The Yasna
Original Author: Anonymous Avestan priestly tradition
(with embedded hymns attributed to Zarathustra)
Credit: Digital edition prepared by Joseph H. Peterson
Primary translation by L. H. Mills (1898)
Gathic sections translated from Bartholomae / Moulton / Taraporewala as noted on the page
Original Date Written: c. 1500–500 BCE
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The Yasna is the central liturgical ceremony of Zoroastrianism, forming the heart of the Avesta and preserving some of the oldest religious poetry in the Indo‑Iranian world. It contains ritual prayers, invocations, and hymns — including the Gathas, the sacred verses attributed to Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) himself.
Performed by priests during formal worship, the Yasna weaves together offerings, recitations, and ritual actions that honour Ahura Mazda, the Amesha Spentas, and a vast constellation of divine beings, cosmic principles, and natural forces. Its language shifts between Younger Avestan and the archaic Old Avestan (Gathic) dialect, reflecting layers of tradition reaching back over two millennia.
The text is both cosmic and intimate: it praises fire, water, truth, seasons, stars, mountains, and the moral order of the universe; it also speaks of human responsibility, purity, and the struggle against deception. Through its ritual structure, the Yasna embodies the Zoroastrian vision of a world sustained by Asha — truth, order, and righteous action — and continually renewed through worship.
