oaster or Zarathustra--the former is the Greek, the
latter the old Iranian form of the name, contracted in Persian to
Zardusht--can only be fixed very approximately. He stands at the very
beginning of the Avesta literature, and the developments in religion
to which that literature testifies must have occupied a long period.
On the other hand no one proposes to place Zarathustra before the
departure of the Indian Aryans from the Indo-Iranian stock. From such
vague data he may be assigned perhaps to somewhere about 1400 B.C. As
to his province, there is considerable agreement among scholars that
his doctrine spread from the east of Iran westwards; and though
tradition gives him a birthplace in Media, his mission lay nearer to
India, in Bactria.

Primitive Religion of Iran.--He did not preach to men unacquainted
with religion. Many of the religious ideas and figures of the Vedas
occur also in Persia, and by the study of these it is possible to
form certain inferences as to the mental history of Persia before
Zarathustra. Mithra the sun-god belongs to Persia as well as India.
The heaven-god known in India as Varuna grew into the principal deity
of Persia. A fire-god, wind- and rain-gods, and the serpent hostile
to man, on whom these made war, are common to both countries. The
institution of sacrifice, in which the deities are served with
offerings and with hymns, is markedly alike in both countries. In
both alike sacrifice is at first the affair not of a priesthood but
of laymen, especially of princes, and is not confined to temples but
is performed in the open air, on a spot judged to be suitable. The
most imposing sacrifice is that of the horse, and an offering of
constant occurrence is that of the intoxicating liquor, in India
Soma, in Persia by a recognised transliteration Homa, which is itself
viewed as a cosmic principle of life, and addressed as a deity. And
in both countries alike the view of sacrifice prevails in early
times, that the gods come to it to take their part in a banquet which
their worshippers share with them, and that they are strengthened and
encouraged by it.

These similarities, and others which might be mentioned, show that
the religion of India and that of Persia started from a common stock
of ideas and usages. A further circumstance of great importance shows
not only the original identity of the two systems, but also perhaps
how they came to diverge from each other. Two generic titles for
deit