AVESTA TRANSLATION– A FOREWORD

A TRANSLATION OF THE AVESTA IN ENGLISH.

I must have been knee high to my dog Layal, when much to my chagrin, my mother exchanged all the cash presents for my birthday for a thick, fat very cobalt- coloured hard bound book and had it inscribed by the gift-givers.  There was little I could do about it. I didn’t dare protest but Khurshed mamu did and ever since then, he was my hero.

Completely crest fallen, I hated that awful book…until my mother started to spend time reading it to me. It was her doing, her stories and her explanations that soon had me riveted to the book and demanding more and more of her time. The book, ultimately, provided me with strong roots and incited my interest in the ancient world and religion of Zarathustra.

Neither mum nor I, and certainly not I at that tender age, understood the Avesta Language, and neither can I claim to do so today, but the book assisted by providing us with a translation of the Avesta in Gujarati. —- A word for word transliteration with each word numbered in the Avestic version and the same number given to the relevant translated word in the Gujarati Language. What a treasure!

In time, I could read for myself; and today this transliteration of the Avesta which I offer is entirely dependent on this book by Mr. C E Kanga from which I was fortunate enough to read the Guajarati transliteration of our prayers.

When my brothers complained that our archaic religion offered them nothing and questioned how the religion hoped to inspire faith when the prayers were in a language long dead and beyond understanding; I remind them of their copy of Mr. Kanga’s book that went from their homes directly to the jari-puranawala with the old newspapers. A sad story!

I make this transliteration in the hope that those that are ‘interested’ may have some reference and some understanding of what they pray from the Avesta and may not resort to these same reason or excuse denigrating the religion.

Today, I can never thank Mr. Cowasji Eduljee Kanga enough for the time and effort he spent in writing and publishing the book which has become the main-stay of my understanding the ideas, tenets, people and thoughts from where I as a Zoroastrian emanate.

I can never thank my mother enough for converting my ice cream money to a gift so precious that it is has become a true and interesting companion.

Through this publication, I hope to bring a better understanding of our religion to friends and family alike as the Mr. Kanga’s book did for me.

As I was working on these translations my friends Khatu and Sarosh Framroze introduced me to a translation of the Zorastrian Daily Prayers in English, translated by Sarosh’s great grand-father Dosaabhoy Sorabjee Framroze; a work done between 1945 and 1968. Dossabhoy retired as the General Manager of the then Taj Hotels, and in his years found that the youth around him at the Dadar Parsi Colony carried a lot of misconceptions about the religion of Zarathustra; and thus, set himself to the task of translating our prayers in a known and well-understood language.

I thank Khatu, Sarosh and their daughter Nerrissa, who first directed my attention to Dossabhoy’s translation of the Avesta.