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How Many Chapters Does the “Yasna of the Seven Chapters” Have?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Alberto Cantera
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Abstract

This article argues that the Avestan text Yasna Haptaŋhāiti (“Yasna of the seven chapters”) was not originally divided into seven chapters. It was divided into three parts that were not considered hāitis (chapters) in the same way as the gathic hāitis. The division of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti into seven parts and its corresponding title is based on the arrangement of the Old Avestan texts. These texts try to reproduce the structure of the prayer Ahuna Vairiia; three verses with two hemistichs each correspond to three pairs of compositions with 7, 4 four and 1 hāiti each of the Old Avestan texts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 45 , Issue 2: Special Issue: Pre-islamic Iranian Literary Heritage , March 2012 , pp. 217 - 227
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2012

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References

1 See Darmesteter, James, Le Zend-Avesta, 3 vols. (Paris, 1892–93), 1: xcviii;Google Scholar Lentz, Wolfgang, Yasna 28: Kommentierte Übersetzung und Kompositions-Analyse (Mainz, 1955);Google Scholar Schmidt, Hans-Peter et al., Form and Meaning of Yasna 33 (New Haven, CT, 1985).Google Scholar

2 See Molé, Marijan, Culte, mythe et cosmologie dans l'Iran ancien (Paris, 1963).Google Scholar Note that the expression “long liturgy,” introduced by Kellens, Jean in “Considérations sur l'histoire de l'Avesta,” Journal asiatique, 286 (1998): 451–519,CrossRefGoogle Scholar refers to the different variants of the Yasna ceremony celebrated in the Zoroastrian temples by priests. It corresponds to the term “inner ceremonies” used by other authors.

3 See Hintze, Almut, “On the Literary Structure of the Older Avesta,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 65 (2002): 31–51;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Jamison, Stephanie W., The Rig Veda between Two Worlds = Le Ṛgveda entre deux mondes (Paris, 2007);Google Scholar Kellens, Jean, “Controverses actuelles sur la composition des Gāthās,” Journal asiatique, 295 (2007): 415–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 See Narten, Johanna, ed. and trans., Der Yasna Haptaŋhāiti (Wiesbaden, 1986).Google Scholar

5 See Kellens, Jean and Pirart, Éric, eds. and trans., Les textes vieil-avestiques, 3 vols. (Paris, 1988–91), 3: 124;Google Scholar Boyce, Mary, Zoroastrianism: Its Antiquity and Constant Vigour (Costa Mesa, CA, 1992), 89ff.;Google Scholar Hintze, Almut, ed. and trans., A Zoroastrian Liturgy: The Worship in Seven Chapters (Yasna 35–41) (Wiesbaden, 2007), 6ff.Google Scholar

6 This manuscript is now preserved at Meherji Rana Library. Its electronic reproduction, prepared by myself, is available in ADA (http://www.avesta-archive.com). Frēdōn Marzbān Frēdōn Wahrom Rōstām Bundār Šāhmardān joined in Kermān in the seventeenth century, in a single manuscript to be sent to India, two older manuscripts containing the first one, the Vīštāsp Yašt, and the second one, the Yašt Vīsperad. He copied the Vīštāsp Yašt Sāde with Nērangs (G18a) from a manuscript copied by Husrōšāh, son of Anōšāgruwān Rustām, year 693 20 Y. (= 1344), one of the oldest Avestan manuscripts known. The Vīsperad was copied from a manuscript written for him by Manušcihr Ardašīr Wahrom Sfandyād Ardašīr in the year 996 of Yazdegird 20 (= 1647).

7 See Kotwal, Firoze M. and Kreyenbroek, Philip G., The Hērbedestān and Nērangestān, vol. 3, Nērangestān, Fragard 2 (Paris, 2003), 217.Google Scholar

8 The expression “Great Avesta” refers to the compilation of Zoroastrian writings ordered in three groups of 7 Nasks that it is described in the 8th book of the Dēnkard and in other Pahlavi works.

9 See Windfuhr, Gernot, “Zoroastrian and Taoist Ritual: Cosmology and Sacred Numerology,” Zoroastrian Rituals in Context, ed. Stausberg, Michael (Leiden, 2004), 216.Google Scholar

10 Windfuhr (“Zoroastrian and Taoist Ritual,” 217) explains the number 72 as the result of two cycles in the long liturgy: one based on the number 6 (72 = 6 x 12), with high points in every third group of 6 (in the hāitis 18, 54 and 72), and a second one based on the number 9 (72 = 9 x 8) with the same high points (since the cadence is 18 = 9 x 2 and 6 x 3). However, I do not think that these cycles have any textual support, fragard 18 being the weakest point.

11 See the hendecatropism of the Gāθās recently proposed by Kellens again (see Kellens, “Controverses actuelles,” 418).

12 I proposed this recently in a communication at the colloquium “Questions zoroastriennes II. La sort des Gāθās,” held in Liège on April 22–23, 2010.

13 See Darmesteter, Zend-Avesta, 1: lxxxvii.

14 See Windfuhr, Gernot, “The Word in Zoroastrianism,” Indo-European Studies, 12, nos. 1–2 (1984): 133–78;Google Scholar Hintze, “On the Literary Structure.”

15 For a recent account of the presentation of the “Great Avesta” as an expansion of the Ahuna Vairiia see Vevaina, Yuhab Sohrab-Dinshaw, “‘Enumerating the Dēn’: Textual Taxonomies, Cosmological Deixis, and Numerological Speculations in Zoroastrianism,” History of Religions, 50, no. 2 (2010): 111–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16 In fact, it has the numerical value 7, counting the whole prayer as 1 and its constitutive elements as 6 (3 x 2 or 3 + 3).

17 See Almut Hintze, “On the Ritual Significance of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti,” in Stausberg, Zoroastrian Rituals in Context, 306ff.

18 See Boyce, Mary, “Haoma, Priest of the Sacrifice,” in W.B. Henning Memorial Volume (London, 1970), 68;Google Scholar Boyce, Mary, A History of Zoroastrianism, vol. 1, The Early Period (Leiden, 1975), 117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Objections in Narten, Der Yasna Haptaŋhāiti, 249ff. and a short discussion by Hintze in A Zoroastrian Liturgy, 258ff.

19 See Kotwal, Firoze M. and Boyd, James W., A Persian Offering: The Yasna; A Zoroastrian High Liturgy (Paris, 1992), 112ff.Google Scholar

20 It is likely that the expression a ahe ratu echoes the ratuš aātcit hacā of the first verse-line of the Ahuna Vairiia.