The Aryans in Iran and the Zcroastrian Religion. (1) the Two Branches 01
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k . JjCKt>J<5*-\ The Aryans in iran and the Zcroastrian Religion. (1) The two branches 01 the Eastern Aryan stocK, the Aryans of India and the Aryans of Persia are very closely connected in origin, but their subsequent divergence is all the more strongly marked: each people follows a totally dinerent path in cultural development and most or all in the development of their respective religion. i. Their original connection is shown most clearly in their language. The earliest of the Persian sacred writings - the Gath-a-s of the Avesta. - resemble the hymns of tne aig Veda so closely as to appear dialects oi the same language rather than difterent tongues. There are certain changes of sound such as the Vedie S for Iranian h. but the syntax, the process of word formation and even the vocabulary are extraordinarily aliKe. 2. Even more remarkable, perhaps, are the signs oi resemblance between the religions of the two peoples, wnieh are so numerous as to show that the two peoples must have formerly shared the same religious oeiieis and practises. The names and iunctions of the different gods are similar and in many cases almost identical. Both peoples reckon the number of the gods as 55. Thus we h8ve Persian Mithra - Indian Mitra. Pers. Airyaraan - Ind.Aryaman " Apam Napat " Aparrt Map's, t " Thrita & Athwiya " Trita Aptya H Gandfcrewa " G/iandsflMfr. " Vayu " Vayu air " Bagh$e_ (god) " Bhaga The god Bsfhis of gifts. The same words for evil spirits *atu & Druj (Druh) The fkrst man in the Avesta is Yima the son of Vivsnhvsnt, while in the Rig Veda he is Yama the son of Vivasvant. On the other hand while the words for supernatural beings are common to the two languages there is a curious dissimilarity in their use. The gods of the Veda are known as devas, "but the devas of the Avesta are demons. So too the Asurss of the Veda are evil powers, while the corresponding Iranian word Ahura is the name of the supreme god Ahura Maszdah. Nevertheless the word is also used in the Rig Veda in a good sense, and is applied to Varuna who alone among the Indian gods has some resemblance to the Ahura of the Avesta. Both of them are preeminently moral gods who punish sin and falsehood. Both of them are the guardians of order and moral law, and the same importance is attached to Asha or Arta "righteousness" in the religion of Ahura, as is possessed "by the similar word Rita in the worship of Varuna. Finally Varuna is the leader of the seven Adityas, as Ahura is the lord of the seven holy powers - the Ameshas Spentas. 2. Even more striking are the resemblances in cult. In both lands there is a highly developed priestly ritual which centres round the sacred drink and the sacred fire. The Vedie Soma is the Iranian Haoma, the sacred plant that grows upon the mountains, and it is pressed and prepared in a similar way. It is true that the Iranian fire god is not Agni but Atar the hearth fire, but the fire priests bear the same name in each country, being named Athravan in Persia and Atharvan in India. So too the Persian Zaotar corresponds to the Vedie Hotr, originally the offerer of the libation, and we have the same words for sacrifice Yasna and Yajna, and for the sacrificial twigs barhis and baresman. This evidence is sufficient to show that the two peoples shared 5. an almost identical form of religion oi a highly developed and elaborate character. It is therefore clear that for a considerable period oefore the Aryans entered India they must have iormed one people with the Aryans of Persia and shared in the same culture. But it does not necessarily follow tnat this culture was a purely Aryan one. j/ In spite of certain resemblances between the religion of the Eastern Indo-European peoples and those of the West, notably n. the cult of the sacred fire, the religions of the Aryans of India and Persia possess a number of pecuiarities which they do not share with the other Indo-European peoples, and it is highly proDsbie that these were developed in Iran itseli after* one occupation of that region oy the Aryans. For there is no reason to suppose that the early population of Persia was originally Indo-European. In the extreme south-west, in Slam, we know that tnere existed a very ancient civilization, alien to that of tne Suaerians, and that a non-Indo EuropeanJaggiutinative language was spoken. To the south East, in Baluchistan, the, remnants of a Dravidian speaking people exist to this day, while the prehistoric remains recently discovered at wal prove a connection with the Indus valley where there existed in the 3rd miilenium B.C. an advanced civilization of a similar type to that of the ancient Swneriams amd Elamites. For Persia proper, it is true, very little evidence exists. But it is certain that both Seistan and Kherasan were important centres of prehistoric culture, and thepainted pottery that has been found in those regions shows tnat they belonged to the same type of culture as Elam and Baluchistan. H. el. the cult of Vesta at Rome, and that of Ugnis Szventa among the Lithuanians 4. I rfiience; it is probable that the culture of the Aryans in Iran was no more an unmixed one than that or the Aryans in India. In each case the historic culture resulted from tne contact and blending 01 the same two elements that, nave been already described, a settled civilization of the archaic type and the tribal culture of the warlike Aryan invaders, and since the underlying prehistoric culture was of a similar or related type in both countries, it is probable that both the two conquering peoples were exposed to similar cultural influences. Thus, for example, in both cases a Kind of caste system seems to have grown up. The Iranian word for caste-pistra - has tne same meaning as the Indian vama - i.e. colour, and the names oi the castes themselves Athravan-priests, rathaestar-cnarioteers, and vastrya - fsuyant-herdsmen and huiti-artisams, correspond lairly closely to the Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras of India, except in the case I 1^ Pi of the fourth. Jf It is indeed difficult to say how much of the resemblances between the Iranians and the Indo-Aryans is due to their common racial origin, how much to the common culture that they shared before the Aryan invasion or India and how much to the common elements that may nave existed in the Pre-Aryan cultures of Persia and N.W. India. But if all these influences were common to the two peoples historical now are we to explain the striding divergence in their/development? To some extent, no doubt, these may be accounted for oy the difference of climate and natural environment between the Iranian plateau and the steaming lowlands of the Ganges valley - for it was not until the Aryans had reached the Ganges that tne specifically Indian development of their culture took place. But it was the development of the world religions themselves that did more than anything else to cause • 5. divergence between tne two cultures, and this development was due not to the influence of blind natural forces, out to the conscious work of great historic or semi-historic personalities. On the one hand we have jBuddna and the anonymous thinkers of the period of the Upanishads, ' on the other the single figure of Zarathustra, the prophet of Iran. It is difficult to conceive a more complete contradiction that is f presented oy the two resultant attitudes to life. For the Buddhist, on the one hand, the "Aryan law" is a law of renunciation and apathia, life is evil, the body is a source of suffering and the supreme goal of effort is the dreamless peace of Nirvana. For the zoroastrian, on the oj&her hand, the material world is "the holy creation of God", death is the supreme evil. The duty of the Aryan is "to make the world advance" oy husbandry and righteousness, and his reward is eternal life in "the House of Song" and to share in the victory of Ahura, when the servants of the Lie are finally defeated in the aay of the Great Consummation. And yet both these profoundly irreconcileaole views of life agree in that they are both alike reactions from a common type of polytheism and nature worship. Zoroastrianism is no more representat ive of the primitive religion of the Aryans than is Buddhism or the religion of the Upanishads. It represents the moraiization ox an oiuer nature religion ol the same t^pe as that which existed in India during the Vedie period. It is true that we have no evidence lor u\ the earlier stage ol Iranian religion such as Rig Veda supplies us with in the case of India. The whole sacred literature of ancient Persia is posterior to the goroasurian reform, and the oldest portion of that literature consists of the utterances ox ZarathUstra himself, or at least oi the prophet and relormer who went by that name. These hymns, which are Known as the Gathas, are comparable from the linguistic r point of view to those of the Rig Veda, and must be considerably earlier in date than the other portions of tne Avesta, such as the Vendidad and the lashts, which differ both in dialect and metrical forms irom the older elements. Nevertheless it is irom these later texts, together with a lew scattered passages in Greek authors, that our only knowledge ol the older pre Zcroastrian religion of tne Aryans of Persia is derived.