Two classic articles
Antonio Panaino, "Gli Yašt dell'Avesta: metodi e prospettive", ATTI del Glottologico Milanese 30 [1989], Milan, 1992, 159-184.
Prods Oktor Skjaervø, "Hymnic composition in the Avesta", Die Sprache 36, 1994, 199-243.
Panaino summarizes the problematic of the Yašts. Skjaervø, for his part, argues against two hypotheses: 1. he rejects the notion that a text is long, ancient, correct and beautiful; 2. the Yašts are homogeneous texts, and each Yašt would pass through a series of common motifs. However, this second point is not convincing, as the proposed themes are too general to be valid.
The publishing movement
The 1990s saw a movement to publish Yašts, which soon came to a halt:
Antonio Panaino, Tištrya. Part. I. The Avestan Hymn to Sirius, Rome, 1990; Tištrya. Part. II. The Iranian Myth of the Sirius, Rome, 1995.
Éric Pirart, Kayān Yašt (Yašt 19. 9-96), L'origine avestique des dynasties mythiques d'Iran (= Aula Orientalis Supplementa 2), Barcelona, 1992.
Almut Hintze, Der Zamyād-Yašt. Edition, Übersetzung, Kommentar, Wiesbaden, 1994.
Helmut Humbach and Pallan R. Ichaporia, Zamyād Yašt. Yasht 19 of the Younger Avesta. Text, Translation, Commentary, Wiesbaden, 1998.
Re-examination of the Yašts: literary aspect
The re-examination focused on the literary aspect, in particular the question of the literary homogeneity of the texts.
Jean Kellens, "De la naissance des montagnes à la fin du temps : le Yašt 19", Annuaire du Collège de France 1997-1998, 1998, 737-765.
"Promenade dans les Yašts à la lumière des travaux récents", Annuaire du Collège de France 1998-1999, 1999, 685-705.
"Promenade dans les Yašts à la lumière des travaux récents (suite)", Annuaire du Collège de France 1999-2000, 2000, 721-751.
Yašt 8 contains four passages that tell the same story in varying degrees of detail. The star Tištriia takes possession of the celestial reservoir of Waters, with the ultimate aim of distributing rain.
Yašt 19 is dedicated to the possession of xvarǝnah, a special fluid that enables various characters to fulfill their historical roles. But the first eight stanzas are a catalog of mountains, which has nothing to do with xvarǝnah.
Distinction between yasna and frašna
Genre yasna : the text consists of a sacrifice, which is an act of speech for us(yazamaide "we offer sacrifice" to a deity [accusative]). Y57 is the only pure yasna.
Genre frašna "interrogation": this is a conversation, most often between Ahura Madā and Zaraθuštra with a question-and-answer game. Ahura Mazdā's response is a recommendation that moves between advice and order, corresponding to the genre dāta "practical disposition, prescription" (cf. Yt5 in Anāhitā).
A mixture of these two genres can be seen in the Yašts. This mix can be seen in Yt8, which comprises, as we have seen, four parts breaking down into three yasna and one frašna. Yt 19, on the other hand, begins with a narrative frašna with the mountains, then comes the yasna text about the xvarǝnah.
