YASTS AND SÎRÔZAHS.

Yasts: Hymns of praise; Sîrôzahs: Liturgical texts dedicated to the thirty days of the month.

The word yast, in Zend yêsti, properly means "the act of worship," the performance of the yasna the primary liturgical service of the Avesta; it is often used in Parsi tradition as synonymous with yasna. However, it is specifically applied to a set of writings in which various Izeds divine beings or angels are praised and glorified. These writings are generally more poetical and epic in character than the rest of the Avesta, and they serve as valuable records of the ancient mythology and historical legends of Iran.

The Parsis believe that formerly every Amshaspand Bounteous Immortal; a divine being and every Ized had their own particular Yast, but we now possess only twenty Yasts and fragments of another¹. The writings known as Yast fragments, the Âfrîn Zartust, and the Vîstâsp Yast (printed as Yasts XXI, XXII, XXIII, and XXIV in Westergaard's edition) are not true Yasts and have no liturgical character; they are not dedicated to the praise of any particular Ized.

The order in which the Yasts are arranged by the Parsis follows exactly the order of the Sîrôzah, which serves as the proper introduction to the Yasts.

SÎRÔZAH.

Sîrôzah means "thirty days": it is the name of a prayer composed of thirty invocations addressed to the various Izeds who preside over the thirty days of the month.

There are two versions of the Sîrôzah, but the only difference between them is that the formulas in the former are shorter², and there is, occasionally, some variation in the epithets, which are more elaborate in the latter.

¹ The Bahman Yast (see Yt. I, §§ 24 and following).
² In the greater Sîrôzah, the names of the gods invoked are introduced with the word yazamaidê ("we sacrifice to"); in the lesser Sîrôzah, there is no introductory word, as the word khshnaothra ("propitiation") is understood, as can be seen from the introductory formulas to the various Yasts.