Maharashtra SSC Avesta L2/L3 (MSBSHSE) cheat sheet

Avestan is written right-to-left in a script derived from cursive Pahlavi; it has 16 letters that each carry several sound values depending on position and diacritics.

Letters are joined within words; a word-final letter often takes a different, non-joining form, so the same phoneme can look different at word end.

Key letter-to-sound rules: 𐬀 = a, 𐬁 = ā (long), 𐬂/𐬃 = ə̄/ə̄uua-like values, 𐬄 = ą (nasal), 𐬅 = ą̇; 𐬆 = ą̄, 𐬇 = ą̄̇.

Vowel length is phonemic and is marked in transliteration by macrons: a/ā, i/ī, u/ū, plus the nasalised set ą, ą̄, ą̇, ą̄̇.

Consonant letters with special transliteration: 𐬚 = θ, 𐬜 = x́ (x + y), 𐬝 = š́, 𐬲 = ž, 𐬱 = š, 𐬳 = ẏ, 𐬵 = h.

The letter 𐬬 transliterates as uu (or v) and 𐬫 as ii (or y); the choice depends on whether it is a vowel, semivowel, or glide in context.

Standard transliteration (the Geldner/Karl Hoffmann convention) writes a dot under a vowel for laryngeal-adjacent or reduced values, e.g. ərə, and uses ŋ for the velar nasal before k/g.

Punctuation: a single dot or small circle separates words or phrases; the Avestan text as printed uses a dot above or a triangle of dots for sentence ends.

When reading, note that Avestan manuscripts are late (9th–14th c. CE) copies; spelling variants in the manuscripts are evidence for pronunciation, not errors to correct.

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

Thematic (a-stem) masculine nouns: nom. sg. -ō, acc. sg. -əm, gen. sg. -ahiiā / -ahe, dat. sg. -āi, instr. sg. -ā, loc. sg. -e, nom. pl. -ā, acc. pl. -ą.

ā-stem feminines: nom. sg. -ā, acc. sg. -ąm, gen. sg. -ā̊, dat. sg. -āi, instr. sg. -ā, nom./acc. pl. -ā̊.

Verb system: present, aorist, perfect, and future stems; three persons, three numbers; voices active and middle; moods indicative, imperative, subjunctive, optative, injunctive.

Primary endings: -mi, -hi, -ti (sg.); -mahī, -θā, -nti (pl.); middle -e, -he, -te, -maide, -θβe, -nte.

Augment a- marks past tense in the indicative (imperfect); the injunctive is the unaugmented past stem used in prohibitions and narrative.

Common vocabulary: ahura- 'lord', mazdā- 'wise', daēuua- 'demon/false god', aši- 'reward', aša- 'truth/order', druj- 'lie', vohu- 'good', mainiiu- 'spirit', xšaθra- 'dominion'.

Prepositions govern specific cases: hača 'from' with ablative, paiti 'toward/against' with accusative, aipi 'on' with locative, haca 'in accordance with' with instrumental.

Sandhi and enclitics: pronominal enclitics (mē, tē, šē, nō, vō) attach after the first word of the clause; final -m before a consonant often becomes -n.

The Avesta is a collection: Yasna (liturgical texts including the Gāthās), Visperad, Vendidad (Vīdēvdād), Yashts (hymns to divinities), Khordeh Avesta (daily prayers), and the lost Nasks known only from Pahlavi summaries.

The Gāthās are 17 hymns in five groups (Ahunavaiti, Ushtavaiti, Spentā Mainiiu, Vohu Xšaθra, Vahištōišti), composed in an archaic dialect distinct from the rest of the Avesta.

Yasna 28.1 opens with 'aŋ́hīiā...' and is a request for help through aša; the Gathic style is dense, with frequent ellipsis and ambiguous case syntax, so translation must be defended clause by clause.

The Ahuna Vairiia (Yasna 27.13) is the central prayer; its three lines are analysed as a statement of choice, not a description: 'as it is the will of the Lord, so is the priest...'.

The Ashem Vohu (Yasna 27.14) has three lines praising aša and the reward for those who act rightly; the Airiiaman Ishiia (Yasna 54.1) closes the Gathic liturgy.

Yasht 10 (Mihr Yasht) is a long hymn to Mithra as the guardian of contracts and the sun; Yasht 13 (Farvardin) invokes the fravashis of the righteous.

Vendidad 1 lists the sixteen lands created by Ahura Mazda and the counter-creations of Angra Mainiu; Vendidad 3–4 concern the fate of the soul and purity law.

Translation procedure: identify the verb first (person/number/tense), then its subject by case agreement, then objects and prepositional phrases; Gathic word order is free and often chiastic.

Formulaic phrases recur: 'ašəm vohū' (good truth), 'vohu mainiiu' (good spirit), 'xšaθrəm... mazdā' (dominion... O Wise One); recognising them aids rapid comprehension.

Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) is the prophet; the Gāthās are traditionally regarded as his own compositions, while later Avestan texts are priestly elaborations.

The central dualism opposes Ahura Mazda (with the Amesha Spentas) and Angra Mainiu (with the daēuuas); human choice between aša (truth) and druj (lie) is the ethical core.

The seven Amesha Spentas: Vohu Manah (good mind), Aša Vahišta (best truth), Xšaθra Vairiia (desirable dominion), Spentā Ārmaiti (holy devotion), Hauruuatāt (wholeness), Amərətāt (immortality), and Ahura Mazda as their head.

Fire (ātar) and water are central purity symbols; fire temples (ātašgāh) maintain a consecrated fire, and the Yasna liturgy is performed before it.

The Avesta was transmitted orally for centuries; the extant text is roughly a quarter of what Pahlavi sources describe, preserved by priests in India and Iran.

Purity law (Vendidad) distinguishes categories of pollution and prescribes purification: barashnum (nine-night), the sacred bull's urine (gōmēz), and water.

The fravashi is a guardian spirit or pre-existent soul; Farvardigan (Farvardin Yasht) honours the departed, and the festival of Nowruz marks the new year at the spring equinox.

Priestly ranks: āθrauuan (fire-priest), zaotar (offering priest), and mobed/dastur in later usage; the Yasna is recited by the zaotar with the rāspī assisting.

Eschatology: the Frashokereti (making wonderful) restores the world, the dead are raised, and aša triumphs; this shapes the ethical urgency of Avestan texts.