Thank you for visiting. This article is the first installment in a series explaining the original texts of Zoroastrianism.
This time, I take up Zoroastrianism’s founder, the prophet “Zarathushtra,” and the scripture that conveys his teaching, “the Avesta.”
For an overview map of Zoroastrianism’s original texts as a whole, please see this summary article.
Who Is Zarathushtra — the Mystery-Shrouded Prophet
Zoroastrianism’s founder is “Zarathushtra (Zarathushtra of the house of Spitama).” The name “Zoroaster,” which we often use, is how the ancient Greeks conveyed this name, garbled into “Zoroastres.”
His life is shrouded in deep mystery. Especially difficult is the problem of which era he was a figure of.
| Theory | Dating |
|---|---|
| The traditional theory | Around the 6th century BC |
| Modern linguistic research | Around 1500–1000 BC (older) |
Because the language of the hymns “Gathas” he is said to have left behind is in a very old form, the view that holds him to be around 1000 BC, or even older, is prevailing in modern research. In any case, he is one of humanity’s oldest religious figures, living far earlier than the Buddha, Confucius, or Jesus. The stage of his activity was the ancient Iranian world, corresponding to present-day Iran and Central Asia.
An Illustrated Introduction to the World’s 5 Great MythologiesView on Amazon →
World Mythology for Beginners (illustrated)View on Amazon →
The Revelation from Ahura Mazda
According to tradition, Zarathushtra, originally a priest, had a decisive experience around age 30. When he was purifying himself in a river, an angel appeared with a dazzling light and led him to the supreme god “Ahura Mazda (the Lord of Wisdom),” where he received a revelation.
The ancient Iran of the time was a polytheistic world offering sacrifices to many gods. But Zarathushtra preached that Ahura Mazda alone is the supreme god worthy of worship, and sharply criticized the priests and the form of faith of the time.
For this, he met at first with fierce backlash and persecution, and believers did not easily increase. The turning point was that a powerful king named King Vishtaspa converted to his teaching. Using this as a foothold, Zoroastrianism spread to the ancient Iranian world. The development in which a persecuted prophet spreads his teaching through a king’s conversion is a story common to revealed religions, overlapping with the later Islam (Muhammad) and others.
Note that in later Europe, the philosopher Nietzsche borrowed this founder’s name in his work “Thus Spoke Zarathustra,” and the name of Zarathushtra is engraved in the history of thought as well.
The Scripture the Avesta — with the Gathas as Its Core
The scripture that conveys Zarathushtra’s teaching and the faith that follows from it is the “Avesta.” This is not a single book, but a gathering of multiple documents of differing use, written in the ancient “Avestan language.”
Of these, the oldest and held most sacred is the “Gathas.” This is a gem of a part, consisting of 17 psalms, said to be hymns composed by Zarathushtra himself. Prayer to Ahura Mazda and deep contemplation over good and evil are sung in the form of powerful poetry.
The “Yasna,” including the Gathas, is the 72 chapters at the center of worship, and to it are added the “Visperad,” supplementing the ritual, the “Vendidad,” a gathering of rules of purity and exorcism, and the hymn collection to the gods, the “Yasht.” Further, there is also the “Khorda Avesta (the Lesser Avesta),” a gathering of the prayers believers recite day by day.
The Lost Scripture — from Oral Tradition to Letters
The Avesta has another history worth knowing. It is that the surviving Avesta is only a small part of the whole that originally existed.
In Zoroastrianism too, the scripture was long transmitted by oral recitation. It was written down in letters only after the era of Sasanian Persia (3rd–7th centuries). Tradition holds that much was lost before then through Alexander the Great’s conquest of Persia and the like, and that, though desperately gathered in the Sasanian era, it fell far short of its scale in former days.
Also, as the Avestan language gradually came to be no longer understood, a translation and commentary in Middle Persian (Pahlavi), the “Zand,” was made. Further, important texts in the same Pahlavi were also compiled, such as the “Bundahishn,” which systematically records the worldview from creation to the end, and the encyclopedia of doctrine, the “Denkard.” These are indispensable original texts for knowing Zoroastrianism’s myth and doctrine, which are hard to understand from the Avesta text alone.
The Living Voice of Zarathushtra the Gathas Convey
Of the many Zoroastrian original texts, what holds a weight of a separate class is the 17 hymns “Gathas,” held to be the work of the founder Zarathushtra himself. Unlike the later mythological and ritual texts, here the earnest questioning of God by Zarathushtra the man himself is vividly engraved in the form of poetry.
In the Gathas, Zarathushtra throws fundamental questions one after another at the one God Ahura Mazda. “Who supports this world? Who set the path of the sun and stars? Who makes the moon wax and wane?” — and it reaches even to the question that keeps troubling believers, “Why are the righteous oppressed, and why do the wicked flourish?” Through such questions, he grasps the world as a place of battle between “good (asha = truth, justice)” and “evil (druj = falsehood),” and goes on to preach that a person has the responsibility of choosing by their own will which to side with.
In the point that the words of a single human facing God, troubled and contemplating, remain as they are — not as a mythological character — the Gathas are an extremely rare original text even among the world’s religious literature.
To Learn More
Here are some related books. Reading them alongside this series lets you savor this world even more deeply.
The Origins of Religion: Why We Needed a ‘God’View on Amazon →
A Complete History of Philosophy and ReligionView on Amazon →
Conclusion
In this article, I explained in detail Zoroastrianism’s founder Zarathushtra and the scripture the Avesta. How was it?
Zarathushtra was one of humanity’s oldest prophets, and, in a polytheistic world, preached faith in the supreme god Ahura Mazda. The scripture the Avesta, with the hymns “Gathas,” held to be his words, as its core, is a precious original text that, through long oral tradition and loss, was finally put into letters in the Sasanian era.
In the next Article 2, I will explain in detail the core of Zarathushtra’s teaching, “good-evil dualism,” and the world of the supreme god Ahura Mazda.
I hope you’ll read the next article too.
📚 Series: The Original Texts of Zoroastrianism (2/5)
