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Zoroastrian divinity of Victory
Verethragna
God of War and Victory
Barrier-Breaker
Relief of the God Varahram on a column in Taq-e Bostan, Sassanian period
AvestanVerethragna 𐬬𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬚𐬭𐬀𐬖𐬥𐬀‎
AffiliationThe Thirty-Three Deities, Guardians of the Days of the Month
PlanetMars
SymbolWhite Horse, Strong wind, Wild Boar, Camel, Bull, Young Man, Ram, Wild Goat, Magnificent Armed Man, Bird of Prey
Sacred flowerHyacinth
Day20th of each month in the Iranian calendar, Tuesday of each week
Gendermale
Associated deitiesMithra, Tishtrya, Vayu-Vata
Equivalents
GreekAres
HinduIndra
RomanMars

Verethragna or Bahram (Avestan: 𐬬𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬚𐬭𐬀𐬖𐬥𐬀‎, romanized: Vərəθraγna) is a Zoroastrian yazata.[1][2]

Etymology

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The neuter noun verethragna is related to Avestan verethra, 'obstacle' and verethragnan, 'victorious'.[3] Representing this concept is the divinity Verethragna, who is the hypostasis of "victory", and "as a giver of victory Verethragna plainly enjoyed the greatest popularity of old."[4] In Zoroastrian Middle Persian, Verethragna became 𐭥𐭫𐭧𐭫𐭠𐭭 Warahrām, from which Vahram, Vehram, Bahram, Behram and other variants derive.

The Proto-Aryan adjective *vrtraghan, which corresponds to the Avestan noun Verethragna, also has an etymological cognate in Vedic Sanskrit – Vrtra. In Vedic literature, Vrtrahan is predominantly an epithet used for Indra[5] after he defeated Vrtra. Vrtrahan literally means "slayer of Vrtra."

The name and, to some extent, the deity was borrowed into Armenian Վահագն Vahagn and Վռամ Vṙam, and has cognates in Buddhist Sogdian 𐫇𐫢𐫄𐫗‎ wšɣn w(i)šaɣn, Manichaean Parthian 𐭅𐭓𐭉𐭇𐭓𐭌 wryḥrm Wahrām, Kushan Bactrian ορλαγνο Orlagno.[6] While the figure of Verethragna is highly complex, with most parallels being drawn with his Indo-Iranian counterpart Indra, as well as Puranic Vishnu, Manichaean Adamas, Chaldean / Babylonian Nergal, Egyptian Horus, Hellenic Ares and Heracles.

In the Avesta

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In the Bahram Yasht

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Yasht 14, the hymn of praise to Verethragna, "though ill-preserved, contains what seem very archaic elements".[4] There, Verethragna is described as "the most highly armed" (Yasht 14.1), the "best equipped with might" (14.13), with "effervescent glory" (14.3), has "conquering superiority" (14.64), and is in constant battle with men and daemons (14.4, 14.62).

Verethragna is not exclusively associated with military might and victory. So, for instance, he is connected with sexual potency and "confers virility" (Yasht 14.29), has the "ability to heal" (14.3) and "renders wonderful". The Yasht begins with an enumeration of the ten forms in which the divinity appears: As an impetuous wind (14.2-5); as an armed warrior (14.27) and as an adolescent of fifteen (14.17); and in the remaining seven forms as animals: a bull with horns of gold (14.7); a white horse with ears and a muzzle of gold (14.9); a camel in heat (14.11-13); a boar (14.15); a bird of prey (veregna, 14.19-21); a ram (14.23); and a wild goat (14.25). Many of these incarnations are also shared with other divinities, for instance, the youth, the bull and the horse are also attributed to Tishtrya. Likewise, the bird, the camel and the wind to Vayu-Vata, another member of the Zoroastrian pantheon associated with martial victory.

In other texts

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Together with Čistā, Verethragna is a principal companion of Mithra (Mihr Yasht 10.70). Several sections of the Bahram Yasht also appear in hymns dedicated to other divinities, but it is rarely possible to determine in which direction those sections were copied.

The identification of Verethragna as a boar in Yasht 14 led Ilya Gershevitch to identify Dāmōiš Upamana – a boar in the Avestan hymn to Mithra – to be an alter-ego of Verethragna.[7][8][9]

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Statue of Hercules in Behistun, dedicated in the name of "Herakles Kallinikos" (Ἡρακλῆν Καλλίνικον, "Hercules glorious in victory") by a Seleucid governor in 148 BCE.[10] Some have interpreted it as an Hellenistic-era depiction of Verethragna as Heracles. Kermanshah, Iran.

In the Zoroastrian hierarchy

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In the Zoroastrian hierarchy of divinities, Bahram is a helper of Asha Vahishta (Avestan, middle Persian: Ardvahisht), the Amesha Spenta responsible for the luminaries. In the Zoroastrian calendar instituted during the late Achaemenid era (648–330 BCE), the twentieth day of the month is dedicated to Bahram (Siroza 1.20).

In the later middle Persian texts Bahram is especially venerated as one of the Amesha Spentas, effectively giving him the high rank for his success in driving back Angra Mainyu[12][13]

As the name of a planet

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Syncretic Parthian relief carving of Bahram (Nergal) from Hatra in Iraq, dating to the 1st or 2nd century AD

In the astronomical and calendrical reforms of the Sasanian Empire (224-651 CE), the planet Mars was named Bahram. Zaehner attributes this to the syncretic influences of the Chaldean astral-theological system, where Babylonian Nergal is both the god of war and the name of the red planet.[14] (see also: "Fatalistic" Zurvanism).

In the name of a class of fire

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According to Boyce, the present-day expression Atash-Behram as the name of the most sacred class of fires is a confusion of the adjectival "Victorious Fire" with "Fire of Bahram"[15] The former is the way it appears in Middle Persian inscriptions such as the Kartir inscription at Kabah-i Zardusht, while the latter is what is now understood by the term Atash-Behram. Gherardo Gnoli attributes the change to natural misunderstanding "abetted in Islamic times by a progressive decay in Zoroastrian priestly teaching"[16]

In art and iconography

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Kushan ruler Kanishka I with god Orlagno (Verethragna).

The only evidence of a cult appears in the first century account of Strabo, who reports, probably on authority of Nearchus, that the Carmanians worshipped a divinity of victory (Geographika, 15.2.14). That this was Bahramb / Verethragna is unlikely if, as per Strabo, he was their "only god."[citation needed] However, the account does reveal that divinities of war were known to the people who were not of the Iranian plateau, evidence for which also comes from Herodotus (4.59-62).

Under the Seleucids (330–150 BCE) and Arsacids (250 BCE–226 CE), that is, in the Empires influenced by Hellenic culture, Verethragna was both identified as Ares and associated with Heracles, and given the Greek name Artagnes.[17] This syncretism is well attested in statuary and iconography, most notably in that of the inscription of Antiochus I Theos of Commagene, in which all three names occur together.

That Bahram was considered the patron divinity of travelers is perhaps reflected by the life-size rock sculpture of the divinity on the main highway at Behistun. There Bahram reclines with a goblet in his hand, a club at his feet, and a lion-skin beneath him.

In the early Sasanian period Bahram is still represented as the Greek Heracles. In the relief of Ardeshir I at Naqs-e Rajab III,[citation needed] Bahram appears as one of the two smaller figures between Ahura Mazda and the king. There, he has a lion's skin in his left hand and brandishes a club in his right. The other small figure – who appears to be paying homage to Bahram – is the future king Bahram I.

Bahram also appears as wings, or as a bird of prey, in the crowns of the Sasanian kings. This iconography first appears in the crown of Bahram II which also bears the name of the divinity. A similar image is adopted by Peroz (whose name also means 'victorious') as well as by Khosrau Parwez (again, Parwez meaning 'ever-victorious'). Similarly, boar and eagle heads on caps crown the heads of princes. Boar figures are widespread in Sasanian art, appearing in everything from textiles to stucco and in silver ornaments, coins, and seals. Other animal motifs have been found that recall the aspects of Bahram (see the ten forms of Bahram in the Avesta, above). The bird motif on Sasanian-era fire altars are also believed to represent Bahram.

As the name of kings

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Bahram was the name of six Sasanian kings:

In Twelver Shi'ism

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In his famous book, Al-Najm Al-Thaqib, Mirza Husain Noori Tabarsi lists 182 names of the Shia Mahdi. There were a number of ancient Persian and Zoroastrian titles, and Tabarsi listed Bahrām as one of the Mahdi's names,[18] possibly alluding to the role of the Mahdi being a victorious military commander.

In Avestan scholarship

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A boar in a frescoe at Bamiyan, symbol of the Mazdean god of victory Verethragna. 6th-7th century CE.[19]

The interpretation of the divinity was once one of the more widely debated fields in Zoroastrian scholarship since the theories of origin reflected a radical revolution in ethical, moral and religious values.[20]

Primarily because the Avestan adjective verethragnan ('victorious') had a corresponding Vedic term vrtrahan where it appeared "preponderantly [as] a qualification of Indra", Zoroastrians and Hindus accept that[21][page needed] in Proto-Indo-Iranian times there existed an Aryan warrior god Indra and that Avestan Verethragna might be analogous to that earlier shared divine figure. The Sanskrit cognate of Verethragna is Vritraghna, which is the primary epithet for Indra across Vedic literature, and he too is the destroyer of "Vritra", an term which could be applied to an abstract foe/obstacle or personified as the cosmic demon/dragon Vritra.

Renowned German Scholar Herman Lommel proposed that both Indra Vritrahan of Vedas and Avestan Verethragna were descended from the same Proto-Indo-Aryan god "Indra Vrtraghan".[22] The close parallels between Indra Vritrahan of Vedas and Avestan Verethragna reveal a common Indo-Iranian lineage with Verethragna as the natural Avestan evolution of the older Indo-Iranian deity Indra Vritrahan. Both figures serve as the primary demon slaying "war-god" for their pantheons, receiving in return rich offerings of Soma/Haoma. They share the same supporting "war-god" role in assisting the victorious "Trita" warrior archetype slay the primordial demon, often depicted with monsterous or dragon like characteristics. In this case the myth of Rig Vedic Trita / Avestan Thraetaona ("Son of Trita") slaying the Three-Headed, Six Eyed Demon, the demonic entity being Rig Vedic Trishiras and Avestan Azi Dahaka. [23]

Both Avestan Verethragna and Rig Vedic Indra Vritrahan are depicted in their respective texts as being allied with and depicted "carrying" the Legendary Sage of the Aryans, Kavi Usan, known as Avestan Kavi Usa[24] or Vedic Kavi Usana.[25] The gods also carry a major secondary function with Health[26], being invoked by prayer specifically for Virility and Masculine performance. [27] Both figures are known for their warrior forms, typically a youthful "golden/yellow" warrior in appearance. [28] The key recurring attribute is being represented zoomorphically as or specifically known to shape-shift into the same animals for divine intervention (Eagle/Falcon, Goat, Boar, Ram, Bull, and Horse).[29] Both the Avesta and Rig veda figures have a unique association with the Indo-Aryan Soma bird, the Shyena (Hinduism) or Avestan Saēna bird, and both deities also act as live-stock guardians [30] of cattle.[31]

Both figures are also closely associated with the Vedic/Avestan counterpart, the Indo-Iranian wind deity, Vayu-Vata, who acts as their companion. Curiously both figures were again associated together with the Greek hero-deity Hercules in the later Hellenic era. Verethragna and Indra in his Vajrapani form ("carrier of the Thunder-bolt") both being merged independently with Greek Hercules in Greeco-Perisan and Indo-Greek syncretic art.[32]

Other western scholars continued to debate the origins of these figures: In the Avesta, it is the hero warrior-priest Thraetaona, later known as Fereydun who battles the serpent Aži Dahāka (which, for the virtue of 'Azi' being cognate with Sanskrit 'Ahi', snake, is – by proponents of the theory - associated with Vedic Vritra[a]). One Western scholar claims that, in the Vedas, the epithet 'hero' (sura) is itself almost exclusively reserved for Indra, while in the Avesta it is applied to Thraetaona and other non-divine figures. The term "victorious" is not restricted to Verethragna, but is also a property of a number of other figures, both divine and mortal, including Thraetaona. Both the Vedas and in the Avesta, it is humans, notably the primoridial man Vivasvant who first press,Haoma and Thraetaona is attributed with being the "inventor of medicine". However in the Vedas, Indra strikes with vajra, but in the Avesta vazra is Mithra's weapon.

Attempts to resolve these objections led to the development of another theory, in which, in addition to the pre-historical divinity of victory, there was also a dragon-slaying hero Indra. Then, while the Iranians retained the figures independently of one another, the Indians conflated the two (leaving an echo in the character of Trita Aptya).

This theory too had its problems, in particular the fact that Indra was already evidently a divine figure, and not a man, in the Mittani treaties, where he appears in the company of Mitra and Varuna. That again raises more questions since the treaties echo the Rig Veda's invocation of all three as protectors of contract, again, not a property associated with Verethragna.[b]

However, as Benveniste and Renou demonstrated, many of the objections to the first theory could be negated if the evidence were reviewed in light of the fact that the principal feature of Verethragna was not to slay noxious creatures but to overcome obstacles (verethra), in particular to unblock the flow of apas, the waters, the holiest of the elements.[33]

Paul Thieme agreed with this principal feature, but clarified that while the wealth of archaic elements in the Bahram Yasht clearly point to the pre-Zoroastrian era, the interpretation of proper names is "highly conjectural", and "in no case do we get a decisive argument against their Indo-Aryan or old Indic character"[34][c] Adopting "the exact linguistic and exegetic analysis" of Benveniste and Renou, Thieme concludes "Proto-Aryan *Indra has assumed the functions of a Proto-Aryan god *Vrtraghna." Noting that Vrtrahan is a primary adjective for Indra in the Rig Veda, yet only became his name in the subsquent Sanskrit texts. Thieme proposed "there is no valid justification for supposing that the Proto-Aryan adjective *vrtraghan was specifically connected with *Indra or any other particular god."[36]

See also

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Footnotes

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  1. ↑ It remains unclear why those two and not any other Azi, or for that matter, Vedic ahi budhnya, should be related.
  2. ↑ Boyce draws attention to the fact that Indra is specifically named as a demon in both the Avesta (Vendidad 10.9) and also in later middle Persian texts (e.g. Bundahishn 21.6) Boyce adds that it is preferable to see individual developments rather than elements inherited from a different past.
  3. Since "Vedic Indra must be distinguished from a presumable Proto-Aryan [of the Mittani treaties]" "we may go so far as to say that the Avestan Vərəθraγna in his role as the fighting companion of Miθra is the equivalent of the Vedic Indra in his role as the helper of the Adityas. This does not necessarily mean that Vərəθraγna has taken the place of Proto-Aryan *Indra; it may just as well mean that Vedic Indra has replaced a Proto-Aryan Vərəθraγna." [35]

References

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  1. ↑ Kuehn, Sara (12 July 2011). The Dragon in Medieval East Christian and Islamic Art. BRILL. p. 103. ISBN 978-90-04-18663-7. With a foreword by Robert Hillenbrand
  2. ↑ Fragner, Bert G. (30 September – 4 October 1991). "[no title cited]". Proceedings of the Second European Conference of Iranian Studies: Held in Bamberg, 30th September to 4th October 1991, by the Societas Iranologica Europaea. Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (published 1995).
  3. ↑ Gnoli (1989), p. 510.
  4. 1 2 Boyce (1975), p. 63.
  5. ↑ Thieme 1960.
  6. ↑ "Orlagno". British Museum (britishmuseum.org).
  7. ↑ Gershevitch (1959), pp. 166–169.
  8. ↑ Gnoli (1989), p. 511.
  9. ↑ Boyce (1975), p. 83, note 416.
  10. ↑ Visscher, Marijn S. (2020). Beyond Alexandria: Literature and Empire in the Seleucid World. Oxford University Press. p. 75, note 26. ISBN 978-0-19-005908-8.
  11. ↑ de Menasce (1958), pp. 5–18.
  12. ↑ Gnoli (1989), p. 513.
  13. ↑ Zaehner (1955), p. 147 ff.
  14. ↑ Boyce (1982), p. 222 ff.
  15. ↑ Gnoli (1989), p. 512.
  16. ↑ Duchesne-Guillemin (1973).
  17. ↑ "من أسماء المهدي".
  18. ↑ Rowland, Benjamin (1975). The art of Central Asia. New York, Crown. p. 89.
  19. ↑ Boyce (1975), pp. 62–64.
  20. ↑ Benveniste & Renou (1934).
  21. ↑ Thieme, Paul (October–December 1960). "The 'Aryan' gods of the Mitanni treaties". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 80 (4): 301–317. doi:10.2307/595878. JSTOR 595878.
  22. ↑ James Darmesteter (transl.), The Zend-Avesta, Part II: The Yashts, "Bahram Yasht," Verse 40 (Oxford University Press, 1883).
  23. ↑ Darmesteter, James, trans. (1898). "XIV. Warharan Yasht". *The Zend-Avesta*. Sacred Books of the East. Vol. 4, Part II. Translated by James Darmesteter. American Edition.
  24. ↑ Griffith, Ralph T. H. (1896). "Book 1". The Hymns of the Rig Veda. Book 1, Hymn 51, Verse 11. Benares: E. J. Lazarus and Co. – via Wikisource.
  25. ↑ Darmesteter, James (1883). "XIV. Warharan Yasht". The Zend-Avesta: The Yahts, and Nyâyis. Sacred Books of the East. Vol. Volume 23. Oxford: Clarendon Press. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
  26. ↑ Hopkins, E. Washburn (1917). "Indra and Other Gods of War and Fertility Combined". Journal of the American Oriental Society. American Oriental Society. 37: 85–86. doi: 10.2307/592907.
  27. ↑ Darmesteter, James (1883). "Yasht 14, Verse 7". In Müller, Max (ed.). The Zend-Avesta: Part II: The Sirozahs, Yasts, and Nyayis. Sacred Books of the East. Vol. 23. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. [Page Number].
  28. ↑ Rossi, Paola M. (2023). "Indra-kaví: Ṛgvedic Lordship, Bovine Environment, and Onomatopoeic Poetry". Cracow Indological Studies. 25 (1): 259–299. doi:10.12797/CIS.25.2023.01.09.
  29. ↑ Hopkins, E. Washburn (1917). "Indra and Other Gods of War and Fertility Combined". Journal of the American Oriental Society. American Oriental Society. 37: 85–86. doi: 10.2307/592907.
  30. ↑
    • Darmesteter, James (1898). "Warharan Yasht, Verse 14.41". The Zend-Avesta, Part II. Sacred Books of the East. Vol. 23. Oxford University Press. Retrieved from avesta.org
  31. ↑ Galinsky, K. (2020). Herakles Vajrapani, the Companion of Buddha. In A. Allan, E. Anagnostou-Laoutides, & E. Stafford (Eds.), Herakles inside and outside the church (pp. 315-332). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004421530_016
  32. ↑ Benveniste & Renou (1934), p. 182.
  33. 1 2 Thieme (1960), p. 302.
  34. ↑ Thieme (1960), p. 312.
  35. ↑ Thieme (1960), p. 312-313.
  36. Boyce (1975), p. 283.

Bibliography

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  • Benveniste, Émile & Renou, Louis (1934). Vrtra et Vrθragna. Paris, FR: Imprimerie Nationale.
  • Boyce, Mary (1975). History of Zoroastrianism. Vol. I, The early period. Leiden, NL: Brill. ISBN 90-04-10474-7.
  • Boyce, Mary (1982). History of Zoroastrianism. Vol. II, Under the Achamenians. Leiden, NL: Brill. ISBN 90-04-06506-7.
  • Duchesne-Guillemin, J. (1973). La religion de l'Iran ancien [Religion of ancient Iran] (in French). Bombay, IN: Tata Press.
  • Gershevitch, Ilya, ed. (1959). The Avestan Hymn to Mithra. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 459329059.
  • Gnoli, Gherardo (1989). "Bahram in old and middle Iranian texts". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol. 3. New York, NY: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 510–513.
  • de Menasce, Jean-Pierre (1958). Une encyclopédie mazdéenne: le Dēnkart. Quatre conférences données à l'Université de Paris sous les auspices de la fondation Ratanbai Katrak. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
  • Thieme, Paul (October–December 1960). "The 'Aryan' gods of the Mitanni treaties". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 80 (4): 301–317. doi:10.2307/595878. JSTOR 595878.
  • Zaehner, Richard Charles (1955). Zurvan, a Zoroastrian dilemma. Oxford, UK: Clarendon. ISBN 0-8196-0280-9. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
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