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haṇt- and haiθiia- in the Old Avestan Texts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2016

AMIR AHMADI*
Affiliation:

Abstract

This article examines the usage and sense of hātąm ‘of beings’ and the adjective haiθiia- ‘true’, both from the present participle haṇt- ‘being’, in the Old Avestan texts. It argues that the first is a rhetorical figure that enhances the stature of its complement and does not denote any particular kind of being whether divine or mortal. haiθiia- consistently appears in contexts that may be legitimately described as eschatological. Most often it qualifies a certain type of activity that leads to or constitutes a ‘splendid’ state of existence. What truly is, the article concludes, refers to existence beyond mortal life.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2016 

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