01-09-2006, 10:50 PM
Judaism and other Abrahamistic anti-Idolatory, monotheistic and dualistic tendencies clear had a source in the Iranian reform of Zarathushtra. While Zarathushtra was pretty inclined towards monotheism in his reform, he did not dispense the old Indo-Iranian religion entirely. He retained the Amesha Spentas and Haoma ritual. In any case in the final official version of the Iranian religion, i.e by the Sassanian times the Older Indo-Iranian deities such as Vayu, Anahita (=sarasvati), Veretreghna (=indra) etc came back. The Christian roman empire in fact waged war on the Iranians declaring them to be polytheists.
"Parseeism? This is news to me, I thought it was called Mazda Yasna, perhaps equivalent to Medha Yagna (gift sacrifice?) in Samskrt. "
The original term for the deitywas Ahura Mazda, the equivalent being deva varuNa of the Indo-Aryans, also known as asura medhira in the vedas. Mazda Yasna means the worship of (Ahura) Mazda
"Parseeism? This is news to me, I thought it was called Mazda Yasna, perhaps equivalent to Medha Yagna (gift sacrifice?) in Samskrt. "
The original term for the deitywas Ahura Mazda, the equivalent being deva varuNa of the Indo-Aryans, also known as asura medhira in the vedas. Mazda Yasna means the worship of (Ahura) Mazda