The intercalation of the Hāδōxt Nask

1. The four formulas

"Formula" is more appropriate than "sacred prayer" (ang. holy prayer, all. heilig Gebet), the term usually used. There are four: the Ahuna Vairiia (AV), the Aṣ̌ǝm Vohū (AVo), the Yeŋ́he Hātąm (YH) and the Airiiaman Išiia (AI), placed in Geldner's edition at Y27.13 Y27.14, Y27.15 and Y54.1 respectively.

Differences between Old Avestic and Late Avestic

How do we decide whether a text is Old-Avestic or Late-Avestic? Are the four formulas part of the Old Avesta or the Late Avesta?

a) Two formal criteria for Old Avesta

a. systematic lengthening of final vowels ;

b. preservation of intervocalic sound occluders (v.av. dadāt̰ and av. rec. daδāt̰) ;

but these criteria cannot be retained, not least because they are imitable. If we applied them, all the formulas would be old-avestic.

b) Two linguistic criteria for Old-Avestic

a. preservation of the aorist (e.g. dadāt̰ opposite the aor. inj. dāt̰);

b. enclitic forms of^1st and^2nd pers. plural pronouns (^1st pl.: v.av. acc. nå and gen.-dat. nǝ̄, but av. rec. acc.-gén.-dat. nō) ;

So the AI is old-avestic since it contains three aorists. As for the YH, it's an adaptation of Y51.22 in late-Avestic.

c) Metrics

a. The AV has the same structure (3 verses of 7 + 9 syllables) as the first Gāθā (Y28-34);

b. The AI has the same structure (2 verses of 7 + 5 syllables, then 2 verses of 7 + 7 + 5 syllables) as the last Gāθā (Y53);

The first and last stanzas of the gāthic corpus are therefore highlighted.

Their place: a dubious position in the corpus

AVo and YH occupy stanzas 14 and 15 of Y27 only in exegetical manuscripts (e.g. 500_J2, 510_K5, 400_Pt4). The YH has no precise place; it is a punctuation formula. As for the AVo, its place in the liturgical cursus is Y11.19. However, the AVo follows the AV in the case of the intercalation of the Hāδōxt Nask (HN), the first chapter of which is itself a commentary on the AVo.

2. Lexical configurations when intercalating the Hāδōxt Nask

Ašǝ̣m vohū

[1] Y27.14: Good Aṣ̌a is very good, "uštā" is "uštā" for it, which means that Aṣ̌a is for very good Aṣ̌a

HN1: catalog on the variable values of reciting the AVo: "at the final/supreme turning point in life": the recitation before dying has the most value.

Y43.1: stanza recited by the soul during the three nights following death: "Happiness to him, whoever he may be, whose wish the Master Mazdā, who can, grants! I wish to attain youth and tone, to hold Harmony. Give me this gift, O Deference: may the life of divine Thought be for me a grant of wealth" (Kellens-Pirart, TVA I).

Y50.10c': mention of the sun: "the lights of the sun"

Y 51.6c': reference to the final recitation of the AVo in HN1: "at the final turn of the state-of-existence"

Y 51.7bc: appearance of the four entities of immortality: O Mazdā, you who have carved the cow, the waters and the plants, give me, at the time of the utterance-sǝ̄ṇgha, immortality and health through the very faste mainiiu, strength and youth through good Thought!

Y 51.8b'c: lexical elements relating to Y43.1 and HN1: (Zaraθuštra:) For I will tell you, O Mazdā - to the learned may one speak! -that it is misfortune for the deceiver, happiness for the one who has always upheld the Arrangement - the reciter of formulas is at peace if he speaks to the scholar!

Y 51.12a': only mention of the winter bridge: "au pont de l'hiver" ("at the winter bridge")

Y 51.13bb': mention of the bridge that provides access to the afterlife: "The daēnā of the deceiver neglects the reality of the direct (path), (deceiver) his uruuan angers before the mason's bridge, for, through the fault of his deeds and (the words) of his tongue, he has now lost the way to the Arrangement".

Y 51.15b: Ahura Mazdā welcomes the soul of the dead "Now that Zaraθuštra has denied the magauuans the prize of victory, Ahura Mazdā comes first to the house of welcome. These (...) are entrusted to you and Aṣ̌a with good Thought, along with the powers-sauua ".

Y 51.16c': Vīštāspa has an enlightenment: "may (the text) uštā be recited by us!"

Y 51.17a'b: Fǝrašaoštra shows the body to the good daēnā, which will settle from this stanza throughout the end of the gāthic corpus: "Fǝrašaoštra son of Hugu shows the form I admire to the good daēnā. May Ahura Mazdā be able to provide it with the power-īš, so that it reaches the lair of the Agency!"

Y 51.18: only Old-Avestic attestation of ^xvarǝnah

Y 51.19b: one must find the state-of-existence by means of the daēnā: "finding the state-of-existence through its daēnā "

Y 51.20b: only attestation of AVo

Y53: Gāθā of Pourucistā's marriage, which prefigures the marriage of daēnā and soul

HN2: recounts the process that the Gāθā itself seems to evoke through many of its lexical elements.

The intercalation of the HN may be envisaged as a funeral rite.

Y60.6, Y62.1 and Y68.14 have one expression in common: hubǝrǝti-"the good offering", ušta.bǝrǝti- "the desirable offering" and vaṇta.bǝrǝti-"the charming offering", but if we think that ušta is the first word of Y43 and vaṇta the last word of Y51, we could translate: "the offering that begins with the word ušta (i.e. that begins with Y43), the offering that ends with the word vaṇta (i.e. that ends with Y51)". Is this a clue to think that when we inserted the AVo into the text for the HN, we started with Y43.1 and ended with Y51?