Zoroastrianism: Languages in Prayer and Rituals
Fourth in a series on the TISS-PARZOR Academic Programme in Culture & Civilisations: A Zoroastrian Perspective. Guest lecture by Prof. Almut Hintze.
Friday’s Guest Lecturer was Prof. Almut Hintze of SOAS University of London.
I both mock and use acronyms. Some have meaning; others sound silly. I played with acronyms and spelling out of them in drafting my third novel of The Q’Zam’Ta Trilogy to express my feelings. Acronyms have no meaning. What does SOAS mean?? I went searching for its meaning. School of Oriental and African Studies. Oh. I didn’t imagine that. But how much more does a name tell you than an acronym? Coolness doesn’t excuse the replacement of meaning with meaningless letters. Or did they replace the name because in some circles the word “oriental” is verboten? Why not just change it then to “Asian”?
But I digress right off the top. Or do I?
Prof. Hintze is the SOAS University of London’s Co-chair Zartoshty Brothers Professor of Zoroastrianism. Exploration and curiosity took her from learning ancient Greek to discovering and then specializing in the study of Zoroastrianism.
Later on in this certificate course, she’ll be teaching Avestan. Students will first learn to write their name in Avestan then a sentence and lastly translate from English to Avestan and vice versa. Her lecture on the changes in language reminded me of studying briefly Old English a couple of years ago for novel research. I had to quit because my energy, cognitive stamina, and other brain injury issues couldn’t keep up. I’m not sure if I’ve improved enough to take her 5-week course on Avestan, but I think it’d be neat.
Avestan: The Old and The Younger
Avestan is divided into Old Avestan and Younger Avestan. It’s the original language of the Gathas. It wasn’t until the fourteenth century that the oral traditions were written down, by which time the meanings had been lost. Only the sounds remained. I was unclear by what she meant. If we have the Gathas and we understand their meanings, as much as we can a text first transmitted orally for 2,000 years, then how is it only sound? Perhaps she meant that each “letter” or symbol had no meaning attached to it anymore, only its sound? But the words made up of those symbols do have meaning? Yet she noted that Parsi priests begin memorizing the texts in childhood through hearing and learning their sounds without understanding their meaning.
Elucidation from Monday’s Zoroastrian History Lesson
The Avestan language had no alphabet until the Sasanian Empire under Kusrau.
The roof of the great Palace of Persepolis was constructed of mahogany and ebony. When Alexander the Great — or as the Parsis call him, Alexander the Cursed — burned down the Palace of Persepolis in 330BC during the Achaemenid Empire as a tit for tat move, the roof collapsed, killing the priests. Alexander also burned down the library. As a result, Parsis ensured that the important texts were inculcated from childhood so that no matter what happened, the oral tradition would ensure survival of the religion and its rituals. It wasn’t clear to me that if the oral tradition became the main transmission because the writings were lost, then did that mean Avestan had been in written form, but its form was lost? Or was the only language the cuniform carved in rock? In which case, how could it burn down?
Language
Language is the foundation of culture. Through language, we understand a people’s culture. Over the thousands of years of Zoroastrian history, from its inception in the mid-Bronze Age to contemporary times, Zoroastrianism has encompassed several languages.
Prof. Hintze guided us through the timeline of the languages correlating with Zarathushtra’s time in the Bronze Age through the three empires — Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sasanian — to the present day. She showed us the geographical movements of the peoples from the original homeland to India today. Although the Parthian Empire lasted the longest, we know less about it than the other two because the Sasanian Empire destroyed much of the record in their hatred of the Parthians.
The Empires
Cyrus the Great, he of the first human rights code, known as The Cyrus Cylinder, founded the Achaemenid Empire. One of the most amazing moments of my life was seeing the cylinder on which his code was written in the cuniform language he adopted and transformed from the Mesopotamians. They discovered The Cylinder buried deep beneath Babylon, which Prof. Shernaz Cama interpreted as making this code the foundation of Cyrus’s philosophy.
The Empire ended with the defeat by Alexander the Great, whom I studied in grade 9 Classical Civilizations class, which portrayed the Persians as the bad guys (raising conflicting feelings in me — my teacher was charismatic, insightful, and knowledgeable, who admired the ancient Greeks, but I was a Persian descendant).
You’ll have heard of Cyrus the Great from the Old Testament of the Bible if you’re not aware of the human rights code. It’s a great story. Go read it if you haven’t yet. His actions towards the Jewish exiles represents the Zoroastrian attitude of all having the right to freedom of their own religion as well as charitable moral code. The featured video’d lecture by Rohinton during the fifth class talked more about how the Zoroastrian empires were multilingual, multireligious, and multicultural. They were the first true democracy where Cyrus’s conquest liberated the peoples to follow their own traditions and religions, to speak in their own languages. (I didn’t write down Rohinton’s last name because it was said at rapid speed and the video title didn’t include it. Who creates a recording of someone so venerated and doesn’t include their last name in the title?! Grumble. Grumble.)
Arsaces from the Parni tribe founded the Parthian Empire. The empire’s timeline crossed from before Christ through Jesus’s birth, life, death, and resurrection to the Acts of the Apostles through to the third century CE.
Ardashir I founded the Sasanian Empire — and yes, I’m spelling it the way Prof. Hintze did. I don’t know why some spell it with one ‘s’ and others with two. Personally, I think two looks better, but what do I know, eh?
The Arab conquest felled it, and it ended in 750. The Arabs triumphed over the Persians by launching raids against its western border. With each successful raid, they attracted others to join and expanded their attacks until they conquered the Zoroastrians. During the fifth class, we learned that it was actually the Mongolian conquest that finally ended it. The Chinese hosted the Persian empire in exile until it finally vanished and, either before or during that time period, our ancestors scattered south to India.
Reasons for Studying Zoroastrianism
Prof. Hintze listed six reasons for studying Zoroastrian culture and civilization. She explained them in detail, but I’ll just list them here.
1. Historical significance.
2. Linguistic significance.
3. Ritual significance.
4. Fascinating cosmology and ethics.
5. Influence on other world religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
6. Socio-religious significance as a living religion.
Cultural Genocide?
In the fifth class on January 26th, Prof. Shernaz Cama brought up the mischaracterization of the Persian Empire/Zoroastrians as savages. My internet is overloaded and Zoom stutters along like an old-fashioned gasoline engine, so I’m not sure how much of my comments got through about learning from Canada’s First Nations’ response to their cultural genocide that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission described. However, Prof. Cama talked about our demise being internal rather than external, and genocide is externally created.
Yet don’t people internalize external attitudes and mores? Don’t they externalize others’ judgements of them?
I understand many current generations of First Nations are having to learn from surviving elders their almost-lost language, cultural traditions, and way of life. Cultural genocide began with external pressures, but the effects entered the internal realm. Just as so many of them and children of immigrants lose their ancestors’ language, so did I. I was taught only a few words, mostly sporadically, mostly when I asked.
But Prof. Cama is correct: that the way to reverse this cultural annihilation is to take courses like this one and disseminate the knowledge we gain. It’s why I’m writing these posts. Not only to help me remember the material, but also to reverse the mischaracterization, to bring our culture into public awareness, and to reclaim our history in the world.
Sources Inform
All of what we know is gathered from linguistic and archeological sources, as I understand it. Researchers approach the sources with a critical eye and use several in order to compare and contrast them.
Do the sources correlate or contradict each other?
Which are more credible?
One person in the class brought up using DNA and satellite imagery data as new sources. It seemed to me as I watched this discussion that those who prefer one dating over another for the origin timeframe don’t really like hearing opposing views. I got the sense that deciding when Zarathushtra founded the religion is a debate that tires people out. Or rather, it tires non-Zoroastrians out. Those of us with that DNA will debate people into the ground. Some with Zoroastrian heritage will also get debated into the ground, but most will nod agreement or switch to another topic, then at a later time carry on the debate. I feel sorry for non-Zoroastrians who suddenly find themselves at the pointy end of a relentless intellectual questioning by a Zoroastrian.
I remain open about the exact dating. However, we’re all in agreement that Zoroastrianism is the first revealed religion, the first monotheistic religion, the first to declare there is one God and there is evil in the world.
Avestan Peoples
Back to the Avestan people. As far as studies can determine, they originated in the Airyanem Vaejah and travelled in a sweeping south, southeast, and southwest arc along the tributary of the Oxus river to Hapta Hendu, Ranha, Bactria, Hilmand, Herat, and Merv.
My grandmother taught me that our ancestors originated in the far north of the eastern edge of ancient Persia. I worked out that may’ve been where Georgia is now. And there is a fire temple there. Looking at the maps, it may or may not be close to the hypothesized location of Airyanem Vaejah.
The languages of the Zoroastrian people ranged from Avestan to Old Persian to Gujarati. The latter is a little-studied source despite many, many manuscripts in existence. Prof. Hintze taught much more, but I’ve run out of time and energy to write this.
Muya: Multimedia Yasna Project
Prof. Hintze received funding from the European Research Council to create a multimedia interactive online film of the Yasna. The Yasna an ancient ritual with text and the first complete description of any religious ritual. It was first transmitted orally, dating from 1500 BC, with priests learning to memorize it from childhood, and then transmitted in written form. It continues to be performed today, mainly because families request consecration of bull urine for the Navjote and wedding ceremonies.
Prof. Hintze and her team filmed a staged performance of the Yasna. Find the interactive film here. http://muya-film.soas.hasdai.org/yasna/
The film starts right at the beginning of the ritual, with both the Avestan and English translations of the chanted words, but does not provide an introductory paragraph on what the Yasna is and what it’s for.
Because it’s dying out, Prof. Hintze wanted to document it in film and include interactive hotspots so that anyone, Zoroastrian and non, could learn about it, down to specific elements, and understand this ancient significant ritual.
She is currently looking to making it available offline so that anyone can have their own copy to view at home. In this way, the film will reach the broadest possible audience and restore knowledge of this culture to the world.
Prof. Hintze’s latest project is to delve into Gujarati manuscripts, including some never before been read or studied, and to study these sources.
“Parsi” Origin
A tidbit from January 26th recorded lecture by Rohinton: Parsi is seen as having originated from being known as people from Pars. But Rohinton said that Achaemenids called themselves the Parsa, and Cyrus the Great and Darius I said, “I am Parsa.”
I’d always thought of Parsis are being Zoroastrians who came from or lived in Bombay, the word a variation of “Persian.” This view left me wondering if I am Parsi yet doubting I could call myself that. So who am I? But this updated piece of understanding means that I am both Parsi and British in origin. When Prof. Shernaz Cama talked about developing this course as a way to address our identity and belonging issues, it’s this kind of thing that underscores its value. Answering a doubt with updated knowledge and understanding of my culture starts to fill in my identity.
This article comes at the perfect time. Your analysis of acronyms and the term 'oriental' is compelling. Is the 'verboten' status purely linguistic or cultural?