Avestan geography

Avestan geography, is the geographical references in the Avesta, which are limited to the regions on the eastern Iranian plateau up to Indo-Iranian border.^[1] It was common among the Indo-Iranians to identify concepts or features of traditional cosmography—mountains, lakes, rivers, etc.—with their concrete historical and geographical situation as they migrated and settled in various places.

Vendidad references

The main Avestan text of geographical interest is the first chapter of the Vidēvdād. This consists of a list of sixteen districts (asah- and šōiθra-) created by Ahura Mazdā and threatened by a corresponding number of counter-creations that Angra Mainyu set up against them (paityāra-).

The list is as follows:

1. Airyana Vaēǰah = the homeland of Zoroaster and Zoroastrianism, near the provinces of Sogdiana, Margiana, Bactria, etc., listed immediately after it.^[2] The historical location of Airyanem Vaejah is still uncertain, but according to the Harvard University scholar Michael Witzel, Airyanem Vaejah lies at the center of the sixteen lands, in the central Afghan highlands.^[3] Historians such as Walter Bruno Henning, Henrik Samuel Nyberg, Walther Hinz, and Mary Boyce believe this location is Chorasmia or northeast Iran around Aral sea and Oxus river. The fact that Airyana Vaēǰah is situated in a mountainous region explains its severe climate (Vd. 1.2.3) better than does its supposed location in Chorasmia^[4][5][6] Although the Pahlavi and Sassanid book introduced Airyanem Vaejah in around Azerbaijan and Some historians also believe the location of Airyanem Vaejah is Azerbaijan, in around Caucasus such as : James Darmesteter, Ernst Herzfeld, Ebrahim Pourdavoud, Johannes Hertel^[7] According to Skjærvø,^[8] and Gnoli^[9] it was situated between the Helmand River and the Hindu Kush Mountains;
2. Gava = Sogdiana;
3. Mōuru = Margiana;
4. Bāxδī = Pākhtī Bactria;
5. Nisāya = a district between Margiana and Bactria,most historians believe this location is Nisa modern day south of Turkmenistan.^[10] some believe neyshabur. perhaps Maimana;^[11]
6. Harōiva = Aria, Herat
7. Vaēkərəta = Gandhāra, the area of Peshawar;^[12]
8. Urvā = the exact location of Urva is unknown, some claim Ghazni;^[13] and darmesteter believe this is Urgench in modern day Uzbekistan also Edward Granville Browne is Tus in khorasan province of Iran.(Vandid, darmesteter Page 68)
9. Xnənta = location unknown; a region defined as vəhrkānō.šayana- "the dwelling place of the Vəhrkāna," where Marquart placed the Barkánioi of Ctesias,^[14] an ethnicon analogous with that of Old Persian Varkāna, previously thought to be Hyrcania (the present Gorgān) although more likely the Khuzdar region of Balochistan;^[15]
10. Haraxᵛaitī = Arachosia; centred on Arghandab valley in modern-day southern Afghanistan, and extended east to as far as the Indus River in modern-day Pakistan; Sarasvati in Vedic Geography.
11. Haētumant = the region of Helmand River roughly corresponding to the Achaemenian Drangiana (Zranka);^[16]
12. Raγa = or Raga, previously thought to be Rey^[17] from Median Ragā but more than likely comes from Raγa zaraθuštri- of Yashts 19.18 and is the Buner district and Bara River, which flows into the Indus River. ;^[18]
13. Čaxra =locations is still uncertain, but darmesteter, dehkhoda, Hassan Pirnia bilieve location is Shahrud^[19] Čarx between Ghaznī and Kabul, in the valley of Lōgar,^[20] not Māzandarān, as Christensen thought;
14. Varəna = is the district of Bannu.^[21] the Varṇu of the Mahāmāyūrī, the ʿAornos of Alexander the Great, the homeland of FerΘraētaona/Frēdōn/Afrīḏūn;^[22]
15. Hapta Həndu = Sapta Sindhavaḥ, the land of seven rivers known as the Punjab region;^[23]
16. Raŋhā = Rasā in Vedic geography, at times mentioned together with Kubhā (Kabul) and Krumu (Kurram),^[24] a river situated in a mountainous area, probably connected with the Indus River, not with the Jaxartes or with the Volga.^[25]

One of the old, thorny problems in studies on Avestan geography is represented by Airyana Vaēǰah (Pahlavi: Ērānwēz), "the area of the Aryans" and first of the sixteen districts in Vd. 1, the original name of which was airyanəm vaēǰō vaŋhuyā dāityayā, "the Aryan extension of Vaŋuhī Dāityā", where Vaŋuhī Dāityā "the good Dāityā" is the name of a river connected with the religious "law" (dāta-). The concept of Airyana Vaēǰah is not equivalent to that of airyō.šayana- in Yt. 10.13, or to the group of airyā daiŋ́hāvā "the Aryan lands" which is recurrent in the yashts; this, in fact, refers to just one of the Aryan lands, as the first chapter of the Vidēvdād clearly shows. It does not designate "the traditional homeland" or "the ancient homeland" of the Iranians. These definitions perpetuate old interpretations of the Airyana Vaēǰah as "Urheimat des Awestavolkes", "Urland" of the Indo-Iranians (F. Spiegel, Die arische Periode und ihre Zustände, Leipzig, 1887, p. 123), "Wiege aller iranischen Arier" (J. von Prášek, Geschichte der Meder und Perser bis zur makedonischen Eroberung I, Gotha, 1906, p. 29), drawing from the texts more than the contents really warrant. Airyana Vaēǰah is only the homeland of Zoroaster and of Zoroastrianism. According to Zoroastrian tradition Ērānwēz is situated at the center of the world; on the shores of its river, Weh Dāitī (Av. Vaŋuhī Dāityā), there were created the gāw ī ēw-dād (Av. gav aēvō.dāta) "uniquely created bull" and Gayōmard (Av. Gayō.marətan) "mortal life," the first man; there rises the Chagād ī Dāidīg, the "lawful Summit," the Peak of Harā, in Avestan also called hukairya "of good activity"; the Chinvat Bridge is there, and there too, Yima and Zoroaster became famous. Taken all together, these data show that Zoroastrianism superimposed the concept of Airyana Vaēǰah onto the traditional one of a center of the world where the Peak of Harā rises. The fact that Airyana Vaēǰah is situated in a mountainous region explains its severe climate (Vd. 1.2.3) better than does its supposed location in Chorasmia (Markwart, Ērānshahr, p. 155). This is not surprising if we consider the analogy between the Iranian concept of the peak of Harā with the Indian one of Mount Meru or Sumeru. The Manicheans identified Aryān-waižan with the region at the foot of Mount Sumeru that Wishtāsp reigned over, and the Khotanese texts record the identification of Mount Sumeru in Buddhist mythology with the Peak of Harā (ttaira haraysä) in the Avestan tradition. All this leads us to suppose that the concept of Airyana Vaēǰah was an invention of Zoroastrianism which gave a new guise to a traditional idea of Indo-Iranian cosmography. At any rate, identifications of Airyana Vaēǰah with Chorasmia are quite unfounded, whether this is understood to refer to Khwārazm itself or to a "greater Chorasmia". As for the river of Religious Law, it is not at all easy to identify: The most likely hypotheses seem to be those that identify it with the Oxus, or rather the Helmand, which at times appears to be in a curious "competition" with the Oxus in the Zoroastrian tradition.

Yasht references

There is further geographical interest to be found in another passage from the Avesta Yasht 10.13-14, where the whole region inhabited by the Aryans (airyō.šayana-) is described. The description begins with Mount Harā, the peak of which is reached by Mithra as he precedes the immortal sun and looked at the Aryan homeland.

Like the Mihr Yasht, the Farvardīn Yasht also contains some passages of use in the reconstruction of Avestan geography, in particular Yt. 13.125 and Yt. 13.127, where some characters are mentioned because of their venerable fravashi.it should be born in mind that the character related to the land of Apaxshīrā, Parshaṱ.gav, may be connected with a Sīstāni tradition and that the passage in Yt. 13.125 is dedicated to the fravashi of members of the family of Saēna, the son of Ahūm.stūṱ, who also had connections with Sīstān.

The Zamyād Yasht, dedicated to Xᵛarənah, is of very great importance for Avestan geography as it provides a surprisingly well-detailed description of the hydrography of the Helmand region, in particular of Hāmūn-e Helmand. In Yt. 19.66-77 nine rivers an mentioned: Xᵛāstrā, Hvaspā, Fradaθā, Xᵛarənahvaitī, Uštavaitī, Urvaδā, Ǝrəzī, Zurənumaitī, and Haētumant; six of these are known from the Tārīkh-e Sīstān. Other features of Sīstāni geography recur in the same yasht, like the Kąsaoya lake (Pahlavi Kayānsih) or Mount Uši.’ām (Kūh-e Khᵛāǰa), both closely bound up with Zoroastrian eschatology, so that with the help of comparisons with Pahlavi and classical sources, mainly Pliny and Ptolemy, we can conclude that the Zamyād Yasht describes Sīstān with great care and attention. In Avestan geography no other region has received such treatment. There is an echo of Sīstān’s importance in Avestan geography in the brief Pahlavi treatise Abdīh ud sahīgīh ī Sagastān.

Yet another reference to Sīstān is to be found it another passage of the great yashts, Yt. 5.108, in which Kavi Vīštāspa, prince and patron of Zoroaster, is represented in the act of making sacrifice to Arədvī Sūrā Anāhitā near Frazdānu, the Frazdān of Pahlavi literature, that is, one of the wonders of Sīstān; it can probably be identified with Gowd-e Zera.

Conclusion

If we compare the first chapter of the Vidēvdād with the passages of geographical interest that we come across mainly in the great yashts, we can conclude that the geographical area of Avesta was marked by Margiana at the northeast, the western boundary being marked by the districts of Arachosia, Drangiana and Bannu = Varəna. The Indus River and locations along it in its central area, and the Panjab = "Seven Rivers" marking its eastern frontier. Sogdiana and, possibly, Chorasmia (which, however, is at the extreme limits) mark the boundary to the north, and Sīstān and Balochistan to the south.

See also

• Ariana
• Ancient Iranian peoples
• Seven Old Iranian climes

Notes

References