Estudios Iranios y Turanios Número 1 Año 2014 Edita SOCIEDAD DE ESTUDIOS IRANIOS Y TURANIOS (SEIT) Barcelona
Estudios Iranios y Turanios Director: Alberto Cantera Secretarios: José Cutillas Ferrer Juanjo Ferrer Losilla Comité de redacción: Agustí Alemany Vilamajó Alberto Cantera José Cutillas Ferrer Juanjo Ferrer Losilla Jaime Martínez Porro Éric Pirart Depósito Legal: S-58820-14 ISSN: 2386-7833 Imprimida por: Printcolor Ctra. de Mollet a Sabadell Km. 4,3 Pol. Ind. Can Vinyals, Nave 18 08130 Santa Perpètua de Mogoda (Barcelona) Queda prohibida la reproducción total o parcial de los contenidos de este Boletín sin permiso expreso de la Sociedad de Estudios Iranios y Turanios Envío de originales a: Alberto Cantera, Facultad de Filología, Pza. Anaya s/n, 37008 Salamanca (España). Correo-e: acantera@usal.es José Cutillas, Dpto. de Filologías Integradas, Campus de Sant Vicent del Raspeig, 03080 Alacant (España). Correo-e:jose.cutillas@ua.es Juanjo Ferrer, Facultad de Filología, Pza. Anaya s/n, 37008 Salamanca (España). Correo-e: jjferrer@usal.es
Índice de contenidos David B. BUYANER On a Pahlavi Metonymic Figure and its Indo-European Roots... 7 Alberto CANTERA Repetitions of the Ahuna Vairiia and animal sacrifice in the Zoroastrian long liturgy... 25 Juanjo FERRER Brief note on the abbreviation marker K in the Avestan manuscripts.. 31 Fateme JAHANPOUR Anew Wīdēwdād Manuscript of Marzabān Family Collection... 35 Götz KÖNIG Die Pahlavi-Literatur des 9./10. Jh. und ihre frühe Kodex- Überlieferung (II). Die Pahlavi-Kodices der Bundār Šāhmardān- Familie... 43 Jaime MARTÍNEZ-PORRO Los manuscritos avésticos de la ceremonia Visperad... 73 Éric PIRART La plegaria en el sacrificio mazdeo zoroástrico... 93 Kianoosh REZANIA Immanenz und Transzendenz im Zoroastrismus: Absenz, Nachbarkonzepte und Entstehung... 111
Repetitions of the Ahuna Vairiia and animal sacrifice in the Zoroastrian long liturgy Alberto Cantera Universidad de Salamanca ABSTRACT: The Ahuna Vairiia prayer is never repeated three times in extant Avestan texts and also the Pahlavi literature excludes this number of repetitions. This is because three repetitions of the Ahuna Vairiia are the Avestan text used for the very centre of the Zoroastrian long liturgy: the slaughter of the sacrificial victim and the meat offerings to the fire. Here again, we discover the central importance of the sacrifice when the Avestan texts used in the long and short liturgies got their current shape. Further, it is shown a ritual parallelism between the slaughter of the victim and the pounding of the haōma. KEYWORDS: Zoroastrian long liturgy, Zoroastrian rituals, animal sacrifice. The number of times that the Ahuna Vairiia is repeated plays an important role in Zoroastrian ritual and meta-ritual literature. Already the Widewdad mentions several possible numbers of repetitions. According to V10.11-12 the Ahuna Vairiia and the Airiiaman I iia are the Old Avestan prayers that are repeated four times in the recitation of the Gāθās 1. In fact, it receives the epithet ā tūirīm (Y9.14, Yt19.81) that which is repeated four times. Moreover, the eleventh fragard prescribes the recitation of four (V11.11), five (V11.3), six (V11.17) and eight (V11.8) Ahuna Vairiia for their use in purification rituals. In V18.43 and 49, four repetitions are prescribed, with no fewer than 200 in V19.22. Finally, according to V17.5 and 8, one Ahuna Vairiia is to be recited when making a furrow around the hole in which cut hair is to be deposited. Since there can be three, six or nine holes, the same number of Ahuna Vairiia are then recited. In the long liturgy, the Ahuna Vairiia is repeated a different number of times in various passages. Twofold and fourfold repetitions are frequent: - 2x: Y0.3, Y7.26, Y8.4, Y11.12, Y52.1, Y57.34, Y59.33, VrS32.0, VrS36.22, VrS37.2, Y68.13, Y71.24, Y72.5, Y72.8-4x: Y0.0, Y0.15, Y13.7, Y18.9, Y27.3, Y27.7, Y28.12, Y29.12, Y30.12, Y31.23, Y32.17, Y33.15, Y34.16, Y41.7, VrS26.16, Y56.5, Y60.13, Y63.3, Y71.31 1 This is true for the Airiiaman I iia, but it is less clear for the Ahuna Vairiia. It is recited four times precisely when it is used as a separator between hāitis, but not when it is recited at the beginning of the Gāθās (Geldner s Y27.13) (Cantera 2013: 27 ff.) 25
Estudios Iranios y Turanios On one occasion only, the Ahuna Vairiia is repeated ten times in all variants of the liturgy: Y59.32. Furthermore, in at least two passages (Y0.15 2 and Y60.13), it is recited ten times when the long liturgy is celebrated in the Gāhānbār, but only four in other celebrations. The same distribution appears as well for Y71.30, but this time only in the Indian manuscripts (mss. 2220, 4200, 4240, etc.). The Iranian manuscripts mention only four. Y59.33 may be the only passage in the long liturgy in which the Ahuna Vairiia is recited only once without any repetition. In the Yasna, the prayer is repeated twice; surprisingly, however, it is said only once in the solemn ceremonies (Wisperad, Widewdad, etc.). The distribution of the repetitions is quite different in the short liturgies and the Ya ts. Only two repetitions are quite frequent, since they are part of the final section of each Ya t: A2.1, 2.6, 4.10, G1.10, 2.12, 3.11, 4.13, 5.10, Hb3, Ny1.17, 2.16, 3.9, 4.10, 5.17, Srb3, Yt1.23, 2.15, 3.19, 4.11, 5.133, 6.7, 7.7, 8.62, 9.33, 10.146, 11.23, 12.38, 13.158, 14.64, 15.58, 16.20, 17.62, 18.9, 19.97, 20.3, 21.2. In contrast to the long liturgy, here the Ahuna Vairiia is recited only once several times: A1.5, 3.14, Hb1, Srb1, Yt11.14, 11.15, 11.18, and 14.61. Only on two occasions is this prayer repeated four times (A3.1 and Yt18.7) and also five times (Srb1, Hb1). Finally, Yt13.155 prescribes eight repetitions; Yt1.21, ten, and Hb1, twenty-one. Furthermore, at the beginning of the Afrīnagān, the number of Ahuna Vairiias is different for each Afrīnagān (Modi 1922: 362 f.): 2 (Dahmān), 4 (Gāhānbār), 5 (Srō ), 7 (several), 8 (Gāθā), 10 (Ohrmazd) and 12 (Rapihwin). Thus, the Ahuna Vairiia is actually repeated 1, 2, 4, 10 times in the long liturgy, being the fourfold repetition the most typical. In the short liturgies and the Ya ts there are 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12 and 21 repetitions. According to the Widewdad, it can also be repeated four, five, eight or even two hundred times in purification rituals. There is a Pahlavi text dedicated to the number of repetitions of the Ahuna Vairiia. It appears at different places throughout Pahlavi literature: 1. in the commentary on the Ahuna Vairiia in the Sūdgar Nask (Dk 9.2.3-15 [DkM 787.12-788.8]); 2. in the Supplementary Texts of the Šāyest-nē- āyest (Suppl. Šn. 19) (Kotwal 1969: 76 ff.); 3. in the manuscript K27 (fol. 11v: 7 ff.) (Hampel 1974: 22 ff.) and 4. in the manuscript M51 (fol. 254v and ff.). The information provided by this text is extremely interesting: the Ahuna Vairiia can be repeated 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 times. The series of possible repetitions therefore includes all the numbers between 1 and 13, except for 3. This cannot be explained purely by chance. 2 Mss. 100 and 230 give both alternatives: four or ten times. We also find both possibilities in the Wisperad ceremonies. Ms. 2040 speaks of four times, but most manuscripts of the Wisperad (viz. 2010, 2030, 2016, etc.) indicate that four times is the standard number, but it is recited ten times if it is a ceremony of Gāhānbār. In the ceremony of Widewdad, some manuscripts speak of four times (e.g., 4000a, 4010, 4025, 4055, and 4100) and others of ten times (e.g., mss. 4045a, 4050, 4230, 4240, 4410, 4420, etc.). A similar distribution is found in Y60.13. 26
Alberto Cantera, Repetitions of the Ahuna Vairiia In fact, the Ahuna Vairiia is never repeated three times in extant Avestan texts. The mention of three repetitions in V17.5 is actually to be understood differently: there is one Ahuna Vairiia for the digging of each furrow. If there are three furrows, then the number of Ahuna Vairiia is also three. The usual distribution is that the A əm Vohū is repeated three times, and the Ahuna Vairiia four. The number of three repetitions seems, indeed, to be avoided. In the Hōmāst, the haōma twigs are pounded during the recitation of the Ahuna Vairiia. The Nērangestān (N28.46) and the liturgical manuscripts (at Y27.3) describe this rite. The Ahuna Vairiia is recited four times. During the first three recitations, the pestle is turned around over the mortar and the priest pounds during the first Ahuna Vairiia, once at the recitation of š iiaōθananąm, once at aŋhə uš, and once at mazdāi; he does the same, albeit twice, during the second, and thrice during the third. Thus, he pounds three times at the first recitation, six at the second, and nine at the third. In the third one, when reciting šaθrəmcā, the priest raises the pestle to the height of his ears. With the third Ahuna Vairiia, the series (3, 6, 9) is obviously completed, but one additional Ahuna Vairiia is still recited. It seems that its recitation just three times is simply avoided. The reason for its avoidance is that this number of repetitions of the prayer is circumscribed to a very specific usage. The Nērangestān (N47) describes in detail the meat offerings to the fire during the recitation of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti. Precisely in the description of the central and most essential part of the liturgy, the sacrifice of the victim and the meat offering to the fire, the recitation of three Ahuna Vairiia is mentioned twice. The slaughter of the victim and the meat offering to the fire are performed during the recitation of three Ahuna Vairiia each. The passage concerning the meat offering to the fire is very clear (Kotwal and Kreyenbroek 2003: 202 f.) (N47.12-13): kē *gōnbed frāz burd pad ān 3 yaθā ahū vairiiō *gōnbed ēdōn čīyōn abastāg gōwēd u-š be brīnišn pad iiaōθananąm pad fradom ān ī fradom pad dudīgar ān ī dudīgar) ud pad sidīgar ān ī sidīgar ka pad ān ī fradom nē brined u-š pad ān ī dudīgar har 2 ōh brīnišn ka padf ān ī dudīgar nē brined u-š pad ān ī sidīgar har 3 be brīnišn ka pad ān ī sidīgar nē brined u-š pad ān ī cahārom nē abastāg The one who offers the hairy meat during the recitation of the three Ahuna Vairiia should (offer it) while reciting the Abastāg (the three Ahuna Vairiia). He should cut it off at š iiaōθananąm. He should (cut off) the first at the first (Ahuna Vairiia); the second at the second, and the third at the third. If he does not cut it off at the first (Ahuna Vairiia), then he should cut off two pieces at the second. If he does not cut it off at the second, then he should cut off three pieces at the third. If he does not cut it off at the third one, there is no Abastāg (viz. Ahuna Vairiia) for the fourth time. The author of the Nērangestān explicitly excludes the possibility of a fourth Ahuna Vairiia being recited. Three offerings are made to the fire, and each one is cut off exactly at the recitation of the š iiaōθananąm of three Ahuna Vairiia. 27
Estudios Iranios y Turanios The passage describing the slaughter of the animal is somehow corrupted, but it is still highly interesting. After describing how to secure the victim and how to use the mallet against it, mention is made of three Ahuna Vairiia (pad ān sē yaθā ahū vairiiō) followed by the numbers 3, 6, 9 (N47.23). There follows an erudite discussion whose contents are not quite clear, but then the text is very explicit (N47.24) (Kotwal and Kreyenbroek 2003: 208 f.): u-š x aθrəmcā ī sidīgar kārd andar dahišn kudēn az dašn ud kārd az hōy At the third šaθrəmcā, he should introduce the knife. The mallet should be on the right and the knife on the left. The numbers 3, 6 and 9 during the three Ahuna Vairiia and the mention of the third šaθrəmcā strongly recall the description of the pounding of the haōma during the Hōmāst, and reveal the parallelism between the two processes. The most likely reconstruction for the slaughter of the victim is that during the recitation of the first Ahuna Vairiia, the priest strikes the victim with the mallet three times, once at the recitation of each of the words š iiaōθananąm, aŋhə uš and mazdāi. During the second, he strikes six times (twice at each word). During the third one, he strikes nine times, and at šaθrəmcā he raises the knife to the height of the ears and stabs the victim. Symbolically, the act of stabbing the victim is identified with the šaθra that goes to Ahura Mazdā (mazdāi ahurāi). It seems that the pounding of the haōma at the recitation of four Ahuna Vairiia, but acting only at the recitation of three, exactly reproduces the slaughter of the victim at the recitation of three Ahuna Vairiia. This reminds us of the Vedic interpretation of the pressing of the Soma plant as the killing of the god Soma (Schlerath 1988). The Ahuna Vairiia is the prayer par excellence for the ritual action. It contains in itself the ratu for the sacrificial actions, and most of the fundamental ritual actions are performed exactly at the recitation of the word š iiaōθananąm of the actions in this prayer. The proximity of š iiaōθana-, šaθra and the dative mazdāi ahurāi has been interpreted as a condensed expression of the doctrine of the sacrifice. The main ritual action (š iiaōθana-) is the slaughter of the sacrificial victim, and it was performed simultaneously with the recitation of this prayer. In fact, the recitation of three Ahuna Vairiia is so closely linked to the sacrifice and the offering of the meat to the fire that it became exclusive to these ritual actions, and could not be used in other contexts. Although it had almost completely disappeared from the long liturgy before the extant Avestan manuscripts, animal sacrifice played a central role in the constitution of the long liturgy, and has left numerous traces in many different ways. 28
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