Tag: Agni

Iran was  apart of Hindu Empire during the Vedic Period.

This continued to be so till Vikramaditya’s period.

The customs and cultural behaviour of the Zoroastrians  indicate the Vedic roots of Zoroastrianism.

A treaty signed by the Hittites and Mitannis dating to the fourteenth century BC calls upon Indara/Indra, Mitras(il)/Mitra, Nasatianna/Nasatya and Uruvanass(il)/Varuna, all known to Rig-Veda and Avesta.

Hittites and Mitannis were from North Syria.

I had posted articles about the Vedic /Tamil origin of these people.

Though there are similarities  the roles of the Devas seem to have been reversed.

(haoma (soma), daha(dasa), hepta (sapta), hindu (sindhu), and Ahura (Asura) in Avesta)

Indra and the devas  are demonic in Avesta,and Ahura/asura is considered the highest deity.

“At the time of composition of the Vedas, Varuna was losing his importance to Indra. In Avesta, Ahura Mazda  is the main divinity and some people think that he is thesame as Varuna. Varuna sat with his spies who flew all around the world and bought back reports on the conduct of mortals. He abhorred sin and loathed evil deeds prompted by anger, drink and gambling.”

Probably a sect left on this issue and had a role in this difference.

Rig Veda is dated around 5000 BC while Avesta is dated around 1000 BC.

The Chief God worshiped in the Vedas is Agni,Fire.

Zoroastrians are Fire worshipers.

Another important connection is Upanayana ceremony which is the primary duty of a Hindu.

Zoroastrians have a similar Ceremony  ‘Navjote’

‘The Navjote^{[pronunciation?]} (Persian: سدره‌پوشی, Sedreh pushi‎) ceremony is the ritual through which an individual is inducted into theZoroastrian religion and begins to wear the Sedreh and Kushti. The term navjote is used primarily by the Zoroastrians of India (theParsis), while sedreh pushi is used primarily by the Zoroastrians of Iran. Zoroastrians from Pakistan consisting of both Parsis andIranis use both terms…

Although there is no upper limit to the age of the individual for which the ceremony takes place, in common practice it occurs before a girl or boy reaches maturity. Under no circumstances is it permitted to be done for a child less than seven years of age since the child at that age range cannot comprehend the significance of the event.

In Vendidad 18.54, individuals above the age of 15 (once considered the age at which one attained adulthood) who are not yet been invested are said to be likely to fall into evil ways. In the 9th-12th century texts of Zoroastrian tradition, the same group are said to bekushad davarashni, literally “running about improperly clothed”. So for instance Menog-i Khrad 2.35 and the Book of Arda Viraf(25.6.10). The latter considers such a thing to be a service to demons (the daevas). Other texts of tradition that define adulthood as the boundary include the Sad-dar 10.1 and Shayast na-Shayast 10.13. ,.

The ceremony is traditionally the first time a Zoroastrian wears the sedreh undershirt and kushti belt, which they then continue to wear for the rest of their life. The sacred clothing signifies parental responsibility as well as responsibility for the one who is undergoing this ceremony. When the child wears the sacred clothes, it means the parents are now obligated to morally and religiously educate the child. If the child commits a wrongful act, it is their responsibility, as they may also take some pride in themselves when their child commits a righteous act. The sacred thread and shirt also teach the child responsibility, as they are to be untied before certain practices, such as prayer, bathing, and before meals, and re-tied shortly after the task is completed.

The shirt has a construction extremely specific to this culture.

Upanayana of Hinduism.

Upanayana is an important Samskara, duty of a Hindu.

The three Varnas, Brahmana, Kshatriya and Vaisya must have this performed.

Read my posts on Samskaras.

The wearing of the sacred thread opens the inner eye.

One becomes a Dwija, born for the second time.

The Upaveeda must remain clean.

It has to be changed periodically.

It is also changed for special occasions like Marriages,Homas,Poojas,Apara Kriyas.(https://ramanisblog.in/2014/10/17/yagnopaveeda-dharana-mantra-poonal/)

Zoroastrianism.

Zoroastrianism was founded by the Prophet Zoroaster (or Zarathustra) in ancient Iran. The precise date of the founding of Zoroastrianism is uncertain. An approximate date of 1500–1200 BCE has been established through archaeological evidence and linguistic comparisons with the Hindu text Rig Veda. However there is no way of knowing exactly when Zoroaster lived, as he lived in what, to his people, were prehistoric times. Depending on different approaches, it is thought that he lived some time between 1700 BCE to 500 BCE .Zoroaster was born in either Northeast Iran or Southwest Afghanistan. He was born into a Bronze Age culture with a polytheistic religion, which included animal sacrifice and the ritual use of intoxicants. This religion was quite similar to the early forms of Hinduism in India. The name Zoroaster is a Greek rendering of the nameZarathustra. He is known as Zartosht and Zardosht in Persian and Zaratosht in Gujarati. Zoroaster’s birth and early life are little documented. What is known is recorded in theGathas—the core of the Avesta, which contains hymns thought to be composed by Zoroaster himself. Born into the Spitama clan, he worked as a priest. He had a wife, three sons, and three daughters. Zoroaster rejected the religion of the Bronze Age Iranians, with their many gods and oppressive class structure, in which the Karvis and Karapans(princes and priests) controlled the ordinary people. He also opposed animal sacrifices and the use of the hallucinogenic Haoma plant (possibly a species of ephedra) in rituals, but held the rooster as a “symbol of light”and associated the cock with “good against evil” because of his heraldic actions..

* Cock is associted with Sunbrahmanya.

According to Zoroastrian belief, when Zoroaster was 30 years old, he went into the Daiti river to draw water for a Haoma ceremony; when he emerged, he received a vision ofVohu Manah. After this, Vohu Manah took him to the other six Amesha Spentas, where he received the completion of his vision.^[51] This vision radically transformed his view of the world, and he tried to teach this view to others. Zoroaster believed in one creator God, teaching that only one God was worthy of worship. Furthermore, some of the deities of the old religion, the Daevas (Devas in Sanskrit), appeared to delight in war and strife. Zoroaster said that these were evil spirits and were workers of Angra Mainyu, God’s adversary.

Zoroaster’s ideas did not take off quickly, and, at first, he only had one convert: his cousin Maidhyoimanha.The local religious authorities opposed his ideas. They felt their own faiths, power, and particularly their rituals, were threatened because Zoroaster taught against over-ritualising religious ceremonies. Many ordinary people did not like Zoroaster’s downgrading of the Daevas to evil spirits. After 12 years, Zoroaster left his home to find somewhere more open to new ideas. He found such a place in the country of King Vishtaspa (in Bactria). The King and his queen, Hutosa, heard Zoroaster debating with the religious leaders of his land, and decided to accept Zoroaster’s ideas and make them the official religion of their kingdom. Zoroaster died in his late 70s. Very little is known of the time between Zoroaster and the Achaemenian period, except that, during this period, Zoroastrianism spread to Western Iran. By the time of the founding of the Achaemenid Empire, Zoroastrianism was already a well-established religion.

Humata, Hukhta, Huvarshta (Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds) are the basic tenets of the religion.

In Zoroastrianism, Ahura Mazda is the beginning and the end, the creator of everything that can and cannot be seen, the Eternal, the Pure and the only Truth. In the Gathas, the most sacred texts of Zoroastrianism thought to have been composed by Zoroaster himself, the prophet acknowledged devotion to no other divinity besides Ahura Mazda.

Daena (din in modern Persian) is the eternal Law, whose order was revealed to humanity through the Mathra-Spenta (“Holy Words”).Daena has been used to mean religion, faith, law, and even as a translation for the Hindu and Buddhist term Dharma. The latter is often interpreted as “duty” but can also mean social order, right conduct, or virtue. The metaphor of the “path” of Daena is represented in Zoroastrianism by the muslin undershirt Sudra, the “Good/Holy Path”, and the 72-thread Kushti girdle, the “Pathfinder”.

Daena should not be confused with the fundamental principle asha (Vedic rta), the equitable law of the universe, which governed the life of the ancient Indo-Iranians. For these, asha was the course of everything observable—the motion of the planets and astral bodies; the progression of the seasons; and the pattern of daily nomadic herdsman life, governed by regular metronomic events such as sunrise and sunset. All physical creation (geti) was thus determined to run according to a master plan—inherent to Ahura Mazda—and violations of the order (druj) were violations against creation, and thus violations against Ahura Mazda. This concept of asha versus the druj should not be confused with the good-versus-evil battle evident in western religions, for although both forms of opposition express moral conflict, the asha versus druj concept is more systemic and less personal, representing, for instance, chaos (that opposes order); or “uncreation”, evident as natural decay (that opposes creation); or more simply “the lie” (that opposes truth and righteousness). Moreover, in his role as the one uncreated creator of all, Ahura Mazda is not the creator of druj, which is “nothing”, anti-creation, and thus (likewise) uncreated. Thus, in Zoroaster’s revelation, Ahura Mazda was perceived to be the creator of only the good (Yasna 31.4), the “supreme benevolent providence” (Yasna 43.11), that will ultimately triumph (Yasna 48.1).

In this schema of asha versus druj, mortal beings (both humans and animals) play a critical role, for they too are created. Here, in their lives, they are active participants in the conflict, and it is their duty to defend order, which would decay without counteraction. Throughout the Gathas, Zoroaster emphasizes deeds and actions, and accordingly asceticism is frowned upon in Zoroastrianism. In later Zoroastrianism, this was explained as fleeing from the experiences of life, which was the very purpose that the urvan (most commonly translated as the “soul”) was sent into the mortal world to collect. The avoidance of any aspect of life, which includes the avoidance of the pleasures of life, is a shirking of the responsibility and duty to oneself, one’s urvan, and one’s family and social obligations.

Central to Zoroastrianism is the emphasis on moral choice, to choose the responsibility and duty for which one is in the mortal world, or to give up this duty and so facilitate the work of druj. Similarly, predestination is rejected in Zoroastrian teaching. Humans bear responsibility for all situations they are in, and in the way they act toward one another. Reward, punishment, happiness, and grief all depend on how individuals live their lives.

Reference.

References: Early India by Romila Thapar, The Wonder That Was India by A. L. Basham. See Also: Avestan and Vedic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navjote

Zoroastrianism Wiki.