Avestan language
Avestan (), or historically Zend, is an umbrella term for two Old Iranian languages: Old Avestan (spoken in the 2nd millennium BCE) and Younger Avestan (spoken in the 1st millennium BCE). They are known only from their conjoined use as the scrip ...
word for the
Zoroastrian
Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheisti ...
concept of "wholeness" or "perfection."
In post-Gathic Zoroastrianism, Haurvatat was the Amesha Spenta associated with water (''cf.'' '' apo''), prosperity, and health.
Etymologically, Avestan ''haurvatat'' derives from an Indo-Iranian root and is linguistically related to Vedic Sanskrit ''sarvatāt'' "intactness, perfection". The Indo-Iranian root has in turn
Indo-European
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Du ...
origins. In
Common Era
Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...
Zoroastrian tradition, Haurvatat appears as
Middle Persian
Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle P ...
''Hordad'', continuing in
New Persian
New Persian ( fa, فارسی نو), also known as Modern Persian () and Dari (), is the current stage of the Persian language spoken since the 8th to 9th centuries until now in Greater Iran and surroundings. It is conventionally divided into thr ...
Zoroastrian calendar
Adherents of Zoroastrianism use three distinct versions of traditional calendars for liturgical purposes, all derived from medieval Iranian calendars and ultimately based on the Babylonian calendar as used in the Achaemenid empire.
''Qadim ...
month names, has ''Khordad'' as the name of the 3rd month of the year.
The Avestan language noun ''haurvatat'' is grammatically feminine and in scripture the divinity Haurvatat is a female entity. However, in tradition (K)Hordad was/is considered male; this development is attributed to the loss of grammatical gender in Middle Persian. In ''Isis and Osiris'' 46,
Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...
translates Haurvatat as Πλοῦτος ''ploutos'' "wealth, riches" and equates the divinity with " Plutus," the Greek god of riches.
Scripture
Gathas
Like the other Amesha Spentas also, Haurvatat is already attested in the Gathas, the oldest texts of the Zoroastrianism and considered to have been composed by Zoroaster himself. And like most other principles, Haurvatat is not unambiguously an entity in those hymns. Unlike four of the other Amesha Spentas, Haurvatat does not have a standing epithet that in later Avesta texts becomes an element of her proper name.
Already in the Gathas, Haurvatat is closely allied with Ameretat, the Amesha Spenta of "Immortality". Addressing Ahura Mazda in ''
Yasna
Yasna (;"Yasna" '' Zoroaster exclaims that "both Wholeness and Immortality are for sustenance" in the Kingdom of God. In the same verse, as also in ''Yasna'' 45.10 and 51.7, parallels are drawn between Ameretat and Haurvatat on the one hand and "endurance and strength" on the other.
Younger Avesta
The relationship between Ameretat and Haurvatat is carries forward into the Younger Avesta (''
Yasna
Yasna (;"Yasna" '' Yasht'' 1.15; 10.92). The Younger Avestan texts allude to their respective guardianships of plant life and water (comparable with the Gathic allusion to sustenence), but these identifications are only properly developed in later tradition (see below). These associations with also reflect the Zoroastrian cosmological model in which each of the Amesha Spentas is identified with one aspect of creation.
The antithetical counterpart of Haurvatat is demon ('' daeva'') ''Tarshna'' "thirst," while Ameretat's is ''Shud'' "hunger." Ameretat and Haurvatat are the only two Amesha Spentas who are not already assigned an antithetical counterpart in the Gathas. In the eschatological framework of ''Yasht'' 1.25, Ameretat and Haurvatat represent the reward of the righteous after death (''cf.'' Ashi and '' ashavan''). Haurvatat and Ameretat will destroy the demons of hunger and thirst at the final renovation of the world (''Yasht'' 19.95-96).
Unlike Ameretat, Haurvatat has a ''Yasht'' consecrated to her (''Yasht 4''), and is invoked as the protector of the seasons and years (''Yasht'' 4.0, ''Siroza'' 1.6, 2.6). In ''Yasht'' 4.1, Haurvatat is described as having been created by Ahura Mazda for "the help, joy, comfort, and pleasure of the '' ashavan''." The righteous can put demons to flight by invoking the name of Haurvatat (''Yasht'' 4.2). In ''Yasht'' 4.4, Haurvatat is implored to give mankind the power to withstand the seductive attacks of the ''Pairikas'', the devilish sprites of Angra Mainyu.
Tradition
Through the association with plants and water, Ameretat (MP: ''Amurdad'') and Haurvatat (MP: ''Hordad'') are consequently identified with food and drink (''cf.'' sustenance in the Gathas, above), and traditionally it was out of respect for these two Amesha Spentas (MP: ''Ameshaspand'') that meals were to be taken in silence. In ''
Book of Arda Viraf
The ''Book of Arda Viraf'' (Middle Persian: ''Ardā Wirāz nāmag'', lit. 'Book of the Righteous Wirāz') is a Zoroastrian text written in Middle Persian. It contains about 8,800 words. It describes the dream-journey of a devout Zoroastrian (the W ...
'' 23.6–8, the righteous Viraz sees a man punished in hell "for consuming Hordad and Amurdad while unlawfully chattering while he chewed."
In the '' Bundahishn'', a Zoroastrian account of creation completed in the 12th century, Ameretat and Haurvatat appear—together with Spenta Armaiti (MP: ''Spendarmad''), the third female Amesha Spenta—on the left hand of Ahura Mazda (''Bundahishn'' 26.8). Throughout Zoroastrian scripture and tradition, these three principles are most consistently identified with the creations that they represent: respectively plant life, water, and earth. In ''Arda Viraf'' 35.13, the three daughters of Zoroaster are described to be in the image of Armaiti, Ameretat, and Haurvatat.
In the hierarchy of ''yazata''s, Haurvatat has as her assistants or cooperators (''hamkars'') three lesser ''yazata''s: '' Vata-Vayu'' of the wind and atmosphere, ''Manthra Spenta'' of "bountiful spells" and the Fravashis, the hordes of guardian spirits.
In the day-name and month-name dedications of the
Zoroastrian calendar
Adherents of Zoroastrianism use three distinct versions of traditional calendars for liturgical purposes, all derived from medieval Iranian calendars and ultimately based on the Babylonian calendar as used in the Achaemenid empire.
''Qadim ...
(that makes the basis for the
Jalali calendar
The Jalali calendar is a solar calendar, was compiled during the reign of Jalaluddin Malik-Shah I of Seljuk by the order of Nizam al-Mulk and the place of observation were the cities of Isfahan (the capital of the Seljuks), Rey, and Nishapur. ...
), the sixth day of the month and third month of the year are named after Haurvatat/Hordad/Khordad/Xordad and are under her protection. The Iranian civil calendar of 1925 reinstated Zoroastrian month-name conventions and hence also has ''Khordad'' as the third month of the year, beginning at May 22 (21. in leap years). This calendar is thus the one with which western astrology is most accurately corresponding. Khordad confers exactly with Gemini, the passage of the sun through the ecliptical segment of 60 - 90 degrees from vernal equinox.
Religiosity
Haurvatat-Ameretat ( Pahlavi ''hrwdʼd'' ''ʼmwrdʼd'') appears in
Sogdian language
The Sogdian language was an Eastern Iranian language spoken mainly in the Central Asian region of Sogdia (capital: Samarkand; other chief cities: Panjakent, Fergana, Khujand, and Bukhara), located in modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakh ...
texts as ''hrwwt mrwwt''. A relationship to Armenian ''hawrot'' ''mawrot'' has been suggested but is not confirmed. According to Islam tradition, Al-Quran mentions two entities sent to
Harut and Marut
Harut and Marut ( ar, هَارُوْت وَمَارُوْت, Hārūt wa-Mārūt) are two angels mentioned in Quran 2:102, who are said to have been located in Babylon. According to some narratives, those two angels were in the time of Idris. Th ...
, to test people faith because they teach
witchcraft
Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have ...
and sorcery. These entities stated that they were sent to test the faith of the people before teaching them.