Ma`rifat Adyan

The Avesta Pentateuch has seventeen long prayer hymns among the 72 hot yasnas, and they have many thematic and linguistic similarities with each other. According to most Avesta researchers and historical and textual evidences, the ode writer of the seventeen hymns of Gathas is the Zoroaster himself, and according to some others, the writer is an association of ancient Zoroastrian priests. Among the researchers who have accepted that Zoroaster has composed the Gathas, appending of the last hymn (Yasna 53) has been doubted due to its inconsistency with the themes of other Gathas; and therefore, the number of Yasnas of Gatha has been reduced to sixteen. The importance of this assumption is because it leads to the separation of one hymn from this little number of Gatha hymns and definitely brings about a change in the conclusions of current Gatha studies. It has also made some new European researchers to claim a consensus on the separation of this hymn. This claim suggests a new approach of Avesta researchers and their intention of considering a collection of sixteen Avesta hymns. Relying on library data, this article aims to compare six different translations of Yasna 53, and then, using an analytical-critical approach, investigate the correctness of the claimed consensus and find the degree of the thematic link of Yasna 53 with other Gatha Yasnas. The result of this research shows that there are still no sufficient reasons, in terms of structure and language, to separate Yasna 53 from the 17-Gatha collection, and the different theme of this Yasna has some similarities with the other original parts of Gathas as well.