Tajikam Portal - Mountains of Avesta

Mountains of Avesta

By Tahir Kabuli

Avesta is not just a religious book. It has valuable historical and geographical information. From a brief look at Avesta we can clearly see that the Aryans of Avestan times were very knowledgeable of their land, the geography, weather and related matters. The first Fargad or chapter of part of Avesta that is called Vandidad thoroughly discuses the geography of many parts of Avestan land. In its geographical discussions what is most interesting is the detail information about mountains and their names. One can not imagine the difficulty of naming all those mountains specially in those ancient times. Even today in many modern maps the names of some mountains are rarely mentioned. However, the Avesta had name for quit a considerable numbers of mountains even in those ancient times. Modern researchers admit that most of mountains mentioned in Avesta lies in our mountainous Khorasan. The following are the names and discription of a few of them.

Avesta discusses the mountains in two particular parts: one part is the zemyadaasht or the nineteenth yaasht. The other part is the oomyaasht or the tenth yaasht. These two particular parts are dedicated to the names and geography of mountain specially the first one, zemyadaasht mentions more than forty mountain ranges. In this part, some mountains are clearly mentioned while numerous references are made to many others. In fact all in all, there are some two thousand two hundred and forty four mountains mentioned in this part. This figure may seem very large but if some one flies over the vast mountain ranges, then they will realize how large is the number of mountains. Over eighty percent of our land is covered with mountains.

As the name suggest, the Oomyaasht is a yaasht which mentions of a plant ooma. This plant grew on some mountain and was used to make a special drink by mixing with milk and honey. This yaasht discusses more those mountains on which this special plant grew.

The discussion of mountains in Avesta is not an accidental matter but rather based on detail information. Avesta on some occasions mentions the location of the mountain, on some occasion the height or it talks about the rivers originated from those mountains. Based on these information, one can clearly say that Aryans of that era were very familiar with their surroundings.

With all the efforts of researchers, they have not been able to locate all the mountain mentioned in Avesta. The following mountains are a few of the mentioned mountains that most researchers agree on their location in our country.

   1. Hariti barez: This is the first mountain mentioned in zemyadaasht. According to Avesta this mountain extend around the world and upto the east. The German researcher Geiger believes that this mountain is today's Pamir ranges that extend to four direction north, south and more to east and west.
   2. Zard Haza: This is the second high and big mountain mentioned in Avesta. Avesta claims that it extends around the world. The term "around the world" is an Avestan term that in fact refers to the length of the mountain. One branch of this mountain is called Ooshid Oshidarta and also Oshidshar which can be translated as light and knowledge. Avesta also mentions that the river of Hirmand originates from it. Therefore, researchers conclude that today's Koh-e-baba is the Zard Haza mountains.
   3. Sia maka: This is today's Sia Koh (Black Mountain), a branch of Hindo Kush. In the Bandhash, it is mentioned as Siak omand. According to Darmesteter, a french researcher, this mountain is the Sia koh (Black Mountain) north east of Hari rud river.
   4. Wafra yant: It means snowy or mountain full of snow. It is mentioned in Bandhash with slightly different name, Wafara omand. This mountain is in fact today's Barf Koh (mountain of Snow) a branch of Hindo Kush that lies opposite to Sia Koh.
   5. Sapita warna: These two words are translated as Safayed Posh meaning white wearer or covered with white. It takes this name because most of the year it is covered with snow.
   6. Sapita guna gheeri: This mountain is today's Safayed Koh or white mountain. Spita is translated as Safayed (white), guna as gun or rang (color) and gheeri as koh (mountain). this mountain ranges extends from north east to south west of the country.
   7. Youpay-e-raysena: This is translated as mountain higher than the level of eagle's flight. This mountain is today's Hindo Kush (Indicus) mountain ranges that forms the backbone of our mountainous land.