Frawardin Yasht

The Frawardin Yasht is the thirteenth Yasht of the 21 Yasht collection^[1] and is dedicated to the veneration of the Fravashi.^[2] It belonges to the so called Great Yashts and, with 158 stanzas, it is the longest in the collection.^[3]

The Frawardin Yasht is assumed to be the product of a fluid oral tradition, during which different parts may have been recomposed, revised and added over a long period of time.^[4] Some material, like the concept of the Fravashis itself is very old and may possibly reflect pre-Zoroastrian concepts and ideas, whereas others may be much younger.^[5] The language of the Frawardin Yasht is Young Avestan, an Old Iranian language. This means that the fluid oral tradition stopped already during the Old Iranian period and the text was transmitted in fixed form afterward.

The written transmission of the Frawardin Yasht began jointly with the other Avestan texts during the Sasanian period. Like most other Yashts, the Frawardin Yasht is considered to have been part of the, now lost, Bagan yasht, one of the volumes of the Sasanian Avesta, created during that time. As such, it may have once been part of High Liturgies by being inserted into the basic Yasna ceremony at certain times.^[6] Today, the text is still regularly used during funerals.^[7]

Like with the other Yashts, the meter of the Frawardin Yasht is a question of an ongoing debate. While a substantial number of lines are octosyllabic, there are many hypo- and hyper-syllabic lines for which no unversinally accepted solution has been found yet.^[8] Henning proposed that instead of syllable count, the meter consisted of a stress count as was common in some Middle Iranian poetic traditions.^[9] However, this has been critized on the basis of a statistical comparison of the Frawardin Yasht with poetry from Middle Persian and Parthian, which showed that octosyllabic lines are substanitally more common in the Frawardin Yasht.^[10]

The Frawardin Yasht is generally divided into two distinct parts. The first part (stanzas 1-94) describe and praise the Fravashis in general. The second part (stanzas 95-158) consists of long list where the Fravashies of individual persons associated with the Zoroastrian faith are praised.^[11]

The first part is devoted to the Fravashis in general. These verses are, consequently, the major source of knowledge on how the early Iranians conceived of these supernatural beings.^[2] In general, they are described in way which integrates them into the framework of Zoroastrianisn, in particular, the primacy of Ahura Mazda and a strong dichotomy between good and evil. Some verses, however, are perceived as being in conflict with orthodox Zoroastrian teachings, which has been interpreted as being cuased by their pre-Zoroastrian origin.^[12]

The second part of the Frawardin Yasht consists of mostly of lists of important figures in the early history of Zoroastrianism.^[13] The Yasht is, therefore, an important source for onomastic studies of the Old Iranian people.^[14] There are over 400 personal names attested in the Avesta and most of them are found in the second part of the Yasht.^[15]

The Frawardin Yasht is extant in four different manuscript traditions. First, the pure Yashts collections in F1 and E1. They are the oldest manuscripts going back to 1591 and 1601, respectively. Second, the manuscripts where the Yasht collection is provided jointly with the Khorda Avesta. Thirdly, the manuscripts where the Khorde Avesta is provided with some Yashts and finally, the manuscripts which contain only the Frawardin Yasht.^[16] In general, the Yashts collections are considered to be more reliable than the Khorda Avesta manuscripts.^[17]

According to the colophones in the E1 manuscript, the scribe does not list the Frawardin Yasht as originating from the, now lost, Bagan yasht.^[18] Other sources, however, like the Persian Rivayats of Kama Bohra and Nariman Hoshang and the Den i Wizirkard do list it as originating from the Bagan yasht. This tradition has, e.g., being followed by Kellens.^[19]

Like with the other Avestan texts, the oral nature of its texts and the frequent editorial processes throughout its history make any editorial process elusive.^[20] A common principle in Avestan studies was the goal to approach the text of the Sasanian Avesta, which is considered to be an authoritative edition produced by the Zoroastrian priesthood during the Sasanian period.

The Frawardin Yasht has been made available as part of the Yashts or the wider Avesta collection.^[21] The original Avestan texts were made available through the editions of the Avesta by Westergaard ^[22] and Geldner,^[23] whereas translations were, e.g., published by Darmesteter ^[24] and Lommel.^[25] In addition, the Frawardin Yasht has also been the subject of dedicated editions. In 1975, Kellens published an edition of the Frawardin Yasht with a translation into French^[26] and more recently, Malandra published a critical edition of the Yasht including a translation into English, as well as a commentay and a glossary of its terms.^[27]

• Text of the Frawardin Yasht at Avesta.org

• Zoroastrian texts
• Zoroastrianism

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of March 2025