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THE ZOROASTRIAN BOOKS. lowing way. It does not mention any town which was Date of the famous in the Median and Achemenian period
Avesta. except Ragha; nor does it mention the names of later nations or empires. It only knows Aryans, not Persians, Parthians, or Medes as such. It does not even contain any reference to the battles between the Medes and the Babylonians, still less to the conquests of Alexander the Great. And this is the more significant as it alludes to many external events, battles, inroads of foreigners, the hostility of the Aryans to non-Aryans, and of the settled agriculturists to the nomad tribes. The tribal grouping was in full force, and only specially powerful kings were able to unite the tribes into kingdoms. It is much more natural to regard all this as a sign of great antiquity, especially when coupled with the primitive type of the Avesta language. And it is not safe to dismiss portions of the narrative as purely mythical because all trace of some of the names mentioned has vanished. Herodotus's statement that the Medes were anciently called Aryans, supports this view of the antiquity of the record which deals solely with Aryans, before the Medes had become a distinct people.
Let us take the gathas, or hymns of the Avesta, contained in the Yasna, and study them for traces of the people among whom they were composed. In them
Zoroaster speaks directly. The king Vishtaspa The gathas. is described as his pious friend in his great work, wishful to announce it; and in many ways the gathas address or speak of contemporary persons and events. The religion itself is in process of formation, and its followers are subject to persecution. No doubt mythology is intermingled; but if everything which contains mythological interpretations or descriptions were adjudged to contain no historical fact, very much more than the Avesta would have to be sacrificed.
One important fact intimating the great age of the gathas, and also showing the connection of the Aryan people they describe with the Aryans of the Rig Veda, is the high importance attributed to the cow, showing special attention to its breeding and rearing. Thus they
