Content area
Full Text
ABSTRACT
This article focuses on the Zoroastrian deities and demigods known from western Iran or the Iranian plateau-Dādār, "creator, " Ahura Mazdā; the Amaša Spentas, "holy immortals; "yazatas, "worship-worthy spirits;" and divinized or semi-divinized legendary figures-who appear in the worship of Bactrians in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The analysis focuses primarily on numismatic imagery of the deities produced by the Kushan rulers and subsequently of the Sasanian Kushanshahs (Kushano-Sasanians) plus onomastics and descriptions from inscriptions and other documents in the Bactrian language.
Introduction
Coins of Kushan and Kushano-Sasanian rulers, an inscription mentioning the investiture of Kanishka I, and theophoric names in extant Bactrian manuscripts and inscriptions demonstrate which deities were regarded with importance and which were not in that region of eastern Iran and Central Asia. These sources cover a time span from Kushan times (2nd century CE) to the end of the 1st millennium CE. Consequently, although no Zoroastrian theological works are attested from late antique and medieval Bactria, knowledge of the faith in that region has expanded considerably during the past decades. The surviving materials demonstrate how and why Zoroastrianism as practiced by the denizens of Bactria was both like and different from the religion's manifestations on the Iranian plateau and elsewhere in Asia Minor and Central Asia. One interesting variation was in nomenclature: the names of Zoroastrian divine beings were pronounced differently across regions-and in Bactrian sources, for instance, even the Zoroastrian creator divinity or God par excellence Ahura Mazdā (Middle Persian Ohrmazd) was rendered as Ouromozdo and other forms.1
Preliminary Comments on Zoroastrianism in Bactria
Before examining specific Zoroastrian deities in Bactrian written sources, it seems appropriate to outline Zoroastrianism in Bactria and how it fits into the broader picture of Zoroastrianism within eastern areas, namely Central Asia, and in western areas, namely the Iranian plateau, at that time. The paucity of preserved theological and religious texts in Bactrian (and other eastern Middle Iranian languages) with Zoroastrian content, together with practices in Central Asian societies appearing different from those in the Parthian and Sasanian empires, can lead to a conclusion that Iranians in Bactria (and Central Asia more broadly) ascribed to more heterodox forms of the Iranian faith.2 For example, the less conspicuous role of Ahura Mazdā and...