Rivayats
medieval Zoroastrian texts
The Rivayats (also spelled as Revayats) are a series of exchanges between the Zoroastrian community in India and their co-religionists in early modern Iran. They have been ascribed the same importance of the Talmud to Judaism by Jivanji Jamshedji Modi.
The word rivayat is derived from the Arabic riwāya, meaning “narration.”
Overview
The content of each Rivayat varies but they are usually queries on matters of worship, customs, rituals and observance. The issues range form the mundane, such as queries about the preparation of ink for the writing of religious documents, to important issues including conversion.
Over three centuries, twenty-two Rivayats were sent from India to Persia. The first Revayat was brought in 1478 AD by Nariman Hoshang of Broach. Hoshang was a layman, supported by Chang Asa a notable leader of the Navsari Parsi community. Hoshang spent a year in Yazd, learning Persian and supported himself by 'petty trade'. Eventually his Persian improved to the extent that he was able to question the dasturs of Iran.
After this initial Rivayat, Indian priests would gather up questions and send representatives to Iran with the questions.
The public source identifies “Rivayats” as medieval Zoroastrian texts. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Rivayats, medieval and Zoroastrian.
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This entry incorporates text from “Rivayats” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.