“A state in transition”

In "A state in transition” (Parsiana, October 7, 2010) Dr Touraj Daryaee places the birth of the Prophet Zarathush­tra between 1300 to 600 BC. Since Moses pre-dates 600 BC he would deprive Zoroaster of the distinction of being one of the first monotheistic prophets.

Although there is consensus regarding the sixth day after Navroz being the prophet’s birthday, the year of his birth has been subject to controversy.

Calculations placing Zarathushtra in the 6th century invariably associate Vistaspa of the Gathas with Hystaspa, the Achemenid. A link between Vistaspa and Hystaspa is tenuous since earlier periods from the Peshdadian, Kayanian and Median covering a span from pre 2000 BC to 558 BC are not part of recorded history. Other than the similarity between the names Vistaspa and Hystaspa, the names of all their predecessors and descendants are different. According to Avestan genealogy Zarathushtra lived during the reign of Kai Vistaspa, son of Kai Lohrasp whereas Hystaspa, the Achemenid was son of Arshama.

Furthermore, the language of the Gathas is considerably different from the language prevalent in the Acheme­nian period. Students of comparative philology are struck by the marked closeness between the grammar, meter and style of the Rig Veda and the Gathas. Hari Parsanna Chatterji, an eminent Sanskritist drawing upon philological comparisons and Vedic sources concluded that the Gathas are contemporaneous with the later portions of the Rig Veda. Scholars are almost unanimous that the Rig Veda was completed before Ho-mer’s Iliad which dates the completion of the Gathas to earlier than the 9th century BC.

Dates that place Zarathushtra typically around 1300 BC draw upon the arrival of Indo-Europeans in Iran. Elements of Indo-European origin first appeared in Iran in the second millennium BC and a subsequent wave of invasions occurred at the beginning of the first millennium BC.

The initiation of the Iron Age Period I (1400-1000 BC) saw a major cultural break in Iran with a shift from painted to plain grey wares, both in settlements and as grave accompaniments and is associated with the emergence of the Iranians in western Iran.

If Vistaspa was a Kayanian potentate and not an Achemenid, if the Gathas are contemporaneous with the later portions of the Rig Veda and assuming that the Prophet belonged to the period of Indo-European migrations, then Zarathushtra lived sometime between 1400 and 1000 BC.

To put the period in perspective, Moses led the Israelites from Egypt in the 13th century BC. Amenhotep IV, the Pharaoh of Egypt from 1350 to 1334 BC, ordered the obliteration of all traces of the polytheistic religion of his ancestors and established a religion based on the concept of monotheism.

Monotheism: Aat thwa mengahi pourvim (I recognize Thee O Mazda as the first and the last — Yasna 31:8).

Thou shall have no other Gods before me says the second commandment for the Israelites.

Aten becomes the sole Creator in Egypt.

Brahma is the single reality of the Atharva Veda, the total godhead that defies definition.

It may be concluded that the Iron Age Period I from 1400 to 1000 BC ushered in monotheism — be it Zoroastrian, Jewish, Egyptian or Hindu.

HOMI DADABHOY SOONAWALA

Zoeterwoude, The Netherlands

soon@ziggo.nl