Abstract:
This richly illustrated talk discusses the composition, contents and ritual role of the Yasna Haptanghaiti, which translates as ‘Worship in Seven Sections’. Exploring the relationship of the Yasna Haptanghaiti to the Gathas and to the Younger Avesta, it is argued that the Yasna Haptanghaiti takes a key position in both the Zoroastrian conceptual world and in the Zoroastrian solemn rituals.
About Speaker:
Almut Hintze is Zartoshty Brothers Professor of Zoroastrianism at SOAS, University of London, Co-Chair of the SOAS Shapoorji Pallonji Institute, and Fellow of the British Academy and of the Academia Europaea. She specialises in Zoroastrianism and the tradition of its rituals and texts, of which she has published several editions. In 2016–2023, she directed a collaborative project on the Multimedia Yasna, funded by European Research Council with an Advanced Investigator Grant, to produce an interactive film of a complete performance of the Yasna ritual, electronic tools for editing Avestan texts, and a text-critical edition, translation, commentary and dictionary of the Avestan Yasna. She is currently directing a second ERC project (2024–2028) to investigate the ritual tradition of the Avesta in India. The project team will result in films of the performance of a full Visperad ceremony, a critical edition of the Sanskrit translation of the Yasna, and a study the interpretation of Avestan rituals in Gujarati language sources.
She takes a great interest in the long-term and sustainable preservation of Zoroastrian heritage in both material and digital form. Through her work, she hopes to contribute to a better understanding and greater appreciation of the Zoroastrian religion, and of its significance and value in the history of human and religious thought.
