The ''kushti'' () also known as kosti, kusti and kustig is the sacred girdle worn by invested Zoroastrians around their waists. Along with the sedreh, the kushti is part of the ritual dress of the Zoroastrians.

Origin

The

Avestan Avestan ( ) is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. It belongs to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family and was First language, originally spoken during the Avestan period, Old ...

term for the sacred thread is ''aiwyaongana''. Kustig is the later

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 ...

term. The use of the kushti may have existed among the prophet Zarathushtra's earliest followers due to their prior familiarity with practices of the proto-Indo-Iranian-speaking peoples, and its

Vedic upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed ...

analogue, the yajñopavita. Zoroastrian scripture and texts make various references to the usage of the Kusti. The Avestan ''Yasna'' (10.21) claims that a holy sage by the name of Haoma Frmi introduced it. Contrarily, the ''Dādestān ī dēnīg'' (39.18–19) claims that it was first used by the legendary Pishdadian ruler Jamshid (''Yima xšaēta)'', centuries before Zarathustra was born. Later, Ferdowsi al-Tusi would repeat this story in the ''

Shahnameh The ''Shahnameh'' (, ), also transliterated ''Shahnama'', is a long epic poem written by the Persian literature, Persian poet Ferdowsi between and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couple ...

''. Other myths claim that Zarathushtra himself recommended the practise to those who listened to his sermons (''Rehbar-e Din-e Jarthushti'' ''5)''.

Description and symbolism

The kushti is worn wound three times around the waist. It is tied twice in a double knot in the front and back, the ends of the kushti hanging on the back. The kushti is made of 72 fine, white and woolen threads, which represent the 72 chapters of the ''

Yasna Yasna (;"Yasna"
''

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 ...

''. The kushti also has 3 tassels, each with 24 threads, at each end. These 24 threads indicate the 24 chapters of the '' Visperad'', and the sum of all tassels, which is six, represents the six '' gahambars'' (feasts). The kushti, was often considered to be a marker of Zoroastrian identity both in India and Iran, as this passage from the Rivayats shows. In these writings, the terms Iranian and Zoroastrian are synonymous, and Zoroastrian writers did not recognise their non-Zoroastrian fellow countrymen as Iranians until the 20th century.

Manufacture

In both Iran and India, the kushti is usually produced by women from priestly duties. It has a dual function of a religious duty but also a necessity to augment the modest income of Zoroastrian clergy. Occasionally kustis, were woven by priests (''mobads'') themselves, though this is now exceedingly uncommon. Since the 1920s, non-priestly (''behdin)'' Zoroastrian women in Yazd province in Iran, were trained in the procedure of weaving the kushti.

Navsari Navsari is the ninth biggest city in the state of Gujarat in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Navsari District. Navsari is between Surat and Mumbai. It is a twin city of Surat, 37 km to the north. At the 2011 Census of Ind ...

, a former stronghold of Zoroastrianism became very well known for supplying kushtis to other Zoroastrians in India as well as across the diaspora. Zoroastrian students at the Tata Girls’ School at Navsari are still instructed how to weave kushtis. Traditionally Parsi women would be taught the unique skill from their elders, Najamai M. Kotwal, the mother of High Priest (Vada Dastur) Firoze M. Kotwal notably taught Parsi women for almost thirty years. When the kusti is about 30 cm long during the weaving process, it is taken off the loom and presented to the priest to be blessed and cut. The kusti is given back to the weavers once the ceremony is over so they can finish knitting the remaining portion. In keeping with Zoroastrian philosophy exalting happiness, the process of weaving the kushti is a joyous activity during which the women sing songs, laugh and share stories, both religious and secular.

Rituals

Investiture

The ''navjote/sedra-pušun'' ceremony of

initiation Initiation is a rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense, it can also signify a transformatio ...

is traditionally the first time Zoroastrians wear the kushti. Every man and woman who has been initiated into the faith must wear a kusti, according to Zoroastrian praxis. Each boy or girl dons a white undershirt (Pahl. ''šabīg'', Pers. ''šabi'', ''ṣudra'', ''ṣedra'', Guj. ''sudra'', ''sudre''), and ties a kustig over it, which symbolises both the transition to adulthood and acceptance of responsibility for religious deed thereafter. The failure to wear the cord and undershirt is then considered a ''tanāpuhl'' (sin), because it leaves the wearer exposed to evil. The ''Šāyest nē šāyest'' (4.10) and the ''Nērangestān'' (67.11) equate not wearing the kushti to “scrambling around naked”. Ākā Adhyāru in the third of his sixteen slogans, considers it to be a "coat of mail armour" and writing for Hindu audience he compares the act of tying the kusti to "ablution in the oly river

Ganges The Ganges ( ; in India: Ganga, ; in Bangladesh: Padma, ). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international which goes through India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China." is a trans-boundary rive ...

Daily rituals

The ritual of untying and tying the kushti is performed several times a day and is called ''nirang-i kushti''. During this ritual, the individual must remain standing in one spot, and may not speak to anyone. If the individual speaks, the ritual must be restarted from the beginning. Owing to its religious significance, the kushti must be worn every day of a Zoroastrian's life. The kushti must be ritually released and retied with specific prayers following the ''pādyāb'' purificatory ablution. This ceremony, known as the ''pādyāb-kusti'', entails "making new the holy cord" (Pers. ''košti nav kardan'') or "tying the holy cord" (Guj. ''kustī bastan''). The devotee should look to the east from dawn to midday and west until sunset, (toward the sun) whilst untying and tying the kushti. They can face an oil lamp, a fire, the moon, or stars at nighttime. When there is no source of light, they may face south, as it is believed to be the direction of Ahura Mazda's celestial home. Three sections make up the prayers that are recited during the ritual. The ''Nīrang ī pādyāb'', or "rite for ceremonial ablutions," is the name of the first section. ''Kə̄m nā Mazdā'' prayer (which has its origins in ''Y''. 46.7, ''Y''. 44.16, ''Vd''. 8.21, that is recited before untying the knots. The second section is known as the ''Nīrang ī kustīg bastan/abzūdan'', or "rite for tying the holy cord," and it is recited as the kushti is retied. ''Ohrmazd Xwadāy'' opening Pazand prayer (up to ''pa patit hōm'') is a synopsis of the ''Kə̄m nā Mazdā'' prayer that came before it. A brief Avestan stanza that praises

Ahura Mazda Ahura Mazda (; ; or , ),The former is the New Persian rendering of the Avestan form, while the latter derives from Middle Persian. also known as Horomazes (),, is the only creator deity and Sky deity, god of the sky in the ancient Iranian ...

and scorns Angra Mainyu concludes this prayer, followed by a line taken from ''Y''. 50.11. This section is completed by reciting one ''Ašǝm vohū'' prayer, two ''Yaθā ahū vairiiō'' (''Ahuna vairiia'', ''Ahunwar''), and an additional ''Ašǝm vohū''. The third section, which starts with the declaration ''Jasa mē avaŋhe Mazdā'', is the Zoroastrian confession of faith (MPers. ''āstawānīh ī dēn''); it also is titled ''stāyišn dēnīh'' “the praise of religion” in Pahlavi. The first line of this prayer is taken from the ''Yt''. 1.27 and the remaining portion from ''Y''. 12.8-9. It is concluded with the repetition of one ''Ašǝm vohū''. The padyab-kusht ceremony is required to restore the ritual effectiveness of the kusht before engaging in other religious activities like visiting a fire temple, as well as following sexual activity, urinating, and defecating. At the start of the other watches or divisions (MPers. and Pers. gh) of the day, it is released and retied each morning. Most Parsis, especially those who reside in Western nations, continue to wear the kusht on a regular basis; Iranian Zoroastrians frequently wear it just during religious ceremonies to avoid being picked out for abuse by Muslims.

Funeral

The Kusti is carried in the hand at funerals to create a ''paywand'' or "ritual connection" between two people, such as corpse-bearers, who hold the kusti between them, while the Zoroastrian mourners, also in similar ''paywand'', follow them in procession.

Wider use

There is some evidence to suggest that such girdles were worn by non-Muslims in general, including Christians, as a symbol to mark them out from Muslims. An exception to this would be the Muslim

Mughal Emperor The emperors of the Mughal Empire, who were all members of the Timurid dynasty (House of Babur), ruled the empire from its inception on 21 April 1526 to its dissolution on 21 September 1857. They were supreme monarchs of the Mughal Empire in ...

Akbar the Great Akbar (Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, – ), popularly known as Akbar the Great, was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Humayun, under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor exp ...

, who was invested with a kusti and sedreh by the Zoroastrian Parsi community of

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

. The kushti (zonnar) is mentioned by

Omar Khayyam Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm Nīshābūrī (18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131) (Persian language, Persian: غیاث الدین ابوالفتح عمر بن ابراهیم خیام نیشابورﻯ), commonly known as Omar ...

, thought to have been the son of a Zoroastrian convert.

Notes

References

Citations

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External links

* Zoroastrian rituals Zoroastrianism in Iran Belts (clothing) {{Zoroastrianism-stub