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1). 1). KOSAMBI
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not crcdillo. Taking all thcsc into considcration, thc presence of at Icast onc major strcam of common tradition lctwccn Indic and Avestan Aryans is not to be douhıcd. Apart from thic language of Unc gathấg and old Persjan inscriptons, so similar to Sanskrit, we have the common fear of the demons called pälu, worship of Viyu, love of the sacred haoma = soma drink, and the basic position of the firc cult. Stcady contact had bech maintaincd through regions known to both pcoplc, a3 for cxamplc Vackereta of the cvil sladows' (Kībal), and the land of thc seven rivers (=the Punjal»), the seventh and the fifteenth respectivcly of the sixtccn regions created by Ahura Mazda (Vd.). King Yima is much more prominent in thc Vendidad (Fargard ii) than Yama in thic Rgvcda, but the identity is not in doubt; thic Avestan Sarasvati ("the hcautiful Harahvaiti" of V3.13) is thc Arghand-is, and not one of thc scvcn rivcrs in India. Vcrcthraghna is the "lory made by Ahura Mazda” (Vd. xix.37, and Yt. xiv); Indra has been made into a dcmon by thc rcform, though still under the title of dacva (Vd. xx.13,x.9). Then there is the rathcr ambiguous position of the golde-licclcd Gancarcva, a demon (Y1.v.38,xix.41), but not without respect (Yv.xiii.122,xv.28); lc has been transferred to the dcep though the Indians place him in thc atmosphere. · For our main purposc, we have to note specifically the three supposed castes of the Traninns (Vd.1.16, three races, from the Azerbaijan). But thc division into fire-pricsts, warriors, and husbandmcn is not a degradation of thc Jast as it was for thic Vailya in the Taittiriya Samhita and latcr Indian scrip
r they are descended from tlic tlircc sons or Spitama Zarathustra who is himself not only the first and foremost firc-pricst (Yl.xiii.94) but the first warrior and the first plougher of the ground as well (Yt.xiii.88). The husbandman is honoured on carth, and his progenitor suprcmc in tlıc Var of King Yima (10.j.). Wc Jave thcroforca division into classes, not castes. Now the Avestan title of the fire-priesthood is alhravan, which is undoubtedly thc vcdic atharvan, and again shows an ancient unity of tradition to which Zoroastcr rcvcrtcd in clcaring ost thic bloody (and of coursc uncconomic) sacrifices that ubscurcd thc (supposed) original purity of Aryan worsliip, whcrcaa Buddha and the Tains took up the philosophy of ahimsū. The Iranian Athravan lcads the way alicr a path has been purifica from thic cxtremc pollution of a funcral (Va.viu. 19). Thc Athravans who read, and their pupils, will be and prosperity of Ardvi Srira Anihita (Yl.v. 86). Yt. xiii. 147 says "here are the áthravans of all countrico" come to worship the I'ravalis, whilc Yt.xvi, 17 rcfers to the Athravans sont afar, presumally wandering (cvcn mendicant) missionarics. The finc qualitics of an Athiravan arc given in Yt.xix.53. á the casto still monopolizes the pricsthood among thc Parsis, theoretically endoFamous though not rigidly so in practice.
On tho other hand, wastorn travellers know of Iranian picsts as Magi thoughZoroaster uses magus and magofal only as adjcctives, with the meanin
i the mcaning oi
