AVESTA
The Avesta, sacred book of Zoroastrianism containing its cosmogony, law, and liturgy, the teachings of the prophet Zarathushtra (Zoroaster). The extant Avesta is all that remains of a much larger body of scripture, apparently Zarathushtra’s transformation of a very ancient tradition. The voluminous manuscripts of the original are said to have been destroyed when Alexander the Great conquered Persia. The present Avesta was assembled from remnants and standardized under the Sasanian kings (3rd–7th century ce).
The Avesta is in five parts. Its religious core is a collection of songs or hymns, the Gāthā, thought to be in the main the very words of Zarathushtra. They form a middle section of the chief liturgical part of the canon, the Yasna, which contains the rite of the preparation and sacrifice of haoma. The Visp-rat is a lesser liturgical scripture, containing homages to a number of Zoroastrian spiritual leaders. The Vendidad, or Vidēvdāt, is the main source for Zoroastrian law, both ritual and civil. It also gives an account of creation and the first man, Yima. The Yashts are 21 hymns, rich in myth, to various yazatas (angels) and ancient heroes. The Khūrda Avesta (or Little Avesta) is a group of minor texts, hymns, and prayers for specific occasions.
Zend-Avesta literally means “interpretation of the Avesta.” It originally referred to the commonly used Pahlavi translation but has often been used as the title of Western translations.
Avestan language, eastern Iranian language of the Avesta, the sacred book of Zoroastrianism. Avestan falls into two strata, the older being that of the Gāthā, which reflects a linguistic stage (dating from c. 600 bc) close to that of Vedic Sanskrit in India. The greater part of the Avesta is written in a more recent form of the language and shows gradual simplification and variation in grammatical forms. When the canon of the Avesta was being fixed (4th to 6th century ad), Avestan was a dead language known only to priests.
Zoroastrians have no dietary restrictions. They also do not fast, as the religion teaches them, that the body must be well nourished to be able to work and live a healthy life.
Zoroastrians gave their dead “sky burials.” They built circular, flat-topped towers called dakhmas, or towers of silence. There corpses were exposed to the elements—and local vultures—until the bones were picked clean and bleached. Then they were collected and placed in lime pits called ossuaries.
The Zoroastrian new year is called Nowruz (or Navroze). It falls on the day of the vernal equinox (March 21), and marks the beginning of spring.
YASNA
Yasna is the Avestan name of Zoroastrianism's principal act of worship. It is also the name of the primary liturgical collection of Avesta texts, recited during that yasna ceremony.
The function of the yasna ceremony is, very roughly described, to strengthen the orderly spiritual and material creations of Ahura Mazda against the assault of the destructive forces of Angra Mainyu. The yasna service, that is, the recitation of the Yasna texts, culminates in the apæ zaothra, the "offering to the waters." The ceremony may also be extended by recitation of the Visperad and Vendidad texts. A normal yasna ceremony, without extensions, takes about two hours when it is recited by an experienced priest.
The Yasna texts constitute 72 chapters altogether, composed at different times and by different authors. The middle chapters include the (linguistically) oldest texts of the Zoroastrian canon. These very ancient texts, in the very archaic and linguistically difficult Old Avestan language, include the four most sacred Zoroastrian prayers, and also 17 chapters consisting of the five Gathas, hymns that are considered to have been composed by Zoroaster himself. Several sections of the Yasna include exegetical comments. Yasna chapter and verse pointers are traditionally abbreviated with Y.
The Avestan language word yasna literally means 'oblation' or 'worship'.
GATHA
The Gatha are 17 hymns in the Avestan language from the Zoroastrian oral tradition of the Avesta. The oldest surviving text fragment dates from 1323 CE, but they are believed by scholars to have been composed before 1000 BCE and passed down orally for centuries. They are traditionally believed to have been composed by the prophet Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) himself. They form the core of the Zoroastrian liturgy (the Yasna). They are arranged in five different modes or metres.
The 17 hymns of the Gathas consist of 238 stanzas, of about 1300 lines or 6000 words in total. They were later incorporated into the 72-chapter Yasna (chapter: ha or had, from the Avestan ha'iti, 'cut'), that in turn is the primary liturgical collection of texts within the greater compendium of the Avesta. The 17 hymns are identified by their chapter numbers in the Yasna, and are divided into five major sections:
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Ahunavaiti Gatha (cf. Ahuna Vairya), 100 stanzas, (3 verses, 7+9 syllable meter)
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Ushtavaiti Gatha 'Having Happiness', 66 stanzas (5 verses, 4+7 syllable meter)
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Spenta Mainyu Gatha 'Bounteous Spirit', 41 stanzas (4 verses, 4+7 syllable meter)
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Vohu Khshathra Gatha 'Good Dominion', 22 stanzas (3 verses, 7+7 syllable meter)
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Vahishto Ishti Gatha 'Best Beloved', 9 stanzas (4 verses, two of 7+5 and two of 7+7+5 syllables)
*Link To Vendidad (Laws Against The Demons)