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Avestan geography, is the geographical references in the Avesta, which are limited to the regions on the eastern Iranian plateau up to Indo-Iranian border.〔G. Gnoli, "AVESTAN GEOGRAPHY," Encyclopaedia Iranica.〕 It was common among the Indo-Iranians to identify concepts or features of traditional cosmography—mountains, lakes, rivers, etc.—with their concrete historical and geographical situation as they migrated and settled in various places. ==Vendidad references== The main Avestan text of geographical interest is the first chapter of the Vidēvdād. This consists of a list of sixteen districts (''asah-'' and ''šōiθra-'') created by Ahura Mazdā and threatened by a corresponding number of counter-creations that Angra Mainyu set up against them (''paityāra-''). The list is as follows: # ''Airyana Vaēǰah'' = the homeland of Zoroaster and Zoroastrianism, near the provinces of Sogdiana, Margiana, Bactria, etc., listed immediately after it.〔(Encyclopaedia Iranica: ĒRĀN-WĒZ by D. N. MacKenzie: By late Sasanian times Ērān-wēz was taken to be in Western Iran: according to Great Bundahišn (29.12) it was "in the district (kustag) of Ādarbāygān." But from Vendidad 1 it is clear that it has to be sought originally in eastern Iran, near the provinces of Sogdiana, Margiana, Bactria, etc., listed immediately after it. )〕 The historical location of Airyanem Vaejah is still uncertain, but according to the Harvard University scholar Michael Witzel, Airyanem Vaejah lies at the center of the sixteen lands, in the central Afghan highlands.〔M. Witzel, "''The Vīdẽvdaδ list obviously was composed or redacted by someone who regarded Afghanistan and the lands surrounding it as the home of all Aryans (airiia), that is of all (eastern) Iranians, with Airiianem Vaẽjah as their center.''" page 48, ''"The Home Of The Aryans"'', Festschrift J. Narten = Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft, Beihefte NF 19, Dettelbach: J.H. Röll 2000, 283-338. Also published online, at Harvard University ((LINK ))〕 Historians such as Walter Bruno Henning, Henrik Samuel Nyberg, Walther Hinz, and Mary Boyce believe this location is Chorasmia or northeast Iran around Aral sea and Oxus river. The fact that Airyana Vaēǰah is situated in a mountainous region explains its severe climate (Vd. 1.2.3) better than does its supposed location in Chorasmia〔(Markwart, Ērānšahr, p. 155)〕〔Frahang ī Pahlavīg (H.S. Nyberg)〕〔(Henning, Zoroaster, pp. 41ff)〕 Although the Pahlavi and Sassanid book introduced Airyanem Vaejah in around Azerbaijan and Some historians also believe the location of Airyanem Vaejah is Azerbaijan, in around Caucasus such as : James Darmesteter, Ernst Herzfeld, Ebrahim Pourdavoud, Johannes Hertel〔(Vandid, darmesteter Page 26)〕 According to Skjærvø,〔Skjærvø, P. O. The Avesta as a source for the early history of the Iranians. In: G. Erdosy (ed.), The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia, (Indian Philology and South Asian Studies, IPSAS) 1, Berlin/New York: de Gruyter 1995, 166.〕 and Gnoli〔Gnoli, G., Zoroaster's Time and Homeland. A Study on the Origins of Mazdeism and Related Problems. Naples 1980, 227.〕 it was situated between the Helmand River and the Hindu Kush Mountains; # ''Gava'' = Sogdiana; # ''Mōuru'' = Margiana; # ''Bāxδī'' = Pākhtī Bactria; # ''Nisāya'' = a district between Margiana and Bactria,most historians believe this location is Nisa modern day south of Turkmenistan.〔(Vandid, darmesteter Page 65)〕 some believe neyshabur. perhaps Maimana;〔W. Geiger, Ostiranische Kultur im Altertum, Erlangen, 1982, p. 31 n. 1〕 # ''Harōiva'' = Aria, Herat # ''Vaēkərəta'' = Gandhāra, the area of Peshawar;〔S. Levi, "Le catalogue géographique des Yakṣa dans la Mahāmāyūrī," JA 5, 1915, pp. 67ff.; W. B. Henning, "Two Manichaean Magical Texts," BSOAS 12, 1947, pp. 52f.〕 # ''Urvā'' = the exact location of Urva is unknown, some claim Ghazni;〔Gnoli, Zoroaster’s Time and Homeland, pp. 26-39〕 and darmesteter believe this is Urgench in modern day Uzbekistan also Edward Granville Browne is Tus in khorasan province of Iran.(Vandid, darmesteter Page 68) # ''Xnənta'' = location unknown; a region defined as vəhrkānō.šayana- "the dwelling place of the Vəhrkāna," where Marquart placed the Barkánioi of Ctesias,〔Photius, Bibliotheca, Cod. 72, 36b-37a〕 an ethnicon analogous with that of Old Persian Varkāna, previously thought to be Hyrcania (the present Gorgān) although more likely the Khuzdar region of Balochistan;〔Gnoli, Zoroaster’s Time and Homeland〕 # ''Haraxᵛaitī'' = Arachosia; centred on Arghandab valley in modern-day southern Afghanistan, and extended east to as far as the Indus River in modern-day Pakistan; ''Sarasvati'' in Vedic Geography. # ''Haētumant'' = the region of Helmand River roughly corresponding to the Achaemenian Drangiana (Zranka);〔G. Gnoli, Ricerche storiche sul Sīstān antico, Rome, 1967, p. 78 and n. 3〕 # ''Raγa'' = or Raga, previously thought to be Rey〔I. Gershevitch, "Zoroaster’s Own Contribution," JNES 23, 1964, pp. 36f〕 from Median Ragā but more than likely comes from Raγa zaraθuštri- of Yashts 19.18 and is the Buner district and Bara River, which flows into the Indus River. ;〔Boyce, Zoroastrianism II, pp. 89 and cf. pp. 40, 42, 66, 254, 279; G. Gnoli, "Ragha la zoroastriana," in Papers in Honour of Professor Mary Boyce, Leiden, 1985, I, pp. 226ff〕 # ''Čaxra'' =locations is still uncertain, but darmesteter, dehkhoda, Hassan Pirnia bilieve location is Shahrud〔Darmesteter, J. The Zend Avesta, Vol, Second Edition, London, 1895, pp. 253-8〕 Čarx between Ghaznī and Kabul, in the valley of Lōgar,〔Gnoli, Ricerche storiche sul Sīstān antico, pp. 72-74; idem, Zoroaster’s Time and Homeland, pp. 42-44〕 not Māzandarān, as Christensen thought; # ''Varəna'' = is the district of Bannu.〔( Michael Witzel, "The Home of the Aryans" ) S. Levi, art. cit., p. 38; Henning, art. cit., pp. 52f〕 the Varṇu of the Mahāmāyūrī, the ʿAornos of Alexander the Great, the homeland of FerΘraētaona/Frēdōn/Afrīḏūn;〔Gnoli, Zoroaster’s Time and Homeland, pp. 47-50〕 # ''Hapta Həndu'' = Sapta Sindhavaḥ, the land of seven rivers known as the Punjab region;〔H. Humbach, “Al-Bīrunī und die sieben Strome () des Awesta,” Bulletin of the Iranian Culture Foundation I, 2, 1973, pp. 47-52〕 # ''Raŋhā'' = Rasā in Vedic geography, at times mentioned together with Kubhā (Kabul) and Krumu (Kurram),〔Gnoli, Ricerche storiche sul Sīstān antico, pp. 76f.; idem, Zoroaster’s Time and Homeland, pp. 50-53; and cf. also H. Lommel, "Rasā," ZII 4, 1926, pp. 194-206〕 a river situated in a mountainous area, probably connected with the Indus River, not with the Jaxartes or with the Volga.〔with the Volga (J. Markwart, Wehrot und Arang, ed. H. H. Schaeder, Leiden, 1938, pp. 133ff.)〕 One of the old, thorny problems in studies on Avestan geography is represented by ''Airyana Vaēǰah'' (Pahlavi: ''Ērānwēz''), "the area of the Aryans" and first of the sixteen districts in Vd. 1, the original name of which was ''airyanəm vaēǰō vaŋhuyā dāityayā'', "the Aryan extension of Vaŋuhī Dāityā", where ''Vaŋuhī Dāityā'' "the good Dāityā" is the name of a river connected with the religious "law" (''dāta-''). The concept of Airyana Vaēǰah is not equivalent to that of ''airyō.šayana-'' in Yt. 10.13, or to the group of ''airyā daiŋ́hāvā'' "the Aryan lands" which is recurrent in the yashts; this, in fact, refers to just one of the Aryan lands, as the first chapter of the Vidēvdād clearly shows. It does not designate "the traditional homeland" or "the ancient homeland" of the Iranians. These definitions perpetuate old interpretations of the Airyana Vaēǰah as "Urheimat des Awestavolkes", "Urland" of the Indo-Iranians (F. Spiegel, Die arische Periode und ihre Zustände, Leipzig, 1887, p. 123), "Wiege aller iranischen Arier" (J. von Prášek, Geschichte der Meder und Perser bis zur makedonischen Eroberung I, Gotha, 1906, p. 29), drawing from the texts more than the contents really warrant. Airyana Vaēǰah is only the homeland of Zoroaster and of Zoroastrianism. According to Zoroastrian tradition Ērānwēz is situated at the center of the world; on the shores of its river, ''Weh Dāitī'' (Av. ''Vaŋuhī Dāityā''), there were created the ''gāw ī ēw-dād'' (Av. ''gav aēvō.dāta'') "uniquely created bull" and ''Gayōmard'' (Av. ''Gayō.marətan'') "mortal life," the first man; there rises the ''Chagād ī Dāidīg'', the "lawful Summit," the Peak of Harā, in Avestan also called ''hukairya'' "of good activity"; the Chinvat Bridge is there, and there too, Yima and Zoroaster became famous. Taken all together, these data show that Zoroastrianism superimposed the concept of Airyana Vaēǰah onto the traditional one of a center of the world where the Peak of Harā rises. The fact that Airyana Vaēǰah is situated in a mountainous region explains its severe climate (Vd. 1.2.3) better than does its supposed location in Chorasmia (Markwart, Ērānshahr, p. 155). This is not surprising if we consider the analogy between the Iranian concept of the peak of Harā with the Indian one of Mount Meru or Sumeru. The Manicheans identified ''Aryān-waižan'' with the region at the foot of Mount Sumeru that Wishtāsp reigned over, and the Khotanese texts record the identification of Mount Sumeru in Buddhist mythology with the Peak of Harā (''ttaira haraysä'') in the Avestan tradition. All this leads us to suppose that the concept of Airyana Vaēǰah was an invention of Zoroastrianism which gave a new guise to a traditional idea of Indo-Iranian cosmography. At any rate, identifications of Airyana Vaēǰah with Chorasmia are quite unfounded, whether this is understood to refer to Khwārazm itself or to a "greater Chorasmia". As for the river of Religious Law, it is not at all easy to identify: The most likely hypotheses seem to be those that identify it with the Oxus, or rather the Helmand, which at times appears to be in a curious "competition" with the Oxus in the Zoroastrian tradition. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Avestan geography」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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