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In theAvesta,airyaman (Avestan:𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀𐬨𐬀𐬥,romanized: airiiaman) is both anAvestan language common noun and the proper name of aZoroastrian divinity.
The common noun is a theological and social term literally meaning "member of (the) community or tribe."[a][1] In a secondary development, the common noun became the proper name of a divinity Airyaman, who is theyazata of health and healing.[*]
In Zoroastrian tradition, Avestan Airyaman isMiddle PersianErman (Ērmān).
The divinity Airyaman does not appear in theGathas, the oldest texts of Zoroastrianism and considered to have been composed byZoroaster himself. In the few instances where the term does appear (Yasna 32.1, 33.3, 33.4, 49.7),airyaman is a common noun denoting the social division of priests.[2]
According to a cosmogonical story preserved in theVendidad, not long after Ahura Mazda had created the world,Angra Mainyu unleashed innumerable[g] sicknesses upon it. In response, Ahura Mazda requestedManthra Spenta,Sraosha and Airyaman to find cures for them, promising each that he would reward them and bless them withDahma Afriti.[h] With Airyaman's assistance, Ahura Mazda then brought 10,000 plants to the earth, so providingThraetaona with the means to cure the world of all ills (Vendidad 22.5[3]).
Airyaman is closely associated withAsha Vahishta, theAmesha Spenta of "Best Truth" (or "Best Righteousness"). InVendidad 20.11 and inYasht 2 (dedicated to the seven Amesha Spentas), he is described as "following"asha, which is what Asha Vahishta is the hypostasis of. The thirdYasht, which is nominally a hymn to Asha Vahishta is for the greater part a praise of theairyaman ishyo, which in Zoroastrian tradition is considered to be an invocation of the divinity Airyaman.[4]
Like the truth/order (asha) that is preserved through the proper recitation of prayer, "Airyaman does not heal by means of herbs and drugs, medicine and surgery, but by the holy spells."[5] Although Airyaman does not have a day-name dedication in theZoroastrian calendar, he is invoked together with Asha Vahishta on the third day of the month (Siroza 2.3).
Airyaman's stock epithet isishya "desirable" (Yasna 27.5,Visparad 1.8, 2.10,Vendidad 22.9, 22.19, 22.20[6]). In other passages of theVendidad, Airyaman is "vow-fulfilling" (11.7, 21.20 and 21.21).
According toDenkard 3.157, it is due "to the superior assistance and friendship" of Airyaman (→MPErman) that a physician can heal through medicinal herbs. The physician's medical skills depend on the quality of his relationship with Airyaman. In the same section, Airyaman's healing powers are said to be "hidden" or have "occult efficacy." He has the God-commanded power to cure 4,333 kinds of diseases.
The Avesta's identification of Airyaman withAsha Vahishta (→ MPArdavahisht) is carried forward into Zoroastrian tradition. InDenkard 8.37.13, Airyaman's role as healer is even shared with Asha Vahishta: While Airyaman is responsible for corporeal health, Asha Vahishta is responsible for spiritual health.
In the eschatology of Zoroastrian tradition, "Fire and Airyaman will melt the metals that are in the mountains and hills, and they will flow over the earth like rivers. And they will make all men to pass through that molten metal and thereby make them clean."[7] Similarly, in theBundahishn (completed 12th century), the proper nounairyaman is an epithet of thesaoshyant,[8] an eschatological figure who brings about the final renovation of the world. Like the divinity Airyaman, thesaoshyant is closely connected to Asha Vahishta.
In aPazend nuptial hymn that continues to be recited at Zoroastrian weddings, the divinity of health is invoked as the guardian of matrimony. The doctrinal foundation of this identification isYasna 54.1 (reiterated in the hymn), which invokes Airyaman "for the joy of the marrying couple."[9]
In present-day Zoroastrianism, the Gathicairyaman ishyo prayer is considered to be an invocation of the divinity Airyaman.
The common meaning ofairyaman/aryaman as "member of community" is preserved in both Avestan and Vedic sources, as in both cultures the common nounairyaman/aryaman defines "a type of social group."[10]
However, the respective divinities do not have a common primary attribute: While the RigVedic Aryaman is apparently the "[friend[e] by] hospitality,"[11][d] Avestan Airyaman is unambiguously a divinity of healing. Attempts to explain this anomaly range from an alternative interpretation of the masculine form of the Vedic noun, for example, as "protector ofaryan men,"[12] to a reinterpretation of "healing", for example, "he [i.e. VedicAryaman] also exists in the Avesta, under the name Airyaman, and there also is he the helper, the benefactor of man, inasmuch as he is a healing god."[13]
Zoroastrian divinities are – Airyaman being a solitary exception –hypostases of the common nouns that their names represent. Why this is not so forairyaman/Airyaman is generally accepted to be a secondary development:
One hypothesis dates the identification with healing to before the composition of the Gathicairyaman ishyo. Here, (following a well established meaning[b]) "member of (the) community," is interpreted to signify a member "of the fellowship of priests (sodalis)."[14] Accordingly, Airyaman came to be understood as the divinity of healing (and the prayer came to be considered a charm against sickness) because in antiquity priests were repositories of medicinal knowledge and "the healer among healers was he who healed by the holy WORD."[15][f]
According to a "strict philology"[16] methodology that relies only on etymological and grammatical evidence, the genenis of Airyaman lies in a Younger Avestan exegesis of the Gathicairyaman ishyo prayer.[10] The proper noun was misconstrued to be an invocation of a divinity named Airyaman, who became theyazata of healing because the prayer was identified with healing (for example, eulogized inYasna 3 as "the greatest ofmanthras against sickness"). While it was accepted that the Avestan common nounairyaman and Vedicaryaman- both indicate a type of social group, that 'Avestan Airyaman is a chimera ... would have been determined long ago if a Vedic divinity of this name ... had not confused the issue.'[10][c]
| a | ^ | Boyce explains the social term as "the members of the tribe or district—a larger community, that is, than the family or village, comprising those with whom one stands in a friendly relationship established through hospitality exchanged, or from whom hospitality may be looked for,"[17]cf. Bartholomae'sGenosse.[e] |
| b | ^ | Bartholomae citingYasna 49.7, 32.1, 33.4, 33.3 notes: "Genosse uzw. priesterlicher, Angehöriger des ersten oder Priesterstandes (s. unterpištra-), 'Sodale';"[18] |
| c | ^ | "Le dieu avestiqueairiiaman est une chimère. N'eût été l'aryamán védique, on l'aurait su depuis longtemps. [...] La comparison ne peut s'établir qu'entre le dieu védiquearyamán- et un type de groupement social défini par l'avestiqueairiiaman."[10] |
| d | ^ | In Thieme's[19] analysis of theRigvedasamhita, the linguist suggests that in pre-Vedic timesarya- originally expressed a relationship between host and guest (that Thieme translates asFremdling, German for "stranger"). Thieme glosses Vedicarya- withīśvara- "possessor" andarí/ári- "enemy," and these words were traced to a basear-, well attested in Iranian in the sense of "get" and "cause to get, give" (cf.ashi). |
| e | ^^ | cf. Bartholomae'sGenosse,[20] German for the like-minded,confrere, someone sharing one's own goals/objectives. |
| f | ^ | Among the three kinds of healers, the "best-healing of all healers [is] who heals with the Holy Word [manthra spenta]; he will best drive away sickness from the body of the faithful." (Vendidad 7.44[21]) |
| g | ^ | Literally "99999," which - for the Avesta composers - is the largest representable number.Cf. the same number ofFravashis ofYasht 13. |
| h | ^ | Boyce suggests[3] that the use of theafriti as amalediction may derive from this cosmogonical legend. (cf.Vendidad 18.11,Denkard 3.321) |