Amesha Spenta

Amesha Spenta (Aməṣ̌a Spənta) is an Avestan term for a class of divinities in Zoroastrianism, literally meaning "Bounteous Immortal". Later middle Persian variations of the term include Ameshaspand and the specifically Zoroastrian terms Mahraspand and Amahraspand. These beings (and the characteristics associated with each) are Vohu Manah (Good Mind), Asha Vahistah (Truth), Khshatra Vairya (Good Dominion), Spenta Armaiti (Devotion), Haurvatat (Wholeness and Health), Ameretat (Immortality). Spenta Mainyu, the Holy Spirit, is also sometimes included in his "divine heptad". Each of these beings are considered to be worthy of worship in their own right, not in a direct fashion, but rather as a means for communicating with Ahura Mazda. Although the identification of these beings seems to suggest multiple deities, as in polytheism, the Amesha Spentas are considered to be emanations of Ahura Mazda (the supreme Zoroastrian divinity) which personify abstract qualities he embodies as opposed to distinct divine beings.

Origins

The term Amesha Spenta itself does not appear in the Gathas, the most sacred text of Zoroastrianism which have been dated around 1000 B.C.E. However, the word Spenta does appear in this text, referring to the process of "furthering" or "strengthening", as well as "plenitude" or "holiness". Despite the fact this specific term does not appear, the group of entities surrounding Ahura Mazda which is represented by the term do figure significantly in the Gathas. It can be concluded then that the term Amesha Spenta was probably invented by Zoroaster, the founder of Zoroastrianism who is traditionally thought to have authored the Gathas. Spenta, however, was not formally affixed with the adjective amesha ("immortal") until the Avesta, the primary collection of Zoroastrian sacred texts, was compiled around the second century CE. Together these terms are used in the Avesta to refer to various abstractions. The individual Amesha Spentas are on occassion named individually in the Gathas, although their characteristics are listed more frequently. In the Gathas, Ahura Mazda is referred to as the father of the Holy Spirit, as well as Truth, the Good Mind, and Righteousness, all of which would become personified within the later doctrine of the Amesha Spenta. Ahura Mazda is considered father in that he created these three abstract concepts by an act of his own will (khratu). Soon after the prophet's death, Ahura Mazda and the entities that were close to him were drawn into a heptad. Ahura Mazda was identified with the holy spirit, and placed within proximity to him were six abstractions: Good Mind, Truth, Right-mindedness, the Kingdom, Wholeness and Immortality. While such an identification is not made in the Gathas, all six of these abstractions figure prominently in the work.

Doctrine

In non-specific usage, the term Amesha Spenta denotes all the divinities that furthered or strengthened creation and all that are bounteous and holy. It not only includes the ahuras (a term that in the Gathas is also used in the plural but only includes Ahura Mazda by name), but also all the other divinities that are alluded to in the Gathas. In this non-specific sense of the term, Amesha Spenta may therefore be considered equivalent to the term Yazata. This meaning is particularly present in post-Sassanid era texts, but there are also instances in the Avesta proper where it is used this way. In Yasna 1.2 for instance, the Yazata Atar is declared to be "the most active of the Amesha Spenta." Even in modern Zoroastrianism, the term is frequently used to refer to the thirty-three divinities that have a calendarial dedication or have a Yasht dedicated to them. This general, non-specific, meaning of the term Amesha Spenta also has an equivalent in the Vedic Sanskrit Vishve Amrtas, which is the collective term for all supernatural beings (lit: 'all immortals'), and thus includes both the devas and asuras (ahuras in Avestan). By Zoroaster's time, the term daeva was associated with the "wrong" divinities, leaving only the "right" divinities worthy of devotion.

The more specific (and more common) understanding of Amesha Spenta refers to the great six 'divine sparks' of Ahura Mazda. In Zoroastrian tradition, these are the first six emanations of the uncreated Creator, through whom all subsequent creation was accomplished. These emanations are considered to be divine even though they are ultimately subordinate to Ahura Mazda, who dwells within each of these deities since they are part of his creation. The Amesha Spentas were not conceived by Zoroaster as having an existence separate from Ahura Mazda, which is evident in the way that Zoroaster typically conceived of Ahura Mazda as the agent, with his divine operations taking place through one of the Amesha Spentas. These archangelic beings represent personified attributes of Ahura Mazda and some scholars believe they have been been reconceptualizations of deities which were prevalent in pantheons which prevailed in Indo-Iranian polytheistic religion before the emergence of Zoroastrianism. A number of the concepts embodied by specific Amesha Spentas were likewise embodied by Vedic deities. Thus, Zarathustra's identification of each Amesha Spenta with an abstract concept follows a precedent in Indo-European religion to correspond various abstractions with particular divinities.

This fundamental doctrine is only briefly touched upon in the Gathas. In Yasna 47.1 of the Gathas The six most important Amesha Spentas are listed as follows: Vohu Manah (Good Mind), Asha Vahistah (Truth), Khshatra Vairya (Good Dominion), Spenta Armaiti (Devotion), Haurvatat (Wholeness and Health), Ameretat (Immortality). These powers exist as a function of Ahura Mazda's divine will, personifying attributes of his character and manifesting them within the physical world. In later tradition, the attributes in the names of the first four are integral to the names themselves. Zoroaster however, uses the terms Asha et al as qualities that each of the Amesha Spenta represents and which mortals should strive to possess. Thus, the doctrine of the great six is that through good thoughts, words and deeds, each individual should endeavor to assimilate the qualities of the Amesha Spenta into his/herself.

The doctrine is more systematically described in later middle Persian language texts, in particular in the Bundahishn (3.12), an 11th or 12th century work that recounts the Zoroastrian view of creation. In the context of Zoroastrian view of creation, the group of the Amesha Spenta is extended to include Ahura Mazda, together with (or represented by) Spenta Mainyu. However, in most scholastic texts, an unqualified referral to the "Amesha Spenta" is usually understood to include only great six. In Yasna 44.7, 31.3, and 51.7, Ahura Mazda's Spenta Mainyu is the instrument or "active principle" of the act of creation. It is also through this 'Bounteous Force', 'Creative Emanation' or 'Holy Spirit' that Ahura Mazda is immanent in humankind (Yasna 33.6), and how the Creator interacts with the world (Yasna 43.6).

The "Divine Sparks"

The individual Amesha Spentas are are typically represented in iconography as human beings dressed in traditional Zoroastrian attire of cloak and cap, and often they feature symbols which are related to the particular Amesha Spenta. For example, Asha Vahistah is accompanied by fire, a conventional Zoroastrian symbol for truth. The doctrine also has a physical dimension, in that each of the Heptad is linked to one of the seven creations, which in ancient philosophy were the foundation of the universe. These physical associations are only alluded to in the Gathas, and then so subtly that they are usually lost in translation. A systematic association is only present in later middle Persian texts, where each of the seven is listed with its "special domain". A veneration for the 'divine sparks' through the living world is still present in modern Zoroastrian tradition and is evident in every religious ceremony where each of the Amesha Spenta is visibly represented by objects of which they are the guardians. In addition, the first seven days of the month of the Zoroastrian calendar are dedicated to the great Heptad and to creation, so acknowledging the preeminence of the Amesha Spenta, and so ensuring the inculcation of their doctrine. While Vohu Manah, Asha and Kshathra are consistently of neuter gender in Avestan grammar, in tradition they are considered masculine. Armaiti, Haurvatat and Ameretat are invariably feminine.

Spenta Mainyu

Ahura Mazda/Ohrmuzd (together with, or represented by, Spenta Mainyu) is the guardian of humankind

Vohu Manah/Vahman

Vohu Manah/Vahman of cattle (and all animal creation)

Asha Vahista/Ardavisht

Asha Vahista/Ardavisht of fire (and all other luminaries)

Kshathra Vairya/Shahrevar

Kshathra Vairya/Shahrevar is commonly related to metals (and minerals). In the Gathas, Kshathra does not have an association with a specific creation, and it is only in later texts that this Amesha Spenta is considered the guardian of metals. This anomaly is explained in modern scholarship by the fact that, in Stone Age cosmogony, the sky is listed as the first of the creations (and is thought to be of stone), but metal has no place among the creations (the bronze and iron ages were yet to come). This is also reflected in Zoroaster's revelation, where the sky is "of the hardest stone" (Yasna 30.5). Later, with the event of bronze and then iron tools, this sky evolved to being of crystal, which was seen as both of stone and of metal (Yasht 13.2). In due course, Kshathra's association with a stony firmament was eclipsed by the association with a metallic sky, and thence to metals in general.

Spenta Armaiti/Spendarmad

Spenta Armaiti/Spendarmad of earth

Haurvatat/(K)Hordad

Haurvatat/(K)Hordad of water

Ameretat/Amurdad

Ameretat/Amurdad of plants

Difficulties

The doctrine of the 'divine sparks', through their connection with creation, unites ethereal and spiritual concepts with material and manifest objects in a uniquely Zoroastrian way: Not only as abstract "aspects" of Ahura Mazda, but as entities also worthy of reverence themselves, and personified or represented in all material things. The relationship between Ahura Mazda and the Amesha Spenta is an altogether subtle one. In Yasna 31.11 of the Gathas, Ahura Mazda is said to have created the universe with his "thought". In other passages such as Yasna 45.4, Ahura Mazda is described as the metaphorical "father" of the individual Amesha Spenta, which, even though figurative, suggests a familial closeness. In particular, the relationship between Ahura Mazda and Spenta Mainyu is multifaceted and complex, and "as hard to define as that of Yahweh and the Holy Spirit in Judaism and Christianity" (Boyce, 2002b).

Spiritual and material dualism in the same entity "accounts for the difficulty which some aspects of the doctrine have presented for Western scholars" (Boyce, 2002a). The reverence of the Amesha Spenta has been frequently attacked as de-facto polytheism, not only in modern times, but in the Sassanid era as well. While the "worship of the elements" was a repeated accusation during the 4th and 5th centuries (Dhalla, 1938), Christian missionaries in 19th century India specifically targeted the immanence of the Amesha Spenta as indicative of (in their view) Zoroastrian polytheistic tradition (cf: Wilson, 1843). A frequent target for criticism was the Zoroastrian credo in which the adherent declares: "I profess to be a worshiper of Mazda, follower of the teachings of Zoroaster, ... one who praises and reveres the Amesha Spenta" (the Fravaraneh, Yasna 12.1).

Whether one who reveres the Amesha Spenta is, by that definition, a polytheist is subject to interpretation. Zoroastrians themselves note that ethereal spirit and physical manifestation are not separatable, and that a reverence of any of Ahura Mazda's creations is ultimately a worship of the Creator (Dhalla, 1938). The doctrine professing the existence of Amesha Spentas can be likened to the Christian trinity. As R.C. Zaenher explains: "Man prays to God through Christ just as God cretes through the same Christ, his Son and the pre-existent word. So, too, in Zoroastrianism, it is through the Good Mind that God communes with man, and through the Holy Spirit that he creates, both the Good Mind and the Holy Spirit being his 'sons'. He also reigns in virture of the Kingdom which is his by right in union with the Holy Spirit, and his reign lasts for ever and ever because he is possessed of Wholeness and Immortality" (47).

In the second half of the 19th century, Martin Haug proposed that Zoroaster himself had viewed the Amesha Spenta as philosophical abstractions, and that a personification of the Heptad was really a latter-period corruption. The Parsis of Bombay gratefully accepted Haug's premise as a defence against the Christian missionaries, and subsequently disseminated the idea as a Parsi interpretation, so corroborating Haug's theory. The "continuing monotheism" principle eventually became so popular that it is now almost universally accepted as doctrine.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• "Amesha Spentas." Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Mercia Eliade. New York: MacMillan Publishing, 1987. 234.
• Clark, Peter. Zoroastrianism: An Introduction to an Ancient Faith. Portland, OR: Sussex Academic Press, 1998. ISBN 1898723788
• Boyce, Mary. History of Zoroastrianism, Vol. I, The early period. Brill: Leiden, 1996. ISBN 90-04-10474-7
• Boyce, Mary. History of Zoroastrianism, Vol. II, Under the Achamenians. Brill: Leiden, 1997. ISBN 90-04-06506-7
• Boyce, Mary. "Aməša Spənta". Encyclopaedia Iranica. New York: Mazda Publishers, 2002.
• Boyce, Mary. "Ahura Mazda". Encyclopaedia Iranica. New York: Mazda Publishers, 2002.
• Colpe, C. "Reflections on the history of the Amesha-Spenta conception". Proceedings of the XXIX International Congress of Orientalists, 1975.
• Dhalla, Maneckji Nusservanji. History of Zoroastrianism. OUP: New York, 1938.
• Haug, Martin. Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings and Religion of the Parsis (3rd Edition) London, 1884.
• Kotwal, Firoze. The Supplementary Texts to the 'Shayest ne-Shayest'. Bombay, 1969.
• Wilson, James. The Parsi religion: Unfolded, Refuted and Contrasted with Christianity. Bombay, 1843.
• Zaehner, Robert C. The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism. London: Phoenix Press, 2002. ISBN 1-84212-165-0.

See also

• The Gathas, the most sacred texts of the Avesta
• The Amesha Spenta as Zoroastrian angels
• Dedication to the Amesha Spenta in the Zoroastrian calendar

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