Post No. 14,497
Date uploaded in London – 10 May 2025
Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com
Pictures are taken from various sources for spreading knowledge.
this is a non- commercial blog. Thanks for your great pictures.
tamilandvedas.com, swamiindology.blogspot.com
xxxx
Avestan spoken in Iran/Persia long ago is dead. But Sanskrit is stil used from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. Parents names are in Sanskrit; Towns’ names are in Sanskrit. More Sanskrit words in Tamil dictionaries. 600 couplets of holy Tirukkural use Sanskrit words. No one in India can speak even for five minutes without a Sanskrit word.
Those who are interested must read two latest books on this subject:
1.Vedic and Indo -European Studies by Nicholas Kazanas, Aditya Prakashan, Dehi 2015
2.Dictionary of Languages by Andrew Dalby, Bloomsbury, 1998.
I give below two matters from these books:
1
Eight words of closest human relations
Brother- bhratr in Sanskrit ; braataar in Avestan
Daughter -duhitr inS; dugdar in Av
Father – pitr in S; Pitar in Av
Husband – pati in S; patis in Av.
Mother – maatr in S; maataar in Av.
Sister – svasr in S; xanhar in Av.
So – suunuin S; humus in Av.
(in Avestan no S; they use only H)
Wife/mistress – Patni in S; paothni in Av.
Page 157 of Nicholas’ book.
****
Only Sanskrit and Avestan have them all; Hittite has none. So Hittite is not closer to Sanskrit . Greek and German have a few common words.
2
Avestan has literature from630 BCE; but Sanskrit haas literature from 2000 BCE according to Professor Wilson and others; Wilson translated the Rig Veda before others. Moreover Sanskrit words are in epigraphs from 1400 BCE (see Mitanni Civilization in all encyclopaedias)
Following is the Story of Avestan language.
Extinct language of Iran
He sacred language of the Zoroastrian religion is known only from a single body of texts, the Avesta, with an adventurous history.
According to a late source Zarathustra promulgated his religion 300 years before the invasion of alexander- thus around 630 BCE. It soon received royal status , for the Persian emperor Darius I(550-486 BCE) and his successors are Zoroastrians.
Legends claimed that a vast body of sacred texts was written down at this early period; two copies existed, one of which was burnt accidentally while Alexander destroyed the other. Some centuries after this first disaster a Parthian king , vologeses, ordered all that could e found of the old sacred books to be collected; later still, around the 5th century, the Sassanian monarchs had a new edition made. The Islamic conquest of Persia ed to fresh destruction, after which, once again, surviving fragments had to be pieced together.
Independently of these historical snippets we know that the surviving manuscripts of the Avesta texts are late and obviously incomplete. And we know the origin of the unique alphabet in which the avesta is traditionally written; it is an enlargement of the kind of Aramaic alphabet used in Sassanid times. Finally, we know that the language of the older texts is much older than that- much nearer to proto -Iranian, ancestor of all Iranian languages. As we have them, the texts are accompanied by a translation and commentary, the Zend in middle Persian of the Sassanian period. By that time the real meaning was half forgotten. Even if we cannot always understand the Avesta ourselves , we can tell those Sassanian translations are, all too often completely wrong!
Attempts to pin down the Avestan language geographically have not yet succeeded. It was not the language of the Persians of the empire, for that was old Persian. It seems to have features of several of the Iranian dialects. No doubt the original language will have been altered, repeatedly, in the cours Parsees of oral transmission until, perhaps quite late in their history, the texts were fixed in writing.
There are modern Zoroastrian communities still surviving in the Iranian cities of Yazd and Kerman. A thriving Zoroastrian colony, the Parsees, has spread from its early centre of Bombay to other cities of the west coast of India to east Africa and to many parts of the world and to many parts of the world. To all these the Avesta, in its mysterious original language, is still a holy book. Modern Parsees say their household prayers in Avestan, in words they understand through traditional Gujarati translations and commentaries.
The first ten numerals in Avestan are aivas, duvaa, rayas, catvaaras, panca, xsvas, hapta, asta, nava, dasa.
Source book – 2.Dictionary of Languages by Andrew Dalby, Bloomsbury, 1998.
(any Sanskrit student will understand it)
https://tamilandvedas.com › tag › avestan
9 Feb 2022 — Avestan is considered one of the world’s oldest languages. Now we have only Zoroastrian scriptures in it. Later it influenced Pahlavi, Persian, Pashto, Darik …
https://tamilandvedas.com › tag › vedic-zend-avesta
19 Apr 2017 — There is grammatic similarity in the language of the Vedas and the Avesta. 4.The corruption of Sanskrit words has followed a particular pattern.
https://tamilandvedas.com › tag
Though Avestan is listed as an extinct language, modern research shows that there are more Sanskrit words, (see my Hindu Gods in Zend Avesta) in it.
Hindu Gods in Zend Avesta (Parsi Scripture)- Part 1
https://tamilandvedas.com › 2022/02/07 › hindu-gods-i…
7 Feb 2022 — Zend Avesta is the religious scripture of Zoroastrian or Parsi (Paresee) religion. It is in Avestan language, sister language of Sanskrit.
https://tamilandvedas.com › tag › avesta
30 Jan 2022 — Bhagavata Purana gives a list of 22 Avatars of Vishnu and the last two are Buddha and Kalki. Great Sanskrit poet Jayadeva of tenth century in …
Hindu Gods in Zend Avesta-4 (Post No.10647)
https://tamilandvedas.com › 2022/02/10 › hindu-gods-i…
10 Feb 2022 — Avestan is an ancient language, used only in the Zend Avesta. The book has many Sanskrit words. xxx. Nabhanethista. Nabhanethista is the son of …
https://tamilandvedas.com › tag › zend-avesta
“Let us look at the close connection between the Vedas and Zend Avesta. The most striking feature is the use of the names Asura and Deva. Asura is Ahura in the …
–subham—
Tags- Avestan, Sanskrit ,Relationship, Nicholas Kazanas, story of Avestan, Parsees, Persian, Iran, Zoroaster, Zend Avesta
Tamil and Vedas 