Gathic Composition and Lexicology*
It is now possible to illuminate the Gathas through two novel approaches, representing recently described phenomena of the structure of this poetry, and systematic transtextual generation of new poems, noted below. These approaches, brought to bear on what will be shown to be two cognate words, will lead from a consideration of an eschatological passage to a focus on Zarathushtra’s concerns in connection with his own mortality.
The meaning of yāh– was earlier treated,1 now summarized and expanded. Ring composition was applied to show that Y30.2, against various other opinions, means ‘(chariot)-race’. Apart from ring composition, evidence adduced for this meaning included the collocation of yāhī-, yāh– with
*IamgladtohonortheIranisticaccomplishments of Dr. Jaleh Amouzegar with the present article. 1.Martin Schwartz, “Encryptions in the Gathas: Zarathushtra’s variations on the theme of bliss,” in Carlo G. Cereti, Mauro Maggi and Elio Provasi,
eds., Studies in Honour of Professor Gherardo Gnoli on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday on 6th December (Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 2003), 376-378.
ISSN 0892-4147-print/ISSN 2159-421X online/2014/29.2/22-28. Iran Nameh, Volume 29, Number 2, 2014
names in –aspa– ‘horse’, respectively Y46.14 Vīštāspa and Y49.9 Də̄ jāmāspa, further collocated with the motif of fame in the first instance, and in the second instance the motifs of yoking/being yoked. In addition, a semantic shift of yāh– from ‘chariot-race’ to ‘agon’ (< Greek ágōn = OInd. ājí– ‘chariot-race’ from ‘drive forth’) contextually suits translation of Yt 11.13 vərəθrastəmō yāhī ‘most victorious in the contest’, and ‘agon’> ‘agony’ fits Yt13.14 yā̊ ŋhąm … ązaŋhąm ‘of agonies … of anxieties’ (for YH36.2 mazištāi yåŋhąm, see Schwartz 2006a, 484).
The ring composition supports yāh– as ‘chariot race’.2 Y30.10, the stanza concentrically corresponding to Y30.2, in addition to its formal correlation of srauuah ‘fame’ (*‘hearing about’) to Y30.2 sraotā ‘hear you’, has a correlation with the chariot-race motif of Y30.2. Y30.10 has ‘but they remain yoked …, those who win in good fame’ (cf. above on Y49.9 and Y46.14 for yāh– in the contexts of being yoked for a prize and achieving fame) contrasts there with ‘breakage will befall the spaiiaθra– of Wrongness’. For spaiiaθra-, translation ‘attachment of the chariot’s shaft (pole) to the yoke’ is corroborated by the cognate root stem –spā-t– in YAv. upairi.spāt– ‘chariot pole’ and, with preverbs *ā-, *vi-, and *ava-, Sanglechi, Yidgha, and Wakhi words for the functionally equivalent ‘plowshaft’. Thus in Y30 ring composition confirms that Y30.2 yāh– means ‘chariot-race’. Finally, as to etymology, yāh- */ya’ah/ matches Vedic yā́ -ti ‘races, courses forth’, which would be the meaning of their Indo-Iranian verb etymon √yā (√yaH).
II
The Indo-Iranian root of Av. yāh-, yā ‘to race, to course’, provides the substance for our second section. Insler (1975, translations, ad loc.) has a diversely triple treatment of yāh-, Y30.2 yā̊ ŋhō as gen. of a yāh– ‘retribution’, Y46.10 yāhī as *yā *ahī ‘with whom thou art (allied)’, and Y49.9 yāhī as ‘yes’
2. Matrin Schwartz, “How Zarathushtra Gen- Institute 16 (2006), 53–64, see 53-54 as to erated the Gathic Corpus,” Bulletin of the Asia the principle.
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(?!). What is important for us now is that Insler (p. 90) emends Y48.2 yā mə̄ ṇg to *yāmə̄ ṇg, gen. of *yāman– = Vedic yā́ man– ‘course’ (which derives from the aforementioned root yā), and takes the hapax pərəθā in the same line, otherwise interpreted as ‘compensation’ or the like, as ‘far end’.
Insler comments on Y48.2b: “The peculiar yā mə̄ ng is for orig. yāmə̄ ng, gen. of yāman– ‘course’ = Ved. yā́man-, and the hapax pərəθā (otherwise taken as ‘compensation’ vel sim.) corresponds to Ved. pārá- ‘far shore, end’. Thus the expression *yāmə̄ ng pərəθā means ‘the end of the course’, and is a euphemism for death. Cf. comparable Ved. formation ádvanaḥ pārám RV. V. 54.10d, etc. Separation to yā mə̄ ng has taken place under the influence of yā in the first [i.e., preceding] line.”3
For pərəθā as ‘far side, far end’, cf. also Av. pərətu– ‘a crossing over, ford, bridge’ < √par ‘to cross over’, collocated at Y46.10e frō … frā pərətūm ‘I shall cross over the … Bridge’. More importantly, *mə̄ ṇg could occur only as part of a phrase *mə̄ ṇg … dā– (*mə̄ ṇg < manh < *mans), with mə̄ ṇg … dā = mązdā-.4
With adoption of Insler’s understanding of Y48.2b, the entire stanza may now be given with a new translation, whose details will be justified below:
Y48.2
a vaocā mōi yā tuuə̄ m vīduuā̊ ahura
b parā hiiat̰ mā yā mə̄ ṇg pərəθā jimaitī ckat̰ašạuuā mazdāvə̄ṇghat̰drəguuaṇtəm d hā zī aŋhə̄ uš vaŋvhī vīstā ākərətiš
Y48.2
‘Tell me, O Thou knower, Ahura,
before the end of my course [= my death] shall come:
3. Stanley Insler, The Gāthās of Zarathustra theque Pahlavi, 1975), 206. (Teheran-Liege: E. J. Brill, Leiden and Biblio- 4. Insler, The Gāthās of Zarathustra, 14-15.
Iran Nameh, Volume 29, Number 2, 2014
Shall the righteous one overthrow the wrongsome one,
O Mazdā? For that gestaltung of existence is the good one to be obtained’.
The question exemplifies Y48.1a, yezī adāiš ašạ̄ drujim və̄ ṇghaitī ‘if, upon these (scil. Y48.1’ salvific benefits) one shall overthrow the wrongsome one via Rightness’. For vistā ‘(to be) obtained’, note resumption at Y48.3a’ vaēdəmnā ‘to the one who obtains’. Etymologically ākərətiš is from ā + √kar ‘to make or bring about to a certain end, patterning, design’, cf. RV X 85.5 sámānām mā́ sa ākṛtiḥ ‘the moon is the gestaltung of the years’.
This interpretation is confirmed within Y48 by stanza 9: Y48.9
a kadā vaēdā yezī cahiiā xšaiiaθā
b mazdā ašạ̄ yehiiā mā āiθiš duuaēθā
c ərəš mōi {ərəž}ūcąm vaŋhə̄ uš vafuš manaŋhō d vīdiiāt̰ saošiiąs yaθā hōi ašị š aŋhat̰
Y48.9 ‘When shall I know whether Thou hast power, O Mazdā with Rightness, over whoever is a danger and threat to me? May the design of Good Mind be told me aright, for the weal-bringer should know how his reward will be.’
Here, matching Y48.2 ākərətiš ‘gestaltung, patterning, design’ is vafuš ‘(cosmic) design’ < ‘weaving pattern, weft’ (cf. the Vedic cognate vapus– ‘form’, influenced by vap– ‘to shear, trim’, representing the pervasive Indo- European metaphor of the weaving of fate). At Y29.6 mazdā̊ vīduuā̊ vafuš ‘Mazdā, knowing the designs’ refers to the primordial divine prognostication of Zarathushtra’s messengership. For vafuš-, contexts, and etymology.5
Y48.9 not only provides a variant of the question of Y48.2 (with Zarathusthra and his adversary representing respectively the righteous one
5. Martin Schwartz, “Gathic Compositional History, Y29, and Bovine Symbolism,” in Sia- mak Adhami ed., Paitimāna: Essays in Iranian,
Indo-European and Indian Studies in Honor of Hanns-Peter Schmidt (Costa Mesa, CA: Maz- da Publishers, 2003), 210.
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and the wicked one), but as parallel to the latter, Y48.9 indirectly confirms that Y48.2 refers to Zarathushtra’s desire for divine assurance before his death. Y48.9 is closely based on Y32.16:
Y32.16 a
hamə̄ m tat̰ vahištācīt̰ yə̄ ušuruiiē siiascīt̰ dahmahiiā b xšaiiąs mazdā ahurā yəhiiā mā aiθīšcīt̰ duuaēθā c hiiat̰aēnaŋ́ hē drəguuatō ə̄ əānū išiiə̄ ṇg aŋhāiiā
Y32.16 ‘This is equal to the best thing for me: when I am reposing in the happiness of the Skillful One (i.e., Thee), O Mazdā Ahura, (Thou) having power over him who is for me a danger and threat, so that I would put in check the wrongsome ones as to their harm to the future messengers’.6
It must yet be shown that at Y48.2 the posited phrase ‘end of the course’ (= ‘death’) is indeed based on a yāman– ‘course’, the latter supported, as we have suggested, by yāh– ‘race’ as cognate. Proof is the cross-textual consecutive recasting of lexical material from Y30 as part of the lexical skeleton of Y48, whereby, in this instance, each stanza of Y30 contributes at least one word to each stanza of Y487 with Y30 is Y48.2b parā … yāməṇg and Y30.2c parā … yā̊ ŋhō, whereby yāman– matches yāh-:
6. For the translation of the final word at Y32.16 as ‘put in check, tie up’ see Insler, The Gāthās of Zarathustra, 210; Schwartz, “How Zarathushtra Generated the Gathic Corpus,” 54 & 58; Martin Schwartz, “The Gathas and Other Old Avestan Poetry,” in Georges-Jean Pinault and Daniel Petit, eds., La langue poeti- que indo-europeenne, Actes du Colloque de travail de la Societe des Etudes Indo-Europeennes (In- dogermanische Gesellschaft/Society for Indo-Eu- ropean Studies), Paris, 22–24 octobre 2003 (Leuven-Paris: Peeters, 2003), 460-461 & 464-465.
7. for the principle, see Schwartz, “How Zarathushtra Generated the Gathic Corpus,” 55–57 & 59–64; further Martin Schwartz
“Pouruchista’s Gathic Wedding and the Tele- ological Composition of the Gathas.” in Wer- ner Sundermann, Almut Hintze, and Francois de Blois, eds., Exegisti Monumenta: Festschrift in Honour of Nicholas Sims-Williams, (Wies- baden: Harrassowitz, 2009), 429-448 and, with consequences for lexicography and ety- molog y, MArtin Schwartz “Lexical Cruces of Yasna 29 and the Serial Cross-Composition of the Gathas,” in Maria Macuch, Dieter We- ber, and Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst, eds., Ancient and Middle Iranian Studies: Proceedings of the 6th European Conference of Iranian Stud- ies, held in Vienna, 18–22 September 2007 (Wi- esbaden: Harrassowitz, 2010), 219-224.
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Y30.1a’ vaxšiiā; Y48.1b’’ fraoxtā: √vak ‘to speak’
Y30.2b’ parā … yā̊ ŋhō; 48.2b’ parā … *yāmə̄ ṇg: ‘before’ + noun < root √yā
‘to course’
Y30.3c’ hudā̊ ŋhō; Y48.3b’ hudā̊ ‘benefactor’
Y30.4b’’ aŋhat̰ apə̄ məm; Y48.4d’’ apə̄ məm … aŋhat̰ ‘will be last’
Y30.5c’’ š́ iiaoθanāiš; Y48.5b’’ š́ iiaoθanāiš ‘with actions’
Y30.6c’’ marətānō; Y48.5c’’ mašị iā: *mart— ‘mortals’
Y30.7c’’ paoruiiō; Y48.6d’’ paouruiiehiiā ‘first’
Y30.8b’’ vohū manaŋhā; Y48.7 vaŋhə̄ uš manaŋhō ‘Good Mind’
Y30.8c’’ ašạ̄ t̰; Y48.8c’ ašạ̄ ‘Rightness’
Y30.9c’’ aŋhat̰; Y48.9d’’ aŋhat̰ ‘will be’
Y30.10a’ adā; Y48.10a’,10b’ kadā ‘then’/‘when’?
Y30.11c’ sauuā; Y48.12a’’ saošiiaṇtō: √sū ‘to bring (salvific) benefit or weal’
What may now be suggested is that not only does the entire phrase 48.2b parā … yāmə̄ ṇg correspond to Y30.2b’ parā … yā̊ ŋhō, but the theme of Y48.2 ‘the end of the course’ (yāmə̄ ṇg pərəθā) was suggested by the allusion to the end of the race at Y30.2 and thereby Y30.10.
The cross-stanzaic correspondence between Y48 and Y30 beyond the level of words shows other correlations. Y30.1–2 is one of a number of Gathic passages in which the overt key word vahištā ‘best things’ is the target of a nearby encryption (or serial encryption) in which the sounds of vahištā are to be perceived as scrambled in a kind of oral anagram (which I call “mixophonism”) within a phrase of other words.8 This technique is found at Y30.1a ‘Lo! I shall speak to the seekers (/at TĀ WaxŠyĀ IšanTAH/) things to be understood indeed by the knower (vīdušē)’, with a further
8. Schwartz, “Encryptions in the Gathas: 378-385; chwartz, “How Zarathushtra Gener- Zarathushtra’s variations on the theme of bliss,” ated the Gathic Corpus,” 204-206.
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mixophonism of /VAHIŠTĀ/ at the end of the stanza. The decryptive clue is given at Y30.2a’: ‘Hear with your ears the best things (vahištā). Y48.2d also mixophonizes /VAHIŠTĀ/: /HĀ zI AHauŠ VIsTĀ ĀkrTIŠ/. The decryption comes at Y48.3: For the one who obtains/possesses/gets it/them, (is/are) the best (things) (vahištā) of the teachings which the beneficent Ahura teaches with Rightness, being holy, knowing (viduuā̊ ) indeed the hidden utterances, like Thee, O Mazdā, with the intellect of Good Mind’. “The hidden utterances” refer to the encrypted sounds, whereby the ‘good gestaltung’ of 48.10d is seen as tantamount to ‘the best things’.
In addition, the defeat of Wrong by Right, designated at Y48.1a by sauua– pl. ‘beneficial weal’, is found in the last line of Y30, again with sauua– pl., generalizing the successful results of the metaphoric chariot race. Furthermore, the cognate term for the bringer(s) of this evil-expelling weal, saošiiaṇt-, is found in the last line of Y48, and is also used self-referentially in Zarathushtra’s question at Y48.9 as to the outcome for him.
It is seen that attention to the compositional aspects of Y30 and Y48 and their comparison yields substantial insights into the lexicology and thematics of both poems.
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