Haurvatat ( /ˈhəʊrvətət/; ) is the

Avestan language Avestan ( ) is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. It belongs to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family and was originally spoken during the Old Iranian period ( – 400 BCE) by the Iranians living in the eastern p ...

word for the

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, Zoroaster ( ). Among the wo ...

concept of "wholeness" or "perfection." In post-Gathic Zoroastrianism, Haurvatat was the

Amesha Spenta In Zoroastrianism, the Amesha Spenta (—literally "Immortal (which is) holy/bounteous/furthering") are a class of seven divine entities emanating from Ahura Mazda, the highest divinity of the religion. Later Middle Persian variations of the ter ...

associated with water (''cf.'' '' apo''), prosperity, and health. Etymologically, Avestan ''haurvatat'' derives from an Indo-Iranian root and is linguistically related to

Vedic Sanskrit Vedic Sanskrit, also simply referred as the Vedic language, is the most ancient known precursor to Sanskrit, a language in the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is atteste ...

''sarvatāt'' "intactness, perfection". The Indo-Iranian root has in turn

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

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 ...

Zoroastrian tradition, Haurvatat appears as

Middle Persian Middle Persian, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg ( Inscriptional Pahlavi script: , Manichaean script: , Avestan script: ) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasania ...

''Hordad'', continuing in

New Persian New Persian (), also known as Modern Persian () 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 three stages: Early New Persian (8th ...

as ''Khordad''. The Iranian civil calendar of 1925, which adopted

Zoroastrian calendar Adherents of Zoroastrianism use three distinct versions of traditional calendars for Zoroastrian festivals, liturgical purposes. Those all derive from Middle Ages, medieval Iranian calendars and ultimately are based on the Babylonian calendar a ...

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 (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

translates Haurvatat as Πλοῦτος ''ploutos'' "wealth, riches" and equates the divinity with " Plutus," the Greek god of riches.

Scripture

Gathas

Like the other

s also, Haurvatat is already attested in the Gathas, the oldest texts of the Zoroastrianism and considered to have been composed by

Zoroaster Zarathushtra Spitama, more commonly known as Zoroaster or Zarathustra, was an Iranian peoples, Iranian religious reformer who challenged the tenets of the contemporary Ancient Iranian religion, becoming the spiritual founder of Zoroastrianism ...

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 () is the Avestan language name of the Zoroastrianism, Zoroastrian divinity/divine concept of immortality. Amerdad is the Amesha Spenta of long life on earth and perpetuality in the hereafter. The word ' is grammatically feminine and the divini ...

, the Amesha Spenta of "Immortality". Addressing

Ahura Mazda Ahura Mazda (; ; or , ),The former is the New Persian rendering of the Avestan form, while the latter derives from Middle Persian. also known as Horomazes (),, is the only creator deity and Sky deity, god of the sky in the ancient Iranian ...

in ''

Yasna Yasna (;"Yasna"
''

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 A daeva (Avestan: 𐬛𐬀𐬉𐬎𐬎𐬀 ''daēuua'') is a Zoroastrian supernatural entity with disagreeable characteristics. In the Gathas, the oldest texts of the Zoroastrian canon, the ''daeva''s are " gods that are (to be) rejected". T ...

'') ''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

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 ...

'' 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 The ''Bundahishn'' (Middle Persian: , "Primal Creation") is an encyclopedic collection of beliefs about Zoroastrian cosmology written in the Book Pahlavi script. The original name of the work is not known. It is one of the most important extant ...

'', 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

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

Fravashi Fravashi (, ) is the Avestan term for the Zoroastrian concept of a personal spirit of an individual, whether dead, living, or yet-unborn. The ''fravashi'' of an individual sends out the ''urvan'' (often translated as ' soul') into the material wo ...

s, the hordes of guardian spirits. In the day-name and month-name dedications of the

(that makes the basis for the

Jalali calendar The Jalali calendar, also referred to as ''Malikshahi'' and ''Maliki'', is a solar calendar compiled during the reign of Jalaluddin Malik-Shah I, the Sultan of the Seljuk Empire (1072–1092 CE), by the order of Grand Vizier Nizam al-Mulk, using ...

), 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 The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

through the

ecliptic The ecliptic or ecliptic plane is the orbital plane of Earth's orbit, Earth around the Sun. It was a central concept in a number of ancient sciences, providing the framework for key measurements in astronomy, astrology and calendar-making. Fr ...

al 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, Kazakhst ...

texts as ''hrwwt mrwwt''. A relationship to

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

''hawrot'' ''mawrot'' has been suggested but is not confirmed. According to Islam tradition, Al-Quran mentions two Angels sent to Babil (Babylon) named Harut and Marut, to test people faith because they teach

witchcraft Witchcraft is the use of Magic (supernatural), magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meanin ...

and sorcery. These entities stated that they were sent to test the faith of the people before teaching them.

Bibliography

* * * * {{Zoroastrian Calendar Yazatas Water deities