CHAPTER XIX
AHURA MAZDA
Ahura, Mazda, and Ahura Mazda. The name of God still retains its two elements separate. These have not yet coalesced into one word. In the metrical sections of the Younger Avesta the two elements are sometimes used apart from each other, or either one of the terms may be used to designate the Supreme Being, but in the prose compositions the collocation Ahura Mazda generally occurs as a compound phrase. In the formation of compounds, however, either Ahura or Mazda alone is used for the sake of convenience. The Ahura compounds such as Ahuradhāta, 'created by Ahura,' Ahura-tkaesha, 'of the faith of Ahura,' or the adjectival form āhuiri, 'of Ahura,' invariably represent the divine lord Ahura Mazda. Similarly, the Mazda element in the compounds Mazda-dhāta, 'created by Mazda,' Mazdayasna, 'worshipper of Mazda,' Mazdo-frasasta, 'taught by Mazda,' Mazdo-fraokhta, or Mazdaokhta, 'spoken by Mazda,' invariably stands for Ahura Mazda himself.
Ahura Mazda is the highest object of worship. Ahura Mazda still holds sovereign sway over both the worlds; his authority in the world of righteousness is undisputed, and his imperial right is unchallenged. He is the greatest and the very best of the angels.[1] The Old Persian Inscriptions speak of him as the greatest of the divinities,[2] The archangels and angels dutifully carry out Mazda's orders. Reverence for him has never abated, and adoration of him does not languish with the advent again of the old Indo-Iranian divinities. Like the dual divinities Vanina-Mitra who received joint invocation during the IndoIranian period, Ahura-Mithra or Mithra-Ahura are invoked together. Ahura generally takes precedence and Mithra stands second in the compound,[3] but in the Nyaishes composed in
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