On the Artāy Vīrāz Nāmak

Sans résumé

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On the Arty Vrz Nmak

     

The Place of the Mālavikāgnimitra within Kālidāsa's oeuvre

Indo-Iranian Journal -     

Omniscience in the Mahāyānasūtrālankāra and its commentaries

I am indebted to Charles Hallisey, Matthew Kapstein, John Keenan, and J. W. de Jong, each of whom read an earlier draft of this paper and gave me useful criticisms. I have adopted some of their suggestions, and this paper has benefited considerably therefrom. I alone am responsible for deficiencies and errors that remain.     

Poetic license in the Buddhist Sanskrit Verses of the Upālipariprcchā

Indo-Iranian Journal -     

A Gāthic Rite? A Critique of the Cosmological Interpretation of the Gāthās I

In the last few decades ritual interpretation of the Gāthās has replaced the biblical one as the dominant paradigm. The emphasis on the central role of ritual in the Avesta is well justified. This realization has given rise to the question of the role and meaning of ritual in the Gāthās. Marijan Molé had tried to argue that the Gāthās in fact describe and accompany a rite whose purpose was the preservation/renovation of the cosmic order. Students of the Gāthās working within the new paradigm have taken up Molé’s general frame. They have tried to show that the Gāthās, collectively or individually, is the text of a particular rite that served, among others, to preserve the cosmic order, especially the daily rise of the sun. The article questions the validity of this thesis. Its focus is on the version of the thesis we find in a number of recent publications by Jean Kellens. He tries to show that the first Gāthā (Ahunauuaitī) describes a unitary pre-dawn ritual that comprised a haoma rite and an animal sacrifice, and had cosmological and eschatological pretensions. His textual analyses and arguments are examined in some detail. The article concludes that Kellens's attempt must be deemed unsuccessful.     

Michael Comans,Extracting the Essence of the Śruti: The Śrutisārasamuddharanam of Totakācārya

Indo-Iranian Journal -     

Mesopotamian or Iranian? A New Investigation on the Origin of the Goddess Anāhitā

Ar?dvī Sūrā Anāhitā, a popular Zoroastrian yazatā, is celebrated in Ya?t 5 (ābān Ya?t). Anāhitā is mostly believed to be an Indo-Iranian or Iranian deity who has absorbed influences from the creed and iconography of Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess, in the course of history. The type and the degree of such influences are still under debate. The paper places this goddess into the context of ancient Western Asia. Findings are presented in two sections: in the first section, the Indo-Iranian, Iranian and western Iranian origins of Anāhitā are questioned, and in the following section two points are clarified: first, the Mesopotamian origin for Anāhitā is more consistent with historical and archaeological evidence, and second, Anāhitā is the same as Annunit/Annunitum, Sippar—Amnamum’s goddess of war and victory and the avatar of Antu, who was added to the list of his royal patron deities as a result of political and military developments early in the reign of Artaxerxes II.     

The Oxus Temple: Localization of the Avestan Vahvi Dāityā

The article describes an attempt to determine the localization of the Avestan river Vahvi Dāityā using archaeological materials from the Oxus Temple (southern Tajikistan). A comparative analysis of archaeological materials and written sources makes it possible to identify the Amu Darya River with the Avestan Vahvi Dāityā.