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ZOROASTRIANISM
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We must begin with some background information. If youwould like the explanation for the above graphic click onthe image.About 5000 years ago, i.e. around 3000 B.C.E. a group of people called the Proto Indo-Iranians lived on the SouthRussian Steppes, to the east of the river Volga [Boyce]. TheProto Indo-Iranians believed in a primitive concept of order (called rta in Sanskrit). Theyknew that order existed in the universe because night followed day, the moon waxed andwaned and each year the seasons followed one another.They believed that this law wasguarded by divinities or gods called Asuras, among which Varuna and Mithra were mostpopular. The Proto Indo-Iranians worshiped instinctively and often through fear. For example, when they saw lightning and heard thunder they thought that the gods wereangry at them. For every natural phenomenon such as earthquakes, volcanoes, snowstorms, hurricanes they would make sacrifices of animals and food to their deities inorder to appease them. About a thousand years later i.e. 2000 B.C.E., the Proto Indo-Iranians split into two groups. One group migrated westwards and came to be known astheIranianswhile the other group went east and was known as theVedic Indians or
Vedic Aryans. Because of this common root the early religious scriptures of the Indianand the Iranian have some similarities but after the split each of them developedseparately.The Iranians were mostly nomads, they did not have a fixed place to live, for they herded cattle and would keep moving around in search of fresh pasture and water.Since they lived in the open they worshiped nature and they had a god or goddess for each of the elements of nature, i.e. they believed that one god looked after the sky(Asman), another took care of the Earth (Zam), the third looked after the Moon (Mah) anda goddess called Anahita looked after the waters. They called this whole pantheon of gods and goddesses as Ahuras. The word Ahura comes from the root Ah meaning "tobe", so Ahura can be derived as the Being.The Iranians believed their Ahuras to be verypowerful and their priests called Karapans had many rituals and made sacrifices of animals and plant food to fire and water. Their Ahuras were similar to Asuras of the ProtoIndo-Iranians and of the Rig Vedas. Several hundred years later the Iranians learned theuse of bronze and developed horse drawn chariots. Some Iranians abandoned the task of herding cattle, became warriors and would go from place to place raiding cattle.Theselawless people worshiped the gods of war and were called Daevas.Their priests werecalled Kavis who were very shrewd and practiced black magic. It was during this timesomewhere around 1500 B.C.E. that Zarathushtra/Zoroaster was born. As a young boy hewas interested in nature and wanted to know as to how the world was created. His searchfor creation and the creator lead him to God with who he communed after several yearsof meditation. When he was 30 years old, he introduced a religion known today asZoroastrianism.Zarathushtra was known to the ancient Greeks as Zoroaster and hencehis followers are called Zoroastrians.Some followers who live in India prefer to be calledZarathustis.
Zoroastrianism, named after the Persian prophet known also as Zaratust, Zathraustes,Zarathustra, etc., was for centuries embraced by those ancient Caucasians known asAryans or Iranians; and it became for them an instrument of national policy in their bitter conflicts against surrounding nomadic tribes and Semitic nations, represented primarilyby the "Turanians," Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, and Arabians. With theemergence of the first Persian Empire under Cyrus and its further expansion under Darius the Great Hystaspes, 521-486, B.C.E. the worship of Ahuramazda dominatedtwenty-three nations. These Iranians did more than drive the Semitic races intopermanent eclipse: themselves descended from the older Sumerians, they were theprehistoric conquerors of Egypt and India as well as the progenitors of the Greeks, theRomans, and the Teutons: in short, they have ruled most of the civilized world for twoand a half millenniums.
In that ancient world, one empire succeeded another, and throughout the domains of each, religious doctrines and ceremonials were carried from one country to another along the caravan routes.The Assyrian Empire with its capital at Nineveh, dominatedAsia Minor from the twelfth century to about 612. B.C.E. After a brief resurgence of theEgyptian power, Nebuchadnezzar overwhelmed it in 605 B.C.E. and extended theBabylonian Empire from the African desert to the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea.These Chaldeans, however, did not remain long in control; for in 538 B.C.E., Cyruscaptured Babylon; and thirty years later Darius ruled an empire which stood astride theworld from Libya and Greece to the center of India, a territory comprising two millionsquare miles and including dozens of great and populous cities, of which Babylon wasthe most fabulous. This vast domain continued substantially intact until it toppledovernight before the fierce onslaught of the Macedonians around 330 B.C.E. About 250B.C.E. Arsaces established the loose confederation known as the Parthian Empire, whichcontinued for four hundred and seventy-five years and in which amodified form of Zoroastrianism was the prevailing religion.
DEVELOPMENT OF ZOROASTRIAN MAZDEISM
The history of Mazdeism—the worship of the sun and of fire out of which Zoroastrianismgrew—spans some four thousand years. It began among the prehistoric Iranians,occupying an upland area between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf. TheZoroastrians of Iran (pre-Islamic) were members of the Indo-European family known asthe Aryans. They called themselves Zoroastrians because they believed in the teachingsof the first Aryan prophet, Zarathushtra; also called Zoroaster. Although we cannot besure just when Zoroaster lived, we need not doubt his historicity. Zoroaster was the firstprophet to preach a monotheistic religion, and he was born in Iran about 1500 to 660years B.C.E. Scholars are unsure as to his date of birth. He revealed that there was onlyone God, Ahuramazda and that life in the physical world was a battle between good andevil. As per man's actions, he would either cross the "Chinvato Peretu" or the swordbridge after death, and reach Heaven, or fall from it and go to the abode of the evil one. Inthe final days there would be a battle between good and evil, evil would be vanquishedand the world would be purified by a bath of molten metal. Mazda would then judge theworld, resurrecting the dead and His Kingdom would be established on earth.Surprisingly, many so-called Christian concepts actually were derived from ZoroastrianAryan ideas which thrived in Iran for thousands of years until the Arab invasion of Iran
around 1300 years ago. Concepts such as heaven and hell, God and the evil adversaryAharman, the coming of the Saviour or Saoshyant born of a virgin, the end-time purge of the world by Fire followed by the resurrection of the dead (Ristakhiz), the making fresh of the world (Frashogard) and the final battle between good and evil leading to the finaldefeat of evil. These beliefs filtered down to Judaism during the reign of King Khushru(Cyrus) of Iran.Although proud to be Aryans, Zoroastrians also believe that all races in the world arecreated by God and are equal - a true sign of the real ancient Aryan's nobility andtolerance. Cyrus, King of Iran who was an Aryan rebuilt the temple of the Jews after freeing the Jews from Babylon - for this, he is still remembered by the Jews and calledthe "Anointed of the Lord" in the Bible. The Jews still celebrate that act of the trueAryans in a festival.Many Jews then stayed in Iran under Cyrus and his successors suchas Darayus, as equal subjects under the King. Books of the Bible written after this stayhave taken all these Zoroastrian religious concepts, from there they came to Christianityand other religions and can be found embedded within the New Testament as tenants of the early Christian Church. There are scholars who consider Zoroastrianism as such tobe the mother religion of the present day world's faiths.! So, it is probable that the Jewswere influenced by the Zoroastrian faith of Iran in those days - and took on the religiousconcepts of:
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Heaven/hell
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God's evil adversary...what would become the Christian "Devil"
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The resurrection and the final purification of the world
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The virgin birth
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The Saviour, etc.
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The idea of a MessiahAll these concepts being Zoroastrian. There are other similarities too - certainpurificatory observances such as the impurity of menstruation etc. are found in bothfaiths. Indeed, the very idea of the Messiah, and the very concept of Jesus could beZoroastrian in origin.Zarathushtra's songs are called the "Gathas" which linguistically may be older than theIndian Vedic scriptures. The Gathas are written in an ancient Avestan dialect. This is asister language to Sanskrit of India, and Greek and Latin of the West. The reason is, thecommon ancestors (common to the ancient Iranians, Ancient Indians, Greeks, andEuropeans) were one and the same - the Indo-European or Aryan peoples. The Gathas,which are psalm-like utterances, are full of personal references and were probablycomposed by the prophet himself. E. W. West, who translated the Pahlavi Texts,published in Max Muller's Sacred Books of the East, places the birth of Zoroaster in 660B.C.E. and his death in 583 B.C.E. His teachings achieved a firm foundation with theconversion of King Vishtasp, which occurred when the prophet was forty-two. Zoroaster appeared as his people were emerging from a nomadic state into a settled agriculturaleconomy; he exerted his utmost influence to accelerate this process and place upon itthe stamp of divine approval.
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