The Bahram Yasht also known as Wahram Yasht is the fourteenth

Yasht A Yasht (, ) is a hymn of praise composed in the Young Avestan language and dedicated to specific Zoroastrian divinities. The term commonly applies to the collection of 21 Yashts, although it may also refer to other texts within the wider Avest ...

of the 21 Yasht collection. It is named after and dedicated to the praise of

Verethragna Verethragna or Bahram () is a Zoroastrian yazata. The neuter noun ''verethragna'' is related to Avestan ''verethra'', 'obstacle' and ''verethragnan'', 'victorious'. Representing this concept is the divinity Verethragna, who is the Hypostasis ( ...

, the Zoroastrian divinity representing military might and victory.

Name

The Bahram Yasht is named after

(, ), a term meaning the ''smasher of resistance'' and representing the

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, Zoroaster ( ). Among the wo ...

hypostasis of victory. It is known in

Middle Persian Middle Persian, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg ( Inscriptional Pahlavi script: , Manichaean script: , Avestan script: ) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasania ...

as Wahram (, ) and

Modern Persian New Persian (), also known as Modern Persian () is the current stage of the Persian language spoken since the 8th to 9th centuries until now in Greater Iran and surroundings. It is conventionally divided into three stages: Early New Persian (8th/ ...

Bahram Bahram may refer to: People * Bahram (name) Other uses * Bahram (''Shahnameh''), a heroic character in the Iranian epic poem * Bahram (horse) Bahram (1932–1956) was an Irish-bred, English-trained Thoroughbred racehorse. He was undefeated ...

(, ). It is also the Persian name for

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

as well as for the 20th day of the month in the

Zoroastrian calendar Adherents of Zoroastrianism use three distinct versions of traditional calendars for Zoroastrian festivals, liturgical purposes. Those all derive from Middle Ages, medieval Iranian calendars and ultimately are based on the Babylonian calendar a ...

, on which the Bahram Yasht is celebrated.

Structure and content

The Bahram Yasht consists of 64 stanzas, which are further grouped into 22 sections called ''Kardas''. According to

Darmesteter Darmesteter is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Agnes Mary Frances Duclaux (once Darmesteter) (1857–1944), English writer and scholar *Arsène Darmesteter (1846–1888), French philologist *James Darmesteter James Darmeste ...

, the text can be divided thematically into four parts. The first part consists of stanzas 1-28. These verses contain a list of ten different forms in which Verethragna appears. These incarnations have been compared to the different

Avatars Avatar (, ; ) is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means . It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearance" is sometimes u ...

Vishnu Vishnu (; , , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism, and the god of preservation ( ...

Indra Indra (; ) is the Hindu god of weather, considered the king of the Deva (Hinduism), Devas and Svarga in Hinduism. He is associated with the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows, and war. volumes Indra is the m ...

, known from ancient India. The next part consists of stanzas 30-33, which describe different powers that are bestowed by him on his faithful followers. The third part consists of stanzas 34-46, which describe a number of protective rituals that warriors may perform before battle. These verses provide important information on the martial customs of the

ancient Iranians Iranian peoples, or Iranic peoples, are the collective ethnolinguistic groups who are identified chiefly by their native usage of any of the Iranian languages, which are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages within the Indo-European langu ...

. The forth and last part consists of stanzas 47-64 and is dedicated to the praise of Verethraghna.

History

The Bahram Yasht was composed during the Old Iranian period within a fluid

oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (19 ...

. Its context may have been the sacrificial praise of Verethragna in order to achieve success in battle, in particular against the tribal enemies of the

. The described rituals prominently feature

protective magic Apotropaic magic (From ) or protective magic is a type of Magic (paranormal), magic intended to turn away harm or evil influences, as in deflecting misfortune or averting the evil eye. Apotropaic observances may also be practiced out of supers ...

, like using an amulet from a

Haoma (; Avestan: ) is a divine plant in Zoroastrianism and in later Persian culture and Persian mythology, mythology. has its origins in Indo-Iranian religion and is the cognate of Vedas, Vedic . Etymology Both Avestan and Sanskrit derived from Pr ...

stalk or stroking one's body with a bird's feather. These rituals can also be found in the

Atharvaveda The Atharvaveda or Atharva Veda (, , from ''wikt:अथर्वन्, अथर्वन्'', "priest" and ''wikt:वेद, वेद'', "knowledge") or is the "knowledge storehouse of ''wikt:अथर्वन्, atharvans'', the proced ...

from

ancient India Anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. The earliest known human remains in South Asia date to 30,000 years ago. Sedentism, Sedentariness began in South Asia around 7000 BCE; ...

and therefore must have originated already during the common proto-Indo-Iranian period. The written transmission of the Bahram Yasht probably began during the Sasanian period, when a comprehensive edition of the Avestan texts was produced. Within this edition, the Bahram Yasht was part of the

Bagan yasht The Bagan yasht was, according to the Denkard, the fourteenth ''nask'' (volume) of the Sasanian Avesta. The work itself is lost, but based on later references, several of the extant Yashts are considered to have originally been part of the nask. ...

, where it formed the 11th chapter. This work is now lost, but the text survived as part of the collection of the 21 Yashts. The text of the Bahram Yasht was made available to modern scholarship through the editions of the

Avesta The Avesta (, Book Pahlavi: (), Persian language, Persian: ()) is the text corpus of Zoroastrian literature, religious literature of Zoroastrianism. All its texts are composed in the Avestan language and written in the Avestan alphabet. Mod ...

by Westergaard and Geldner.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Avestan text of the Bahram Yasht
at Avesta.org based on the edition by Geldner
English translation of the Bahram Yasht
at Avesta.org based on the translation by

Audio recording of a performance of the Bahram Yasht
by

Mobed A mobed, mowbed, or mobad (Middle Persian: 𐭬𐭢𐭥𐭯𐭲) is a Zoroastrian cleric of a particular rank. Unlike a '' herbad'' (''ervad''), a ''mobed'' is qualified to serve as celebrant priest at the Yasna ceremony and other higher liturgi ...

Parviz Māli {{Zoroastrian literature Avesta