestan texts. In certain instances it will be difficult, if not impossible, to determine the time period to which the data at hand apply. While the Avesta refers primarily to prehistoric conditions, there is occasionally the possibility that there is reflected a situation prevailing at the time of the composition of the texts during the historical era, e.g. the Achaemenian era for the Yashts, or even later for the Vidēvdād (Vendidad) which contains some of the most important data concerning everyday life. Thus, for example, we find in the Vidēvdād the use of a metrical system dependent on a Greco-Roman model.

The extent however to which even the Vidēvdād looks back to pre-historic times may be seen from the list of the sixteen good lands created by Ahura Mazdā, and the plagues sent against them by Angra Mainyu, related in the first Karde of the Vidēvdād. Here we have a series of purely Eastern locations, beginning with the mythological Aryana Vaējah (“the expanse of the Aryans”, based on the recollection of an original homeland in the extreme north-east in dimmest antiquity) and moving south in a path including Sogdiana, Margiana, Bactria, Herat, Gandhara, Arachosia, the Helmand river, the river Buner and finally the “Seven Streams” (Hapta Handu = Hindu, the Indus and its tributaries); this whole area is framed by the two mythological rivers the Vanghvī Dāityā and the Ranghā, on which more will be said below. What the heart of this eastern area of settlement was is indicated in the Mithra Yasht in which we are provided with an interesting bird's eye (or rather, god's eye) vista: “…the whole land inhabited by Iranians [Airyanajn] where gallant rulers organize many attacks, where high, sheltering mountains with ample pasture provide, solicitous for cattle; where deep lakes stand with surging waves; where navigable rivers rush wide with a swell towards Parutian Iškata, Haraivian Margu, Sogdian Gava, and Chorasmia”. According to Gershevitch's analysis, Ishkata would be situated in the plain of the Upper Helmand in the vicinity of the Kūh-i Bābā (i.e. the territory later known as Sattagydia, OPers. θatagu); and the Parutian overlords were probably the Paroutai which Ptolemy (iv. 17.3) reports as having occupied the part of Areia (Haraiva) near the Hindu-kush (Ghōr). Herodotus (iii.91), however, states that the Aparytai formed one nomos with the Sattagydians, Gandharans, and Dadikoi. In the Avestan passage we see also that Margu (Marv or Margiana) formed part of the territory of Areia-Haraiva (i.e. Herat and its environs on the Harī-Rūd), whereas under Darius it was part of Bactria. This passage serves to outline the territory which will be the focus of our study.