Avesta & Sanskrit! - Twin Flame! (forward)

[Guest guest]

AVESTA AND SANSKRIT,

TWIN IDENTICAL SISTERS

 

Dear Companions-in-Asha:

 

Ushta!

 

Allow me to relate to you an interesting incident. In 1975, the Iran Culture

Foundation,

Tehran, associated with the Imperial Iranian Court, arranged a " Persian

Refreshment

Course " of three weeks in Sirinagar, Kashmir for the Indian Professors of

Persian

Departments of the Indian Universities. A team of the Professors of the Persian

Department of the Tehran University were chosen and I, representing the Ministry

of

Culture and Art, accompanied the team. Some 40 Professors from all over India

attended

the course.

 

One of the interesting incidents was that when on the first day we visited the

Srinagar

University, I met the Head of the Sanskrit Department Prof. Ganjoo, a Kashmiri

Brahman.

He was surprised to see an Iranian knowing Sanskrit and talking of Rigveda. It

brought us

closer. He wanted to know how close Sanskrit was to Avesta, and in our

discussions I said

that I will, with my limping Sanskrit, turn the first song of the Gathas into

Sanskrit

for him. I started reciting:

 

Ahyâ yâsâ nemanghâ

ustâna-zastô refedhrahyâ

Manyêush Mazdâ pourvim

spentahyâ ashâ vîspeng shyaothanâ

vangheush khratûm mananghô

yâ khshnevîshâ gêush-châ urvânem.

 

in Sankrit as:

 

asyâ yâchâ namasâ

uttânahastô repadhrasyâ

manyôh mêdhâ purvyam

shvintasyâ rtâ vishvân chyautnâ

vasôh kratûm manasô

yâ kshnavishâ gsh-châ urvânam.

 

I continued further, with short explanations in between. He was amazed. We met

again and

again within the following days during my off hours.

 

And then the surprise. He asked: " Would you accept to be my elder brother? " I

stood

stunned. He explained that his daughter was to be married the following week and

that in

Hinduism, it is the elder paternal uncle who leads the bride to the wedding

ceremony and

supervises the function, and that he had no elder brother. With tears flowing

down from

my face, I accepted it. He lost no time to take me to his house and introduce

his family

members, including the future bride. The ceremony forms one of my vivid

memories. Five

Kashmiri Pundits, standing round the flaming fire, lit from the hearth fire,

chanted the

Sanskrit shlokas by memory for almost two hours and in the sweet Kashmiri tone

of theirs.

It reminded me that we did the same in chanting the Gathas, when we knew that

they were

metered songs. Later, I tape-recorded the chantings from the Rigveda, but alas,

I left it

and still a later recording done in the Banaras University, behind in Iran.

Perhaps, some

scholar would make it good in the future.

 

Avesta and Sanskrit are definitely identical twin sisters, so much so that

hardly any

other two akin languages are so identical. That is why, one of my theories is

this that

the Iranians, during the Achaemenian period, did not need any interpreter to

communicate

with their Indian counterparts. Yes, they are identical sisters, and no person

with

his/her clear eyes, clear ears and clear mind, can deny the identity. It has

been mainly

through Sanskrit that today we understand Avesta as best as we do. Their

identity also

tells of the common origin of the Aryan roots of the Indo-Iranian people. The

two are

complements and compliments to each.

 

Ushta,

 

Ali A. Jafarey

 

 

 

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