Echoes of the Turkic World and Folklore in the Holy Book Avesta

Aktoty Nusipalikyzy¹, Maulenov Almasbek¹, Baigunakov Dosbol², Toty I. Koshenova³ & Leila A. Mekebaeva¹

¹Department of Kazakh Literature and Theory of Literature, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan

²Department of Archeology, Ethnology and Museology, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan

³Department of Kazakh Philology, Akhmet Yassawi International Kazakh-Turkish University, Turkestan, Republic of Kazakhstan

 Volume 12, Number 4, July-September, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n4.28

Abstract

The holy book “Avesta” is one of the magnificent creations of the world, which contains valuable information about religion, literature, culture, geography, history and mythology of the ancient peoples of Central Asia. For several centuries, many scholars of various specialties have been interested in “Avesta”. In numerous comments they discussed the history of the appearance of the book and its hymns, the personality of Zarathustra, his homeland, geographical objects, historical characters and mythological images, the ideological basis of the collection of holy books, etc. Many of the above mentioned questions are still being discussed among specialists, causing and over-colouring certain problems. In their work, the authors tried to find something in common between the “Avesta” and the Kazakh literature, exploring the spiritual relationship of the “Avesta” with the mythology of the people. As practice shows, various phenomena in the folklore of the peoples of the world are experiencing their birth, formation, flourishing, decay and death. Forms are modified, disappear, replaced by others. But sometimes the most ancient layer of folk art is preserved as a relic. Sometimes it is very difficult to see the traces of the most ancient representations in national folklore. Therefore, the authors of the article analyzed the works of Kazakhstani authors who studied some points in the “Avesta” and they made only an attempt to investigate the remains of the Kazakh archetype in this ancient literary monument. This article, without claiming to completely cover the available material, sees the main task in providing a holistic conceptual overview of the Kazakh literature on the above mentioned problem.

Keywords: Zarathustra, folklore, spiritual and moral parallels, zhyrau, spiritual heritage.