Yasna Haptanghaiti
The Yasna Haptanghaiti (Yasna Haptaŋhāiti),
Age and importance
While the first two verses (i.e. Y. 35.1-2, cf.
In substance, the seven chapters are of great antiquity and contain allusions to the general (not necessarily Zoroaster-influenced) religious beliefs of the period in which Zoroaster was himself a priest. The texts are thus also of significance to scholars of religious history, and play a key role in the reconstruction of
Structure and content
As represented within the greater Yasna liturgy, the Yasna Haptanghaiti are placed (and recited) between the first and second Gathas. Unlike the Gathas however, which are in verse, the Yasna Haptanghaiti is in prose. Analysis of the texts suggests that the hymns of the Yasna Haptanghaiti were composed as a discrete unit. The last verse of the last chapter suggests that the seven chapters represent the historical Yasna liturgy, around which the other chapters of the present-day Yasna were later organized. In that verse (41.6), the Yasna Haptanghaiti is personified as "the brave Yasna" and "the holy, the ritual chief."[n 1]
The zand commentaries on the seven chapters summarize their contents as follows:
1. (Yasna 35), | 10 verses, | "Praise to Ahura and the Immortals; Prayer for the practice and diffusion of the faith" |
2. (Yasna 36), | 6 verses, | "To Ahura and the Fire [i.e. Atar]" |
3. (Yasna 37), | 5 verses, | "To Ahura, the holy Creation, the Fravashis of the Just [i.e. ashavan], and the Bounteous Immortals" |
4. (Yasna 38), | 4 verses, | "To the earth and the sacred waters" [i.e. Zam and the Apas]" |
5. (Yasna 39), | 5 verses, | "To the soul of the kine [i.e. Gavaevodata], &c" |
6. (Yasna 40), | 4 verses, | "Prayers for Helpers" |
7. (Yasna 41), | 6 verses, | "Prayer to Ahura as the King, the Life, and the Rewarder" |
In the 19th century, Yasna 42 was considered to be a supplement to the Yasna Haptanghaiti, but later discussions of the liturgy do not include it as such. Yasna 42 is younger than the Yasna Haptanghaiti.
References
- Notes
- ^ A similar personification of the Yasna Haptanghaiti occurs in the Younger Avestan hymn of the Hawan Gah, a text of the Khordeh Avesta collection.
- Bibliography
- Boyce, Mary (1975), History of Zoroastrianism, vol. 1, Leiden: Brill.
- Hintze, Almut (2004), "On the Ritual Significance of the Yasna Haptanghaiti", in Stausberg, Michael (ed.), Zoroastrian Rituals in Context, Numen 102, Leiden: Brill, pp. 291–316.
- Humbach, Helmut (1991), The Gathas of Zarathushtra and the Other Old Avestan Texts, Part I, Heidelberg: Winter.
- Kellens, Jean (1989), "Avesta", Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 3, New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul, pp. 35–44.
- Mills, Lawrence H. (1905), "The Pahlavi texts of the Yasna Haptanghaiti, Yasna XXXV-XLI (XLII), edited with all Mss. collated", Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 59: 105–115.
- Narten, Joanna (1986), Der Yasna Haptaŋhāiti, Wiesbaden: Reichert.
Further reading
- Mills, Lawrence. H. (1887), Müller, Max (ed.), Yasna Haptanghaiti, Sacred Books of the East, vol. 31, Oxford: Oxford University Press