The Old Avesta and Birth of Iranian Identity

Abstract

ABSTRACT Zaraθuštra is known as the author of Gāθās and the founder of the ancient Iranian religion. However, his historicity, time and homeland have been matters of controversy amongst scholars throughout the ages. It is argued that the socio-cultural and archeological evidence in conjunction with available texts enables us to delimit the relatively large time span estimated for the time of the Old Avestan texts from linguistic analysis, which contextualises the Gāθās in the period of Indo-Iranian acculturation of southern Central Asia in the second quarter of the second millennium BCE. Furthermore, the evident social crisis in the Gāθās is seen as a likely reflection of the encroachment of Rig Vedic Proto-Indo-Aryan Andronovo nomads into southern Central Asia and the probable ideological motive for the Old Avestan innovations. In particular, it is argued that the peaceful sedentary lifestyle that the Gāθās envision became the impetus to attract indigenous Greater Iranians and ushered the Iranian acculturation of Greater Iran, leading to the formation of an ancient Iranian Identity, later disseminated into the Iranian plateau.