• 1 During my stay (2013‒2015) as an associate research assistant to Collège de France, Paris. Througho (...)
• 2 “[Q]ui a pour corps la formule” (Kellens, L’acmé du sacrifice, pp. 75, 80); “Who has the Sacred Wor (...)

2A few years later1 I understood better that such details, i.e., the discipline and the obedience, the sonority of the ritual recitation, the force of the words uttered in prayer, even the stick, were all notions related to the universe of the Zoroastrian god Sraoša, known in the Middle Persian version as Srōš. He is said to have the sacred formula (mąθra) as his body, in other words he is a tanu.mąθra- (Y 57.1).2

• 3 Cantera, “The sraōšāuuarǝza-priest”, p. 6.
• 4 Kotwal & Kreyenbroek, Nērangestān 2, p. 314. Recently, one proposed the identification of this inst (...)

3The connection between the contemporary class of Mumbai, where future priests are educated, and a god so important, can be translated into the analogy between their teacher and the priest closely associated to Sraoša/Srōš, namely the sraōšāuuarǝza- (MP srōšāwarz), one of the eight priests who, in former times, used to compose the Zoroastrian sacerdotal corpus, performing the long liturgy of the Yasna. He is the one who, acting as “a kind of stage director”, as Alberto Cantera puts it now, “oversees the performance of the ceremony [the long liturgy] and corrects potential errors.”3 Moreover, sraošō.čaranā- (MP srōšcaranām), or ‘the whip of Srōš’, is one of the units of measure for the degrees of punishment for sins and a whip used for ritual purposes (see infra).4

• 5 Subtelny, “Islamic Ascension Narrative”, p. 103.
• 6 Subtelny, “Islamic Ascension Narrative”, p. 110.
• 7 Subtelny, “Islamic Ascension Narrative”, pp. 111–112.

5The mythological explanation of the five daily prayers in Islam seems to be provided by the narrative of Muḥammad’s ascension to heaven,5 more precisely by the encounter between Muḥammad and a rooster, in the first heavenly sphere. The rooster is represented as a huge creature, depicted in both green and white colors, and has two main functions: to keep track of the times of prayer and to crow when the time for the morning prayer comes.6 According to Maria Subtelny, the huge rooster filling the space between earth and heaven, is the symbolical representation of Srōš, the Zoroastrian major divinity.7

• 8 Kellens, “Deux apologues”, p. 195.
• 9 Kellens, “Deux apologues”, p. 195.

6Rephrasing things from the perspective of Zoroastrian studies, it is well known that Srōš himself is associated with the rooster. This is most clearly described in one of the books of the Avesta, namely the Vidēvdād, more precisely its eighteenth chapter. It is a text which has quite a complex structure (“un long dialogue composite et sinueux”8), constantly staging a kind of antiphonal dialogue between Ahura Mazdā, the supreme god of the Zoroastrian pantheon, and Zarathushtra, between the forces of good, Sraoša (“dieu insomniaque”9), and those of evil. While working on this text in 2013‒2014, I divided its first part (Vd 18.1‒29) into four, as follows:

• 14 Kotwal & Kreyenbroek, Nērangestān 1, p. 13. Indeed, these periods are mentioned in various parts of (...)

7These main five ceremonial periods of the day are described at length in the second chapter (Fragard) of Nērangestān, or the ‘Book of Ritual Directions’, a text belonging to the ‘non-liturgical, scholarly tradition of Zoroastrian Iran’,14 written in Avestan and accompanied by the Middle Persian translation and commentary (zand). It contains the description of the basic ritual moments:

• 15 Kotwal & Kreyenbroek, Nērangestān 2, p. 65.

‒ the ušahin “lasts from middle of the night until sunrise. Thus, in winter (MP az mayān ī šab <pad> *hu-waxšišn be sazēd. ēdōn pad zamestān)”, N 28.2‒3;15

• 16 Kotwal & Kreyenbroek, Nērangestān 2, p. 113.

‒ the hāwan “lasts from sunrise till the middle of the morning. Thus, in summer (az hu-waxš tā mayānag ī frāyar hān-iz ī sazēd. pad hamīn ēdōn)”, N 29.2‒3;16

• 17 Kotwal & Kreyenbroek, Nērangestān 2, p. 137.

‒ the rapihwin “lasts from mid-day until mid-afternoon (az rapihwin pad mayān ī uzēr be sazēd)”, N 31.2;17

• 18 Kotwal & Kreyenbroek, Nērangestān 2, p. 141.

‒ the uzērin “lasts from the middle of the afternoon until sunset (az mayān uzērin pad hū-frāšmōdād be sazēd). Thus, in summer”, N 32.2‒3;18

• 19 Kotwal & Kreyenbroek, Nērangestān 2, pp. 148–149.

‒ the ēbsrūsrim “lasts from sunset till the middle of the night. Thus, in summer, thus in winter (az hū-frāšmō-dād pad mayānag ī šab (*be) *sazēd. ēdōn pad hāmin ēdōn pad zamestān)”, N 33. 2‒3.19

• 20 “It is, however, likely (Boyce, pp. 84–85) that before Zoroaster, the Iranians divided the daylight (...)

9Some scholars supposed that at a very early stage, there were only three moments: in the morning (at sunrise), at noon, and in the evening (at sunset). It would have been only later on, probably at the stage of the composition of parts of the Young Avesta, that two more moments of the prayer were added, namely: after sunset (most likely at midnight) and before sunrise (dawn). At all the moments, two texts of the Gāthās would have been recited, namely Yasna 46.7 and Yasna 44.16.20

• 21 Kellens, La liste, p. 66; Malandra, “Sraoṣ́a”.
• 22 Malandra, “Sraoṣ́a”.
• 23 “[L]autes Aussagen”, i.e. loud statement, see Bartholomae, Altiranisches Wörterbuch, p. 1004.
• 24 Kellens, La liste, p. 66; Kellens, Le verbe avestique, p. 319.

10The root √sraw-/sru- underlying the name of Sraoša/Srōš means basically ‘to hear, to listen’.21 It generated a wide range of terms which cover two main semantic areas: on the one hand, the process of listening (to), wherefrom major meanings such as ‘to obey, to be compliant’;22 on the other hand, the process of producing listening, among which one counts the recitation. For instance, one of the Avestan expressions for the recitation, particularly of the strongest Zoroastrian prayer, Ahuna Vairiia, is fra.sraošiia-,23 which is translated by the Middle Persian term frāz srāyšnīh (< srūdan, srāy-, meaning ‘to sing, recite’ but also ‘to play an instrument’), while the one for listening, namely upa.surunu- (see also infra, the case of N 2.3), is a compound built up on the present stem of the same root √sru-, namely surunu-.24 This complex of reception (listening) and emission (recitation) belongs to the realm of the sonority and audibility, the patron of which is the god Sraoša.

• 25 One encounters it in the theological treatise Dēnkard 3, written down after the Arab conquest: “Mor (...)
• 26 See Kotwal & Kreyenbroek, Nērangestān 2, p. 91. It would be “a type of recitation which in modern p (...)

11There is also a series of Middle Persian compound terms of srōš- such as: srōš-dār(īh), lit. ‘to have listening/capacity to obey’;25 or srōš-barišnīh, ‘the bringing of Srōš’ (Cantera), which is strictly related to the recitation of the šnūman (dedicatory formula) or the ‘taking of the bāj’26 (see infra).

• 27 See the introductory study in Kreyenbroek, Sraoša; and Kellens, “Fabriquer un dieu”.
• 28 Modi, Religious Ceremonies; Riboud, “Bird-Priests”.
• 29 Riboud, “Bird-Priests”, p. 1. Wertmann, Sogdians in China, pp. 261 (fig. 43.1), 262 (fig. 44.2), 29 (...)
• 30 Riboud, “Bird-Priests”, p. 2.

12If in the Gāthās, sraoša is not necessarily a proper name, but rather a common one, referring to forms of audibility and ritual sonority,27 in the later Middle Persian exegetical writings (end of the Sassanian period and early Islamic centuries), Srōš is almost systematically figured out as an eschatological god, accompanied by Rašn, usually leading the soul of the deceased to the place of the Last Judgment. The ritual rooster, assistant or manifestation of the priest of Sraoša, the sraōšāuuarǝza-, waking up the whole community at daybreak, has a double function: he engages the whole community in a new, daily cycle of prayers and rituals, and, in the case of a deceased person, he announces the departure of his soul, when the čahārom ceremony has been completed, four days after his death.28 In the latter case, he can be compared to Socrates’ rooster. Here one may find, probably, the origins of the Muslim eschatological rooster. This second function explains why one finds the symbol of the bird-priests on a series of funerary monuments, preserved nowadays in various collections in China and abroad. According to the epitaphs, such monuments belonged to wealthy individuals from Central Asia, who would have adopted the local, Chinese funerary customs.29 Skillfully depicted on remarkable pieces of archaeological findings, dated as early as the sixth century (579‒592)30, contemporary of the Sassanian period, these rooster-priests play a dominant funerary role.

• 31 Tremblay, “Le pseudo-gâthique”; Kellens, L’acmé du sacrifice.

13But Sraoša’s main function is more complex and is more clearly depicted in the central textual corpus, the Yasna. For a long time, until recently31, scholarship seems to have ignored the fact that many parts of the Yasna are dedicated or related to Sraoša: Y 3‒8, which is the textual support for the preparation of the drōn, the sacred bread used in the Yasna liturgy; the short hymn (Y 56) and the long hymn (Y 57). Kreyenbroek’s fundamental work on this deity included the edition of both the Avestan and Middle Persian versions of the main texts dedicated to Sraoša, namely in this order: Y 57 or the long hymn (yašt ī mah) from the Yasna, Yašt 11, and afterwards, Y 56 or the shorter one (yašt ī keh) dedicated to the God. But this selection made one lose the coherence and the succession of steps within the Yasna itself.

• 32 Kellens, L’acmé du sacrifice, pp. 78–79.
• 33 This is the detail that was decisive for the full identification of the character-1 in the Akchakha (...)

16One of the many attributes of Sraoša is vǝrǝθraγna- or the one who ‘breaks the obstacles’ (‘briseur d’obstacles’, Kellens). He shares this attribute with Mithra and Vǝrǝθrayna,32 but in his case it becomes more effective, as I will explain subsequently. According to Yašt 11, Sraoša/Srōš is said to be invoked by the ordinary Zoroastrian believers in certain contexts such as: 1. When one sails on a big river;33 2. when one is in a great danger; 3. in the middle of a dark night; 4. on a bridge above the waters; 5. at the crossroads.

• 35 Kellens, L’acmé du sacrifice, p. 73. See also Kotwal & Kreyenbroek, Nērangestān 1, p. 43; Kotwal & (...)

18Sraoša’s weapons are four main prayers: 1. Ahuna Vairiia (= Y 27.13) which Ahura Mazdā himself uttered when he created the world; 2.  Yasna Haptaŋhaiti (which is the prose part of the Gāthās, namely Y 35‒42); 3. Fšušō Mąthra (which is Yasna 58, immediately following the two hymns to Srōš, the long one, yašt ī mah, Y. 56, and the short one, yašt ī keh, Y. 57); 35 4. Yeŋ́hē Hātąm (= Y 27.15).

• 36 See Humbach & Faiss, Zarathushtra, p. 73.

20The prayer Ahuna Vairiia (Yatha Ahū Vairiiō) is the introductory prayer to the Gāthās part of the Yasna, namely Y 27.13, and is followed by another central Zoroastrian prayer, Aṣ̌ǝm Vohū (= Y 27.14), and by Yeŋ́hē Hātąm (= Y 27.15).36 According to the Zoroastrian tradition, it consists of 21 words:

• 38 On the repeated recitation of this prayer in relation to the ritual animal sacrifice, see Cantera, (...)

21It is recited more than once in various specific ritual contexts.38

• 39 Vevaina, “Enumerating the Dēn”, p. 125.
• 40 Agostini & Thrope 2020, p. 8; Vevaina, “Enumerating the Dēn”, p. 126.

22According to the various Middle Persian exegetical works, particularly Dk 9.2.4‒16, written down after the Arab conquest, the 21 words of this prayer would have corresponded to the 21 (lost) Nasks of the Avesta.39 According to another MP exegetical book, the encyclopaedic-like Bundahišn, Ohrmazd could accomplish his project of creating the world by reciting Ahuna Vairiia (Bd 1.28).40 The loud uttering of each one of the 21 words of the prayer has an apotropaic function, it protects against the attack of evil and allows one to pursue his actions.

• 41 Kellens, Le long préambule, p. 27.
• 42 Hintze, “Prophetic and Priestly Authority”, p. 47.

23The Bundahišn fragment, where Ohrmazd is figured as a priest and as a reciter of the Ahuna Vairiia, in order to protect his creation against evil, has either its origins, or at least a precise parallel in the Avestan Y 19, a part of the so-called Bagān Yašt (= Y 19‒21), which is partially a cosmogonic hymn. Zarathushtra asks Ahura Mazdā (Y 19.1‒3) what text was recited for him before the existence of the primordial elements of the creation, the sky, the water, the earth, the plant, the cattle, the human being. Jean Kellens called this pre-established event the “mental cosmogony”,41 while Almut Hintze distinguished two layers in it: the ‘spiritual creations’ and the ‘material world’, the recitation of the Ahuna Vairiia taking place between them.42 As an intercessor on Ohrmazd’s side, in the process of the world’s creation, Sraoša/Srōš probably borrowed this function as well, namely to use Ahuna Vairiia as a strong, significant tool. There seems to be a divine chain of successive investments: Ahura Mazdā invests Haoma as a priest (see infra), at his turn, Haoma invests Sraoša, during a third sacrifice described in Y 57 (see supra).

• 43 Kellens, Le long préambule, p. 27.
• 44 Kellens, Le long préambule, p. 30.

24Surprisingly, Ahura Mazdā’s answer is less cosmogonic and more exegetical. In fact, Y 19 provides not only the elements of a cosmogonic narrative, but also a fine, internal, exegetical work. ‘Bagān’ does not derive here from baγa- (god), but from baγā-, which means “apportionment” (West) or “Teil/Stück” (Bartholomae). Kellens translates this term as ‘version analysée’, thinking that it generally refers to a way of reciting the text which underlines its constitutive parts.43 This cosmogonic hymn describes various types of recitation of the prayer Ahuna Vairiia, an essential cosmogonic tool, as we have seen: “without interpolation and inversion of words” (Y 19.5);44 reciting it (in a loud voice), murmuring it (in a low voice), singing it, venerating it, all in all four types:

• 46 Kellens, Le long préambule, p. 31.

25It is exegetical in the sense that it provides the description of the types of recitation and its phases, as it happens in Y 19.6: one memorizes the prayer in order to master the good diction, one masters the good diction in order to recite it properly.46

• 47 Almut Hintze underlined it, quoting particularly Yt 19.80‒81, Hintze, “Prophetic and Priestly Autho (...)
• 48 I thank Martin Schwartz for having drawn my attention to these texts.

26Since Ahura Mazdā, Sraoša is the god (Y 57.22) who uses Ahuna Vairiia as a weapon, and the first human to recite this prayer is none other than Zarathushtra, himself invested as the first human priest.47 He is the founder of the religion, the founder of the priestly hierarchy as well. This statement is better illustrated in another part of the Yasna, namely the Hōm Stōm.48 In Y 9.1, Zarathushtra appears as a priest purifying the fire and reciting the Gāthās. Haoma, the god of ritual offering, sees him and requests (Y 9.2) the favour to press him, that is to assume the priestly function of a hāuuanān-priest. In Y 9.14, it is said that Zarathushtra was the first human to have recited Ahuna Vairiia. Moreover, the type of recitation is described as well, the internal rhythm and the intensity of the voice:

• 52 According to her, the specific pedagogical dimension in such cases would be the silent, inner recit (...)
• 53 Azarnouche, “La terminologie normative”, p. 176 ff.

28The Zoroastrian exegetical literature written down after the Arab conquest of Iran inherited a lot from the Sassanian period. The terminology of the instructions concerning the religious education, and particularly the recitation of the sacred texts, counts among this heritage. Samra Azarnouche proposed a thorough study of the Middle Persian terminology related to the process of learning (and teaching) the oral recitation of the sacred texts, a major task for the disciples (hawišt) preparing to become priests (herbēd). For instance, among various other meanings, MP ōšmurišn ‘recapitulation’ (Azarnouche) proves to be one of the key-terms for learning by heart.52 Another term is the MP dranjišn, translated as ‘to recite’ (Kotwal & Kreyenbroek), ‘to learn by heart’ (Bailey), or ‘recitation by heart’ (Nyberg). Azarnouche finely underlined the fact that this term would indicate a most precise stage within the process of recitation, namely, to recite loudly the text in order to fix it in the memory.53

• 55 Kotwal & Kreyenbroek, Nērangestān 1, pp. 58–59.

1. The intensity of the reciting voice: In various contexts, one is supposed to recite the Gāthās with a low, medium or medium-loud voice. For instance: N 9.1 prescribes that the lowest voice (Av. *nitǝma vaca/MP nidom pad gowišn) one can use in reciting is to such a degree that the nearest person might hear.55

• 56 Kotwal & Kreyenbroek, Nērangestān 1, pp. 96–97.

N 15.1 prescribes that one of the priests performing the Yasna liturgy, the zaōtar-, should recite the Gāthās in a medium-loud voice (Av. *maδǝmiia vaca/MP mayānag gowišn).56

• 59 Kotwal & Kreyenbroek, Nērangestān 1, p. 57, n. 123.

31The expression ‘to go to the Bridge’ has a clear eschatological connotation, referring to the arrival at the Chinvat Bridge where the proportion between good deeds and bad deeds decides the final destination of the soul of the deceased: hell, or paradise. The right performance of a ritual is a good deed, counting for the chance to have access to paradise, while the wrong performance leads to serious punishments. Kreyenbroek noticed that the expression is bipolar, meaning an act both good and bad.59 ‘To go to the Bridge’ means to be prepared to submit oneself to the ordeal of the ‘bridge’ where good deeds are weighed against the bad ones. This expression occurs also in the discussion on the lawful number of the priests who should perform the liturgy:

• 61 The emended form *āhang is read as “concord, symphony, harmony” (Kotwal & Kreyenbroek, Nērangestān (...)

In the process of exchanging the bāj (see infra), when the rāspīg takes it, ‘it is best if he recites the Avesta in harmony’ (ka abestag andar *āhan gōwēd), says Farrox, the Middle Persian commentator, in N 2.8.61

• 65 For instance, according to N 47.65, he is the one who offers the meat of the animal which had been (...)
• 66 Here followed according to Kellens, Le Hōm Stōm, pp. 125–126. See also Panaino, “Avestan Priestly C (...)

The Yasna liturgy can be performed by two priests, the zōt (Av. zaōtar) and the rāspīg. If the whole sacerdotal body can be gathered, seven more priests are added besides the zaōtar, each one having a specialized function: 1. The hāuuanān- is the one who presses haoma; 2. the ātrauuaxša- the one who lights the fire; 3. the frabǝrtar-, the one who presents the offering;65 4. the ābǝrǝt-, the one who brings water; 5. the āsnatār-, the one who cleans the tools; 6. the raēθßiškara-, the one who mixes; 7. the sraōšāuuarǝza-, the one who ensures the audition. This list is given in Visperad 3.1. and N 60.66

• 67 Cantera, “The sraōšāuuarǝza-priest”, p. 6.
• 68 Cantera, “The sraōšāuuarǝza-priest”, p. 13.
• 69 Cantera, “The sraōšāuuarǝza-priest”, p. 5. Cantera’s article gives a detailed description of the pr (...)

The sraōšāuuarǝza- or the priest of Sraoša, is the one who invites all the other auxiliary priests to take their ritual place,67 he is “the attention maker”, a fact achieved through the recitation of the srōš-barišnīh,68 and he is called the one “best instructed (Sraoša) and best versed in the right performance of the word” (Vr 3.1).69

• 71 Pirart, Guerriers d’Iran, p. 79, n. 47.

32The ‘right performance of the word’ or the recitation of the text ‘d’une manière rectiligne’ occurs also in the hymns to Aša Vahišta (Yt 3.18), Tištriia (Yt 8.3.4), Mithra (Yt 10.6.5), or Vǝrǝθraγna (14.5.4). According to Éric Pirart, it would mean the perfectly continuous recitation of the prayer, without any pause, paying great attention to the rules of the phonetic modification between words. The pause is symbolically conceived as a ‘hole’ through which the evil could break the chain of the ritual text.71 Briefly put, sraōšāuuarǝza- ensures that the recitation is rightly performed, without pauses and respecting the euphony.

• 72 “Lobsänger”, Bartholomae, Altiranisches Wörterbuch, p. 1589.
• 73 “Rufer, Anrufer”, Bartholomae, Altiranisches Wörterbuch, p. 1699.
• 74 “Anbeter”, Bartholomae, Altiranisches Wörterbuch, p. 1280.
• 75 “Segner”, Bartholomae, Altiranisches Wörterbuch, p. 331; Kellens, Le Hōm Stōm, p. 142.
• 76 “Lobpreiser”, Bartholomae, Altiranisches Wörterbuch, p. 90; Kellens, Le Hōm Stōm, pp. 141–142.

33One finds in the Avesta another list, in only six positions, where the priestly functions are classified not in function of the performance of the ritual, as it happens in the case above, but in relation to the modalities of recitation and to the type of the text recited. The list (Yasna 14.1; Yt 3.2, 3) includes the zaōtar- as well, the chief priest, the singer of the Gāthās, and continues with the: 2. staotar-, the one who sings the praise;72 3. zbātar-, the caller;73 4.  yaštar, the worshipper;74 5. āfrītar-, the blesser or the one who practices the low-voice recitation:75 6.  aißijarǝtar-, the one sings the praise.76

• 77 For instance, according to Jivanji Jamshedji Modi, the Pāzand portions included in the middle of th (...)
• 78 Modi, Religious Ceremonies, pp. 355–376. For a good account of various interpretations of the term, (...)

34One of the key-terms of the Zoroastrian prayer phenomenon is bāj, the Persian form of the Middle Persian wāž, which is related to the Avestan vac- i.e., the ‘voiced’ word, a word which is uttered. Throughout the centuries, the term bāj acquired a whole range of meanings. According to the Parsi scholar Jivanji Jamshedji Modi, there are four main meanings, such as: 1. The anniversary of the death of someone, a Parsi would say: ‘Today is the fifth or the sixth bāj of A or B’; 2. the offering (sacred bread, fruit, animal product etc.) done on the celebration of the bāj; 3. a style of reciting the prayer, in a suppressed, nasal tone;77 4. various kinds of prayer, performed both by priests (in the temple) or by laymen (in the home, in domestic areas).78 Among such prayers, the Srōš bāj counts as one of the most popular ones.

• 79 See Boyce, “Zoroastrian bāj”, p. 56.
• 80 According to Kellens, Le Hōm Stōm, p. 98. Also, Boyce, Kotwal, “Zoroastrian bāj and drōn I, II”. Ac (...)

35The ‘taking of the wāž’ (wāž gīrišnīh) is a central operation of the recitation among priests, during the long liturgy. In this respect, the Judaeo-Persian reception of the Zoroastrians is quite faithful, because they are described as those ‘with their taking the bāj’.79 It refers mainly to the recitation in dialogue of the prayer Ahuna Vairiia. It is a formula which introduces, accompanies or concludes a ritual act which is reinforced by a particular power. Y 11.16b for instance is a wāž of Yasna. Performed between the zōt and rāspī, it follows the order: 1. The zōt pronounces the first seven words of the prayer (yaθā ahū vairiiō zaotā frā mē mrūite) by raising the hand towards the head as a salute; 2. the rāspī takes the wāž and recites the same seven words of the prayer among which is introduced the relative pronoun yō, nominative case singular (yaθā ahū vairiio yō zaotā frā mē mrūite); 3. and eventually the zōt again pronounces the prayer, with the same gesture of saluting and with an intense gaze reciting: aθā ratuš aṣ̌āt̰cīt̰ haca frā aṣ̌auua vīδuuā̊ mraotū.80

• 81 Cantera, “The Taking of the wāž”, p. 47.

36Alberto Cantera has analysed the various types of taking the wāž, where mainly four priests are introduced by the pronoun yō, namely: zaōtar-, ātrauuaxša-, frabǝrǝtar-, sraōšāuuarǝz-. In his view, there are eight types: with the relative pronoun (1‒3), without the pronoun (4‒5), in the case of the sraōšāuuarǝz- it is not clear if yō should be edited or not (6), a complex type when the initial words are recited twice (7), where two complete takings of the wāž are combined (8).81

• 82 See Grenet & al., “Zoroastrian Scenes”; Riboud, “Bird-Priests”. One finds a useful state of the art (...)
• 83 See Betts & al., “Des divinités avestiques”; “Akchakhan-kala Wall Paintings”; Grenet & Minardi, “Im (...)
• 84 Minardi, “Oxus Route”, p. 120.
• 85 The last stage of the published reconstructions is found in Minardi, “Oxus Route”, p. 102, fig. 7 ( (...)

37Recent archaeological discoveries in Central Asia created significant challenges. While the iconography of the rooster-priest or bird-priest which has been known so far was almost exclusively funerary and as such associated with the eschatological function of Sraoša/Srōš,82 the recent publications on the colossal (six meters high) characters, depicted on mural paintings found at Akchakhan-Kala, in Ancient Chorasmia, a region that once belonged to the khanate of Khiva, on the present-day territory of northern Uzbekistan,83 put forward the more complex dimension of this deity. It appears that, by the first century ce, Akchakhan-Kala was a “Chorasmian ceremonial centre of Zoroastrian character and the seat of a ruling elite thereby of its court and likely administrators”.84 Within the ceremonial complex, the central monument is supposed to have been a hypostyle hall, where ceremonies might have been displayed in front of a larger audience. It is in this area that these extraordinary paintings were found. Among the reconstructions one counts at least three huge characters, situated in the middle of one side of the hypostyle hall.85

• 86 For a more detailed description, see Minardi, “Oxus Route”, pp. 94, 115–116.
• 87 In a larger perspective, this central band may make one think of a fifteenth century Saint Nicholas (...)
• 88 The most recent update is found in Grenet & Minardi, “The Image of the Zoroastrian God Srōsh”.

38One of these characters of colossal dimensions, identified as the Zoroastrian deity Sraoša/Srōš, is a young, armed male, with long hair. He distinguishes himself by an Achaemenid type akinakes (sheathed dagger). His white tunic is adorned by a neckband and a vertical, central band. While on the neckband one finds, drawn in red, the recurrent motif of boats with men,86 on the vertical band87 the recurrent, drawn motif is that of two face-to-face bird-priests, symbols of Sraoša and his assistant priest, sraōšāuuarǝza-.88

• 89 Personal communication with Frantz Grenet, message from September 2020.
• 90 Minardi, “Oxus Route”, p. 126 ff. Regarding the frawahr hypothesis, its main difficulty could be th (...)

39He is situated on the right side of a central character, who has on his left side another character. According to the last stages of the research, these three central characters might have been accompanied by another one.89 The left-side character seems to be female. The central character has so far been identified either with a frawahr (Grenet) or with the god Tištriia/Tištar (Minardi).90

• 91 One finds a detailed description in Grenet & Minardi, “Illustration of the āb-zōhr”.
• 92 See fig. 15 (“Ceremonial scenes with enthroned kings”), Minardi, “Oxus Route”, p. 125.
• 93 Grenet & Minardi, “Illustration of the āb-zōhr”.

40However, other interpretations are possible as well, and this is my present attempt to propose an alternative hypothesis according to which the central character could be Ahura Mazdā. Like Srōš, this character also has a vertical band on his white tunic. Various scenes are drawn on it. According to the last stage of the research, four frames have been reconstructed.91 One can identify a few symmetries: in the first and the third frame, the character sitting on a throne is at the right side and the simple priest is on the left side, sitting (or squatting) down the earth; in the second and fourth, the character sitting on the throne is on the left side of the frame, while the priest is on the right side, standing.92 Frantz Grenet and Michele Minardi consider that the four scenes are not identical and that they display various stages of the āb-zōhr (offering to the water) ceremony.93

• 94 Minardi, “Oxus Route”, p. 127, and fig. 16. Minardi identifies him as a Chorasmian king. The “chair (...)

41Beyond many uncertain things, one detail is clear: both characters are wearing a padām. Moreover, as Minardi convincingly argued, the sitting character seems to be a king, with a beard and a padām. Briefly put, he is a priest-king.94

• 103 Modi, Religious Ceremonies, p. 338.
• 104 Panaino, “Avestan Priestly College”, p. 87 ; “Le sacrificateur qui actionne le pressoir” (Kellens, (...)

46Moreover, Ahura Mazdā is the one who invests Haoma as the primordial zaōtar- (Yt 10.89), the priest whose main function is to sing/recite the Gāthās,103 and hāuuanān- (Yt 10.90), who is one of the eight priests of the sacerdotal Zoroastrian corpus, namely the “pressing (haoma) priest”.104 This happens in the hymn dedicated to Mithra, the god patronizing the morning period of the daily prayer, namely hāuuani-, following immediately the period under the auspices of Srōš.

• 107 On Zarathustra as a priest, particularly according to Yasna Haptaŋhāiti, see Hintze, “Prophetic and (...)

47In view of such textual evidence, the scenes with the two priests, in which one has a royal character as well, which are drawn in the frames of the vertical band of the central Akchakhan-kala character, could also be read in connection with Ahura Mazdā and his major, symbolical role in the foundation of priesthood. They could represent the act by which Ahura Mazdā invests the god Haoma as both a zaōtar- (the reciter par excellence) and a hāuuanān-, as mentioned in Yt 10, the hymn to Mithra. Haoma or rather Zarathushtra himself, the first human priest, as Yasna 19 accounts for (see also supra).107

• 108 See Kellens, Le Hōm Stōm; Panaino, “Avestan Priestly College”.

48In case further reconstruction of archaeological data would show more than four scenes, each one being particular, one could then argue in favour of the foundation of each priestly function, as described in Visperad 3 and recently analyzed by Antonio Panaino.108 But this already seems to be a less likely perspective. It appears as more plausible that two main distinct scenes are constantly repeated on the band. If so, two priestly functions are put forward: that of the priest reciter par excellence of the Gāthās and that of the one pressing the haoma.