Abstract
This chapter examines the religions that underwent a reform and managed to survive and thrive. Brahmanism reacted to the challenge of ascetic sects and to the withering of its old base of royal support by replacing the Vedic pantheon and rituals with the new theology of sectarian Hinduism, centered on new supreme deities (Vishnu, Shiva, the Goddess) who had a universal jurisdiction and eliminated divine jealousy. The Brahmins diversified their services and confirmed their monopoly. Zoroastrianism established a divine hierarchy subordinating all deities to Ahura Mazda, promoting a universal struggle between good and evil, and inaugurating monotheism, while the priests expanded their role as guardians of purity and ethics. Both religions were thus able to expand their territorial spread.
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Notes
- 1.
The entire Hinduism section draws extensively on Basuchoudhari, Ferrero and Lubin (2020); see also the references cited therein. For general background see Thapar (2002).
- 2.
The following three paragraphs on the Hindu deities are based on Flood (1996, Chaps. 5, 7, 8).
- 3.
This section is based on Bronkhorst (2011, 2016) and Lubin (2005, 2013, 2015, 2018).
- 4.
The entire Zorastrianism section draws extensively on Ferrero (2021) and the references cited therein.
- 5.
This section is based on the detailed treatment in Boyce (1975, Chaps. 10, 12) and the summary in Boyce (1979, Chap. 4).
- 6.
That the dualistic belief was problematic even within the religion is indicated by the fact that it sparked a monistic heresy, known as Zurvanism (Boyce 1979, 67–70; 1982, 231–242). It seems to have originated in late Achaemenian times from speculation in some priestly circles, who imagined that a personification of Time, Zurvan, pre-existed to, and was the “father” of, both Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu. He remained a remote First Cause, was never the object of worship, and changed nothing in the traditional observances. Nevertheless, it was indeed a heresy as it betrayed Zoroaster’s fundamental doctrine of the utter separation of good and evil. Zurvanism became the official state religion of the Sasanians but, when state support waned after the Muslim conquest, the orthodox doctrine came back into its own and Zurvanism disappeared without a trace.
- 7.
Hint of a militant faith immediately brings Islam to mind, but the contrast between the two religions is sharp. Islam makes it incumbent upon every competent Muslim to join the struggle to bring the whole world into submission to Islam—that is, jihad; in contrast, for a Zoroastrian the struggle to perfect the world and defeat evil is primarily a struggle within one’s daily life and immediate surroundings. Conversion of infidels to Zoroastrianism is indeed desirable but must occur through their recognition of the believers’ moral superiority—witness the remarkable tolerance of other religions which (with some exceptions in late Sasanian times) was a distinctive mark of all three Iranian empires.
- 8.
However, after coming under Parthian rule in the first century BCE, Armenia became a predominantly Zoroastrian land until it converted to Christianity (Boyce 1979, 84–85).
- 9.
For a detailed comparison of texts and analysis of historical developments see Boyce (1982, 43–47, 188–195), Boyce and Grenet (1991, 401–436, 440–446), Smith (1971), Cohn (2001, Chaps. 4, 5, 8–13).
- 10.
Manichaeism—perhaps the most important dualistic religion of later times, and itself an offshoot of Zoroastrianism mixed with Gnosticism—never normalized and became a very successful competitor of Christianity for a few centuries after its foundation in the third century CE, but eventually died out under heavy persecution. Opposite to Zoroastrianism, however, it sought man’s salvation in the rejection and ultimate destruction of the material world, not in its redemption, which must go some way toward explaining its demise.
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Ferrero, M. (2022). Death and Rebirth: Polytheism Reformed. In: The Political Economy of Indo-European Polytheism. Contributions to Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97943-0_6
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