ABSTRACT
Though the oral composition and early transmission of the Zoroastrian scriptures have been subjects of discussion within Zoroastrian studies in recent years, there is little information about how such texts might have been understood by Zoroastrians themselves through the ages, and scant attention has been paid to this issue with respect to the living faith. The aim of this essay is to develop a line of enquiry which draws both on the Zoroastrian textual tradition and contemporary devotional life in the Indian diaspora. Two genres of texts will be considered here, both of which bear the hallmarks of having once been, either wholly or in part, in oral transmission: the first consists of the central prayers of Zoroastrianism that many Parsis recite today; the second is that of the devotional song, in particular a unique and remarkable song, the Atash nu Git or ‘Song of the Fire’. A version of this text formed the subject of a previous article of mine (Stewart 2004). Since that time other versions have been examined that shed new light on the way in which oral texts are compiled, how they operate in the tradition, and their significance in Parsi devotional life.
