AVESTAN
GEOGRAPHY
Avestan
geography is the compilation of the geographical references in the
Avesta (the primary collection of Zoroastrian religious texts) which
are limited to the regions on the eastern Iranian Plateau up to
Indo-Iranian border. It was common among the Indo-Iranians to identify
concepts or features of traditional cosmography—mountains,
lakes, rivers, etc.—with their concrete historical and geographical
situation as they migrated and settled in various places.
Vendidad
references :
The main Avestan text of geographical interest is the first chapter
of the Videvdad. This consists of a list of sixteen districts (asah-
and šoiora-) created by Ahura Mazda and threatened by a corresponding
number of counter-creations that Angra Mainyu set up against them
(paityara-).
The
list is as follows :
1.
Airyana Vaejah :
The homeland of Zoroaster and Zoroastrianism, near the provinces
of Sogdiana, Margiana, Bactria, etc., listed immediately after it.
The historical location of Airyanem Vaejah is still uncertain, but
according to the Harvard University scholar Michael Witzel, Airyanem
Vaejah lies at the center of the sixteen lands, to be exact in what
are now the central Afghan highlands (around modern Bamyan Province).
Historians such as Walter Bruno Henning, Henrik Samuel Nyberg, Walther
Hinz, and Mary Boyce believe this location is Chorasmia or northeast
Iran around Aral sea and Oxus river. The fact that Airyana Vaejah
is situated in a mountainous region explains its severe climate
(Vd. 1.2.3) better than does its supposed location in Chorasmia
Although the Pahlavi and Sassanid book introduced Airyanem Vaejah
in around Azerbaijan and Some historians also believe the location
of Airyanem Vaejah is Azerbaijan, in around Caucasus such as : James
Darmesteter, Ernst Herzfeld, Ebrahim Pourdavoud, Johannes Hertel
According to Skjærvø, and Gnoli it was situated between
the Helmand River and the Hindu Kush Mountains;
2. Gava : Sogdiana;
3. Mouru : Margiana;
4. Baxdi : Bactria;
5. Nisaya :
A district between Margiana and Bactria, most historians believe
this location is Nisa modern day south of Turkmenistan. some believe
Neyshabur. perhaps Maimana;
6. Haroiva : Aria, Herat
7. Vaekereta : Gandhara;
8. Urva :
The exact location of Urva is unknown, some claim Ghazni; Darmesteter
believed it to be Urgench in modern day Uzbekistan. Edward Granville
Browne believed it to be Tus in Khorasan Province of Iran. (Vandid,
darmesteter Page 68)
9. Xnenta :
La region defined as vehrkano.šayana- ”the dwelling place
of the Vehrkana,” where Marquart placed the Barkánioi
of Ctesias, an ethnicon analogous with that of Old Persian Varkana,
the inhabitants of Hyrcania, the present Gorgan or, less probably,
Hyrcania;
10. Haraxvaiti : Arachosia
11. Haetumant :
The region of Helmand River roughly corresponding to the Achaemenian
Drangiana (Zranka);
12. Raya or Raga :
Location is modern day in Rey in Tehran province, to be distinguished,
given its position in the list from Median Raga and probably also
from Raya zaraouštri- of Yashts 19.18;
13. Caxra :
Locations is still uncertain, but darmesteter, dehkhoda, Hassan
Pirnia believe the location is Shahrud Carx between Ghazni and Kabul,
in the valley of Logar, not Mazandaran, as Christensen thought;
14. Varena :
Most of historian bilives location is Gilan. also Buner, the Varnu
of the Mahamayuri, the 'Aornos of Alexander the Great, the homeland
of FerOraetaona/Fredon/Afridun;
15. Hapta Hindu : Sanskrit Sapta Sindhu, the area
of Panjab.
16. Ranha :
Rasa in Vedic geography, at times mentioned together with Kubha
(Kabul) and Krumu (Kurram), a river situated in a mountainous area,
probably connected with the Indus River, not with the Jaxartes or
with the Volga.
One of the old, thorny problems in studies on Avestan geography
is represented by Airyana Vaejah (Pahlavi: Eranwez), "the area
of the Aryans" and first of the sixteen districts in Vd. 1,
the original name of which was airyanem vaejo vanhuya daityaya,
"the Aryan extension of Vanuhi Daitya", where Vabuhi Daitya
"the good Daitya" is the name of a river connected with
the religious "law" (data-). The concept of Airyana Vaejah
is not equivalent to that of airyo.šayana- in Yt. 10.13, or
to the group of airya dain´hava "the Aryan lands"
which is recurrent in the yashts; this, in fact, refers to just
one of the Aryan lands, as the first chapter of the Videvdad clearly
shows. It does not designate "the traditional homeland"
or "the ancient homeland" of the Iranians. These definitions
perpetuate old interpretations of the Airyana Vaejah as "Urheimat
des Awestavolkes", "Urland" of the Indo-Iranians
(F. Spiegel, Die arische Periode und ihre Zustände, Leipzig,
1887, p. 123), "Wiege aller iranischen Arier" (J. von
Prášek, Geschichte der Meder und Perser bis zur makedonischen
Eroberung I, Gotha, 1906, p. 29), drawing from the texts more than
the contents really warrant. Airyana Vaejah is only the homeland
of Zoroaster and of Zoroastrianism. According to Zoroastrian tradition
Eranwez is situated at the center of the world; on the shores of
its river, Weh Daiti (Av. Vanuhi Daitya), there were created the
gaw i ew-dad (Av. gav aevo.data) "uniquely created bull"
and Gayomard (Av. Gayo.maretan) "mortal life," the first
man; there rises the Chagad i Daidig, the "lawful Summit,"
the Peak of Hara, in Avestan also called hukairya "of good
activity"; the Chinvat Bridge is there, and there too, Yima
and Zoroaster became famous. Taken all together, these data show
that Zoroastrianism superimposed the concept of Airyana Vaejah onto
the traditional one of a center of the world where the Peak of Hara
rises. The fact that Airyana Vaejah is situated in a mountainous
region explains its severe climate (Vd. 1.2.3) better than does
its supposed location in Chorasmia (Markwart, Eranshahr, p. 155).
This is not surprising if we consider the analogy between the Iranian
concept of the peak of Hara with the Indian one of Mount Meru or
Sumeru. The Manicheans identified Aryan-waižan with the region
at the foot of Mount Sumeru that Wishtasp reigned over, and the
Khotanese texts record the identification of Mount Sumeru in Buddhist
mythology with the Peak of Hara (ttaira haraysä) in the Avestan
tradition. All this leads us to suppose that the concept of Airyana
Vaejah was an invention of Zoroastrianism which gave a new guise
to a traditional idea of Indo-Iranian cosmography.
Yasht
references :
There is further geographical interest to be found in another passage
from the Avesta Yasht 10.13–14, where the whole region inhabited
by the Aryans (airyo.šayana-) is described. The description
begins with Mount Hara, the peak of which is reached by Mithra as
he precedes the immortal sun and looked at the Aryan homeland.
Like
the Mihr Yasht, the Farvardin Yasht also contains some passages
of use in the reconstruction of Avestan geography, in particular
Yt. 13.125 and Yt. 13.127, where some characters are mentioned because
of their venerable fravashi.it should be born in mind that the character
related to the land of Apaxshira, Parshat.gav, may be connected
with a Sistani tradition and that the passage in Yt. 13.125 is dedicated
to the fravashi of members of the family of Saena, the son of Ahum.stut,
who also had connections with Sistan.
The
Zamyad Yasht, dedicated to Xvarenah, is of very great importance
for Avestan geography as it provides a surprisingly well-detailed
description of the hydrography of the Helmand region, in particular
of Hamun-e Helmand. In Yt. 19.66–77 nine rivers an [clarification
needed] mentioned: Xeastra, Hvaspa, FradaOa, Xvarenahvaiti, Uštavaiti,
Urvada, Erezi, Zurenumaiti, and Haetumant; six of these are known
from the Tarikh-e Sistan. Other features of Sistani geography recur
in the same yasht, like the Kasaoya lake (Pahlavi Kayansih) or Mount
Uši.’am (Kuh-e Khvaja), both closely bound up with Zoroastrian
eschatology, so that with the help of comparisons with Pahlavi and
classical sources, mainly Pliny and Ptolemy, we can conclude that
the Zamyad Yasht describes Sistan with great care and attention.
In Avestan geography no other region has received such treatment.
There is an echo of Sistan’s importance in Avestan geography
in the brief Pahlavi treatise Abdih ud sahigih i Sagastan.
Yet
another reference to Sistan is to be found it another passage of
the great yashts, Yt. 5.108, in which Kavi Vištaspa, prince
and patron of Zoroaster, is represented in the act of making sacrifice
to Aredvi Sura Anahita near Frazdanu, the Frazdan of Pahlavi literature,
that is, one of the wonders of Sistan; it can probably be identified
with Gowd-e Zera.
Conclusion
:
If we compare the first chapter of the Videvdad with the passages
of geographical interest that we come across mainly in the great
yashts, we can conclude that the geographical area of Avesta was
dominated by the Hindu Kush range at the northeast, the western
boundary being marked by the districts of Rey, possibly gilan =
Varena and Alborz mountains. The Margiana, Hyrcania, Areia, and
Drangiana in central, the eastern one by the Indo-Iranian frontier
regions such as Gandhara, Buner, the land of the “Seven Rivers.”
Sogdiana and, possibly, Chorasmia (which, however, is at the extreme
limits) mark the boundary to the north, Sistan and Baluchistan to
the south.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avestan_geography
