EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF
ZOROASTRIANISM AND IT’S INFLUENCE ON OTHER RELIGIONS
Paper presented by Cawas Desai at
The NAMC Seminar on July 30, 2005
In order to fully appreciate the early development of
Zoroastrianism, it is essential to understand the time,
the place, and the social and political climate
prevailing at the time of the religion’s establishment.
According to our oral and written traditions, the
ancestors of the Indo-Iranian peoples lived in the far
north at the dawn of history and were known as the
“Aryas” meaning the Noble Ones. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, in
his book “Orion, the Arctic Homeland of the Aryans”
contends that the homeland of the Aryans is where the
north polar ice cap stands today. It is said that the
Aryas believed in one Creator from who all else emanated
and flowed. With the coming of the Ice Age, some 10,000
years ago, the Aryas began a migration to the south
through the Russian Steppes.
During this migration, the ancient religion began to be
corrupted by elements of nature worship. Stricken with
natural calamities, the oncoming snow and blizzards from
the north, violent earthquakes and storms, compounded by
disease and pestilence, the migrants soon found
themselves face to face with malevolent agencies, which,
in their superstitious wisdom, required propitiation.
The deification of the natural powers, both good and
evil, followed and the religion of the Aryas degenerated
into polytheism, idol worship and animal sacrifice. The
law of the strongest and the most powerful soon became
prevalent, leading to greater and greater hardship and
misery for the common population. These times of
turmoil, of continuous warfare and the evils of power
hungry kings and war-lords have been described in both
Iranian and Indian literature.
The Shah Nameh speaks about the times of Zohak, Azhi
Dahaka in the Avesta, and the complete breakdown of
social structure during his terror filled reign. It goes
on to tell us of the enmity between the princes, the
sons of Shah Faredoon, and the murder of Iraj by his
brothers Salm and Tur, which lead to the continuous and
centuries long wars and constant feuding between Iran
and Turan.
According to our scriptures, during these turbulent and
unsettled times, the soul of creation cried out to God,
“Unto you the soul of mother earth complained “Me all
around do passion and rapine and violence enmesh –
reveal therefore to me a way out through a savior.” And
God replied “One such here is known to me, the only one
who hath listened to our commands, Zarathushtra Spitama.”
We believe that Zarathushtra was born to return the
religion to its uncorrupted state, to the “pauryo
takeasha” - the religion of the ancients, and to fight
the excesses of the “Daevayasnis.” According to the late
Jatindra Mohan Chatterjee, India’s leading Vedic
Sanskrit scholar, Zarathushtra is one and the same as
Parsurama of the Vedas, who the Rig Veda tells us, is
the sixth re-incarnation of Vishnu, and who was born to
subdue the power of the warrior clans and curb their
evil practices.
In the Vedas, specifically in the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata, these times are described as those when
truth and righteousness began to decrease and be
replaced by falsehood and wrong doing. The Ramayana
tells us of the wars between Ayodhya and Lanka resulting
from the abduction of Sita, and the Mahabharata,
graphically describes the covetousness of the Kauravas
against their cousins the Pandavas, which ultimately
lead to the cataclysmic battle of Kurukshetra, and the
start of the “Kali Yug”.
The date when Zarathushtra lived is one of great
speculation. The ancient Greek historians, Xanthus of
Lydia, Plato, Pliny and Plutarch place Him in eras
varying from 7,000 BC (6,000 years before the Trojan
War) to 2,000 BC. Some 19th century scholars, contending
that this would place Him in the Stone Age, assigned
dates of between 1,000 BC and 600 BC. Most modern
scholars now believe that Zarathushtra could not have
lived any later than 1,800 BC. The Vedic Sanskrit
scholars place Zarathushtra before 3,500 BC.
Some time after the advent of the prophet, the migration
split into two groups, one moving westwards, a branch of
which eventually settled on the Iranian Plateau, and the
other traveling eastwards and settling on the Indian
Sub-continent. It should be noted that the religion of
the Aryas, and their language, form the basis of
commonality between Hinduism and Zoroastrianism, and the
similarity between the language of the Rig Veda and the
Gathas. Chatterjee, in comparing Gathic-Avesta to
Vedic-Sanskrit, very succinctly points out that Ahura
Mazda of the Avesta is the same as Asura Mahan or Hari
Medhas of the Rig Veda.
The opening words of the Book of Genesis, the first book
of the Old Testament, are: “And God said “Let there be
light”. We know these words as the “Ahunavar” and the
Hindus as “Ohm”. However, before the spoken word
translated itself into action, there was thought. These
three concepts: thought, word and deed form the basis of
the religion taught by Zarathushtra. Zarathushtra posits
a single Creator God, who in His wisdom created the
universe, which is governed by a set of universal and
immutable laws. Zarathushtra named His God “Ahura Mazda”
– the Lord of Wisdom, and declared that He alone is
worthy of our adoration. “Reveal unto me” says
Zarathushtra, “that name of thine that is the greatest,
best, fairest, most effective, most evil smiting…”. “And
Ahura replied: “My first name is I am”.
Having arrived at the basic idea of the unity of God,
Zarathushtra found himself confronted by the problem of
the eternal conflict between good and evil since the
dawn of creation. The Prophet speaks of two primeval
forces, opposed to and at war with each other, “Spenta
Mainyu”, the giver of life, and “Angra Mainyu”, the
harbinger of non-life. These two forces, later
described, in the Younger Avesta, as either principles,
powers or spirits, do not emanate from Ahura Mazda and
do not exist independently, but each in relation to the
other, they meet in the higher unity of Ahura Mazda.
These two forces existed before the beginning of the
world as we know it and are eternally in conflict with
each other. As the Prophet says, “Truly shall I speak of
the Primal Spirits of the world, of whom the Very Holy
thus said to the Hostile One – Neither our thoughts nor
teaching nor wills, neither our choices nor words nor
acts, not our consciences nor souls agree”. Today,
science describes these forces as positive and negative
energy, both equal and opposite, without which there can
be no existence.
This concept of two opposing powers or forces has given
rise to the premise that Zoroastrianism is not a
monotheistic religion but is based on dualism. This same
concept, later gave rise to Zurvanism, one of the
so-called Zoroastrian heresies, which held sway during
the Seleucid era in Iran’s history.
In Zoroastrianism, man has been created to fight on the
side of good and ultimately to vanquish evil. Man must
make the choice between good and evil, and live with the
consequences of his choice, both in this world and the
next. The basic creed is summarized in the names and
meanings of the six attributes of God, the “Amesha
Spentas or the Beneficent Immortals” – God (Ahura Mazda)
having given man the Good Mind (Vohu Mano) to travel the
Path of Righteousness (Asha Vahishta) toward attaining
the Divine Kingdom (Kshathra Vairya), will enable man
through Devotion (Spenta Armaity) to reach Perfection (Haurvetat)
and attain Immortality (Ameretat).
The religion of Zarathushtra has rightly, therefore,
been called the Religion of the Good Life, which
constantly reminds us that good thoughts are good, that
good words are better and that good deeds are the best,
and exhorts us to actively lead the good life and follow
the path of righteousness.
The religion after Zarathushtra
When the religion of Zarathushtra was first revealed,
Zarathushtra himself had to fight against the entrenched
forces of the old polytheistic practices. In His Gathas,
He constantly seeks help from the Creator against the
“Kavis and the Karepans”, and laments that His tribe and
even His family have turned against Him. Tradition tells
us that eventually, with King Vishtasp accepting
Zarathushtra’s teachings and Prince Aspandiar militarily
defending the faith, hostilities continued between the
followers of Zarathushtra and those who opted to remain
adherents of the polytheistic and sacrificial practices
of the past.
There is a very interesting parallel in the story of
King Vishtasp to be found in the Mahabharata. According
to the Din Kirt as quoted by A.V.W.Jackson, King
Vishtaspa had a chariot which could fly in the air.
According to the Rig Veda, King Vasu of Cedi (a country
noted for its golden colored camels) had a chariot in
which he could fly at will. Narayan gave King Vasu a
scripture inspired by the seven “Citra-Sikhandins”, the
Saints or Enlightened Ones, which was adopted by Vasu as
the new “Veda”, and consequently forbore the offering of
flesh as an oblation during ritual sacrifice. Some time
later there was a conflict between the Daeva worshipers
and the Saints as to whether meat could be offered as an
oblation. King Vasu gave his decision in favor of the
Daeva worshipers, whereupon the Saints cursed him and
Vasu lost the power of flight. Vasu soon repented and
adopted the custom of praying five times a day and
giving up meat in ritual sacrifice, and regained the
power to fly. When Vasu next performed the great
sacrifice, Brihaspati, the high priest of the Daeva
worshipers flew into a rage, stood up with the ladle in
his hands and declared that he was not going to tolerate
that an “unseen God” would take the libation!
Although a large portion of Zarathushtra’s own words
have been lost to us and to history, Greek historians
indicate that Zarathushtra composed some two million
words of verse, His uncompromising monotheism has very
clearly come down to us in His Gathas, where again and
again He exhorts us that only Ahura Mazda is worthy of
our adoration.
Unfortunately, shortly after Zarathushtra’s time,
elements of the old polytheistic beliefs began to creep
back into Zoroastrianism. This can be seen from the
content of the Yashts.
Although the content of the Yashts is clearly considered
to be pre-Zoroastrian, the language of the Yashts,
except for the Yasna Haptanghaiti, is post-gathic
Avestan. Today, every scholar agrees that all of the
Yashts, except for the Yasna Haptanghaiti, were composed
and written centuries after the time of Zarathushtra.
The Yasna Haptanghaiti is composed in gathic-Avesta, the
language of the Gathas. The striking difference between
the Gathas and the Haptanghaiti is that the Gathas are
composed in metrical verse form and are to be sung,
whereas the Haptanghaiti is composed in prose. There is
considerable disagreement among scholars as to the
authorship of the Haptanghaiti. Mary Boyce contends that
some parts of the Yasna appear to be composed by
Zarathushtra himself, while Robert Zaehner unequivocally
contends that the Yasna was composed by Zarathushtra’s
disciples shortly after His death and not by the Prophet
himself.
The names of Indra, Varuna and Mithra are mentioned in
the Haptanghaiti, and there is absolutely no question
but that these are pre-Zoroastrian divinities, which
continue to hold prominent positions in the Vedas. Indra
evolved into Verethragna or Behram Yazata, Mithra
evolved into Meher Yazata and Varuna, in the female form
of Varunani evolved into Avan Ardvisur Yazad, more
commonly known as Anahita. The names of these and other
pre-Zoroastrian divinities subsequently evolved into the
Yazatas whose names are incorporated as the days of the
month in the Zoroastrian calendar.
The fact that these pre-Zoroastrian divinities now
occupy and hold important positions in our liturgy,
points to the fact that these are later additions to the
religion introduced after Zarathushtra’s life time.
Clearly, these portions of the Avesta conflict with the
strict and unambiguous monotheism preached by the
Prophet Himself. Whether these changes were introduced
to make the liturgy more acceptable to the general
population, considering the polytheistic practices which
were extremely prevalent at the time; or to appease the
political powers that were, is difficult to determine.
Examples of both these instances are found aplenty
millennia later during the Achaemenian Dynasty. Cyrus
the Younger accepted all the Babylonian Gods after the
conquest to forestall any opposition from the Babylonian
priests and gain the acceptance of the conquered
population. Cambyses did the same after his conquest of
Egypt, when he was declared Pharaoh, and consequently
became a living God. Darius the Great, in the rock
edicts at Behistun and Persepolis, mentions: “Ahura
Mazda bore me aid, and the other Gods who are, because I
was not hostile….” Darius II actively supported the cult
of Anahita, which was subsequently embraced by the
Greeks as Artemis or Aphrodite and the Romans as Venus
or Diana.
Even if the date of 1,800 BC is accepted as the Prophets
time of birth, twelve centuries passed before
Zoroastrianism first entered western recorded history.
According to other traditions, the time lapse is even
more substantial. As the gospel of Zarathushtra traveled
westward from its original homeland (the Airyan Vej of
the Kayanian Dynasty), the language and practice of the
religion was bound to change. Through the legendary
Huafritan and Kudurvand Dynasties, of which all traces
are lost, nothing is known about the then practice of
Zoroastrianism. Our present knowledge starts when the
Greek historians first came into contact with the
followers of Zarathushtra during the Achaemenian
Dynasty.
At that time, it seems that the Magi, a Medean tribe,
were the hereditary guardians of the religion and were
the tribe entrusted with the performance of all
religious rituals and the safeguarding of all religious
practices. These were the advisors to the Achaemenian
Emperors and were in the forefront of the Iranian armies
as they went into battle. After the defeat of Darius III
by Alexander the Accursed, the Magi appear to have faded
from history until they are seen again at the birth of
Christ.
Throughout Zoroastrian history, the one principle that
has remained constant and unchanged was that God is seen
as eternal light, “Anaghra Raocha” and therefore,
Zarathushtra had adopted fire as the outward symbol of
His religion. The purest of the elements, incapable of
being defiled, it symbolizes not only the energy of
creation but also the divine spark within each of us.
The Cult of Fire
Arguably the greatest discovery of all time was that of
fire and more importantly the capability of containing
and transporting it. This discovery gave man the
mobility to emerge from scattered cave dwellings and
become hunter-gatherers and pastoralists, which
eventually lead the nomads to the establishment of
settled communities around a central fire. It is no
wonder, therefore, that fire has been revered as a
divine gift from time immemorial, with great reverence
accorded to fire in the religion of Zarathushtra and in
the Vedas. Let us briefly consider the central role of,
and the reverence, accorded to fire in other religions.
Starting with Judaism, the Book of Exodus of the Old
Testament, tells us that God first spoke to Moses
through the medium of the “burning bush”. When the
Commandments were housed in the Arc of the Covenant,
which in turn was housed in a Tabernacle, fire was
always kept burning in the sanctum sanctorum. “And God
said to Moses, the fire on the alter shall always burn
and the priests shall feed it….”
In the Greek pantheistic religion, fire was always
present in all the “sanctuaries”, and at the Alter of
Pan at Olympia, fire was never allowed to be
extinguished.
In Roman times, the tribe of the Flamines was appointed
as the “fire-priests” and their sacred responsibility
was to keep the fire on the Capitoline Hill always
burning. Interestingly, reminiscent of Zoroastrianism
and the dictates contained in the Vendidad, the Flamines
were not allowed to touch anything unclean and their cut
hair and nails had to be buried.
The Teutons always kept a lamp burning before the statue
of Thor.
In Christianity, every church has candles eternally
burning on the altar, the fire representing the
sacramental presence of God.
Andrew Carnegie, in a voyage around the world, wrote:
“This evening we were surprised to see, as we strolled
along the beach, more Parsees than ever before, and more
Parsee ladies, richly dressed, all wending their way
towards the sea. Here on the shore of the ocean, as the
sun was sinking in the sea, and the slender silver
thread of the crescent moon was faintly shining on the
horizon, they congregated to perform their religious
rites. Fire was there in its grandest form, the setting
sun, and water in the vast expanse of the Indian Ocean
outstretched before them. The earth was under their
feet, and, wafted across the sea, the air came laden
with the perfumes of “Araby the Blest”. Surely, no time
or place could be more fitly chosen than this for
lifting up the soul to the realms beyond seas. I could
not but participate with these worshipers in what was so
grandly beautiful. There was no music save the solemn
moan of the waves as they broke into foam on the beach.
But where shall we find so mighty an organ, or so grand
an anthem? How inexpressibly sublime the scene appeared
to me and how insignificant and unworthy of the unknown
seemed even our cathedrals made with human hands, when
compared with this looking up through nature unto
natures God! I stood and drank in the serene happiness,
which seemed to fill the air. I have seen many modes and
forms of worship – some disgusting, others saddening, a
few elevating when the organ pealed forth its tones, but
all poor in comparison with this. Nor do I expect in all
my life to witness a religious ceremony which will so
powerfully affect me as that of the Parsees on the beach
of Bombay.”
Zoroastrianism’s influence on other religions
It is an accepted fact that the religion of Zarathushtra
has had a profound impact and influence on every other
major religion. Starting with the Cult of Fire and
ending with individual accountability leading to the
judgment of the soul and the after-life, Zoroastrianism
influenced Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Its
influence on Buddhism and through Buddhism on
Confucianism also cannot be ignored.
Prior to the Babylonian captivity, pre-Exilic Judaism
had no concept of heaven or hell. According to the
religion of Moses, souls stayed in a dreary place called
“Sheol” for eternity. There are even questions about
just how monotheistic Judaism really was. These concepts
dramatically changed in post-Exilic Judaism.
The freeing of the Hebrews from the Babylonian Captivity
by the Edict of Cyrus in 538 BC, which allowed the Jews
to take the gold and silver vessels back to Jerusalem
and rebuild the Temple, is forever immortalized in the
Old Testament Book of Isaiah. “Thus says the Lord to his
anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to
subdue nations before him, and ungird the loins of
kings, to open doors before him, that gates may not be
closed. I will go before you and level the mountains, I
will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut asunder
the bars of iron, and the hoards in secret places, that
you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel,
who call you by your name.” This freedom of the Jews
from the Babylonian exile was the start of five
centuries of close contact between Judaism and
Zoroastrianism.
As Boyce puts it, “Isaiah celebrates Yahweh for the
first time in Jewish literature as Creator, as Ahura
Mazda had been celebrated by Zarathushtra: “I, Yahweh,
who created all things...I made the earth and created
man on it…Let the skies rain down justice…I Yahweh have
created it.” The parallels with Zoroastrian doctrine and
scripture are so striking that these verses have been
taken to represent the first imprint of that influence
which Zoroastrianism was to exert so powerfully on
post-Exilic Judaism.”
Of the Hellenistic age, Boyce goes on to say, “Every
inch of territory conquered by the Macedonian Alexander
had been held before him by the Achaemenians, so that
wherever Hellenistic culture established itself in his
wake, it was on soil where Persians had been living, as
members of the ruling people, for generations, and where
accordingly their religion had long been represented.”
She further states that, “The respect felt for
Zarathushtra by certain Greeks, notably those of the
Platonic school, and the keen interest in the study of
the heavens in Hellenistic times, combined to make
Zarathushtra a much revered figure.”
Let us consider the influence of Zoroastrianism on
Christianity. In the words of John Hinnels, “In the
decades immediately prior to the birth of Jesus,
Zoroastrianism was not a distant or shadowy presence,
but the world’s most powerful religion.” The Christian
belief in the devil, heaven, hell, the end of the world,
the resurrection of the dead and the final judgment, are
not just reminiscent of Zoroastrian beliefs, they have
been taken directly from Zoroastrian scriptures. As
Lawrence Mills puts it, “The now undoubted and long
since suspected fact that it pleased the divine power to
reveal some of the most important articles of our
Catholic creed first to the Zoroastrians, and through
their literature to the Jews and ourselves.”
From the time of Jesus’ birth, when the Magi visited the
Christ child, there are direct links between
Christianity and Zoroastrianism. It is now commonly
agreed that the Magi were Zoroastrian, and one of the
Magi, Casper or Gasper, has been identified as
Gandopharnes, King of Gandhara.
The fact that Easter Sunday, the holiest day of the
Christian faith, commemorates the resurrection of
Christ, and that too on the dawn of the third day after
the crucifixion, is directly reminiscent of our own
scriptural teachings.
In the year 245 AD, the Emperor Diocletian proclaimed
that henceforth Mithra would be the guardian of the
Roman Empire. For the next nine decades, until
Constantine received baptism shortly before his death in
337 AD, Mithraism was by far the most prevalent
religious belief in the world. It is said that
Constantine very seriously considered conversion to
Mithraism and the adoption of Zoroastrianism as the
state religion of the Byzantine Empire. Unfortunately,
however, Constantine was not prepared to accept the
Zoroastrian tenet that every individual is responsible
for his own actions and will meet his corresponding
reward in the hereafter. Having lived a sinful and evil
life, he wanted full pardon and forgiveness for his
sins, which he could get by accepting baptism and the
last rites, and therefore he chose Christianity over
Zoroastrianism.
However, Zoroastrianism, through Mithraism, left its
final impact on Christianity. December 25th, was the day
celebrated in Mithraism as the day of the winter
solstice and the day of the rebirth of the sun. In the
fifth century, the Council of Nicaea, in an act
reminiscent of the religious and political accommodation
of the Achaemenians, decreed this day to be celebrated
as the birth day of Jesus. And so, truly, Christmas Day
is a Zoroastrian celebration!
From then on, Zoroastrianism entered into its waning
years, its adherents being persecuted by the descendants
of Constantine and finally entered its twilight, when
the Sassanian Empire fell to the forces of Omar in the
seventh century.
That, however, was not the end of Zoroastrian influence.
Mithraism continued to flourish in Italy, Germany and
England, before militant Christian converts forced it
into obscurity.
Medieval Christianity, as practiced in the Balkans, and
from there moved to France and Spain, is full of
instances where the Catholic Church suppressed
Zoroastrian beliefs which had crept into the practice of
Christianity. The Magyars of Hungary (the Sakas of the
Persepolis inscriptions) were believed to practice a
form of Zoroastrianism. The Bogomils of Yugoslavia and
the Cathars of Central France believed, among other
things, that God was not omnipotent and that there was
an equal power of evil which God would eventually defeat
and make the world good again. These beliefs, which were
considered heretical by the Catholic Church, were
finally stamped out when the Albigensian Crusades put an
end to the very existence of the Cathars.
Coming to Islam, there has always been a long Iranian
tradition and belief that the Zoroastrian priest, Dastur
Dinyar, who was exiled by Yazdegird, adopted the name of
Salman-e-Pars, and came into close contact with
Mohammed. The Iranian tradition goes so far as to say
that it was Salman-e-Pars who was the true author of the
Quran. It should be noted that the original Quran
started with the words: “Allah is great and Mohammed is
his Prophet. I Mohammed am Salman and Salman is
Mohammed”. Note the word “Musulman” which translates as
I, Salman.
The Sufi school of Islam is so close to Zoroastrianism
that Jalal-ud-Din Rumi, the foremost Sufi of his day,
openly said that Islam should bow to the shining sun (a
veiled reference to Zoroastrianism) rather than to the
crescent moon, a sentiment for which he was tortured and
eventually executed.
Hinnels, in his treatise on Zoroastrianism, says “To
Hinduism and Buddhism it is said to have given the
belief of a savior to come. But it is Judaism,
Christianity and Islam which owe the most to
Zoroastrianism. Beliefs in a devil, heaven, hell, the
end of the world, the resurrection of the dead and the
final judgment, all these are thought to have developed
in Jewish, Christian and Muslim thought as a result of
Zoroastrian influence. Perhaps no other religion has
influenced so many people in so many continents over so
many centuries.”
We have come a long way since James Darmesteter wrote
over a century ago that “As the Parsis are the ruins of
a people, so are their sacred books the ruins of a
religion.” Western scholars continue to shed light on
the religion of Zarathushtra and acknowledge the debt
owed to Zoroastrianism by every other major religion.
Unfortunately, our own community perversely continues to
languish in ignorance of our own religion. I would say
in conclusion, therefore, that it is up to us to ensure
that our own co-religionists, especially the younger
generation, get to know the glory, and truly appreciate
the grandeur, of our religion. We must strive and
endeavor to enlighten the western societies in which we
have made our homes, about who and what we are, so that
the religion of Zarathushtra can become better known and
take its rightful place as the earliest of the revealed
religions of the world.
