Construction Analysis of “Srōš Bāǰ”: The Opening Part of the Zoroastrian Prayer

The present study examines the structure of Srōš Bāǰ Avesta, which forms the first part of the Zoroastrian prayer, in order to determine its different parts and how to construct it. The Zoroastrian prayer was created by Zoroastrian religious leaders, and over time Zoroastrian religious leaders added things to it or subtracted things from it. In this research, it will be determined from which part of the Avesta each part of Srōš bāǰ was taken and which parts were made by Zoroastrian religious leaders and included in this Avesta. In this article, both Iranian Srōš Bāǰ and Indian Srōš Bāǰ will be examined and analyzed in order to determine the structure of each one from which part of the Avesta it is taken from. Based on the findings of this research, Indian Srōš Bāǰ has parts of Avesta that Iranian Srōš Bāǰ does not have. Also, Indian Srōš Bāǰ has two parts in Pārsī Gujarātī language and Iranian Srōš Bāǰ has a part in Persian language. The results obtained from this research show that Pārsīs of India read Srōš Bāǰ in a different way at the beginning of their prayers, and Pārsī religious leaders have added parts to it to complete Srōš Bāǰ. The author of this article is one of the Iranian Zoroastrians and is fully acquainted with the prayers of the Pārsīs of India and Pārsī Gujarātī language.


Introduction
The available evidence suggests a large number of Avesta texts and books during the Sassanid period, but what is now known as "Avesta" is a collection of five books, which are: 1)."Yasna" or "Yasn" literally means "song, prayer and praise" and as the name of this book suggests, it is a collection of religious hymns and prayers.Yasna consists of seventy-two chapters, each chapter is called a "Hāt" and contains several "Stanzas".2)."Yasht" means "prayer and praise" and they are from the same root as the word "Yasn".This book consists of twenty-one "Yasht" and is a collection of hymns in praise of the gods and Ahurian forces.3)."Visparad" (from Avestan vīspe ratavo: "all lords and judges") consists of twenty-four chapters, each chapter is called a "Karda" and each "Karda" contains several "Stanzas".4).Vandidād or Vidēvdād (from Avestan vi-daēva-dāta-) means "one whose rule is to separate and stay away from demons".This part of the Avesta is a collection of prayers and charms to ward off demons and nullify demonic acts, as well as some religious acts and duties.This book consists of twenty-two chapters, each chapter is called a "fargard" and each "fargard" has several "Stanzas".5)."KhordehAvesta" or "Small Avesta" is a collection of prayers that ordinary Zoroastrian people read in their daily life.The compilation of Khordeh Avesta is attributed to Āzarbād Mahraspandān, Mobadān Mobad of the time of .The daily prayer of Zoroastrians is in the beginning of this book.In the Zoroastrian religion, the 24 hours of the day and night are divided into five periods, which are called "Gāh".At each of these times, the prayer must be recited.Each Gāh belongs to one of the times of the day and night.Morning or Hāwan Gāh (from sunrise to midday), Midday or Rapithwin Gāh (from midday to mid-afternoon), Evening or Uzerin Gāh (from mid-afternoon to sunset), Evening or Aiwisruthrem Gāh (from sunset to midnight) and After midnight or Ushahin Gāh (from midnight to dawn).The Zoroastrian prayer consists of various sections, which were designed by Zoroastrian religious leaders.Srōš Bāǰ is the first part of the Zoroastrian prayer, each part of which is taken from a part of the Avesta.Zoroastrian religious leaders have put these parts together to form Srōš Bāǰ.Some of these parts are taken from the Avesta and some were created by Zoroastrian religious leaders.The Indian Sroš Bāǰ is very different from the Iranian Srōš Bāǰ, and the religious leaders of the Parsīs have included some passages in Pārsī Gujarātī language, and parts of the Avestan part is also different.
In this research, Iranian SrōšBāǰ and Indian Srōš Bāǰ are examined from the point of view of structure, and their differences and similarities are mentioned.It will also be mentioned from which part of Avesta each part of these two Srōš Bāǰ is taken.So far, no research has been done on the structure of these two Srōš Bāǰ and their difference from each other, and it is the first time that such a research is conducted, and the result of this research is important in the sense that it specifies the prayer of Srōš Bāǰ by the Zoroastrians of Iran and the Pārsīs of India is read with different content.Zoroastrians and Pārsīs both have the same religion and it seems that they should pray in the same way.This research is done to find out how different their prayers are.

The Method of Selecting the Pāzand Text of Srōš Bāǰ for Research
In this research, for the structural analysis of Srōš Bāǰ, two Iranian Pāzands of Srōš Bāǰ written in Persian alphabet was used, and the author of this article converted them to transliteration to be comparable with the Indian Pāzand of Srōš Bāǰ.These Iranian Pāzands are selected for research from the Khordeh Avesta written by religious leaders of Zoroastrians in Iran.For the selection of Indian Pāzand, two books of Khordeh Avesta were chosen, in which the parts that are in Srōš Bāǰ in Pārsī Gujarātī language, has been written in two different dialects of Pārsī Gujarātī; but in this research, the transliteration of the text of Pāzand, which has been written in Pāṭīdārī dialect has been used.Because the first pāzands written by Dastur Neryosang Dhaval were all in this dialect (For more information about the difference between Indian Pāzands and Iranian Pāzands, as well as to find out about the Pāṭīdārī dialect, see Goshtasbi Ardakany, 2022;Goshtasbi Ardakany, 2023).Another Indian pāzand used in this research is transliterated from the Kangaʼs Gujarātī Khordeh Avesta.

The Method of Finding the Constituent Parts of Srōš Bāǰ
In this research, in order to find the parts of Avesta that make up Srōš Bāǰ, reference is made to Bartholomae"s Avestan dictionary to determine which parts of Avesta the words and phrases are used in and to get their frequency.After that, we will examine the pieces that are related to different parts of Avesta to determine from which part of Avesta each piece was taken to make Srōš Bāǰ.Also, by marking the pieces with the / sign, for each piece in the footnote it is mentioned in which parts of the Avesta that piece is found, and its reference is given in Bartholomae"s Dictionary.At the end, the results of the investigation of the structure of each of the Iranian and Indian Srōš Bāǰ are mentioned and the difference between these two Srōš Bāǰ is shown in a table.

The Method of Writing the Translation of Srōš Bāǰ in This Research
To write the translation of Srōš Bāǰ, due to the difference of some parts in Iranian and Indian Srōš Bāǰ, the translations of these two Srōš Bāǰ are mentioned in the table opposite each other.If only that piece is present in the Iranian Srōš Bāǰ, then that part of the table is empty in the Indian Srōš Bāǰ, and if only that part is in the Indian Srōš Bāǰ, that part of the table is empty in the Iranian Srōš Bāǰ.Mentioning the translation of Srōš Bāǰ in this research determines what Zoroastrians of Iran and Pārsīs of India sing in this part of the prayer and the difference between their prayers is determined.

Avestan Text of the Iranian Srōš Bāǰ and Analysis of Its Structure
The existing Pāzand texts are divided into two categories: 1. Indian Pāzands, which are transliterations of both Pahlavi and Gujarātī texts into the Avestan alphabet, by Pārsī Pāzand writers whose language is Pārsī Gujarātī.All these texts are in Avestan script and Pārsī Gujarātī language, which is very different from the Iranian Pahlavi language, and in these texts the rules of Gujarātī language and dialectal rules of Pārsī Gujarātī language have been observed.2. Iranian Pāzands which are transliteration of Pahlavi texts with Avestan alphabet or Persian alphabet.These texts show the Iranian pronunciation of the words if they are not copied from the Indian Pāzand texts (Goshtasbi Ardakany, 2022).
Iranian Srōš Bāǰ is often has been written in Persian alphabet and rarely in Avestan script.Writing Avesta with Avestan script is very necessary to read Avesta correctly, that is why Avestan script was invented.The Avestan script is one of the most complete scripts in the world and records the exact pronunciation of words (ibid., 2022).But in Iran, Avesta has been written with Persian alphabet, which causes it to be misread.Therefore, the author of this article has transliterated it and given it below.
The transcribtion of the Indian Srōš Bāǰ is given below:
It is important to mention that the Avestan text of Grotto& Kasson has been used here, in which the Pārsī Gujarātī fragments are in the Pāṭīdārī dialect, the same dialect that Dastur Neryosang Dhaval had.In the Kangaʼs Avesta, these parts are written in another Pārsī Gujarātī dialect.

aṣ̌ǝm vohū (1). aṣ̌ǝm vohū (1).
As can be seen in the table above, Iranian Srōš Bāǰ has 26 parts and Indian Srōš Bāǰ has 33 parts.It is possible that because the number of Amshaspands is mentioned as 33 in some texts, the Pārsī religious leaders have increased the number of pieces of Srōš Bāǰ and brought it to 33 pieces.Amshaspand means angel, and in Avesta it is mentioned as amǝša-spǝnta-, which means "Holy Eternal, Holy Immortal" (Dehkhoda Dictionary, 1997, below the words ‫;"امشاسپند"‬ Goshtasbi Ardakany & Jaberinasab, 2023), and it is found in Zoroastrian Pahlavi texts as the word amahraspand "a Holy Immortal" (MacKenzie, 1986, p. 7).In the Iranian Srōš Bāǰ in the second part, aṣ̌ǝm vohū is read three times, but in the Indian Srōš Bāǰ, aṣ̌ǝm vohū is read once.The third part of the Indian Srōš Bāǰ is in Pārsī Gujarātī language, which Iranian Srōš Bāǰ does not have this part.In the fourth part of the Indian Srōš Bāǰ, it is read five times yaθā ahū vairyō and three times aṣ̌ǝm vohū, which is not found in the Iranian Srōš Bāǰ.In the ninth part, Indian Srōš Bāǰ has "sraošǝm aṣ̌īm huraoδǝm vǝrǝθrājanǝm frādaţ-gaēθǝm aṣ̌avanǝm aṣ̌ahe ratūm yazamaide", which the Iranian Srōš Bāǰ does not have.In the twenty-first piece, the Indian Srōš Bāǰ has "aθa jamyāţ yaθa āfrīnāmi."more than the Iranian Srōš Bāǰ.In the twenty-seventh piece, Indian Srōš Bāǰ of has "rāmanasca x v āstrahe vayaoš uparō-kairyehe taraδātō anyāiš dāmąn.",but Iranian Srōš Bāǰ does not have it.In the twenty-eighth piece, Indian Srōš Bāǰ has "aētaţ tē vayō yaţ tē asti spǝntō-mainyaom.",but Iranian Srōš Bāǰ does not have it.In the 31st piece, Indian Srōš Bāǰ has a part in Pārsī Gujarātī language, which is different from Srōš Bāǰ in Iran.There is a piece in Persian language in the Iranian Srōš Bāǰ, which is not at all similar to the Indian Srōš Bāǰ.In the 32nd piece, the Indian Srōš Bāǰ has "aθa jamyāţ yaθa āfrīnāmi.",which the Iranian Srōš Bāǰ does not have.The rest of the pieces are completely identical to each other.

The number of parts of the prayer
Iranian Srōš Bāǰ Indian Srōš Bāǰ 1 For the pleasure of Ahura Mazda.
For the pleasure of Ahura Mazda.

2
Being "Ashu" is the best blessing.(Being "Ashu") is happiness.Happiness belongs to the one who wants to be the best "Ashu".(three times).
Holiness (Asha) is the best of all good: it is also happiness.Happy the man who is holy with perfect holiness!(once).(Darmesteter, 1898, p. 216).

3
(I begin to recite this) with (the help of) the name of (the Creator) Hormazd, the Lord and the Lord (of the whole world) and munificent.May the splendour and glory (of the Creator Hormazd) increase!May Srosh (yazad) the holy, strong, word-incarnate (i.e. whose body even is the Holy Spell), possessed of efficacious weapons (in order to smite the daevas and wicked men), possessed of victorious weapon (and) the chief of the creatures of Hormazd come (to my help)!I renunciate, and desist from all sins; all wicked thoughts which in this world I have thought, wicked words which I have spoken, wicked deeds which I have committed (and) which have been caused through me (and) which have been originated by me (all these sins mentioned above) relating to thought, relating to word and relating to deed, pertaining to (my own) body, pertaining to (my own) soul, pertaining to this world, pertaining to the world beyond, all these sins, O Hormazd!I discard and keep myself away (and) with the three words (i.e.good thought, good word and good deed) I repent (Kanga, 2014, p. 10).

4
The will of the Lord is the law of righteousness.
The gifts of Vohu-mano to the deeds done in this world for Mazda.He who relieves the poor makes Ahura king.(five times).(Darmesteter, 1898, p. 100).Holiness (Asha) is the best of all good: it is also happiness.Happy the man who is holy with perfect holiness!(three times).

5
I confess and believe in the Mazdaworshiping religion, which was brought by Zoroaster, which is against Daevas worship, and is the Ahuric religion.
I profess myself a Mazda-worshipper, a follower of Zarathushtra, opposing the Daevas, accepting the Ahuric doctrine.

6
(Here recite the appropriate Gah dedication.) (Hāwan Gāh) To Hawan (morning), Ashu and the master of "being Ashu", for worship, adoration, propitiation and praise To the benevolent governor of a rural district who is Ashu and is the master of "being Ashu", for worship, adoration, propitiation and praise.
(Rapithwin Gāh) To Rapithwin (Noon), Ashu, the master of "being Ashu", for worship, adoration, propitiation and praise.To the courteous burgomaster, who is Ashu and is the master of "being Ashu", for worship, adoration, propitiation and praise.
(Here recite the appropriate Gah dedication.)

16
Just as the leader of the world is powerful and strong, the leader of religion is equally strong due to his purity and being "Ashu".The gift of good thinking (Vohuman) belongs to the one who behaves according to Mazda"s wishes.The Ahuric kingdom is the property of the one who arrests the dervishes and the poor.(twice) The will of the Lord is the law of righteousness.The gifts of Vohu-mano to the deeds done in this world for Mazda.He who relieves the poor makes Ahura king.(twice).

& 18
Praise, prayer, power, might and adoration be for the ashu valiant Sorush who is the holder of the manthra weapon and is the creation of Ahura.
I desire worship and adoration and strength and force for Sraosha, companion of Ashi, the brave, who has the Manthra for body, with bold club, the ahurian.

19
Being "Ashu" is the best blessing.(Being "Ashu") is happiness.Happiness belongs to the one who wants to be the best "Ashu".(once) Holiness (Asha) is the best of all good: it is also happiness.Happy the man who is holy with perfect holiness!(once).

20
(The one who praises Ahura,) may he be blessed with glory and prosperity, may he be healthy, may his body be stable, may his body be victorious, may he have increasing wealth, may he have famous children, may he have a very long life, may the best place for him in bright and full of comfort paradise.
Bestow on him riches and good things; bestow health of body, toughness of body, and resistance of body; bestow on him possessions giving abundant ease, future noble offspring, and a lengthy long life; bestow on him the best existence of the Asha-sanctified, the luminous, offering all happy.

21
Thus may it come as I wish.

22
Being "Ashu" is the best blessing.(Being "Ashu") is happiness.Happiness belongs to the one who wants to be the best "Ashu".(once) Holiness (Asha) is the best of all good: it is also happiness.Happy the man who is holy with perfect holiness!(once).

23
For him, may it be a thousand times health, may it be ten thousand times health.(three times) A thousand remedies, ten thousand remedies (three times).

24
Being "Ashu" is the best blessing.(Being "Ashu") is happiness.Happiness belongs to the one who wants to be the best "Ashu".(once) Holiness (Asha) is the best of all good: it is also happiness.Happy the man who is holy with perfect holiness!(once).

25
Come to my help, O Mazda! (three times) Come to my help, O Mazda (three times).

26
To Ama, well-built, well-faced, victorious and God-given (peace be upon him).
To Ama, well-built, fair of form, Verethraghna, Ahura-created; and to Triumphing Uparatat 27 and to Raman of good pastures, and to Vayu of superior activity, superior to other creatures.

28
That part of you, Vayu, which belongs to Spenta Mainyu;

29
To the mighty Vanant (peace be upon him).To the eternal sphere (peace be upon him).To the infinite time and to the eternal time (peace be upon him).
To self-governed Thwasha, to boundless Zurwan, to Zurwan of the long dominion.

30
Being "Ashu" is the best blessing.(Being "Ashu") is happiness.Happiness belongs to the one who wants to be the best "Ashu".(once) Holiness (Asha) is the best of all good: it is also happiness.Happy the man who is holy with perfect holiness!(once).

31
Beating the Daeva of impurity, the harming Daeva and Druj -the purity of the body, the piety of one"s soul (three times).
For the expiation of sins I obtain the reward of meritorious deeds, and for the sake of the love of the soul, may complete righteousness reach all the doers of good deeds and all the faithful (residing) on the seven regions of the earth, -as wide as the earth, as long as the river and as high as the Sun as! May there be long life of the righteous (man).atMay it be so as I pray (i.e. may my greetings be fulfilled!)(Kanga, 2014, 13-14).

32
Thus may it come as I wish.

33
Being "Ashu" is the best blessing.(Being "Ashu") is happiness.Happiness belongs to the one who wants to be the best "Ashu".(once) Holiness (Asha) is the best of all good: it is also happiness.Happy the man who is holy with perfect holiness!(once).