Vishtasp Yasht

The Vishtasp Yasht or Wishtasp Yasht is the name of an Avestan text, which is extant in the Fragments collection, and of a ceremony in which this text was once used.^[1] It is usually seen as being derived from the Wishtasp-sast nask, one of the lost nasks, i.e., volumes, of the Sasanian Avesta.^[2]

In the Avesta

Despite its name indicating it to be a Yasht, its position within the Yasht collection is not accepted. This is due to two reasons. First, the Avestan languange of the text is grammatically very defective, which indicates that it is a late redaction, which was compiled from earlier, now lost, sources.^[3] Second, there can be no such thing as a Yasht dedicated to a human like Vishtaspa, since, by definition, a Yasht is addressed to a Yazata.^[4] As a result, its place in the Avesta differs between editions. In his seminal edition of the Avesta, Karl Friedrich Geldner did not include it. In other editions, however, it is included but typically listed as Yasht 24, i.e., outside, the collection of 21 Yashts.

The Vishtasp Yasht ceremony

The extant manuscripts of the Vishtasp Yasht indicate that they were used in a corresponding ceremony, namely the Vishtasp Yasht ceremony. This ceremony is no longer performed but its structure can be reconstructed from the manuscripts.^[5] Like the Videvdad liturgy, the Vishtasp Yasht liturgy would consist of the text of the Visperad liturgy into which the sections of the Vishtasp Yasht were intercalated at certain points.^[6] Like in the Videvdad, this would lead to a number of small changes compared to Yasna ceremony.^[7]

Connection to the Wishtasp-sast nask

See also: Wishtasp-sast nask

It is traditionally believed that the Vishtap Yasht manuscripts originated in the Vishtasp-sast nask, one of the nasks of the, now lost, Sasanian Avesta. For example, Edward William West observes how one of the information given about the lost Wishtasp-sast is that it consisted of eight sections, the same number of sections of the Wishtasp Yasht.^[8] Likewise, Jean Kellens uses the name Vishtasp Yasht to label the Vishtasp-sast nask as the surviving parts of this nask.^[9] On the other hand, Marijan Mole was more sceptical about the connection, but stated that some parts of the Vishtasp Yasht may have been taken from the lost Vishtasp-sast nask.^[10]

Manuscripts

The Vishtasp Yasht is extant through two manuscript traditions, one in India and in Iran. They have recently been analyzed by Jaime Martinez-Porro, who presented two different theories to explain the interdependencies between the different traditions.^[11] The Avestan Digital Archive has pusblished the Pahlavi manuscript F12a_5310,^[12] and a number of Sade manuscripts, namely manuscripts G18a_5010,^[13] G120_5115,^[14] HM_5040,^[15] 5020 (K4),^[16] and 5102 (DY1).^[17]