The Yasna Haptanghaiti Avestan

Avestan language

Avestan is an East Iranian language known only from its use as the language of Zoroastrian scripture, i.e. the Avesta, from which it derives its name...

 for "Worship in Seven Chapters," is a set of 7 hymns within the greater Yasna

Yasna

Yasna is the name of the primary liturgical collection of texts of the Avesta as well as the name of the principal Zoroastrian act of worship at which those verses are recited. The Yasna, or Izeshne, is primarily the name of the ceremony in which the entire book is recited and appropriate...

collection, that is, within the primary liturgical texts of the Zoroastrian Avesta

Avesta

The Avesta is the primary collection of sacred texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language.-Early transmission:The texts of the Avesta — which are all in the Avestan language — were composed over the course of several hundred years. The most important portion, the Gathas,...

.

Age and importance

The Yasna Haptanghaiti is in Gathic Avestan

Avestan language

Avestan is an East Iranian language known only from its use as the language of Zoroastrian scripture, i.e. the Avesta, from which it derives its name...

, and is as old as the Gathas

Gathas

The Gathas are 17 hymns believed to have been composed by Zarathusthra himself. They are the most sacred texts of the Zoroastrian faith.-Structure and organization:...

, the most sacred hymns of Zoroastrianism and considered to have been composed by Zoroaster

Zoroaster

Zoroaster , also known as Zarathustra , was a prophet and the founder of Zoroastrianism who was either born in North Western or Eastern Iran. He is credited with the authorship of the Yasna Haptanghaiti as well as the Gathas, hymns which are at the liturgical core of Zoroastrianism...

 himself. The seven hymns of the Yasna Haptanghaiti are generally considered to have been composed by the immediate disciples of Zoroaster, either during the prophet's lifetime or shortly after his death.

In substance, the seven chapters are of great antiquity and contain allusions to the general (not necessarily Zoroaster-reformed) religious beliefs of the late second millennium BCE. The texts are thus also of significance to scholars of religious history, and has a formative influence on the reconstruction of pre-Zoroastrian (Indo-)Iranian religion and in distinguishing Zoroaster's contributions from those of pre-existing ones.

Structure and content

As represented within the greater Yasna liturgy, the Yasna Haptanghaiti are placed (and recited) between the first and second Gathas. Unlike the Gathas however, which are in verse, the Yasna Haptanghaiti is in prose. Analysis of the texts suggests that the hymns of the Yasna Haptanghaiti were composed as a discrete unit. The last verse of the last chapter suggests that the seven chapters represent the historical Yasna liturgy, around which the other chapters of the present-day Yasna were later organized. In that verse (41.6), the Yasna Haptanghaiti is personified as "the brave Yasna" and "the holy, the ritual chief."

The seven chapters have been summarized by Lawrence Heyworth Mills

Lawrence Heyworth Mills

The Rev. Dr. Lawrence Heyworth Mills , who generally published as L. H. Mills, was Professor of the Persian language at Oxford University.Mills was born in New York City to Philo L. Mills and Elizabeth Caroline Kane....

 as follows:

1. (Yasna 35),	10 verses,	"Praise to Ahura and the Immortals (Amesha Spentas Amesha Spenta ' is an Avestan language term for a class of divine entities in Zoroastrianism, and literally means "Bounteous Immortal" The noun is amesha "immortal", and spenta "furthering, strengthening, bounteous, holy" is an adjective of it... ); Prayer for the practice and diffusion of the faith"
2. (Yasna 36),	6 verses,	"To Ahura and the Fire (Atar Atar Atar is the Zoroastrian concept of holy fire, sometimes described in abstract terms as "burning and unburning fire" or "visible and invisible fire" .... )"
3. (Yasna 37),	5 verses,	"To Ahura, the holy Creation, the Fravashi Fravashi A fravashi is the guardian spirit mentioned in the Avesta of an individual, who sends out the urvan into the material world to fight the battle of good versus evil... s of the Just (ashavan Ashavan Avestan ashavan is a Zoroastrian theological term. It literally means "possessing aša", hence "possessing truth" or "possessing righteousness", but has further implications:... ), and the Bountiful Immortals (Amesha Spentas)
4. (Yasna 38),	4 verses,	"To the earth and the sacred waters (Apo Aban Apas is the Avestan language term for "the waters", which—in its innumerable aggregate states—is represented by the Apas, the hypostases of the waters.... )"
5. (Yasna 39),	5 verses,	"To the soul of the Kine Aurochs The aurochs , the ancestor of domestic cattle, were a type of large wild cattle which inhabited Europe, Asia and North Africa, but is now extinct; it survived in Europe until 1627.... , &c"
6. (Yasna 40),	4 verses,	"Prayers for Helpers"
7. (Yasna 41),	6 verses,	"Prayer to Ahura as the King, the Life, and the Rewarder"

In the 19th century, Yasna 42 was considered to be a supplement to the Yasna Haptanghaiti, but later discussions of the liturgy do not include it as such. Yasna 42 is younger than the Yasna Haptanghaiti.