Zoroastrianism

I

Introduction

Zoroastrianism, religion that arose from the teachings of the devotional poet Zoroaster, known as Zarathushtra to ancient Iranians, who is regarded as the faith’s founding prophet. Scholars believe that Zoroaster lived sometime between 1750 and 1500 bc or 1400 and 1200 bc. The Zoroastrian scripture, called the Avesta, includes poems attributed to Zoroaster. The religion continues to be practiced today by Zoroastrian communities in India, Iran, the United States, Canada, and other countries.

II

Beliefs

In his writings Zoroaster speaks of an ethical and moral opposition between Asha (“order”), which he equates with righteousness, and Drug (“confusion”), which he equates with evil and the lie. Zoroaster personifies this dualism in a pair of spirits called Ahura Mazda (“Wise Lord,” known as Ohrmazd in Middle Persian), and Angra Mainyu (“Evil Spirit,” known as Ahriman in Middle Persian). See also Persian Language.

According to Zoroastrian doctrine, Ahura Mazda is a perfect, rational, and omniscient (all-knowing) entity. Thus, Zoroastrians believe that Angra Mainyu created sin, disease, death, and similar evils. Ahura Mazda is said to have created six Amesha Spentas (“Holy Immortals”), who represent aspects of material creation, in addition to other minor spiritual beings who assist in protecting the world and all creatures. Angra Mainyu is said to have produced numerous Daevas (demonic spirits), who represent aspects of pain, suffering, and death, to attack Ahura Mazda’s creations. Many of the spirits worshiped or renounced by Zoroastrians also appear in early Hindu texts because the ancient Iranians and Indians shared a religious and linguistic heritage.

Zoroastrians believe that Ahura Mazda created humans as allies in the cosmic struggle against evil and that humanity will be resurrected and granted immortality once evil has been defeated. They further view the material world as a trap into which evil has been lured and in which evil will undergo defeat by divinities and humans working together. Zoroastrianism preaches that when someone dies his or her soul undergoes individual judgment based on actions while alive. If the soul’s good deeds are greater than its evil deeds, it enters paradise. If the soul’s evil deeds outweigh the good done while alive, it is cast into hell to await the day of universal judgment. In cases where a soul’s good deeds equal its evil deeds, it is consigned to limbo.

---

---

Close to the end of time a savior will resurrect the dead, Zoroastrianism claims. Ahura Mazda will descend to earth with the other good spirits. Each sinner, having already suffered in hell or limbo after death, will be purified. Thereafter, immortality will be granted to all humans. Ahura Mazda, the holy immortals, and other divine beings will annihilate the demons and force Angra Mainyu to scuttle back into hell, which will then be sealed.

The Zoroastrian doctrine of heaven, hell, and limbo influenced other faiths. Islam absorbed not only the ideas of heaven, hell, and limbo, but also the scheme of individual judgment at a celestial bridge and the notion of final, universal judgment. Christianity further assimilated the Zoroastrian belief of the soul’s afterlife and the appearance of a savior, resurrection, and eternal life at the end of the world.

Zoroastrianism, like other religions, possesses a tradition of sacred stories. Most important is the account of creation, preserved in the Bundahishn, or Book of Primal Creation. It tells of the first human, Gayo Maretan (also known as Gayomard or Kaymurs), who had both male and female characteristics, and of Gayo Maretan’s descendants, the first human couple, Mashya and Mashyana. Apocalyptic and eschatological tales--that is, stories about the end of the world and salvation—are found in the Wizidagiha, or Selections, and other sources. These tales predict the defeat of evil, the resurrection, the making complete or renewal of the world (known as frasho-kereti or frashagird), and the final triumph and perpetual establishment of order and truth. Myths of spirits, such as Tishtrya (Tishtar or Sirius) who presides over rain, are found in the yashts (hymns or devotional poems) of the Avesta and in the Bundahishn. Legends of early heroes and villains also are found in the Avestan yashts.

III

Practices

Zoroastrians regard fire as a pure creation, and thus fire became the symbol of Zoroastrianism much as the cross is the symbol of Christianity. Many Zoroastrian rites take place within fire temples. A holy fire is kept constantly burning in an altar at each of the major fire temples in India and in Iran. Smaller temples are located in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the United States, Canada, and elsewhere. Those smaller temples do not maintain holy fires, but a fire is usually lit in an altar before the performance of acts of worship.

Priests called mobeds or magi (see Magi) oversee Zoroastrian rites. The magi originally formed a priestly clan among the Medes, an ancient Iranian tribe (see Media). The magi adopted Zoroastrianism after the religion spread widely among the ancient Iranians. The magi entered Christian belief as the wise men from the East who journeyed to Bethlehem after the birth of Jesus. Today, the office of priest passes from father to son. A son who inherits the priesthood begins studying Zoroastrian liturgies and rituals in childhood. A two-stage ceremonial initiation, based on the degree of training undergone as a practicing priest follows, usually by early adulthood.

Zoroastrian boys and girls undergo initiation into the faith between the ages of 7 and 15. The initiation ceremony, which symbolizes a spiritual rebirth, is known as the Navjote (“new birth”) or Sedra-Pushun (“donning the sacred undershirt”). During this ceremony the initiate puts on a white undershirt called the sedra or sudra, then ties a holy cord known as the kusti or kushti around the waist. After initiation Zoroastrians continue to wear the undershirt and cord every day. The cord is ritually untied and retied with the recitation of prayers each morning and before worship at fire temples. Use of the cord is a practice that Zoroastrians share with Hindu Brahmins as a legacy of their common Indo-Iranian heritage.

Following a practice introduced by the ancient magi, Zoroastrians in parts of India and Pakistan still expose the dead within circular funerary towers, which are popularly called towers of silence. Zoroastrians in other places now bury or cremate the deceased.

IV

History

Zoroastrianism gradually emerged as the official religion of ancient Iran during the Achaemenid dynasty, which ruled from about 550 bc to 330 bc. Inscriptions from the reign of Darius I, from 522 bc to 486 bc, are full of the praise of Ahura Mazda. Darius stressed truthfulness and seems to have regarded the lie as a worldwide evil force. Later, the Achaemenids officially approved the worship of other Iranian divinities as part of Zoroastrianism. Artaxerxes II, who reigned from 404 bc to 359 bc, had inscriptions produced that honored Ahura Mazda, Mithra (a male divinity of contracts and later of fire), and Anahita (a female divinity of water, fertility, and kingship). Under the Achaemenids open-air fire altars were constructed. The earliest Zoroastrian temples may also date to the Achaemenid period.

When the Macedonian Seleucids ruled parts of western Iran, from 312 bc to 175 bc, a merging occurred in the worship of Greek and Zoroastrian divinities—for example, Zeus with Ahura Mazda and Aphrodite with Anahita. Traditional Zoroastrianism was revived slowly under the Parthian (see Parthia), or Arsacid, dynasty, which ruled from about 250 bc to ad 224. By the time of the Sassanian dynasty, from ad 224 to 651, Zoroastrianism had become the popular religion among most groups in Iran and Central Asia and was practiced from the Middle East to the western border of China. In general it was tolerant of its Middle Eastern rivals, Judaism and Christianity. Sassanian Zoroastrianism produced unorthodox variants of traditional belief that also proved popular—for example, the idea that Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu were the warring offspring of Zurvan (time).

Arab Muslims conquered Iran and Central Asia during the 7th century ad. Over the next six centuries most Zoroastrians converted to Islam. A minority of Zoroastrians grouped together to practice their religion in central and eastern Iran at cities such as Yazd and Kermān. Others migrated; some went to China where the community eventually died out, while others moved to the west coast of India where they became known as Parsis (Persians). Zoroastrians who continued to reside in Islamic Iran had to endure periodic persecutions and pay a special tax to Muslim authorities until 1854, when Zoroastrians from India convinced the Qajar dynasty of Iran to abolish the religious tax.

During the 20th century the Iranian Zoroastrian community experienced a few decades of well-being under the Pahlavi dynasty, whose rulers glorified Iran’s pre-Islamic past. Approximately 60,000 Zoroastrians lived in Iran during the 1960s. During the late 20th and early 21st centuries, under the Islamic Republic, the number of Zoroastrians in Iran declined as a result of increased conversion to Islam and emigration to Europe and North America. Iranian Zoroastrians currently number about 45,000 people, living mainly in the cities of Tehrān, Kermān, and Yazd.

Zoroastrians who moved to India in the 10th century, on the other hand, prospered in a variety of professions, especially during the colonial era of British rule. The Parsi Zoroastrians developed into an urbanized middle class, adopted Western education and customs, and played a central role in the creation of India’s modern industrial infrastructure. Parsis today number approximately 76,400 people in India. From India Parsi Zoroastrians, like their Iranian coreligionists, have spread worldwide.

In addition to the larger communities in India and Iran, today there are about 20,000 Zoroastrians in Canada and the United States; 4,000 in England and Scotland, with a few thousand elsewhere in Europe; 2,800 in Pakistan; plus smaller groups in Australia, Africa, and other Asian countries. In these communities the religion’s principles are still taught, basic rituals are practiced, and clerical and lay organizations remain active.

	More from Encarta
	•  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain