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Atar is already evident in the Gathas, the oldest texts of the compendium of the Avesta and believed to have been composed by Zoroaster himself. At this juncture, as in the Yasna Haptanghaiti (the seven-chapter Yasna that structurally interrupts the Gathas and is linguistically as old as the Gathas themselves), atar is still—with only one exception—an abstract concept simply an instrument ...
[1] [2] [3] In Zoroastrian doctrine, atar and aban (fire and water) are agents of ritual purity. Clean, white "ash for the purification ceremonies [is] regarded as the basis of ritual life", which "are essentially the rites proper to the tending of a domestic fire, for the temple [fire] is that of the hearth fire raised to a new solemnity". [4]
Their religion is derived from Proto-Indo-Iranian religion, and therefore shares many similarities with the Vedic religion of India. Although the Iranian peoples left little written or material evidence of their religious practices, their religion is possible to reconstruct from scant Iranian, Babylonian and Greek accounts, similarities with ...
In the religion of Zoroastrianism, fire is a sign of purity and truth, and Ardibehesht (in New Persian the second month of the Zoroastrian calendar [1]) is its guardian. Ancient Iranian legends attribute the discovery of lighting a fire with two stones to King Hushang of Pishdadian dynasty .
The religion is thought to be declining due to restrictions on conversion, strict endogamy, and low birth rates. [9] The central beliefs and practices of Zoroastrianism are contained in the Avesta, a compendium of sacred texts assembled over several centuries.
Many of the practices and beliefs of ancient Iranian religion can still be seen in Zoroastrianism, such as reverence for nature and its elements, such as water . Fire ( atar ) is held by Zoroastrians to be particularly sacred as a symbol of Ahura Mazda himself , serving as a focal point of many ceremonies and rituals, and serving as the basis ...
The Navjote (Persian: سدرهپوشی, sedreh-pushi) ceremony is the ritual through which an individual is inducted into the Zoroastrian religion and begins to wear the sedreh and kushti. The term navjote is used primarily by the Zoroastrians of India (the Parsis ), while sedreh pushi is used primarily by the Zoroastrians of Iran.
The texts are thus also of significance to scholars of religious history, and play a key role in the reconstruction of (Indo-)Iranian religion and for distinguishing Zoroaster's contributions from previously existing ideas and beliefs.