# Mihr Yasht

The Mihr Yasht is the tenth Yasht of the 21 Yasht collection and is dedicated to the veneration of Mithra. It belonges to the so called Great Yashts and, with 145 stanzas, it is one of the longest in the collection.

## Overview

The Mihr Yasht is named after Mithra, whose name in Middle Persian became mihr. Mithra is the Zoroastrian divinity associated with oaths, contracts and the Sun. The Mihr Yasht is the hymn of the sixteenth day of the month in the Zoroastrian calendar. It has 145 stanzas and belongs to the so called Great Yashts. This term refers to the longer Yashts, which are often considered to be older and more important. Within this group, the Mihr Yasht is sometimes grouped together with Yashts 8, 13 and 14, into the hymnic group. Some parts of the Yasht have been incorporated into the Mihr Niyayishn, the second prayer from the Niyayishn collection, which is also dedicated to Mithra.

## History

Mithra, the Zoroastrian divinity being praised in the Mihr Yasht, is related to Mitra, a Hindu divinity known from the Old Indic Vedas. This figure, therefore, already goes back to the shared Indo-Iranian past. Likewise, the poetic elements in the Yasht are considered to have their roots in that period as well. Some authors have attempted to distinguish older, pre-Zoroastrian from later, Zoroastrian stanzas of the text. However, this idea, that such phases can be clearly distinguished, has been increasingly criticized in recent times.
Neither the extant text nor later tradition names a specific author for the Mihr Yasht. Instead, it is assumed that, like most other Yashts, it was produced within a priestly tradition of fluid oral poetry, where the text was likely composed, altered and revised over a long period of time. At some point, the fluid oral recomposition of the text must have stoppped and the material was transmitted in fixed form. It is unknown when this happend, but since all material in the Yasht is composed in Young Avestan, it must have happend during Old Iranian times.
The written transmission of the Mihr Yasht began during the Sasanian period. Like most other Yashts, it is considered to have been part of the, now lost, Bagan yasht, one of the volumes of the Sasanian Avesta. As such, the Mihr Yasht may have celebrated ritually within one of the variants of Long Liturgy. Like the other variants, it would have being inserted into the basic liturgy, i.e., the Yasna, jointly with other Yashts.

## Content

The Mihr Yasht consists of 35 sections, which comprise 146 stan­zas in total. Like other hymnic Yathst, it is concernred with describing the actions Mithra in the tangible world and the ways by which the faithful can connect with him.
The Mihr Yasht is noteworthy for providing a lenghty description of the Aryoshayana, i.e., the countries inhabitated by the Iranians. It is, therefore, an important source for deliniating their geographical horizon during Old Iranian times. The list of countries is found in verses Yt. 10.12-10.14, where the text describes how Mithra reaches Mount Hara and looks at the entirety of the Aryoshayana:
   Grass-land magnate Mithra we worship ...;
   who is the first supernatural god to approach across the Hara,
   in front of the immortal swift-horsed sun; who is the first to seize the beautiful gold-painted mountain tops; from there the most mighty surveys the whole land inahbitated by the Iranians;
   where gallant rulers organize many attacks,
   where high, sheltering mountains with ample pasture provide solicitous for cattle; where deep lakes stand with surging waves; where navigable rivers rush with wide a swell towards Parutian Ishkata, Haraivian Margu, Sogdian Gava, and Chorasmia.
While the countries Haraivian, Margu, Sogdian Gava and Chorasmia are known, the identity and location of Ishkata and Pouruta are disputed to some degree. According to Gershevitch, Ishkata is located in the upper Helmand plain, whereas Pouruta may be connected to the Parautoi tribe, which lived somewhere close to Ghor region south of the Hindu Kush. These verses and their central positioning around the Hindu Kush has been connected to a 6th century CE painting of Mithra on a horse drawn chariot found at Bamiyan (later destroyed by the Taliban jointly with the Buddhas of Bamiyan).

## Editions and translations

The Mihr Yasht has been made available as part of the Yashts or the wider Avesta collection. The original Avestan texts were made available through the editions of the Avesta by Westergaard and Geldner. Darmesteter provided translations into English and French, whereas Lommel provided a translation into German. In 1959, Gershevitch pusblished a critical edition of the Mihr Yasht consisting of the Avestan text with a translation into English and accompanied by a lenghty introduction and commentary.