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On the Significance of the Name Zarathustra
-M.A. Mehendale
The significance of the name of the founder of the Zoroastrian religion, which appears as Zarathustra in the Avesta, has been much discussed. The most recent explanation is that of Prof. H.W. Bailey' who observes : "So many attempts have been made to explain this name without a generally accepted solution that it may seem bold to try once more." His explanation will be referred to later in this paper. Bailey feels that his explanation is likely to be more acceptable than the rest. Even so the present writer may be excused for suggesting one more solution to the problem.
A general start to the attempts to explain the prophet's name seems to have been given by such Sanskrit proper names as Jarar-käru and Jaral-karna which contain the word jarat as the first member of the compound, and such Iranian proper names like Hitāspa and Yurtāspa which contain the name of an animal (horse) as the second member of the compound. Hence Bartholomac , among others, looked upon zarathustra as a compound formation consisting of two members, *zarant (Sk. járant) 'old' and usira (Sk. ustra) 'camel', the name of the prophet thus meaning 'one whose camels are old (des Kamele alt sind)'.
But scholars felt that a name having this import is not the one which can be looked upon as a suitable name for the prophet. Hence attempts were made to give a different meaning either to the first or the second member of the compound, or to both, but retaining mostly the analysis of the name as a compound form of two members as noted above.
Thus, for example, M. Haug in his Gâthâs Vol. II, pp. 245-246, f.n. 1 (1858) has suggested to equate zarad with hrd 'heart' and ustra with uttara 'higher, excellent', the compound then meaning 'one who has an excellent heart (der ein treffliches Herz hat)', or to connect zarath with Sk. Vir 'to sing', the compound then meaning the excellent singer of praises, most excellent poet (der treffliche Lobsanger)'. Haug prefers the latter explanation as, in his opinion, the singing of praise songs plays an important role in the Gathas and Zarathusbtra himself appears in the Gathās as a poet.
In 1862, in his book Essays etc., pp. 252-253 Haug gave up the above explanation. There he calls attention to the fact that the prophet is also known in the Avesta as Zarathustrthiamo which, as a superlative form, must mean 'the greatest or highest Zarathustra'. Haug argues that this denomination can have sense only when it is assumed that there were several Zarathustras and that the prophet was the
Madhu Vidyā/195
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