Summary
A disconcerting amalgam of commonalities, divergences and even symmetrical inversions, the religion of the Veda and that of the Avesta make up a complex set of representations, whose structure can ideally be postulated and progressive development reconstructed by comparison. Clearly, the register of Indian and Iranian representations share a common origin, and bear witness to the polemics that initiated the conceptual movement that led to Indian philosophy on the one hand, and Mazdean philosophy on the other. The existence of the Veda and the Avesta offers those in my field a singular and fascinating opportunity to reconstruct a history that predates history - the comparative method allows us to do so - a history of language and religious conceptions, first and foremost, of course, by the very nature of the texts, but which does not go without providing some insight into more properly historical realities.
