Gatha (Zoroaster)

The Gathas (ˈgɑːtəz,_-tɑːz) are 17 Avestan hymns traditionally believed to have been composed by the prophet Zarathushtra (Zoroaster). They form the core of the Zoroastrian liturgy (the Yasna). They are arranged in five different modes or metres. The Avestan term gāθā (𐬔𐬁𐬚𐬁 "hymn", but also "mode, metre") is cognate with Sanskrit gāthā (गाथा), both from the Proto-Indo-Iranian word *gaHtháH, from the root *gaH- "to sing". The Gathas are in verse, metrical in the nature of ancient Iranian religious poetry, that is extremely terse. The 17 hymns of the Gathas consist of 238 stanzas, of about 1300 lines or 6000 words in total. They were later incorporated into the 72-chapter Yasna (chapter: ha or had, from the Avestan ha'iti, 'cut'), that in turn is the primary liturgical collection of texts within the greater compendium of the Avesta. The 17 hymns are identified by their chapter numbers in the Yasna, and are divided into five major sections: With the exception of Ahunavaiti Gatha, that is named after the Ahuna Vairya prayer (Yasna 27, not in the Gathas), the names of the Gathas reflect the first word(s) of the first hymn within them. The meter of the hymns is historically related to the Vedic tristubh-jagati family of meters. Hymns of these meters are recited, not sung. The sequential order of the Gathas is structurally interrupted by the Yasna Haptanghaiti ("seven-chapter Yasna", chapters 35–41, linguistically as old as the Gathas but in prose) and by two other minor hymns at Yasna 42 and 52. The language of the Gathas, Gathic or Old Avestan, belongs to the old Iranian language group that is a sub-group of Eastern families of the Indo-European languages. The dependency on Vedic Sanskrit is a significant weakness in the interpretation of the Gathas, as the two languages, though from a common origin, had developed independently. Sassanid era translations and commentaries (the Zend) have been used to interpret the Gathas, but by the 3rd century the Avestan language was virtually extinct, and a dependency on the medieval texts is often discouraged as the commentaries are frequently conjectural.

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Iranian languages

The Iranian languages, also called Iranic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian languages are grouped in three stages: Old Iranian (until 400 BCE), Middle Iranian (400 BCE – 900 CE) and New Iranian (since 900 CE). The two directly-attested Old Iranian languages are Old Persian (from the Achaemenid Empire) and Old Avestan (the language of the Avesta).

Sasanian Empire

The Sasanian Empire (səˈsɑːniən,_səˈseɪniən), officially known as Eranshahr ("Land/Empire of the Iranians"), was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th–8th centuries AD. Named after the House of Sasan, it endured for over four centuries, from 224 to 651 AD, making it the longest-lived Persian imperial dynasty. The Sasanian Empire succeeded the Parthian Empire, and re-established the Persians as a major power in late antiquity alongside its neighbouring arch-rival, the Roman Empire (after 395 the Byzantine Empire).

Gatha (Zoroaster)

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