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Asha (/ ˈ ʌ ʃ ə /) or arta (/ ˈ ɑːr t ə /; Avestan: 𐬀𐬴𐬀 Aṣ̌a / Arta) is a Zoroastrian concept with a complex and highly nuanced range of meaning. It is commonly summarized in accord with its contextual implications of 'truth' and 'right' (or 'righteousness'), 'order' and 'right working'.
Zoroastrian literature is the corpus of literary texts produced within the religious tradition of Zoroastrianism. These texts span the languages of Avestan , named after the famous Zoroastrian work known as the Avesta , and Middle Persian (Pahlavi), which includes a range of Middle Persian literature .
Texts of the Avesta became available to European scholarship comparatively late, thus the study of Zoroastrianism in Western countries dates back to only the 18th century. [20] Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron travelled to India in 1755, and discovered the texts among Indian Zoroastrian communities. He published a set of French translations ...
Zoroastrian doctrine holds that, within this cosmic dichotomy, human beings have the choice between Asha (truth, cosmic order), the principle of righteousness or "rightness" that is promoted and embodied by Ahura Mazda, and Druj (falsehood, deceit), the essential nature of Angra Mainyu that expresses itself as greed, wrath, and envy. [11]
The Bundahishn (Middle Persian: Bun-dahišn(īh), "Primal Creation") is an encyclopedic collection of beliefs about Zoroastrian cosmology written in the Book Pahlavi script. [1] The original name of the work is not known. It is one of the most important extant witnesses to Zoroastrian literature in the Middle Persian language.
R. C. Zaehner (1972) [1] [2] Robert Charles Zaehner (8 April 1913 – 24 November 1974) was a British academic whose field of study was Eastern religions.He understood the original languages of various sacred texts, including Sanskrit, Pali, and Arabic.
Zoroastrian or Iranian cosmology refers to the origins and structure (cosmography) of the cosmos in Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrian literature describing cosmographical beliefs include the Avesta (especially in its description of Avestan geography) and, in later Middle Persian literature, texts including the Bundahishn, Denkard, and the Wizidagiha-i Zadspram.
Enlightenment writers such as Voltaire promoted research into Zoroastrianism in the belief that it was a form of rational Deism, preferable to Christianity [citation needed]. In 2005, the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy ranked Zarathustra as first in the chronology of philosophers.