From Hoom to Wine ( Similar themes in describing Zoroastrian Hoom and wine in Khorasani lyrical poems)

The description of wine (and the othere names of wine such as: mey, Bade, nabiz, siki and sahba) is one of the most common themes in Persian poetry. From describing its color, taste, and smell to enumerating its properties and functions such as healing, alleviation of grief, and immortality of life. In the Avesta and other Zoroastrian texts, we find the same pattern in the praise of "haoma" in three forms: God, Plant, and Drink. In this article, after enumerating the common descriptive themes of Zoroastrian haoma and sharab (wine) in Khorasan style poetry, we will attempt to answer the question of how tenable is the hypothesis of the transfer of the Zoroastrian haoma tradition to Persian poetry. The common themes of the two mentioned textual fields are: giver of eternal life, healer, grief-reliever, brave-maker, bright, shining and good as well as description of colors. This research is qualitative in nature and was conducted using the content analysis method.
Extended Abstract
1.Introduction
Sacred drinks have long been an integral part of religious beliefs and rites. These drinks have either an animal origin, such as blood and milk in shamanic rituals (see: Eliade, 2013: 198, 139, 98, 97), or herbal origin, such as Haoma among Iranian Zoroastrians, soma in ancient India, and ambrosia and nectar in ancient Greece (Titer, 2018: 17). By  highlighting the presence of the sacred drinks and herbal gods attributed to them in the ancient mental patterns of the mankind, we attempt to emphasize the obvious and undisguised presence of this idea in the continuation of its cultural life in literature and especially in poetry, and especially investigate whether the attributes Zoroastrian Haoma  were transferred to the attributes of wine in Persian poetry by expressing its non-apparent attributes-including the benefits of wine and its functions- and answer these questions: 1. What are the pretextual patterns of describing wine in Khorasani lyrical poetry? 2. To what extent can the hypothesis of the transfer of the Haoma tradition from Zoroastrian texts to Persian poetry be defended? The aim of this study is to show that the description of wine in Khorasani style lyrical poetry is a continuation of the tradition of describing Haoma in Zoroastrian texts. By collecting the common themes of these two textual areas, it is shown that the common patterns in the description of Haoma in Persian poetry were transferred after Islam. The reason for choosing Khorasani style lyrical poetry is that in the literature of this era, the issue of influence by poetic tradition and imitation of earlier poets is less prominent, at least in the field of Persian poetry, and it is easier to assume that part of the description of wine can be the continuation of the cultural life of the sacred drink "Haoma" in the Avesta and other Zoroastrian texts.
2-Research methodology
For this research, library resources and analytical-descriptive methods were used and examples from Zoroastrian texts and Khorasani style were used. For this purpose, the attributes and piety of Haoma were collected and categorized from all Zoroastrian texts, including Avesta, Dēnkard, Bundahishn, Pahlavi narrations, Dasturan's instructions to Behdinan, and Zadsperm excerpts. Then, the attributes of wine (found in Persian poetry under various names such as Nabiz, May and Badeh) are among the first scattered examples of Persian Dari poetry, a large number of which are published in the book "Description of the life and works of the bookless poets" By the efforts of Mr. Modbberi and the book "Scattered Poems of the Oldest Persian-Language Poets" collected by the efforts of "Gilber Lazar" and what is available as Book of Peoms of Rudaki, Kassai, Farrokhi, Manochehri, Erani, Asjedi, Manjik Termazi etc. and historically covers the second half of the third century to the end of the fifth century. Finally, in analyzing and categorizing the research data, the common themes of these two textual areas have been highlighted with numerous examples.
3-Discussion
After extracting all the attributes of Haoma from the Zoroastrian texts and also the attributes of wine in the Khorasani style poems, we have found seven themes that are common in both textual areas in the description of Haoma and Badeh, one of which is giving eternal life. Giving immortality is one of the most important attributes of "Haoma" in Zoroastrian texts and is frequently mentioned in Yasna, Yashts, Khordeh Avesta, Dēnkard, Bundahishn, Pahlavi narrations, Dasturan's instructions to Behdinan, and Zadsperm excerpts. Evidence of this theme is the description of wine in Khorasani style lyrical poetry, including the poems of Kassai, Unsuri, Manochehri, etc. The next theme is "healing," which is one of the constant characteristics of all sacred beverages. Eliade gives several examples of healing sacred plants and explains that "the magical and medicinal value of some plants is also due to the celestial version and model of the plant resulting from the fact that the first deity planted that plant." (Eliade 2010: 283). In Zoroastrian texts, this attribute is often found in Yasna, Yashts, Dēnkard, and Bundahishn for "Haoma." In Khorasani style poetry, this attribute for Badeh is found in the poems of Manochehri, Kassai, etc. The third common attribute of Haoma and Badeh is "antideprssant". The elimitator of sorrow and suffering with the word "Farashmi" is one of the attributes of "Haoma": (see: Yashts, nd: vol.2, 353). In the poetry of Khorasani style, there are many verses describing the elimination of sorrow and happiness through wine, including in the poems of Rudaki, Unsuri, Bashar Marghazi, Farrokhi and Monjik Termezi. The fourth common attribute is "bravery." In Zoroastrian texts, bravery is mentioned along with strengthening the body (in general) and strengthening warriors. From the presence of "Haoma" in the praise rites of Urdusura Anahita - the patroness of warriors and fighters - (see: Khordeh Avesta, nd: 282 and Yashts, vol. 2, nd: 131), this piety of "Haoma" can also be deduced.
4-Conclusion
After studying the attributes and pietyof "Haoma" in Zoroastrian texts and also extracting the attributes of "wine" in Khorasani style lyrical poems, we have concluded that there are seven common themes between these two fields of description, namely "The giver of eternal life", "healer", "grief eliminator", "courage giver", "good and decent", "bright and shining" and also the description of color. According to these similarities, which mainly refer to non-apparent attributes, the assumption that some of the attributes of Haoma were transferred to the attributes of wine in post-Islamic literature can be more strongly supported, and it can be emphasized that cultural elements of ancient religions and beliefs, especially when they appear in religious ceremonies and religious hymns of the tribes, for example, the praise of the god Haoma and the presence of Haoma plant and drink in the Zoroastrian religion, do not completely disappear after the establishment of the new religion, but usually find a suitable platform among literary and artistic elements, thus continuing their cultural life. It seems that the description of wine in Persian poetry is a suitable platform to convey some of the characteristics of Haoma - in the three states of god, plant and drink.
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