Clarisse Herrenschmidt and Jean Kellens,22 23 24 25 without accepting Burrow's "Proto-Indoaryan" theory, likewise doubted that daeuuas were part of the religious scene in Iran at the time when the
Gathas were composed.
The stories of his travels and meetings with those seeking enlightenment are laced with Hui Neng's wisdom, aphorisms, lessons, and
gathas, or verses.
Scholars commonly agree that Zartosht was born around 620 BCE and that, at the age of thirty, he called upon people to accept his god Ahura Mazda as the centre of the kingdom of justice, immortality, prosperity, blessing, salvation, and bliss (Yasna, Sepantmad
Gatha, 47:1, 5, 48: 1, 5; Ahunvad
Gathas, 30: 8, 11).
Zarathushtra and his antagonists; a sociolinguistic study with English and German translations of his
Gathas.
Yet in discussing the word duraosa in the
Gathas, Schwartz notes the sauma is mentioned in the context of burning and he links this with the apotropaic magic of later Iran.
One should be reminded of the fact that Ahura Mazda in the
Gathas of Zarathushtra and all the Avestan scriptures is never envisaged in any physical form; only He is to be realized in mind.
Thus, as a result of their intellectual capacities, human beings have freedom to choose, 'man forman,' as it says in the
Gathas, must make up his or her own mind and decide whether or not to support Ahura Mazda.
Every single Jataka consists of the following parts: (a) an introductory story (paccuppannavatthu)--"story of the present time", narrating on what occasion the Buddha related to the monks the story in question, (b) Atitavatthu--"the story of the past"--the core story, the story about one of the experiences about the former births of the Buddha, (c) the
Gathas the stanzas "the story of the past" and also a part of "the story of the present time", (d) short commentary in which the
Gathas are explained literally, and (e)--Samodhana, in which the personages of "the story of the present" are linked with the those of "the story of the past." (16)
One set of central texts, the
Gathas or "songs", are considerably older than other texts in these scriptures, and have only recently been convincingly dated to c.1000-1200 BCE.
Yet, the Buddha continues; if a noble son or daughter were to grasp one of the four-line
gathas in this Dharma teaching, their merit would be immeasurably and infinitely greater.
The Zoroastrian sacred book, the Avesta, is a collection of writings, the most ancient of which is the
Gathas, seventeen hymns traditionally ascribed to Zoroaster himself.
Religious poetry was the vehicle for transmission; and the chief literary monuments marking this transmission are the Shih Ching, the Yashts and the
Gathas in the Avesta, and the De Judicio Domini together with the Medieval hymnology that it influenced.