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The Avesta is the text corpus of religious literature of Zoroastrianism. All its texts are composed in the Avestan language and written in the Avestan alphabet. It represents the largest literature of the Old Iranian period and contains the oldest texts in any Iranian language.
The individual texts of the Avesta were originally Oral tradition compositions. They were composed over a long period of several centuries during the Avestan period (possibly ranging from the 15th century BCE to the 4th century BCE). The written transmission began much later during the Sasanian Empire (224 to 651 CE), with the creation of the Avestan alphabet. The resulting texts were then compiled into the multi-volume edition of the Sasanian Avesta. This edition was lost after the Islamic conquest of Iran, and only a small portion of it has survived, scattered across a number of individual manuscript traditions. The oldest surviving fragment of such a manuscript dates to 1323 CE.
Unlike the Sasanian Avesta, which was organized thematically, the surviving Avestan manuscripts correspond to the different ceremonies in which they are used. It is assumed that it was their regular use which ensured their survival to this day. The principal text is the Yasna, which takes its name from the corresponding ceremony, in which it is recited. Extensions to the Yasna ceremony include the Vendidad and the Visperad. In addition to these Long Liturgy, the Avestan corpus comprises shorter liturgical texts compiled in the Khordeh Avesta or "Little Avesta". Aside from the Yashts, these other lesser texts include the Niyayishn, the Gāhs, the Sih-rozag and the Afrinagans.
The Denkard also records another legend related to the transmission of the Avesta. In this story, credit for collation and recension is given to the early Sasanian-era priest Tansar (mobad under Ardashir I, CE, and Shapur I, 240/242–272 CE), who had the scattered works collected – of which he approved only a part as authoritative ( Dk 3C, 4D, 4E). Tansar's work was then supposedly completed by Adurbad Mahraspandan (high priest of Shapur II, CE) who made a general revision of the canon and continued to ensure its orthodoxy ( Dk 4F, AVN 1.12–1.16). A final revision was supposedly undertaken in the 6th century CE under Khosrow I ( Dk 4G).
The Young Avestan texts, which form the majority of the extant Avesta, originated in a later stage of the Avestan period, separated from Old Avestan by several centuries. Scholars assume that this phase corresponds to a long time frame, possibly lasting from 900 to 400 BCE. In contrast to the Old Avestan texts, the Young Avestan parts contain a number of geographical references. As a result, there is a consensus that at least these texts were composed in the eastern portion of Greater Iran.
Some texts in the Avestan corpus, like the Vendidad or the Vishtasp Sast, show pronounced grammatical deficiencies. They seem to consist of proper Avestan phrases, which appear to have been pieced together by people who no longer had an active command of Avestan. This indicates that these texts were redacted from earlier, now lost sources, after Avestan ceased to be a spoken language.
At some time, however, this fluid phase must have stopped completely and the process of transmission of the Young Avestan texts became fixed similar to the Old Avestan material. This second crystallization must still have taken place during the Old Iranian period, as Young Avestan does not show any characteristics of Middle Iranian. The subsequent transmission took largely place in Western Iran as evidenced by alterations introduced by native Persian speakers. Scholars like Skjærvø and Kreyenbroek correlate this second crystallization with the adoption of Zoroastrianism by the Achaemenids. As a result, Old Persian- and Median language-speaking Magi would have become the primary group to transmit these texts. Having no longer an active command of Avestan, they may have decided to preserve both Old and Young Avestan texts as faithfully as possible.
This edition was lost at some time after the fall of the Sasanian empire, and the oldest surviving manuscript ( K1) of an Avestan text is dated to 1323 CE. The history of the Avesta until these first manuscripts appear is unknown, but the post-Sasanian phase saw a pronounced deterioration of the Avestan corpus. Summaries in the texts of the Zoroastrian tradition from the 9th/10th century indicate that the Sasanian Avesta was much larger than the Avesta that exists today. Only about one-quarter of the Avestan sentences or verses referred to by the 9th/10th century commentators can be found in the surviving texts. This suggests that an indeterminable number of juridical, historical, and legendary texts have been lost since then. On the other hand, it appears that the most valuable portions of the canon, including all of the oldest texts, have survived. The likely reason for this is that the surviving materials represent those portions of the Avesta that were in regular liturgical use and therefore known by heart by the priests and not dependent for their preservation on the survival of particular manuscripts.
In the early 20th century, the Zoroastrian legend of the Parthian empire collation engendered a search for a 'Parthian archetype' of the Avesta. According to the theory of Friedrich Carl Andreas (1902), the archaic nature of the Avestan texts was assumed to be due to preservation via written transmission, and unusual or unexpected spellings in the surviving texts were assumed to be reflections of errors introduced by Sasanian-era transcription from the Aramaic alphabet-derived Pahlavi scripts. The search for the 'Arsacid archetype' was increasingly criticized in the 1940s and was eventually abandoned in the 1950s after Karl Hoffmann demonstrated that the inconsistencies noted by Andreas were actually due to unconscious alterations introduced by oral transmission. Hoffmann identifies these changes to be due, in part, to modifications introduced through recitation; in part to influences from other Iranian languages picked up on the route of transmission from somewhere in eastern Iran (i.e. Central Asia) via Arachosia and Sistan through to Persia; and in part due to the influence of phonetic developments in the Avestan language itself.
In modern editions, specific manuscripts are typically classified according to several criteria. One criterion is the liturgy, like the Yasna, Vendidad or Visperad, in which they are used. Another criterion is whether they originated within the Iranian or Indian Zoroastrian communities. In addition, manuscripts are classified according to their use. Manuscripts for liturgical purposes contain the Avestan text plus liturgical instructions. They are called Sade or Sadah, meanig pure. On the other hand, manuscripts for exegetical purposes contain the Avestan text jointly with a translation. Most exegetical manuscripts have a translation into Middle Persian, called Pahlavi scripts. But there are also some manuscripts with translations into New Persian, Sanskrit and Gujarati.
After Avestan manuscripts became known in the Western world, several scholary attempts were made to create a critical edition of the diverse manuscripts through which the, now much reduced, Avestan corpus had survived. The first critical edition was published in 1852 by Westergaard. It was based mostly on the manuscripts collected by Rasmus Rask. Around the same time, Spiegel published an edition of the Zoroastrian Long Liturgy, i.e., the Yasna, the Visperad and the Vendidad. Despite being smaller in scope and based on fewer manuscripts than Westergaard's edition, it is still considered relevant since it includes the Middle Persian translations jointly with the Avestan text. Between 1886 and 1896, Geldner produced an edition of the Yasna, the Visperad, the Khordeh Avesta, and the Vendidad. Although it lacked a few minor texts, included by Westergaard, it was based on significantly more manuscripts. As a result, it has remained the standard edition of the surviving Avestan corpus to this day. Overall, these works share the same Editio princeps, which was to reproduce the earliest common ancestor of the manuscripts, therefore going back as close as possible to the Sasanian Avesta.
Since the publication of Geldner's edition, a number of developments have increased the need for a new edition. On the one hand many new manuscripts have been found, in particular in Iran. These new manuscripts have cast doubt on the, up to then, established opinion that all extant manuscripts derive from a single Sasanian archetype or, at least, some later hypearchetype. Furthermore, the surviving Avestan texts are nowadays recognized as a primarily liturgical corpus. This means the editorial principle of previous editions, i.e., the reconstruction of the Sasanian Urtext, does not apply. The surviving texts are instead increasingly seen as witnesses of a living liturgical tradition; a tradition which is much older and existed parallel to the exegetical tradition represented in the Sasanian Avesta.
These developments led to the creation of the Avestan Digital Archive (ADA) and the Corpus Avesticum Berolinense (CAB). ADA is a digital archive, which as of 2013 has digitized already 150 manuscripts and made 80 of them online available. Furthermore, CAB is a project which attempts to edit the manuscripts within their original ritual context.
The first group of the nasks was the Gathic group. It contained the Gathas as well as long commentaries on them. It comprised the Staota Yesnya, the Sudgar nask, the Warshtmansr nask, the Bag nask, the Waštag, the Hadoxt nask and the Spand nask nask. Of these nasks, the Stod-yasn is extant in the Staota Yesnya, which forms the central portion of the Long Liturgy like the Yasna and Visperad (see below). Parts of the Hadoxt nask may be extant through the Hadoxt nask fragments, while most other nasks are considered to be lost.
The second group was the manthric group. Its content has been interpreted as connecting the first and third group. It comprised the Damdad nask, the Nāxtar, the Pāzag the Raθβištāiti, the Barish nask, the Kaškaysraw and the Wištāsp-sāst nask. Only the Wištāsp-sāst nask may be extant in the Vishtasp Sast manuscripts (see below). All the other nasks are considered lost.
The third group was the legal group, meaning its content primarily covered topics of Zoroastrian jurisprudence. It comprised the Nikatum nask, the Duzd-sar-nizad, the Husparam nask, the Sakatum nask, the Vendidad, the Chihrdad and the Bagan yasht. The Bagān Yašt contained most of the Yashts of the extant Avesta (see below), whereas the Huspāram nask contained the Herbedestan and Nerangestan texts, which are extant in the fragments collections (see below). The Juddēwdād nask ist the only nask of the Sasanian Avesta which has survived intact through the Vendidad manuscripts (see below), meaning that both its Avestan and Zend have remained the same. Of the other nasks, only fragments may have survived.
Being the most important liturgy, the Yasna is attested through a large number of manuscripts, which are grouped into six different manuscript types: The (i) Indian and (ii) Iranian Pahlavi Yasna, the (iii) Indian and (iv) Iranian Sade Vendidad, i.e., manuscripts which describe the Videwdad liturgy in which the Yasna is embedded, the (v) Sanskrit Yasna as well as the (vi) Yasna Sade. In Geldner's edition, the Yasna is edited in the first volume of his series.
The Vendidad originally was one of the legal nasks of the Sasanian Avesta, called Juddēwdād therein. This naks belonged to dādīg, i.e., legal, nasks and therefore, unlike the Yasna and the Visparad, it is a text dealing with laws rather than the record of a liturgical ceremony. Since the Vendidad includes all of the Juddēwdād nask, it is the only nask of the Sasanian Avesta that has survived in its original form.
The text is extant through two different manuscript traditions. The first are the so called Vendidad Pahlavi manuscripts. They contain the 22 fragards of the Vendidad jointly with the Zend. This manuscript type is, therefore, considered to go back directly to the Juddēwdād nask from the Sasanian Avesta. The other type are the Vendidad Sade manuscripts. They described the Vendidad liturgy as it is performed. Consequently, they contain the Avestan text of the 72 has of the Yasna, the 24 kardes of the Visperad and 22 fragards of the Vendidad text. For his edition of the Avesta, Geldner edited only the Avestan text of the 22 fragards.
After the Avestan corpus became known in the West, a number of scholarly translation have been provided. The oldest translation of the Avesta into English language was provided in the Sacred Books of the East series by Darmesteter and Mills between 1880 and 1887. In addition, Darmesteter also published a translation of the Avesta into his native French language between 1892 and 1893. These translations, however, were mostly based on the Middle Persian translation of the manuscripts. In 1910, Fritz Wolff produced a translation of the Avesta into German language. This work was based on Geldner's edition and translated the Avestan text directly using Bartholomae's Altiranisches Wörterbuch. As a result, his translation is generally seen as superior.
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