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Concept
Yazata
Summary
Yazata (𐬫𐬀𐬰𐬀𐬙𐬀) is the Avestan word for a Zoroastrian concept with a wide range of meanings but generally signifying (or used as an epithet of) a divinity. The term literally means "worthy of worship or veneration", and is thus, in this more general sense, also applied to certain healing plants, primordial creatures, the fravashis of the dead, and to certain prayers that are themselves considered holy. The yazatas collectively are "the good powers under Ahura Mazda", who is "the greatest of the yazatas".
Yazata is an Avestan-language passive adjectival participle derived from yaz-; "to worship, to honor, to venerate", from Proto-Indo-European *yeh2ǵ- (“to worship, revere, sacrifice”). The word yasna or yagna– "worship, sacrifice, oblation, prayer" – comes from the same root. A yaza+ ta is accordingly "a being worthy of worship", "an object of worship" or "a holy being".
As the stem form, yazata- has the inflected nominative forms yazatō (𐬫𐬀𐬰𐬀𐬙𐬋), pl. yazatåŋhō (𐬫𐬀𐬰𐬀𐬙𐬂𐬢𐬵𐬋). These forms reflect Proto-Iranian *yazatah and pl. *yazatāhah. In Middle Persian the term became yazad or yazd (𐭩𐭦𐭲𐭩), pl. yazdān, continuing in New Persian as izad (ایزد).
Related terms in other languages are Sanskrit यजति (yájati, meaning "he worships, he sacrifices"), यजत (yajatá-, "worthy of worship, holy"), यज्ञ (yajñá, "sacrifice"), and perhaps also Greek ἅγιος (hagios, "devoted to the gods, sacred, holy").
The term yazata is already used in the Gathas, the oldest texts of Zoroastrianism and believed to have been composed by Zarathustra himself. In these hymns, yazata is used as a generic, applied to Ahura Mazda as well as to the "divine sparks" that are in later tradition the Amesha Spentas. In the Gathas, the yazatas are effectively what the daevas are not; that is, the yazatas are to be worshipped while the daevas are to be rejected.
The Gathas also collectively invoke the yazatas without providing a clue as to which entities are being invoked, and—given the structure and language of the hymns—it is generally not possible to determine whether these yazatas are abstract concepts or are manifest entities.
Official source
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