 I would like to just thank the sponsors of this conference. We have sponsors for the Everlasting Flame Project as a whole, but in particular those who have sponsored the conference at the British Institute of Persian Studies who came in very early with generous support for the conference and allowed us to begin to plan it. Also the Iran Heritage Foundation and the Sudabar Memorial Foundation. I would like to thank Dr Arshin Ardib Mogadam, who is the chair of the Centre for Iranian Studies within the LMEI for hosting this event. And also to staff of the LMEI who have been fantastic in organising the conference and putting it all together. So the director, of course, Dr Hassan Hakimian, Louise Hosking, Vinchenzo Pachi and Valentina Zanardi. I'd also like to thank Mrs Faridah Seddon, who's helping us today. In particular, of course, I have a vote of thanks to the co-conveners, Alan Williams, Professor Alan Williams and Professor Almot Hintzer. So I just want to say very briefly a couple of things about the conference and the way it's linked to the exhibition that opened last night. We're talking today about identity formation. Everything on display in the exhibition forms part of a narrative that by definition draws on the past, and it's this past that shaped the way in which Zoroastrians have understood their faith, and it has influenced the perceptions of others who've come into contact with Zoroastrianism at various times throughout its long history. And in putting together the exhibition, certain characteristics unique to Zoroastrianism and the formation of identity emerged, and I'll just touch on these very briefly. The paucity of material available for the early periods of Zoroastrianism, the relatively late arrival of the ofesta into the world of scholarship in the 18th century, the elusive nature of its ancient texts and the lack of theological development after the 9th century in Iran are all factors that have given rise to a multiplicity of theories about the origins and nature of Zoroastrianism. In consequence, Zoroastrians and non-Zoroastrians are like. Priests and lay people continued to debate the origins of the ofesta in language, the genesis of the religion and the purport of its doctrines, the date, birthplace and even the very existence of Zarathustra. The Gathas have been scrutinised for answers to such questions as to whether or not Zarathustra advocated the abandonment of the narcotic calmer and the practice of the blood sacrifice, whether the religion is essentially monotheistic or dualistic, terms of course which are best understood within the context of the Abrahamic religions. The practice of Huedodda or next of kin marriage and the rigorous purity laws prescribed in the young ofesta and Pallavi texts are issues that have generated discussion and sometimes polarized debate. One of the outcomes has been to return, that is to seek authority in the teachings of Zarathustra and in Iran this is termed the gartha pujan or return to the gartha. So the conference today and the exhibition in the Brunai Gallery has not seek to answer these questions but they do provide context and a platform for debate and this is achieved by bringing together the leading scholars in the field of Zoroastrianism who you are going to hear speaking today. I'm now going to hand you over to Professor Alan Williams who will introduce our first panel. Thank you. We're going to start on a high and we're going to stay on that high. We're going to start with scripture and its influence on tradition, scripture and significance for the tradition. We have three very eminent speakers today. We have Professor Alnut Hinser, we have Dasturgi Dr Ffiro's Cotwal from Mumbai and we have Professor Alberto Canterra from Salamanca in Spain. Now I'm going to do something unusual which is you've all got a copy of these haven't you. So I'm going to allow you to read for yourself their biographies rather than read them out now. They're very distinguished, they've published many books and you can read all about them in this handbook. So I'd like to start now, it's exactly half past nine. I'd like to be very strict with you about time because time is so short. We have an hour and 45 minutes for each session in this conference and so we're dividing it up into three 30 minute slots which will leave 15 minutes at the end for discussion. So if you have questions during the papers would you please write your questions down succinctly and then at the end in that 15 minutes we'll take questions on all three papers. That will be the general practice for the whole conference. That's the way we found it works best. So let's begin. I'd invite the speakers to come to the platform. So our first speaker this morning is the Zaratoshiti Brothers Professor of Zoroastrianism here at SOAS and I'm delighted to introduce Professor Alun Wood-Hinser. Thank you. Thank you very much. Dear colleagues and friends, dear ladies and gentlemen. The term Zoroastrianism, the name of the religion to which this wonderful exhibition is devoted is a relatively recent coinage that is based on the Greek variety Zoroasta of the name of the religious religion's founder Zarasustra. According to the Oxford English Dictionary it first occurs in 1874 in principles of comparative philology by the Oxford Asiologist, the Reverend Archibald Henry says in connection of course with the religion of the ancient Persians. The indigenous Zoroastrian sources however refer to this religion in Aveston as Dainar from which derives Dain in middle and Dain in new Persian. The word Dainar literally means vision or world view. It is formed from the verb D whose meaning to see is alive to the present day for instance in the Persian verb didang to see. However rather than seeing with the physical eyes the noun Dainar denotes the activity of seeing in one's mind. So to speak seeing with the eye of one's mind and especially what is produced by such an activity that is thought, conviction, belief or vision. It is a Zoroastrian technical term. In the Avesta which constitutes the oldest source for our knowledge of the Zoroastrian religion the word Dainar is usually qualified by an attribute a fact that is indicative that there is more than one Dainar. We precise the Avesta speaks of two. One which is described as good and which is promoted and one which it describes as bad and which is vehemently rejects and opposes. The Dainar favoured by the Avesta is usually qualified as mazda ysni that is the Dainar of a person whose ysna or ritual worship is dedicated to mazda. Occasionally she is further characterised as belonging to Zarathustra as belonging to the Lord Ahuiri as good Wangwi and best Vahishta. According to the Zoroastrian tradition the Dainar that focuses on the worship of mazda the Dainar mazda ysni was revealed by the god Ahura mazda to Zarathustra and the latter urges everyone to embrace it. Those who have done so are of good belief that is who Dainar because their Dainar is mazda ysni that is the belief which belongs to a person who worships mazda. Moreover she is personified as a female whose father is Ahura mazda and whose mother is Armaiti. At the same time she is also the sister of Ashi, reward of Srausha, Harkening, Rashno, Justice and Mithra contract. The other Dainar which the Avesta opposes is that of those who worship and sacrifice not to mazda but to the divers. The latter are of course the gods of the Indo-Iranian. Indo-Iranian, the prehistoric ancestors of the Iranian and Indo-Aryan peoples and indeed even further back in time the gods of the Indo-Europeans. In all Indo-European languages the equivalent of Iranian diver means god such as the case for instance in Vedic Sanskrit diva and Latin deus and in the adjective divinos, divine. But everywhere in Iranian or almost everywhere in Iranian this word for god has changed its meaning into its opposite. The gods have become false gods in the Gatas and then demons in the Yunga Avesta. The divs of the Pachlavi literature and the divs in New Persian. The Avesta describes the Dainar of those who worship or sacrifice to the divers as diva yas nanam. She is evil aga and she belongs to Angra mind you the destructive force which embodies evil and she also belongs to the deceitful ones those people who have it are Dujdainar that means of bad belief. The Avesta thus distinguishes two convictions or dinars embraced by two groups of people respectively those who worship Mazda, the Mazda yasnas and those who therefore have a good dinar and those who worship the divers the diver yasnas and whose dinar is bad. The criterion for whether a dinar is good or bad is whether or not its owner worships Mazda and therefore observes ritual practices connected with the cult of Mazda rather than those connected with the cult of divers. Ahura Mazda is yasata that is worthy of worship and the divers and their chief Angra mind you are Ayesnia not to be worshipped. The Avesta promotes the Mazda worshipping belief and aims at reducing the numbers of those who practice the diver worshipping one. The dinar Mazda yasni entails both a belief system and a set of precisely defined ritual and devotional practices. Such practices include the correct recitation of the sacred text, the Avesta, the wearing of the kusti, that's the sacred thread which is tied around the waist, for example. By adhering to the prescribed practices a person, men and women alike, shame their own personal dinar during their lifetime. The Gatas put it this way. He who makes his own thought better or worse or wise one makes better or worse does not believe that is dinar by his action and word. She follows his leanings, likings and choices. Since a person's dinar is seen with the eyes of one's mind rather than with the eyes of one's body it cannot be physically beheld and described as long as the individual is alive it can only be recognized from the person's actions. The dinar becomes visible in its true form after death. It is at that point that the immortal soul encounters its own dinar. The encounter of the soul with its own dinar after death is a powerful motive that pervades the entire Zoroastrian tradition. It is found not only in literary sources in Avesta and Middle Persian and Soctian but also in figurative art. During this encounter the soul who initially does not recognize that the female who approaches it is its own dinar engages in a conversation with the dinar in the course of which the dinar reveals to the soul that she is not a woman but the embodiment of the diseased actions performed while alive. She further explains how she acquired the appearance which she now has and which the soul sees for the first time with its eyes. In this talk I propose to focus on this dialogue and especially on the explanations which the dinar gives to the soul of how it acquired its shape. Against this backdrop we shall then look at a Soctian image of what has been interpreted as representing the two dinars. In the Avesta the most detailed description of the encounter is found in the Hadochnask. The text offers accounts of the respective ffates of the truthful and deceitful ones. The two accounts run parallel but differ from one another in significant detail. Both are presented as answers given by Ahura Mazda to questions asked by Zarasustra about the fate of the soul after death and the fate of the soul of the truthful and deceitful persons respectively. So Ahura Mazda's answer is with regard to the truthful soul then said Ahura Mazda it, that means the soul, sits near the head reciting the Ustavaitikata calling upon happiness Ustá Ahmai, Yahmai Ustá Cahmai Cid Vazöch Shaios Mazda Dalyad Ahura In that night the soul experiences as much joy as all this living existence and what happens to the soul of the deceitful person who worshipped the divers then said Ahura Mazda there or truthful Zarasustra at the head reciting the Ghasi kimom word Khamname zam Ahura Mazda Kuthranname ayeni In that night the soul experiences as much enjoy as all this living existence In both cases after death the soul hovers around the head of the dead body for three days and nights but the soul of the truthful one sits orderly by the head of the body while that of the deceitful one scuttles about nervously it knows terrible things are about to happen The soul of the truthful person recites two verses from the Ustavaitikata incorrect Old Avestan but the Old Avestan language of the line from the Khamname Maesagata Yasna 46.1 which the soul of the deceitful person is corrupt In Yasna 42.220 it's the quotation of the Ghasi verse in Hadochnas 2.20 displays young Avestan features including the word final E for Old Avestan Oe and the shortening of word final long vowels Moreover the insertion of the name of Ahura Mazda whom the deceitful one has refused to worship during lifetime but invokes now at this stage into the quotation of the Gothic line destroys the Gothic meter of four plus seven syllables This situation goes on then for three days and nights and at the dawn of the third night the soul has to move on The truthful one seems to be passing through flowers and enjoy lovely perfumes and southerly breezes but the deceitful one passes through frozen grounds, smelling stench and is exposed to cold northern winds It is out of this wind that his own diner appears to be emerging to the soul The diner of the truthful person is described in great detail as a beautiful maiden In this wind appears to him advancing his own belief diner In the form of a beautiful majestic maiden white-armoured, strong, well-grown, upright, tall with high breasts of able body, noble, of glorious stock of 15 years in looks informed so much more beautiful than the most beautiful creatures Then the soul of the truthful man asks, asking says to her, What woman are you who are in body the most beautiful of women I have ever seen then said to him his own belief I am indeed, O young man of good thought, good word, good deed, good belief your own belief of your own self Who loved you with such greatness, goodness and beauty with fragrance, victoriousness, resistance against hostilities as you appear to me, asks of course the soul O young, you loved me O young man of good thought, good word, good deed, good belief with that greatness, goodness and beauty with fragrance, victoriousness, resistance against hostilities as I appear to you Each time you saw another person making blazes practising bawsawas and warachodras making a stru of plants then you used to sit down reciting the gatas, worshipping the good waters and the fire of Ahura Mazda gratifying the truthful man coming from near and from far This passage tells us exactly in what consists the good deeds that produce a good diner that is to sit down and recite the gatas to worship the good waters and the fire of Ahura Mazda All of this happens of course when the Yasna ritual is celebrated with the gatas and the Yasna Haptanghaiti at its centre Such good behaviour markedly contrasts with that of the deceitful person who performs ritual practises which the truthful one opposed and counteracted Unfortunately however, some of the words describing the rejected ritual practises have so far not been fully understood and therefore being left untranslated here but it is clear that the diver worshipping diner neither recited the gatas nor worshipped the good waters and the fire of Ahura Mazda while alive Performing the prescribed rituals thus makes the diner Mazda Yasni being dear, dearer being beautiful, more beautiful Moreover, she who sits on a prominent seat is made to sit on a more prominent seat As a result, the worship of Ahura Mazda is promoted Then speaks the diner Think we can ignore this? Then speaks the diner Then you made me being dear, dearer Being beautiful, more beautiful Being honoured, more honoured Sitting on a prominent seat You used to make me sit on a more prominent seat By means of this good thought, this good speech, this good deed Thereupon men worshipped me Namely Ahura Mazda as one who is worshipped for a long time and conversed with Please note the switch of the identity of the me At the beginning of this verse Mi, the eye, is the diner who speaks and at the last line, the eye is Ahura Mazda So the two here are identical By making the diner more beautiful Ahura Mazda is being promoted The description of the bad diner should be in analogous but negative terms Unfortunately, however All the manuscripts abbreviate here As a result, the description of the bad diner survives neither here nor elsewhere in Aveston Although we can expect that her description is in parallel but negative terms to that of the good diner In the Pachlawi texts, the bad day diner is painted as an ugly stinking hag a whore, naked, corrupted, solid, band-elect, lean-hipped covered with a continuous phlegm an imagery that derives from descriptions of the demon of the corpse, the Aveston trujnazu Against this background of the Aveston account of the fate of the encounter of the soul with its diner, let us now look at an image which is thought to be one of the diners indeed possibly of the two the good and the bad one From the Achaemenid period until far into Islamic times Zoroastrian religion and worldview the diner Mazdiasni constituted a major intellectual force in the Near and Middle East and in Central Asia Promoted by various imperial Iranian dynasties Zoroastrian ideas and religious practices spread as far as Egypt and Asia Minor in the west and were carried to the east by Iranian especially Soctean merchants along the Silk Road to Central Asia and China We know that in the first millennium of the Christian era there was a sizable community of expatriate Socteans at Dunhuang that is a city on the Silk Road which is located Dunhuang a town on the Silk Road in northwest China and that a form of Zoroastrianism was among the many religions practised there By the 10th century, Soctean communities at Dunhuang lived in a largely Turkish and Chinese and predominantly Buddhist environment While being influenced by being fully integrated they preserved their distinctive traditions This is borne out by evidence for a Soctean Mazdiasnian temple at Dunhuang Unfortunately, no archaeological traces survive but Chinese sources mentioned regular supply of commodities including sheets of drawing paper used for the production of devotional images that were carried in Mazdiasnian religious processions at Dunhuang and they must have included this one This is a line drawing in ink touched up with orange red paint on a sheet of coarse paper measuring about 38 x 30 cm It was found by Paul Peleau in the early 20th century in the manuscript cave at Dunhuang and is now kept at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris On stylistic grounds, the drawing has been dated to the 9th to the 10th centuries Franz Grünni, who kindly sent me this picture noted that a photograph published in 1978 still showed a string which has now disappeared on the upper edge indicating that the image was intended to be hung on a stand for display Since the drawing is unaccompanied by any text the interpretation has to be based solely on iconographic observations The drawing shows two young women seated opposite each other Both have a halo and are physically identical except that the left figure has two and the right has four arms However, the eyes of the figure on the left are wide open while those of the figure on the right are half closed They both wear a butt-shaped headgear but the left one is filled with a grid pattern that on the right is filled with scales The flowers in the hair of the left figure are four those of the right are two The two figures differ not only with regard to their attributes but also in the way they are dressed Both women wear long-folded skirts and tunic but the dress of the left figure is held attached to the body by means of three cords each tied with a knot in front while the cloak of the right figure is loose and floating Both have a nimbus or a halo which has been understood as representing supernatural power whether good or bad Franz Crené and Jean Gouangda who published the first detailed iconographic analysis of this image argued that the drawing shows the two Zoroastrian visions or dinars the good on the left and the bad on the right The positive attributes of the good dinar include the miniature dog on the plate in her left hand an animal which the Zoroastrian tradition holds in highest esteem and which is associated with the dinar when she appears to the soul after death Furthermore, the three fold soft belt around her waist looks like what is known as a custi the protective belt of the Zoroastrian It is worn by Zoroastrians to the present day as a reminder to produce good thoughts, good words and especially good deeds Zoroastrians untie and retie the custi while prayerfuling reciting verses from the Gatas and other texts It also symbolises the protection which the dinar must die as ni affords against the forces of evil and she's even identified with it the custi is identified with the dinar the good dinar must die as ni in Yasna 926 the girdle that's Ayviongana in our western which is bedent with stars fashioned by the spirit here it's a metaphor for the Milky Way the good must die worshipping belief and here you see a parsi girl from the 19th century also wearing the this custi just in this way tied over her shirt that Zoroastrians of the time when the image, the drawing was made also wore the custi emerges for instance from the front wall of a 5th to 10th century Osirii from the Necropolis at Krasnorechens in Kyrgystan It shows two priests attending to the ritual pha in addition to the custi they also wear mouse sheets and the right figure carries a bowl in his left hand which may be compared with the bowl which the left woman carries in her right hand the figure on the right by contrast obviously accumulates attributes which the Zoroastrian religion categorises as negative in particular obnoxious animals or chravestras namely the wolf on which she sits the snake in her left hand and the creature on her finger on the finger of her right hand the identity of which is not quite clear it could be a beetle or a scorpion or perhaps a crayfish a significant contrast to the figure opposite is that the woman is in direct physical contact with these animals the accumulation of attributes which the Zoroastrian tradition evaluates as negative strongly supports Griné and Zhang's identification of this figure with the bad Dyn a complication however arises from the fact that the upper two arms holding the sun and the moon disc are also an iconographic feature typical of the goddess Nanna a Mesopotamian deity deity who ascended to become one of the chief goddesses of the Soctians in their homeland was Nanna rejected and demonised by the expatriate Soctians of Dunhuang far away from their homeland that's something which Griné and Zhang consider by contrast, Giti Azapai has recently argued that rather than the bad Dynna the figure on the right is in fact the goddess Nanna she suggests that the attributes of wolves, snake and scorpion are rendered harmless and compliant in Nanna's hands and interprets what looks like a belt hanging down from her left knee as the tamed wolves leash in her view the banner shows two Soctian goddesses the Zoroastrian Dynna on the left and Nanna on the right it would have been used in religious processions at Dunhuang to parade the two goddesses not being an art historian I'm in no position to fully evaluate the iconographic evidence and arguments put forward for each of the two interpretations however from the point of view of the Zoroastrian texts an association of Nanna who elsewhere like as here where she is shown as riding on a lion she rides on a lion rather than a wolf and her association with the creatures which the Zoroastrian religion deeply and vehemently oppose seems plausible only if the Zoroastrians of Dunhuang rejected Nanna as a diver together with all other diver creatures a different line of explanation could be if that figure on the right is not taken to represent specifically Nanna for four and six armoured figures have their origins in Indian Hindu iconography and are very common along the Silk Road with its great cultural diversity the detail is found for instance also in the numerous representations of Avalokiteshwara such as this one here from a 10th century hanging scroll from Dunhuang it shows the Chinese version of Avalokiteshwara who mostly represents the Bodhisattva as a saviour of human beings from dangers of all kinds or as a guide of souls towards the pure land of Amitapa obviously in the Buddhist context the four-armoured figure would then be an iconographic marker which the Dunhuang Zoroastrians employed to represent a non-Iranian deity in particular some deity of a religion in which deva means god the image would then represent the Daiva Ysnanam the belief of those who worship divers and show a four-armoured goddess a devi closely associated with and in direct contact with Daivik creatures Finally, let us briefly consider the way in which the eyes of the two figures are depicted while they represent two different iconographic styles which are also found elsewhere it could be argued that it is significant that the artist has chosen to represent the Mazdayasnian dinar with the eyes wide open and those of the dinar of the Daiva Ysnas half-closed from the garters on the Zoroastrian tradition places great emphasis on considering with a clear mind the choices which each person has to make let's say in the garters Ysna 30.2 listen with your ears to the best things look with a clear mind at the choices of decision man for man for himself if interpreted and the verb for look here is Vain which is the verb to see with the physical eyes but also here of course with the eyes of one's mind if interpreted in the light of this passage the wide open eyes could express the idea instilled into Zoroastrians up to the present day to look at the possible choices with a clear mind and to be aware that each person is responsible for and has to bear the consequences of the decisions they make with regards to their religion by contrast the half-closed eyes of the woman on the right could be seen in the light of another Gothic verse Ysna 30.6 according to which those who chose the destructive force did not distinguish clearly between the two choices and chose wrongly because they were deceived they did not look with a clear mind between these two forces any false God the diverse failed to discriminate rightly because deception came over them as they were deliberating with one another when they chose the worst thought thereupon they rushed into violence by which they sickened the existence of the mortal just as the two forces the creative and the destructive one are presented as twins in the earlier stanza of the same hymn Ysna 30 so also the two diners here look like mirror images of one another however just like the two antagonistic forces in reality they are fundamentally different incompatible with one another and mutually exclusive the one on the right is the diner Diva Ysnanam the religion of the diver worshippers the one on the left represents the diner Mazda Ysni the Mazda worshipping religion she seated on a throne having been put in a prominent position by the Zoroastrians of Dunhuang thanks to the worship of Ahura Mazda in the prescribed way thank you for your attention thank you very much Almut and thank you for keeping to your time it gives me great pleasure to introduce Dr Feroz M Kotwal from Mumbai he's come a long way to be here to give his talk today I'd like to invite him to come to the podium to talk to us today on his chosen subject of continuity controversy and change a study in the ritual practice of the Bahraria priests of Navasari it's truly a pleasure to be here in this august gathering of scholars to witness the inauguration of this superb exhibition allow me to offer my hearty thanks to the organisers of this conference Dr Sara Stewart Professor Almut Henze and Feroz ap Antachymistri to the patron of the exhibit Mr Zubin Mehta and to the donors who have made this exhibit possible including Mr Cyrus Punevala Mr Nasliwadia and others in today's lecture I'm going to speak to you about the subject of continuity and change in Zoroastrian ritual practice though it is often noted in histories of Zoroastrian religion that ritual practice has historically remained very conservative such that many rituals are still practiced today in the same way in which there were centuries ago still a number of rituals attested in documents of previous centuries have been lost or are only maintained by small groups of priests it is these rituals which I will be focusing my attention today after their arrival in India Parsi priests as members of what is called in Gujarati the Khurasani Mandari that is the congregation of Khurasan they have maintained the ancient ritual practices as practiced by their ancestors in Khurasan yet in ensuing centuries differences in practice have emerged between different panthecs and in modern times controversies regarding the correct performance of ritual have raged among the Parsi priestly community in this talk I will illustrate this phenomenon by examining four examples of divergence in ritual practices with illustrations from Avestan and Pelvi manuscripts Persian rivayats Gujarati documents pertaining to the Bagersat priestly Anjuman and observations on contemporary practice first I will discuss the ritual recitation of the letters of the Avestan alphabet at the beginning of the Naujot ceremony as is maintained by the Sanjana panthec of Udwada then I shall examine the ritualized action of bowing to the sun in the performance of the Khvarshe niayishin I will then explore the origins of a priestly controversy concerning the correct performance of the Afrinagan a Fristag of Iraste and the Afrinagan a Rosgar Finally, I shall discuss the history of the ritual offering of fat of a sacrificial animal to the fire what we call in Pelvi Arthes Roar and the controversy which emerged in the early 19th century between the Bageria priestly Nausari and the Bombay Parsi Panchayat regarding its practice the ritual recitation of the Avestan alphabet at the age of seven it is typical for Parsi children to have their Naujot ceremony performed whereby after undergoing a ritual bath nun and reciting the patate or panethinshiri prayer the dinno kalmo, the word of religion and the Yatha ahuverio prayer the child recites the nirangi kustig and ties their kustig around their waist for the first time yet if the ceremony is performed in the village of Udwarar within the Panthec of the Sanjana Priests the Naujot is performed slightly differently before reciting the dinno kalmo the child is made to recite the following lines transcribed from a Sanjana ritual manual in text 1-1 in the handout badaw me yezad baksha o ynde daad garedada badaw me yezdan ga ga ga ha ga hunga ga hunga khwch eie karahile ja ja ja ie se se se ie ja se na ma ha anana ie he ma da da da da tha tha tha ba ba ba fa fa fa a ma ma ma ha waka waka ma chatchai ie aww u aww ie ie ie a ma me ie ma ie wo ia ango wo me ie ma yta ahuverio wan a shem bo wan as you may have noticed this short recitation contains all of the letters of the Avestar alphabet Arryng o'r noddych sydd wedi'u gwirio. Rwy'n credu'r cymdeithas i'r ffordd Cresedol o Udwada. Mae'r gwirio ar y ddifwrddol yma yma eich bobl a'r dda'ch ddifwrddol yma'r ddifwrddol yn Udwada, ac o'r ddifwrddol o'r ddifwrddol o'r ddifwrddol o'r ddifwrddol o'r ddifwrddol o'r ddifwrddol The priest performing the ceremony will recite it on behalf of the child. While the practice may at first seem a curiosity, in former times the ritual recitation of the Aveston alphabet was apparently a custom even outside of the Sanjana Pantakh. For example, a Corre Avesta in the Mahzirana Library held under the shelf mark F7, which is an accurate copy of the manuscript of Hormuzdiar from Rose, begins with what is referred to as the harfa zand, the letters of the zand in which the identical text is found. Likewise, in an autograph copy of Daraf Hormuzdiar's Reviat held in the University of Bombay Library under the shelf mark Persian Manuscript 29, copied in 1678 CE, reproduced as text 1.2 on your handout. In a section commencing with the phrase harfa e Avesta zand be revesh e Hindustan min nivisam. I will write the letters of the zand Avesta in the manner of India. Daraf Hormuzdiar gives the text exactly corresponding to that recited in the Sanjana Navjot Ceremony. Though there is no indication in either manuscript that the text is to be used during the Navjot Ceremony, the introductory formulas and the prayers which follow the alphabet indicate that the text was meant to be recited orally. One can therefore surmise that the practice of reciting the alphabet was intended as an educational exercise whereby a child would acquire a rudimentary literacy in the Avestan script. Indeed, ritual recitation of the Avestan alphabet seems to have been a known custom in recent times. In 1867, Dastur Hosanji Rhymasji of Puna writes that, quote, the Persian priest in India attached the character of sacredness to the Avestan alphabet. Many pious moments repeat it when reciting their daily prayers, just as pious Brahmins repeat the first sutra of Panini when performing their Brahma Yagna. Thus, preserved in the Sanjana Navjot Ceremony is perhaps a ritualised vestige of religious education which has otherwise been lost in contemporary practice. Performing homage to the sun in Khvarshed Niaishin. In certain cases, it is possible to determine when a particular ritual practice fell out of use. For instance, in the performance of the Khvarshed and Mheil Niaishins, it used to be the practice that after the recitation of Niaish 1.5, that is para-file of false Niaish, the reciter would recite a passage specific to the time of day that is God, it was. Then recite the Ashenbo three times, each time bowing deeply in reverence toward the sun before continuing with the recitation. This practice was already known in the 9th century when it is referred to in the Dain Curd as Gosconic has recently noted in the transmission of the Avesta. Next to one, when he knowingly and thoughtfully in his action reaches the end of the speech, he should say, Ashenbohu, that is Allahi staiswi, three times, and at the end of each passage he should bow deeply. This ritual action is also referred to in several important manuscripts of the Khvarshed Avesta, notably Manuscript T-12 of the Mehrzirana Library, an old and important manuscript comprising texts of the Khvarshed Avesta, the Cerozak and Vesperad written by the famous Dastur Aslinkaka in 1551 C. The manuscript includes ritual directions written in Pahelwi, following the text of Niaish 1.5, the text adds C text 2.2. Recite three Ashenbohus, with each one should take a step and with each one should bow deeply. In his edition of the Pahelwi Khvarshed Avesta, Dabur also notes that later manuscripts of the Khvarshed Avesta, U1, U3, D add to disinstruction the phrase, and with each Ashenbohu one should lower one's head. That there was controversy about how the ritual action was to be performed is already evident from the rivayat of Nariman Husheng, sent to the priests of Gujarat from the Dastur of Turqabad and Sharifabad in Iran in the year 1478 C. Apparently there had been a question as to whether one should fully prostrate oneself by placing one's head to the ground while reciting the Ashenbohus or whether one should simply bow. The Iranian priests write, now text 2.3. During the Khurshid Niaish there is no need to place one's head on the ground, but bowing namals, salutation, salam and veneration ikram are necessary and appropriate. From this text, the practice of lowering one's head and bowing entered into early printed text of the Khvarshed Avesta during the 19th century. The Sensoi Tabam Khvarshed Avesta, written by Badin Dharabai Khavazi, published in 1874, contains the following instruction after Niaish 1.5, text 2.4. While reciting each Ashenbohu, one should lower one's head and bow. However, it is worth noting that the practice of bowing one's head during the Khvarshed Niaish seems to have been entirely absent from Kadimi ritual practice in the early 19th century. The instruction is not to be found in the Kadimi Khvarshed Avesta of the Daftar Ashkara Press of 1843 CE. Even Badin Dharabai Khavazi, who had printed the ritual instruction in his Sensoi Khvarshed Avesta, omitted it from his Khvarshed Tabam Khvarshed Avesta, published in the same year, 1874. Later, printed Khvarshed Avesta, even those intended for Sensoi Khvarshed Avesta, began to omit the practice, some innovated even further. Framros Sorabji Chiniwala's Khvarshed Avesta Baksnum Tavil, Bombay 1938, omits the ritual gesture entirely. As a result, the ritualized bowing to the sun during the recitation of the Niaish has been lost in contemporary practice. The recitation of the Karda, or section of Yau Visada during the Afrinaga. Throughout Zoroastrian history, matters of ritual practice have repeatedly been the subject of controversies between priests. This phenomenon was already attested in the 9th century when the high priest of the city of Sirgan, Zarthspram, attempted to simplify the Barasunum ritual. Letters composed in Pelvi by Zarthspram's brother Manushchihe, bered Zarthspram for this ritual innovation and enjoying that ancient ritual practices should be re-established. Controversies over ritual matters are found throughout the whole history of Zoroastrian religious literature, but became particularly widespread in the 19th century when certain priests of Bombay sought to establish their priestly independence from the traditional centre of the Bhagwariah Panthak, Nausari. One such instance occurred when a controversy broke out between two Shanshai priests of Bombay, Dasdhu Peshotan Bheramji Sanjana of the Wadiyaji Atashveram and Jamazhi Minochirji Jamasasa, the future Dastur of the Anjuman Atashveram. The two families had been bitter rivals for decades, but in 1866, when Dasdhu Peshotan re-published the Sdurji Edelji Sanjana Stritaz entitled the Fermanedin, the command of the religion, on the subject of correct ritual performance during the five garteries. Jamazhi was angered, publishing his own treaty, entitled ready a Fermanedin, the refutation of the command of the religion. Jamazhi argued that what Sanjana had written was incorrect. He further argued that contrary to the practice of the Sanjanas of the Wadiyaji Atashveram, one should recite the Karda of Thao Ammin Mani during the Afrinagan ceremony performed during the Feverrigan days. The disputation about the correct performance of the Afrinagan ceremony raged for some time and continues to this day, with the Bhagwariya priest of Nausari continuing the ancient practice of reciting the Karda of Yau Visada during the Afrinagan if he does stay in Rosgar, while some Bombay priests continue to follow Jamazasa in reciting the Karda of Thao Ammin Mani. Interestingly, the question of which Karda to recite during the Afrinagan was not a new one. Already in the Avestan-Pelvin-Neringaistan, it is stated that the Karda of Yau Visada should be recited during all ten days of the Feverrigan. As for the ten days in the Feverrigan, during the first five days, one should recite the Ashenbahu three times, the Feverane, the Fervula for what God it is, the Shruman of Oraheim is now and Ashaunam, the Karda of Yau Visada Avainty, and concluding with Afrinagan. During the five Gathades, one should recite the Ashenbahu three times, the Feverane, the Fervula for what God it is, the Shruman of Oraheim is now, Gathabio, and Ashaunam, and the Karda of Yau Visada and concluding with Afrinagan. Some centuries later, the texts of the Afrinagans were again collected by the famous Parsi priest Darabhormas Diyal, who included their texts in manuscripts of his Persian reviles. In Darabhormas Diyal's time, the practice of the Afrinagan of Feverrigan days, as performed in Iran, was to recite the Karda of Tau Aminmane. Text 3-2, the Afrinagan of Erdal Fever, in the manner of Iran, in the kingdom of the land of Iran, on the day of the first Afrinagan, which is called the Erdal Fever, is this as it has been said in the tradition. Recite eight yta ahu wailio, and three Ashenbahu prayers, then the Feverane, and the God, which it is, then persists the Eche, oraheim isda, oraheim ato, oraheim ato, oraheim ato, oraheim ato, oraheim ato, oraheim ato, oraheim ato. Conclwding with Tau Aminmane Jamiares, yaw Ashaunam, up to Deregem Haqma, followed by three Ashenbahu. Yet, Darab was aware that this custom of the Iranians was at variance with the Khurasani practice of the phaipan tux of the priests of India, and what he refers to as the ancient books of the Zandavisa. Later, in his manuscript, he gives the text of the Afrinagan of the Ardhaffravesh, and the Afrinagan is Ruzgar, according to the practice of the Indian priests. Here, he writes that one should instead recite the Karda of Yaw of the Sother, text 33. As the custom of the Afrinagan, on the day of Ravadim, Munt Adr, they recite the Afrinagan of the Ardhafffravesh, and also on the day of Kurshed, Munt Day, which is the death anniversary of Rhaithiel Zarathushtra. On that day, too, they recite the Afrinagan of Ardhafffravesh. The shluman is as follows. Recite eight Yathahahu videos, three Ashenbahus, and the Fravarani up to, until the word, Francis the Acher. Then, Orahim is now Raiwathau Qwairangathau. One should recite Yaw Visada Avayanti until the end. In the ancient books of the Zandavisa, the Afrinagan is written in this manner. But in the reviles, which has been enjoyed by the Iranians, that practice of the first Afrinagan written above is in accordance with the transmitted tradition of the reviles. Thus, we can see that Yama Sasser was at odds with ancient Bulgaria practice, and was instead perhaps influenced by Iranian ritual practice. His ancestor, the first Dastur Yama Sasser, had, after all, been a student of the Iranian priest Yama's Velayati, though he did not adopt the Kadimi calendar. Yama Sasser gave a fatwa to recite Taw Aminmane in the Afrinagan of Fireshte and Rosgar. But he could not practice it in conservative Nausari. His descendants promulgated his fatwa in Mumbai, not in Nausari. They wanted to justify Yama Sasser's fatwa in freedom-loving Mumbai. Still, it is clear in this case that the Bulgaria priests of Nausari today continue the ancient practice already attested in the nirangistan, excuse me. And finally, the practice of Artaxor. Finally, I would like to present one final case of ritual change. In this case, a ritual which has been entirely lost within the Parsi community. That of Artaxor. The ritual of offering the fat of a sacrificial animal to the fire is well known from Pehlvi and Persian Zoroastrian literature. And from Iranian ritual practice as documented by Mary Boyce during her stay in Sharifabad in 1963-64. When Boyce wrote her article Artaxor and Artaxor in 1966, the custom had almost vanished from living Parsi memory with only a few elderly Parsi's who could remember that in the early part of the 20th century that sheep or goats would occasionally be slaughtered to be offered to the fire on the fourth day after the death of a person. Yet the ritual of Artaxor seems to have been commonplace in early centuries. So much so that it is referred to not just in ritual literature but also in popular songs. On the establishment of the Dawshari and Jumanatashweram in 1765 CE, two brothers from Baruch, Dawshar and Jiva composed a commemorative song entitled The Artaxogith, The Song of the Fire, which is still sung today in Dawshari on auspicious occasions. In fact, after my dreading in 1971, some five to seven ladies came to my house in Desai Street, performed the Padhyab Kustri ritual and began to sing the song, which is elaborate, which is elaborate splitting of syllables such that the word Artax, for example, is sung and so on. The full performance of the great song of the fire takes about five or six hours. In the course of the lyrics of the song, the ladies sing, takes four one, let us call the shepherd's son, friend, bring a pair of he goats. Come friends, let us go to the fire. Let the he goat be slaughtered as sore for the Artaxweram. Come friends, let us go to the fire. A number of variations of the Artaxogith exist. In one such variant, the Artaxogith, small song of the fire, sung on the day prior to the marriage, the women again mentioned the practice of the Artaxog singing. O, four two. O, I asked the poultry man to bring a crowing cock. May the Artaxweram be wakeful always. O, I asked the shepherd to bring a pair of he goats. May the sacrifice in Gujarati called Boga be offered. To the Artaxweram. In yet another song, this one composed in honour of the completion of the Dada by Modi Surat Artaxweram in 1823. The Artaxzore is again referred to this time as a ritual to be performed after the resurrection of a new Artaxweram. Tax four three. O, the Artaxnig Aghiyari has been built. Call the son of the shepherd. Bring a pair of he goats. O, the Artaxnig Aghiyari has been built. Slaughter the goat as zore for the Artaxweram. Around this time, during the early 19th century, the ritual of the Artaxzore seems to have become the subject of controversy. A particularly important source for the religious and social history of the Barsi community. This is a collection of Gujarati documents relating to the Bagarsat Anjuman of Nawsari, kept in the Merzirana Library. And published by the Bombay Parsi Panchayat in 1933. These documents, the oldest of which date to the 15th century of the common era, are a unique and underutilised treasure tro of information about Parsi priestly practice. And to make this resource more broadly available to students of Zoroastrian history, I am currently preparing an English translation and study of this text for publication with Dan Sheffield. Within the documents is found a letter written by the Bagaria Anjuman in the year 1823, wherein they respond to a letter written by Bagaria Priests in Mumbai, who complain that the Bombay Parsi Panchayat has begun to promulgate a new booklet of regulations of religious practice, wherein that ceremony is omitted. Tax 4-4. Users have written. The members of the Panchayat of Sri Mumbai have prepared books in order to spread new laws and new practices, wherein they have written various matters. And these books might perhaps have reached you as well. And you might have already found out by reading it. In your letter, it is written that, when at your room of expired souls occurs on the days of Behman, Morgoth or Ram, in the dawn of that day they perform the roar of an animal. And its fat is offered to the patsasaheb. Or, yes, one minute. Or, if there is no ateshmeram, then it is offered to the other hand side. Likewise, it should be offered in the patra of Afridagarn of the Hemi-azad. And it should be offered in the tomb there. After giving the details of the preparation of Arthazore ritual, the Nausari priests continued the letter and accused certain priests of Bombay of selfishness, implying that they support the Panchayat in the suppression of the Arthazore, not out of religious conviction, but out of desire for patronage by the powerful Panchayat members. Now I conclude as can be seen clearly from the last two cases which I have presented, much of the confusion about the correct performance of Zoroastrian ritual has resulted directly from the fatwas and injurctions of the Bombay Dasturz, who, in order to promote their own independent legitimacy, opposed the centuries-old traditions of the Nausari Bagaria Panthak. Ironically, it should be noted that these Dasturz themselves did not participate in ritual activity after assuming the position of Dasturz. It is said that the learned priests Erej Merjirana once said that only if the fatwa-loving Dasturz of Bombay were to come to the Urvizgah holding the Barsoam, could he ever truly understand the importance of ritual. Still, even in cases of severe opposition from Bombay priests, the priests of Gujarat and especially the Bagaria Moabers of Rausari have maintained their ancient Khurasani practices to the last. To conclude my lecture, I should like to remind my colleagues that the study of the Zoroastrian ritual tradition is essential for the correct understanding of the factual tradition. Yet, by the same token, studying the factual tradition allows us to shed light on totally issues of religious practice. Thank you for your attention. Moving straight on, I'd like to introduce Professor Alberto Canterra to talk to us about sacrifice. The celebration of a little gift for Ahura Mazda has been, for more than 2,000 years, the main feature of the Zoroastrian self-identity. In the Western text, Mazda y Asna means someone who performs a sacrifice to Mazda and is applied mainly to the sacrifices but also to the members of the community that participate in the performance and obtain the benefits of this sacrifice. Sometimes Mazda y Asna is accompanied by the adjective Zarathustry and the meaning is then someone who performs a sacrifice to Mazda in the way of Zarathustra. Most of the Eston manuscripts of the Vesta contain the Western recitative and the ritual directions for the correct celebration of this liturgy. In fact, the only text in the Western language that has been transmitted to us are the long liturgy in its numerous variants and the collections of other ceremonies, the Hordia Vesta, together with some short treatises on ritual matters. The Dengart and other Barlaby works describe a great Avesta in 21 Nast or books, but this is lost to us. We have only a few fragments of it and then a series of liturgies in a Western language. Only one Nast of the Great Avesta has come to us, the Vedeffdat and only because it was included in the recitative of a ceremony, the Vedeffdat ceremony. The Great Avesta was probably written down towards the end of the Zezzanian Empire in a script invented for the occasion. We call this first copy the Zezzanian archetype. Traditionally, it has been assumed that our manuscripts derive from this first copy. Actually, our manuscripts do not correspond exactly to any parts of the Great Avesta. On the one side, they are arranged ritually whereas the Great Avesta was arranged scholastically. On the other hand, the manuscripts contain only a minimal part of the contents of the Great Avesta. The traditional explanation is that the external texts are fragments of the Great Avesta that were rearranged in later times for producing the recitative of the liturgy. Accordingly, the actual recitative of the liturgy for Ahudhamasda, the Long Liturgy, would be a high, late composition made up with surviving fragments of the Great Avesta. This view has been challenged in the last years. The ceremonies, especially the Long Liturgy, assisted in the Zezzanian times even before independently of the Great Avesta. In fact, the Zoroastian Long Liturgy continues the tradition of the Indo-Iranian sacrifice. The Ysna and the Vedic sacrifice share not only a largely common vocabulary, but also the same ritual structure, but begin with the present and drinking of a stimulating drink, the Hauma or the Sauma. The center consists in an animal sacrifice offered to the fire, and the sacrifice is closed with a service to the fire and the waters. The Long Liturgy stand its roots, turned ill in the Iranian times. But when did this ceremony get its actual shape? The Nerangastam provides evidence that the Long Liturgy was celebrated already in Zezzanian times in a very similar way as described in the manuscripts. Recently, I have brought into light the close parallelism between the description of the ceremonies. In the manuscripts and in the Nerangastam. You might see in the presentation just a comparison of the beginning of the preliminaries to the Ysna in the Nerangastam and in some liturgical manuscripts. But we can trace the actual liturgy much farther back than the Zezzanian times. In a recent contribution, Kellins has shown that the description of some sacrifices in Ysna 57 and Ysna 10 fit perfectly the pattern of the Long Liturgy, including the recitation of some old aversean texts. Therefore, the main structure of the Long Liturgy has already got a shape similar to the actual at the time of the composition of this test. The conclusions of Kellins can actually be extended, not only to the structure, but also to the actual recitative of the Long Liturgy. The recitative is not a late patchwork of fragments of the Great Davestath compiled in Zezzanian times, but code is actual form already in the productic time of the Western language, probably still in the community time. The clearest proof is provided by the Western texts of the Nerangastam. This section of the Husparonnas has two linguistic layers, a short of Western texts and its Pachlaby translation. The Pachlaby translation is not only a translation, but includes long commentaries providing the most extensive information about the ritual practice in Zezzanian times. Today is easily accessible thanks to the edition and translation by Kotval and Crembrook. The Avestan text was probably composed long before the Zezzanian era and is then our principal source of information for the pre-Zezzanian ritual practices. In several passages it is clear that the Avestan Nerangastam knows the actual version of the Long Liturgy. In fact, it contains several nerangs or ritual directions in the Western language similar to the later nerangs in the Pachlaby, in Pachlaby in the manuscripts. Thus, Nerangastam describes the texting of the drone by the priest exactly as it takes place in the Long Liturgy and including the same Avestan recitative. Since this drone is as well celebrated as a separated ritual, this passage could only prove the assistance of the drone ritual, but not of the complete ceremony. But the same does not apply for the description of the offerings to the Avestan and Nerangastam that it is identical to Yasna 63. Notice that not only the ceremony is the same, the extractions that appeared in Avestan language in the Nerangastam appear then in Pachlaby in the liturgical manuscripts. Very interesting is the mention in the Avestan Nerangastam of seven texts during whose recitation the version should be spread. There are seven Avestan texts recited all along the Yasna and they appear with one minor exception exactly in the same order than in the Yasna. The Long Liturgy and its actual recitative is then not a modern patchwork, but an old liturgy whose recitative goes back probably to the Achaemenid times. As every living liturgy, and contrary to edited compositions, it shows a range of variations for different purposes. In Gelna's edition of the Avesta, there is only one long liturgy, the Yasna, and a more solemn variant, the Vespada, that is only partially edited. Actually, the manuscripts, witnessing the ritual life from 13th to 19th century, show a wider range of liturgies. The Yasna Rapid Bean, a smaller ceremony than the standard daily liturgy, celebrated only in the summer months. Then the standard morning daily ceremony, or Yasna, and the solemn ceremony of Vespada. The latter serves as the basis for more complex ceremonies. So, there is a ceremony with an additional pressing of the haoma after the Yasna Hahti, that is the Dohoma ceremony that is attested only in one manuscript, cast 7B, not only the oldest one. Therefore, it is, however, another type of ceremonies that are still frequent in the manuscripts. I call, then, intercalation ceremonies, and art ceremonies in which a young Avestan text is divided in sections and intercalated between the old Avestan texts. The manuscripts are texts, two-shots ceremonies, the Yasna, the Vespada, and the Vespada. The Paglavin Erangestan witnesses still a greater ritual variety than our manuscripts. Beside the Dohomas, it mentions other ceremonies with still greater number of presence of haoma, like the Dahomas and the Davas Dahomas. Also, the catalogue of the intercalation ceremonies is longer in the Erangestan. It includes two such ceremonies not attested in the manuscripts. The Vajangas and the Hadoknas. The first is a ceremony with intercalated just as rightly noticed by Crayonbrooke. As for my part, I have discovered a fragment of this ceremony integrated in the Vespada ceremony. In fact, the list of the textual articulations of the Vespada is originally a fragment of the recitative of the Vajangas, in which some just, just five, nineteen, fourteen, and ten are intercalated between the old Avestan texts. The Hadok ceremony was quite likely as well an intercalation ceremony in which Hadok one was intercalated after the Asembuhu and Hadok two after Yasna 53. Both ceremonies ceased to be celebrated before the 17th century. Forgetting an idea of the variety of the long liturgy in the Erangestan is very useful. A look into the hierarchical classification and grouping of its different variants according to the number of Vason tricks and the proportion of milk and wheat on water and elevation. From these classes of ceremonies, the manuscripts provide evidence only for the Yasti Kech, the Yasi Rapidwin would belong to this group, the Yasti Havan, the Vespada, the Hadok and the Dahomas. The latter only in one manuscript. Bidewdad am Vistaspia's ceremony are to be ascribed probably to the group of the Vespada ceremonies. Obviously, the ritual variety decreases from the Sasanian times to the time of the Avestan manuscripts, as it happens from the oldest manuscripts to the modern ones. The changes in the different variants of the liturgies concern central parts of the ritual and the recitative. I'll just mention some examples. The mid offering to the fire could be done one or two times. The pressing of the harma together with the recitation of the homas can be celebrated one, two or more times during the liturgy. Very interesting are the changes in the recitation of the old Avestan texts. Usually, it is assumed that there is only one way to recite the old Avestan texts, namely as they appear in Gelinas edition and in the daily ceremony in more than times. However, some deviations are attested. The Yasnahabdanheidi is recited twice, is recited a second time before Yasnah 53 in the Vespada ceremony. The Vajhistoistigata and the Ariaman Isir are as well repeated in the Dohoma ceremony. Furthermore, the Ustavaiti and the Spentamanyugata exchange their positions in the Dohoma ceremony. In the presentation, you might see an overview with the arrangement of the old Avestan texts in the different variants of the long liturgy. In Sasanian times, the long liturgy knows then a wide range of variants and many parts of the ceremonies were still mobile. It was a living ceremony with lots of variants for different purposes and not just a patchwork of erudite compilers. For pre-Sasanian times, the evidence for variety is not as overwhelming as for Sasanian times, but we have good reasons for assuming a similar or even a greater variety. The intercalation ceremonies provide an example. Traditionally, they have been considered late creations on the basis of already existing texts and so the clearest example of erudite patchwork. According to boys, the texts of the Vidaeftat existed independently of the long liturgy as a legal treatise and then in Sasanian times was created as a ceremony in which this text was intercalated at random between the old Avestan texts in order to produce a ceremony including a trendy text on purification. The Vistach Biest will have been created after that model. Actually, the intercalated texts are not divided and intercalated among the old Avestan texts at random. On the contrary, these texts were composed to be intercalated among the old Avestan texts and the intercalation is the result of an interpretative reading of the old Avestan texts. Thus, the intercalation after Yasna 53 of the encounter of the Urvan of the disease with his own vision is constant in all intercalation ceremonies and of course not unintended. Yasna 53 is an optional hymn for Porucista, the Rota of Zarathustra, an alter ego of the vision of the dinar. The young Avestan esegesis put correctly this hymn in connection with the encounter of the soul of the disease with his own vision. The clearest example of the rationale for such intercalations is provided by the Vidaeftat. Sherbroch has shown some years ago that the intercalation of the Vidaeftat depends on a reading of the old Avestan texts as represented in the universal history that goes from the creation of the wall of Unavaria and Vidaeftat 1 to Zarathustra, Yasna 53 and Vidaeftat 19, and the final victory over Ywol, Aria Manisia and Vidaeftat 20 to 22. But the connection of the Vidaeftat with the old Avestan texts is not limited to these three central moments. Vidaeftat represents the process of universal purification of the wall. It begins with the origins of impurity after the creation of the countries. After presenting the first attempt to restore immortality by Yma, it deals with the greatest impurity, the Nasus. The Vasnun is intercalated after the Yasna Haftanheidi presented so as the correspondence in purification ritual to the Yasna Haftanheidi in the sacrificial rituals. From now on, only minor impurity the NASA is in the gun will appear till the arrival of Sraosa in Vidaeftat 18, Zarathustra 19 and the final purification in Vidaeftat 20 to 22. Northen is at random in the structure of the Vidaeftat. It has been composed to be inserted between the old Avestan texts in order to provide a reading of the old Avestan texts under the motto of the process of universal purification and for creating a special variant of the long liturgy contributing to the universal purification, a kind of Vasnun for the whole universe. A father proof of the early assistance of this type of intercalation ceremonies is that his name is already attested in the intercalated ceremonies, in the Vistaspiast and in the parallel version of the Hadoknas. The scene is situated in the encounter of the soul with his vision. She explains to the soul of the deceased that every time he resided the Gata, celebrated the sacrifice to the waters or satisfied the fire of Ahura Mazda and the man Ashavan, it made the vision more beloved and put her in a more prominent position. Then the speaker changes and Ahura Mazda says, henceforth man celebrate a long jasti and a hampars ti for Ahura Mazda. Through the celebration of the long liturgy, singing the Gatas and sacrificing to the fire and the water is namely to celebrate a jasna, the pierce man has made the vision more beloved and has put her in a more advanced position. Then it follows the conclusion announced by Ahura Mazda that this is the reason for the celebration of the long liturgy and the consultation. The Rigogjasti hampars ti. A Vistam hampars ti is the astrag noun of hampras, the technical verb for having an interview with Ahura Mazda since the Gatas and into the Paglabi literature. There is then no doubt, the intercalation ceremonies are not late creations. Actually we have reasons to assume that they rather belong to the very core of the long liturgy, the special sacrifice to Ahura Mazda introduced by Tharatustra. It is not casual that the mention of the intercalation ceremonies appears in the context of the encounter of the soul with the vision. The function of the vision is to lead the soul of the deceased to Ahura Mazda and the same function assumes the vision in each sacrifice to Ahura Mazda. She leads the soul of the sacrifice to the presence of Ahura Mazda and allows him to have a consultation with the divinity. After drinking the hauma, the sacrifice is consecrated. He assumes his function through the right choice of celebrating a sacrifice to Mazda in the way of Tharatustra. This is the Frawarani. Immediately after, he offers the animation of his own body. This is the Tambash Chidhahaya Ustanaen, as Tharatustra did in Diasna 33-14. So, the sacrifices enter in a state of self-induced death emulating the sacrificial victim that is going to be killed at the end of Diasna 34. And his soul, Urvan, will be able to leave the body and accompany the soul of the victim, the Geus Urvan, into the realm of God. Similar ideas are found in the very sacrifice. But there is a particularity of the sacrifice in the way of Tharatustra. This particularity is actually the topic of Pidefda II, although it has been often interpreted differently. Pidefda II tell us the deficiencies of Jima's sacrifice by contrast with this of Tharatustra. The key for the partial failure of Jima in getting the immortality for the creatures lies in his incapacity for being memoriser and viewer of the vision. This capacity is exclusive of Tharatustra and his ritual technique. Tharatustra is going to be the memoriser and viewer of the vision as every performer is sacrificing the way of Tharatustra after him. Essential for the success of Tharatustra is the Ahunabairio that he learned from Ahura Mazda when he or his Frabasi attended the Cosmobonic Sacrifice. This knowledge allows him acting as Ahura Mazda and reproducing his sacrifice at the beginning of the world history. In a recent contribution, I have shown that the sexual union of the soul with the sacrifices with the vision during the long liturgy continues the Indo-European myth of the within of the sky with his daughter, the morning down, that brings a new day. In the mythology of the long liturgy, it is the wedding of Ahura Mazda with the vision, Diana. This wedding grants life in the world of the gods, of gods. Tharatustra, acting in the sacrifices of Ahura Mazda, marys his own daughter, Porucista, alter ego of the vision. Its priest, celebrating the liturgy, acts as Tharatustra and accordingly his soul is united with the vision during the recitation of Yasna 53. Through the union with his vision, the soul of the priest gets access to Ahura Mazda and a consultation with him is possible. In contrast to Yma, the priest is now memoriser and leader of the vision that is able to present the vision of the consultation with Ahura Mazda to the ritual community of the Mazda Yasna Zarathustra. This is exactly an intercalation ceremony. The main innovation is that he is able to perform the consultation before the community and to carry the words of Ahura Mazda to the ritual community. The sacrifice acts as a mediator of information. The transmission of God's message happens through a performance of the consultation between the sacrifice, Zarathustra and God. The words, Purusha, Zarathustra, Ahura Mazda, Zarathustra acts to Ahura Mazda, announce the beginning of the performance. The words of Ahura Mazda are marked by Adam Raut, Ahura Mazda. Then Ahura Mazda says, It is a kind of theatrical performance of the consultation. This representation was originally intercalated after Yasna 53, the Vahistoystigatha, but then the intercalation extended to other sections of the Old Avestan text, giving occasion for exegetical readings of this central text of the liturgy and for creating new ritual uses for them. I assume that all of Avestan texts belonging to the Hamparth tea genre, including some nags of the great Avesta, were composed to be intercalated in the Long Liturgy. This is the context for the Avestan text presented as a consultation between Zarathustra and Ahura Mazda. These consultations do not tell us a historical meeting of Zarathustra and Ahura Mazda or a mystic encounter with God, but a ritual meeting made possible through a ritual technique. The vision appears then as the capacity for the consultation reached through the sacrifice and on the same time as the vision of the consultation itself, that is, its contents. So we can understand the meaning of Diana as tradition or corpus of the religious text. Every consultation transmitted to men in the Long Liturgy is Diana, is part of the vision of the realm of God's obtained by the sacrifice during the ceremony. The structure of the ceremonies of intercalation is therefore at least as old as the composition of the young Avestan texts presented as a consultation. Even the use of Diana as corpus of the religious text in the young Avesta depends on the assistance of this kind of ceremonies. So the intercalation ceremonies are not a late creation. Already we have that two presents this ritual technique as the main difference between the sacrifice of Zarathustra and this of Yma. I would go so far as to affirm that the daily celebration, the jazizon of the manuscripts and the jasna of the Western editions is not the basic ceremony that have been extended through the addition of intercalated texts. On the contrary, it is an intrinsic feature of the jasna Zarathustra that it makes possible at consultation with the Divinity and its performance before the ritual community. Neither the standard daily celebration of the Long Liturgy nor is more complex forms like the vispirate or the ceremonies of intercalation are late compositions on the basis of the extra fragments of the great Avesta, but real ceremonies that have been celebrated for centuries without any interruption. The recitative of the ceremony is not an artificial patchwork of post-Sazanian times, but the product of a long lasting ritual activity in an oral tradition. The Long Liturgy is a living ceremony that knows many variants for different ritual purposes since the oldest periods we can taste back. The composition of the very core of the Liturgy, the Ahunavirio, is attributed to the god Ahuramaasda. The ritual innovation of the vision transmitted to the ritual community is ascribed to Zarathustra and was only possible because he attended the cosmogonic sacrifice of Ahuramaasda and learned the Ahunavirio, the key, or in Western words, the ratu of the Long Liturgy. Thus, the recitative in Avestan language is consistantial with the Liturgy. When in many times the Liturgy was exported from eastern Iran to the western regions of the community in power, the Liturgy continued being celebrated in Avestan language. The reasons why precisely this Liturgy in Avestan language was so successful remained hidden to us. His adaptation as the standard Liturgy for the Cult of Ahuramaasda by the community kings in the context of a royal cult is a plausible explanation, but unfortunately only that. I thank you very much for that. We are given the idea that Zarathustra's teaching is something sublime, something about the mind, and then somehow it becomes a matter of ritual practice, etc. So that's very disturbing to me, and I'd like to know why that's the kind of message that your paper seems to be giving. And to the last speaker, I'd like to say that clearly you must be, you are speaking at a very high level and people like me wouldn't understand if a little bit of context could be given. So, for example, this sacrifice, you mentioned sacrifice without actually explaining what that sacrifice is, so it's left to our fantasy and that can't be right. Well, if we may answer first this, what I presented here was based on the Haduchnask, and there it states very clearly what produces a good diner that is reciting, sitting down reciting the gutters and worshipping the good waters and the fire. So that's what the texts say, and of course worshipping Mazda, but you're quite right. The underlying this is, of course, a diner Mazdayazni has, there is a religious system behind it, but it manifests itself in the worship of Mazda in practice, in its visible form. The most obvious distinctive feature for it is that Mazda is worshipped and not the divers. And there are obviously reasons why one should worship Mazda and not the diner, and there you come into the religious system that underlies the worship of Mazda. Yes, as for my part, I would say that this debate on diner and the real meaning of diner really means something more than a ritual technique, so to say. I would call it a ritual technique. It's a matter of debate. I don't think that it's in the oldest text. We can say that there is a religious system behind the word diner. It is my view. I think it's the core of everything which is transmitted in the frame of the ritual. Every consultation to God is diner, and in that sense every consultation that is produced through the right ritual is going to be diner. The contents of this diner is different. It's clear that it's not just a matter of ritual practice, it's a matter of purification and so on. But this is a very controversial topic. The other question, which is the sacrifice. With the word sacrifice, I mean offering of a piece of meat to the fire. It doesn't mean exactly that the victim has to be killed in the same sacrifice because it can be, after the end of Ysna 34, it can be killed out of the ritual place. But it doesn't need to be killed in the frame of the sacrifice. It can be already killed before, but it is essential that you offer a piece of meat at the beginning of the Ysna Hampton High D. This is what I call a sacrifice. It was still the normal practice in the Zanian times. When it happens that it doesn't belong to the very core of the sacrifice, it's difficult to decide. Thank you. Are there any more questions? Yes. I'm Mardyshire Hanoff-Shiravani. I've been a student of Zartoshti religion for the past 30 years. I've invited speakers to various universities and various conferences. Really, so far, listening to a few speakers here make me think that I've never been in Zartoshti. I have believed in different religions, the religion which was brought by Zaratushra and was spoken in the Gathos. In the Gathos, of course, we worship Mazda. Mazda means all, it means all. Could I take your question, because we're short of time? Yes. You asked people to state something and I'm making my statement. I'm coming from a country where there is a freedom of speech and people can speak. I don't understand that opposite points of views have not been represented, so I take another minute to explain what my question is. Where people get this idea that sacrifice has been part of Zaratushra's teachings, that speaks of imaginary gods. All you are talking here about are imaginary gods who want meat, who want sacrifice in order to establish Atash Bahram, which is the highest and holiest fires in the Zartoshti religion. Do we need to sacrifice male goats? Is this what you've been taught in this conference? And I thank you very much for allowing me to say this much. Well, thank you for that comment, and it's well taken. We were talking about text, so it's what the texts say, not what these people here think about them. Let's take any more questions? Yes at the back. There it is ritualised or a personal, coming from a personal point of view, or a community point of view. So I have no problems with accepting the word sacrifice. My question to Dasturji Kortwal is, when was the orthodox sacrifice or the practice of orthodox ritual established? Is it established by one person of priestly renown or a panel, or is it an evolution? Could you just put your question into a nutshell so that Dasturji can understand exactly what you're asking? When ritual practice of orthodoxy was established, was it established by one priest of renown or a panel, or is it through evolution of ritual practice where the orthodox correctness of ritual was established? I think the answer to your question, if I may, while he's thinking, is that since this is called Zoroastrianism, the original inspiration for this whole tradition is based upon the words of Zarathustra in the Garthas. So if you want to look for a source, the Zarathrian tradition takes that as the source hence it's called Zarathrian. Now you see sacrifice means sacrifice. There is no committee as such that has established sacrifice, you see. It has come down to us since time immemorial and even up to 19th century also, if you see the Gujarati translation of Kawazikanga, there in chapter 11 of the ysdr and chapter 8 of the ysdr when drone chasne is done. So at that time also he has written that in ancient times as Goshodo a kabab was put there as a chasne product. You see this Goshodo means what? It means anyman product and laterally the priests began to use the or clarified butter and so this sacrifice has been abandoned since more than 100 years in India and instead of cow product, they use cow product as ghee and not meat.