Vedic Priesthood - Philological Comparisons

Philological Comparisons

Comparison with the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism, a distinct religion with the same origins, shows the antiquity of terms for priests such as atharvan (cognate to Avestan athravan) and hotar (Av. zaotar) "invoker, sacrificer". While hotar/zaotar is well understood, the original meaning of atharvan/athravan is unknown. The word atharvan/athravan does not appear in either the Vedas or in the oldest Iranian texts, and in the Younger Avesta appears in a context that suggests "missionary," perhaps by metathesis from Indo-Iranian *arthavan "possessing purpose." In the Upanishads, the term appears for example in atharvāngiras, a compound of atharvan and angiras, either two eponymous rishis or their family names.

In present-day Indian Zoroastrian (Parsi) tradition the word athornan is used to distinguish the priesthood from the laity (the behdin). These subdivisions (in the historical Indian context, castes), and the terms used to describe them, are relatively recent developments specific to Indian Zoroastrians and although the words themselves are old, the meaning that they came to have for the Parsis are influenced by their centuries-long coexistence with Hinduism. It appears then that the Indian Zoroastrian priests re-adopted the older athravan (in preference to the traditional, and very well attested derivative asron) for its similarity to Hinduism's arthavan, which the Parsi priests then additionally assumed was derived from Avestan atar "fire". This folk-etymology, which may "have been prompted by what is probably a mistaken assumption of the importance of fire in the ancient Indo-Iranian religion" (Boyce, 1982:16).

There is no evidence to sustain the supposition that the division of priestly functions among the Hotar, the Udgatar and the Adhvaryu is comparable to the Celtic priesthood as reported by Strabo, with the Druids as high priests, the Bards doing the chanting and the Vates performing the actual sacrifice.