H. V. Vertiienko AVESTAN TAŠTA-BOWL IN THE IRANIAN TRADITION: ORIGINS AND REMINISCENCES

AVESTAN TAŠTA-BOWL IN THE IRANIAN TRADITION: ORIGINS AND REMINISCENCES

 H. V. Vertiienko

PhD (History) A. Yu. Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies, NAS of Ukraine 4, Hrushevskoho Str., Kyiv, 01001, Ukraine vertana77@gmail.com

In the Zoroastrian tradition, the ritual libation bowl is tašta (Visperad 10.2 = 11.18). It is a bowl for the haoma (Videvdat 14.8; Yasna 10.17), due to which it becomes an attribute-weapon of both the priests and Zarathushtra (Videvdat 14.8; 19.9). A wide range of materials from which it could be made is given in Videvdat 7.73–75: gold, silver, bronze (iron), steel (?), stone, earth (?), wood and clay, and the last three types of bowls can not be cleaned. Yasna 10.17 allows silver and gold bowls in the ritual of haoma preparation. By etymology, tašta was a part of the original Indo-European semantic circle of objects made (carved) of wood. Despite the fact that the Vedic tradition has retained a number of names of wooden vessels associated with the cult of soma (including metaphorical names) camasâ, the first wonderful wooden bowl for soma made by the divine carpenter Twashtar (Rigveda I.20.6), is probably comparable to the ancient Iranian tašta. Among the early Iranian-speaking nomads of Eurasia, the closest to tašta and camasâ can be recognized as wooden libation bowls with metal (gold, silver and bronze) plates, which have been known in the Northern Black Sea region since the Bronze Age (Timber Grave Culture). Among the Iranian-speaking nomads of Eurasia, remote from India and Iran due to migration processes, an original tradition of decorating wooden cult bowls with metal plates has apparently developed, which combines features of Indian and Iranian traditions. Perhaps this type of vessel was meant by Herodotus, who defined ritual bowls among the Scythians as φιάλην (Herod. Hist. IV.5.3, 10.1, 71.4), i.e. as a typologically similar vessel. At the same time, the Scythians apparently did not allow the use of imported bowls in the cult of sacred drink.

Keywords: Iran, Zoroastrian tradition, Avesta, ritual, libation bowl, tašta, haoma

Preislamic Near East 2021, (2):33-46

https://doi.org/10.15407/preislamic2021.02.033

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