Maharashtra HSC Avesta-Pahlavi (MSBSHSE) cheat sheet

Avestan survives in two scripts: the native Avestan alphabet (a Sassanian-era development from Pahlavi cursive, 14th century or later in attested manuscripts) and a romanised transliteration convention using diacritics (ā, ə, ŋ, š, č, ẏ).

The Avestan alphabet has 53 characters; it distinguishes vowels fully (unlike Pahlavi) and marks nasals, sibilants and palatals with separate letters, which is why it encodes phonology more faithfully than Pahlavi.

Vowel system includes short a, i, u; long ā, ī, ū; and the 'irrational' or epenthetic vowels ə (schwa) and ə̄, plus ą (nasalised) and ą̄; ərə is a common reflex of Proto-Indo-Iranian *r̥.

Consonants include the affricates č and ǰ, the sibilants s, š, z, ž, and the voiceless/voiced pairs k/g, t/d, p/b, plus θ, δ, f, β, x, γ, and the labiovelar xʷ/gʷ; ŋ is a velar nasal.

Avestan is an Old Iranian language with a highly inflected grammar: three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), three numbers (singular, dual, plural), and eight cases (nominative, vocative, accusative, instrumental, dative, ablative, genitive, locative).

Verbal morphology: present and aorist stems, perfect with reduplication, optative and injunctive moods, augmentless preterites (injunctive used for past narration), and medio-passive endings (-e, -nte) alongside active (-mi, -nti).

Sandhi rules apply across word boundaries: final -m becomes -n before consonants, final vowels elide before initial vowels, and final -t/-d assimilate; recognising sandhi is essential for parsing Gathic lines.

Two dialect layers are distinguished: Old Avestan (Gathic, the language of Zarathushtra's hymns, archaic and metrically regular) and Younger Avestan (liturgical prose, more regularised and closer to Old Persian in some forms).

Word order is free but tends toward SOV in prose; in the Gathas, metre and chiasmus distort order, so case endings rather than position identify syntactic roles.

The Yasna has 72 chapters (hāiti); its core is the recitation of the Gathas, the five Old Avestan hymns attributed to Zarathushtra, arranged in 17 hāitis embedded within the Yasna.

The five Gathas and their chapter counts: Ahunavaiti (Y 28–34, 7 hāitis), Ushtavaiti (Y 43–46, 4), Spentamainyu (Y 47–50, 4), Vohukhshathra (Y 51, 1), Vahishtoishti (Y 53, 1).

The Yasna Haptanghaiti ('seven-chapter Yasna', Y 35–41) is Old Avestan prose, close in age to the Gathas; it is the principal Old Avestan prose text and is largely ritual in content.

The Ahuna Vairya (Yatha ahu vairyo), Ashem Vohu, Yenghe Hatam and Airyema Ishyo are the four chief prayers; the Ahuna Vairya is 21 words and is recited at key points of the Yasna.

The Staota Yesnya designates the recited 'praised' texts of the liturgy; the Gathas are its innermost portion, and the Yasna service is structured around their recitation.

The Visperad is a liturgical expansion of the Yasna used at the great seasonal festivals (Gahambars); it adds invocations of the 'ratu' (lords) before each Yasna chapter.

The Vendidad (Videvdad) is a legal-ritual code in 22 fargards, recited with the Yasna in the Videvdad ceremony; it is Younger Avestan with Pahlavi glosses and treats purity, pollution and expiation.

The Khordeh Avesta is the lay prayer book: it collects short prayers (Niyayeshes, Yashts excerpts, Gahs, Siroza) for daily recitation by the laity rather than the full priestly Yasna.

The Yashts (21 hymns to individual divinities, e.g. Mihr Yasht, Tishtrya Yasht, Ardvisur Yasht) belong to the Younger Avestan corpus and are recited in the Siroza and in lay devotion rather than in the Yasna.

Pahlavi (Middle Persian) is written in a consonantal Aramaic-derived script of about 14 distinct letter shapes; several shapes serve multiple phonemes (the 'Pahlavi ambiguity'), and vowels are mostly unwritten except by matres lectionis w, y, and final -k for -ag.

The script is written right to left; it distinguishes no case, and the same letter may represent b/p, g/k, d/t, w/f, r/l, and y/j, so reading depends on context and known vocabulary.

Ideograms (huzvarishn) are Aramaic words written but read in Iranian: e.g. MLKʾ written for 'king' read šāh, KRA for 'head' read sar, YK for 'one' read ēw; a glossary of these is the huzvarishn list.

Phonology of Middle Persian: vowels a, ā, i, ī, u, ū, ē, ō, and the short final vowels -a, -e, -o; consonant inventory includes the stops, fricatives β/γ/δ (written b/g/d), sibilants s, š, z, ž, and č.

Nouns show two cases at most in late Middle Persian (direct/oblique), with the oblique marked by -ī or -ān in the plural; earlier Middle Persian preserves a fuller case system reflected in inscriptional forms.

Verbal system: present stem and past stem; past tense formed with the past participle in -ag/-ad plus the copula (e.g. kard 'made' + -am 'I am' = 'I made'), a construction ancestral to the New Persian past.

The particle ē marks the optative/subjunctive and the imperfective; the prefix ham- and the preverb be- modify aspect and direction; the passive is formed with -īh- or the past participle plus šudan 'to become'.

Word formation relies heavily on compounding and on the abstract suffix -īh and the adjectival suffixes -īg, -ōmand, -war; these recur in Zoroastrian theological vocabulary (e.g. xwadāyīh 'lordship').

Middle Persian has two registers in Zoroastrian usage: 'Pahlavi' proper (Book Pahlavi, the literary language of the 9th-century books) and the earlier inscriptional Middle Persian of the Sassanian kings (3rd–4th century), which is more phonologically explicit.

The Zand is the Middle Persian translation and commentary on an Avestan text; a manuscript containing Avestan with its Zand is called a Pazand or, more precisely, a 'Zand' manuscript, and the traditional term for the combined corpus is the 'Zand-Avesta'.

Major Pahlavi translations: the Zand-i Yasna (with the Gathic commentary, the 'Zand of the Gathas'), the Zand-i Vendidad, and the Pahlavi Yashts; these preserve interpretations that often differ from modern philological readings.

The Bundahishn ('Primal Creation') survives in two recensions (Greater/Indian and Lesser/Iranian) and presents a systematic cosmogony and cosmology drawn from Avestan material and commentary; it is a primary source for Zoroastrian cosmography.

The Denkard, in nine books, is an encyclopaedic 9th-century compilation; books 3–9 include summaries of the Avestan nasks (the 21 nasks of the canon) and theological argument, making it the key witness to lost Avestan literature.

The 21 nasks are the traditional division of the Avesta into three groups of seven (Gathic, ritual, legal); the Denkard 8 summarises their contents, and only the Vendidad survives intact among them.

The Dadestan-i Denig ('Religious Judgements') of Manushchihr is a 9th-century Pahlavi text of questions and answers on ritual, purity, and eschatology; it is a principal source for Pahlavi legal-religious reasoning.

The Menog-i Khrad ('Spirit of Wisdom') is a Pahlavi wisdom text framed as questions to the spirit of wisdom; it is not a translation of an Avestan book but a compilation drawing on Zand material.

The Arda Wiraz Namag narrates the visionary journey of the priest Wiraz to heaven and hell; it is a Pahlavi text of the 9th–10th century reflecting Zand-based eschatology and is important for the history of the afterlife genre.

Pazand texts are Middle Persian written in the Avestan alphabet (with full vowels) rather than in Book Pahlavi script; the Pazand corpus preserves liturgical material in a more readable orthography and is used to check Pahlavi readings.

The Avesta is traditionally divided into 21 nasks; the extant corpus comprises the Yasna, Visperad, Vendidad, Yashts, Khordeh Avesta, and fragments (the 'Avesta fragments' and the Hadokht nask).

The Gathas are metrically composed in a syllabic metre (the ahunavaiti, ushtavaiti, spentamainyu, vohukhshathra and vahishtoishti metres); metre is a control on text reconstruction and on distinguishing Old from Younger Avestan.

Zand interpretation is not literal translation but explanatory gloss: the Pahlavi translator supplies glosses ('meaning: ...') and expands ambiguous Avestan, so Zand and Avestan must be read together, not equated.

The hermeneutic principle of the 'threefold' reading (Menog, Getig, and the ethical sense) recurs in Pahlavi commentary: a text may be read cosmologically, ritually, and morally.

The Ahuna Vairya is treated in Pahlavi literature as the summary of the whole religion; its 21 words are correlated with the 21 nasks, a structural correspondence used in Denkard and in later apologetic writing.

The Avestan canon was partly lost: tradition holds that Alexander's destruction dispersed the texts, and the Denkard's summaries of the nasks are used to reconstruct what is missing.

Pazand and Pahlavi versions of the same prayer (e.g. the Ashem Vohu) allow comparison of orthography and phonology; Pazand preserves vowels that Book Pahlavi omits, so it is a control on reading.

Zoroastrian interpretation distinguishes the 'Avesta' (the recited word) from the 'Zand' (the explanation); a priest recites Avestan and may gloss in Pahlavi, and the laity traditionally receive the Zand in translation.

The cardinal ethical formula is 'humata, hukhta, huvarshta' - good thoughts, good words, good deeds - opposed to 'dushmata, duzhukhta, duzhvarshta'; it is the criterion of moral action in the Gathas and later texts.

The Amesha Spentas (Bounteous Immortals) are seven: Ahura Mazda with Vohu Manah (good mind), Asha Vahishta (best truth/order), Khshathra Vairya (desirable dominion), Spenta Armaiti (holy devotion), Haurvatat (wholeness), and Ameretat (immortality).

The dualism of the Gathas is ethical-cosmological: the 'twin spirits' (mainyu) choose good and evil respectively; Angra Mainyu (Ahriman) is the adversary, and the world process ends in the Frashokereti, the renovation.

Fire (atar) is the central ritual symbol and is tended in fire temples of three grades (Atash Bahram, Atash Adaran, Atash Dadgah); fire is a symbol of purity and of Asha, not a god.

Core purity rules: avoidance of dead matter (nasu), the barashnum-i nō shab (nine-night purification), and the segregation of menstruants; the Vendidad is the principal legal source for these rules.

The dakhma (tower of silence) is the traditional exposure place for the dead, based on the principle that corpse matter must not pollute earth, water, or fire; the practice is documented in Pahlavi and later Rivayat literature.

The Yasna ceremony is the central priestly rite, performed before a fire, with the preparation and consecration of the parahaoma (haoma) and the recitation of the 72 hāitis; the Navjote (Sedreh-pushi) initiates a child with the sudreh and kusti.

The Gahambars are six seasonal festivals tied to creation: Maidhyoi-zaremaya (spring), Maidhyoi-shema (midsummer), Paitishahya (harvest), Ayathrima (return of herds), Maidhyairya (winter), and Hamaspathmaedaya (year-end, associated with the fravashis).

The fravashis are the ancestral or guardian spirits honoured especially at Hamaspathmaedaya (Farvardigan); the Yasht 13 (Fravardin Yasht) is their principal hymn.

Sassanian state Zoroastrianism (3rd–7th century) made the religion the imperial cult; the high priest (mobad) and the fire temples were state institutions, and the Avesta and Zand were codified under Shapur I and Khosrow I.

The Arab conquest (7th century) ended state patronage; Zoroastrians became a protected but taxed minority (dhimmi), and conversion to Islam, economic pressure, and migration reduced the community in Iran over the following centuries.

The traditional date of the migration to Gujarat is 936 CE (Sanjan), recorded in the Qissa-i Sanjan (16th–17th century); the migrants negotiated refuge with the local ruler Jadi Rana, and the conditions are preserved in the Sanjan tradition.

The Parsi community of India developed distinct institutions: the Panchayat in Navsari and Bombay, the anjuman associations, and from the 19th century a wealthy mercantile class under British rule.

The Rivayat literature (Persian and Pahlavi Rivayats, 15th–18th century) records correspondence between Indian and Iranian priests on ritual questions; it documents divergence between the two communities.

The calendar dispute is a defining split: the Shahanshahi (Kadmi) and Fasli calendars differ on intercalation; the Kadmi/Shahanshahi split in the 18th century produced lasting communal divisions, and the Fasli movement followed in the 20th.

The Parsi–Iranian (Irani) distinction in India reflects later migration from Iran (mainly 19th–20th century, from Yazd and Kerman) and is socially distinct from the older Parsi community.

Reformist and orthodox currents emerged in 19th-century Bombay: the Rahnumae Mazdayasnan Sabha and the reformist press (e.g. Rast Goftar) argued for rationalist and social reform, while orthodox anjumans defended ritual tradition.

Modern Iranian Zoroastrians are concentrated in Yazd and Kerman and in Tehran; the community is represented in the Majles by a reserved seat, and the Tehran fire temple (Adorian) is a modern centre.

When translating an Avestan line, first identify the verb (person, number, tense, mood from ending), then assign case roles to nouns, then resolve sandhi across word boundaries; do not translate word-by-word in the original order.

The Gathic formula 'yatha ahu vairyo' is parsed as: yathā 'as', ahu 'lord', vairyo 'to be chosen' - a translation must render the optative/jussive force, not a flat statement.

For Pahlavi, separate the ideogram (Aramaic written form) from its Iranian reading before translating; a translation that renders the Aramaic letters literally is an error.

Pahlavi verbs: the past in -ag/-ad plus copula is a compound past, so 'kard-am' = 'I made'; present stems must be learned per verb (e.g. kun- 'do', baw- 'become', dār- 'hold').

Common Avestan case functions in translation: genitive = possession or partitive; dative = purpose or indirect object; instrumental = means or accompaniment; locative = place or time; ablative = separation or cause.

In comprehension passages, distinguish Old Avestan (Gathic) from Younger Avestan by metre, vocabulary and the presence of the augmentless injunctive; the dialect identification is often the tested point.

For Zand passages, render the Pahlavi gloss as an interpretation, not as the literal Avestan sense; examiners test whether the candidate notes the gloss ('meaning: ...') and its divergence.

Transliteration conventions: ā, ī, ū, ə, ə̄, ą, ŋ, š, č, ž, ẏ, and xʷ; a translation exercise may require converting between Avestan script and transliteration, so check each diacritic against the standard table.

Numbers and dates in Pahlavi are often written with ideograms or with letter-numerals; verify the reading against the context (regnal year, ritual day) before translating a date.