Kshatra Vairya (Avestan: 𐬑𐬱𐬀𐬙𐬭𐬀 𐬬𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀 ''xšatra vairiia'', also Šahrewar

Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...

: 𐭱𐭲𐭥𐭩𐭥𐭥,Šahrewar
Iranica Online and Xšaθra 𐬑𐬱𐬀𐬚𐬭𐬀, a

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical e ...

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...

'' kṣatrá'' in the

Avestan Avestan (), or historically Zend, is an umbrella term for two Old Iranian languages: Old Avestan (spoken in the 2nd millennium BCE) and Younger Avestan (spoken in the 1st millennium BCE). They are known only from their conjoined use as the scri ...

language, from

Proto-Indo-Iranian Proto-Indo-Iranian, also Proto-Indo-Iranic is the reconstructed proto-language of the Indo-Iranian/Indo-Iranic branch of Indo-European. Its speakers, the hypothetical Proto-Indo-Iranians, are assumed to have lived in the late 3rd millennium ...

'' kšatrám'') is one of the great seven "bounteous immortals" of

Ahura Mazda Ahura Mazda (; ae, , translit=Ahura Mazdā; ), also known as Oromasdes, Ohrmazd, Ahuramazda, Hoormazd, Hormazd, Hormaz and Hurmuz, is the creator deity in Zoroastrianism. He is the first and most frequently invoked spirit in the '' Yasna ...

in the

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic ...

religion. The spelling ''Xšaθra'' is used by followers of the Zoroastrian faith in a representation of the dominion of the Creator

. In the

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosophe ...

of the faith, Kshathra Vairya is borne of the divine principal of

Vohu Manah Vohu Manah (Avestan: 𐬬𐬊𐬵𐬎 𐬨𐬀𐬥𐬀𐬵 ''vohu manah'') is the Avestan language term for a Zoroastrian concept, generally translated as "Good Purpose", "Good Mind", or "Good Thought", referring to the good state of mind that e ...

, from which comes the core belief of 'Good Thoughts'. In the

Gatha ''Gāthā'' is a Sanskrit term for 'song' or 'verse', especially referring to any poetic metre which is used in legends, and is not part of the Vedas but peculiar to either Epic Sanskrit or to Prakrit. The word is originally derived from the Sans ...

s, ''Xšaθra Vairya'' does not have an association with a specific creation, and it is only in later texts that this Amesha Spenta is considered the guardian of metals. This anomaly is explained in modern scholarship by the fact that, in Stone Age cosmogony, the sky was considered to be the first of the creations (and thought to be of stone), but metal has no place among the creations (the bronze and Iron Ages were yet to come). This is also reflected in Zoroaster's revelation, where the sky is "of the hardest stone" (''Yasna'' 30.5). Later, with the event of bronze and then iron tools, this sky evolved to being of crystal, which was seen as both of stone and of metal (''Yasht'' 13.2). In due course, Xšaθra's association with a stony firmament was eclipsed by the association with a metallic sky, and thence to metals in general. The 6th Persian month

Shahrivar Shahrivar ( fa, شهریور, ) is the sixth month of the Solar Hijri calendar, the official calendar of Iran and Afghanistan. Shahrivar has thirty-one days. It begins in August and ends in September by the Gregorian calendar. The Afghan Persian ...

is named after him.

References

Yazatas Zoroastrian calendar {{Zoroastrianism-stub