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Concept
Avestan geography
Résumé
Avestan geography refers to the investigation of place names in the Avesta and the attempt to connect them to real-world geographical sites. It is therefore different from the cosmogony expressed in the Avesta, where place names refer to mythical events or a cosmological order.
Identifying such connections is important for localizing the people of the Avesta and is therefore crucial for understanding the early history of Zoroastrianism and the Iranian peoples. Sources for such geographical references are exclusively found in the younger Avestan portion of the text, in particular in the Vendidad and several of the Yashts. The identification of these Avestan place names with real locations is often supported by comparisons with references made in later Iranian sources.
A major challenge to establish these connections is the fact that the Iranian people often used the same name for different places. As a result, not all Avestan place names can be identified with certainty with present-day locations and therefore remain subject to debate. Modern scholarship, however, agrees that the place names in the Avesta are concentrated in the eastern regions of Greater Iran up to the Indo-Iranian border.
The main Avestan text of geographical interest is the first chapter of the Vendidad (vi.daēwa.dāta, 'The Law repudiating the Deavas'). It consists of a list of the sixteen good lands (asah) and countries (šōiθra) created by Ahura Mazda. Each country is introduced with a verse describing its Ohrmazdian characteristic, followed by one describing the corresponding counter-creation (paityāra) by Angra Mainyu. The only exceptions are the first and eleventh country on the list where two verses explain its Ahrimanic counter-creation:
The first of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the Airyanem Vaejah, by the good river Daitya.
Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created the serpent in the river and winter, a work of the Deavas.
Source officielle
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