Proto-Indo-Iranian religion

Part of a series on
Indo-European topics
Indo-European languages List of Indo-European languages Albanian Armenian Balto-Slavic Celtic Germanic Hellenic Indo-Iranian Italic Extinct Anatolian Tocharian Paleo-Balkan languages
Proto-Indo-European language Accent Vocabulary Particles Phonology Pronouns Sound laws Ablaut Root Nominals Numerals S-mobile Verbs
Indo-European peoples Europe Albanians Balts Celts Dacians Greeks Illyrians Italic peoples Germanic peoples Phrygians Slavs Thracians Asia Anatolians Armenians Indo-Iranians (Indo-Aryans • Iranians) Tocharians
Proto-Indo-Europeans Homeland Society Religion
Indo-European archeology Abashevo Afanasevo Andronovo Baden Beaker Catacomb Cernavodă Chasséen Chernoles Colchian Corded ware Cucuteni Dnieper-Donets Funnelbeaker Gumelniţa–Karanovo Gushi Hallstatt Karasuk Kemi Oba Khvalynsk Kura-Araxes Lusatian Kurgan Koban Leyla-Tepe Jar-Burial Jastorf Khojaly-Gadabay Maykop Middle Dnieper Narva Nordic Bronze Age Novotitorovka Poltavka Potapovka Samara Seroglazova Shulaveri-Shomu Sredny Stog Srubna Terramara Trialeti Tumulus Unetice Urnfield Usatovo Vučedol Yamna
Indo-European religions Historical Proto-Indo-European religion Asia Proto-Indo-Iranian religion Hittite mythology Persian mythology Zoroastrianism Armenian mythology Ossetian mythology Historical Vedic religion Vedic mythology Europe Ancient Greek religion Greek mythology Roman religion Roman mythology Celtic religion Celtic mythology Germanic religion Anglo-Saxon religion Continental Germanic mythology Norse religion Norse mythology Latvian mythology Lithuanian mythology Slavic mythology Paleo-Balkan mythology
v t e

Proto-Indo-Iranian religion means the religion of the Indo-Iranian peoples prior to the earliest Vedic (Indo-Aryan) and Zoroastrian (Iranian) scriptures. These share a common inheritance of concepts including the universal force *rta (Vedic rta, Avestan asha), the sacred plant and drink *sauma (Vedic Soma, Avestan Haoma) and gods of social order such as *mitra (Vedic Mitra, Avestan and Old Persian Mithra, Miϑra), *bhaga (Vedic Bhaga, Avestan and Old Persian Baga). Proto-Indo-Iranian religion is an archaic offshoot of Indo-European religion.^[1]

Introduction

Indo-Iranian languages include three subgroups: first Indo-Aryan languages (including the Dardic languages); second Iranian languages (east and west) and third Nuristani languages. From these various and dispersed cultures, a set of common ideas may be reconstructed from which a common, unattested proto-Indo-Iranian source may be deduced.^[1]

The Proto-Indo-Iranian religions influenced Zoroastrianism and the Vedic Religions. The Vedic religions influenced, shaped and evolved more into Hinduism, eventually leading to Buddhism.^{[citation needed]}

Beliefs developed in different ways as cultures separated and evolved. For example the cosmo-mythology of the peoples that remained on the Central Asian steppes and the Iranian plateau is to a great degree unlike that of the Indians, focused more on groups of deities (*daiva and *asura) and less on the divinities individually.^{[citation needed]} Indians were less conservative^{[citation needed]} than Iranians in their treatment of their divinities, so that some deities were conflated with others or, conversely, aspects of a single divinity developed into divinities in their own right. By the time of Zoroaster, Iranian culture had also been subject to the upheavals of the Iranian Heroic Age (late Iranian Bronze Age, 1800–800 BCE^{[citation needed]}), an influence that the Indians were not subject to.

Sometimes certain myths developed in altogether different ways. The Rig-Vedic Sarasvati is linguistically and functionally cognate with Avestan *Haraxvaitī Ārəduuī Sūrā Anāhitā^{[citation needed]}. In the Rig-Veda (6,61,5–7) she battles a serpent called Vritra, who has hoarded all of the Earth's water. In contrast, in early portions of the Avesta, Iranian *Harahvati is the world-river that flows down from the mythical central Mount Hara. But *Harahvati does no battle — she is blocked by an obstacle (Avestan for obstacle: vərəϑra) placed there by Angra Mainyu.

Cognate terms concepts

The following is a list of cognate terms concepts that may be gleaned from comparative linguistic analysis of the Rigveda and Avesta. Both collections are from the period after the proposed date of separation (ca. 2nd millennium BCE) of the Proto-Indo-Iranians into their respective Indic Iranian branches.

Relationship to Proto-Indo-European religion

When Vedic texts were the oldest surviving evidence of early Indo-European-speaking peoples, it was assumed that these texts preserved aspects of Proto-Indo-European culture with particular accuracy. Many ethnologists hoped to unify Indo-Iranian, Celtic, Norse, Greek, Germanic and Roman into a Proto-Indo-European religion. Max Müller believed that Indo-Iranian religion began as sun worship. G. Dumézil stressed the tripartite social system of Indo-European religion and society. Later scholarship has moved away from considering all these religions near-identical. Instead, since early in the 20th century, following Meillet, Thieme and Kuiper, the social function of the Indo-Iranian *Asura/Āditya deities has been stressed; they are an innovative group not found in Indo-European religion.

See also

• Historical Vedic religion
• Hinduism
• Indian religions
• Zoroastrianism
• Iranian religions
• Proto-Indo-Iranians

References